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Court To Hear Case For Removing BulletRICHMOND (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear the city’s appeal for the forcible removal of a bullet from a suspected robber over objections surgical recovery of the potential evidence would threaten the suspect’s civil rights and health.Rudolph Lee Jr. allegedly was shot as he attempted the sidewalk robbery of a Richmond grocer the night of July 18,1982.Authorities want to make a ballistic comparison between the bullet still lodged in Lee’s shoulder with others from the gun of store owner Ralph Watkinson, who alsowas wounded in an exhange of shots with a would-be robber.Watkinson found himself in a bed next to Lee in the Medical College of Virginia Hospital’s emergency room about 20 minutes after the shooting. Lee, who was brought separately into the hospital, claimed he had been the victim of an armed robber.“He was laying on his left side to my left when they brought him in, and he wouldn't look at me,” Watkinson recalled Monday. When he turned over I saw his face and I said to the cops there, ’Hey, that’s him. That’s the guy who shot me.’”Watkinson, 35, who is also a realestate broker, has recovered from the bullet wounds he suffered to both legs in the shootout in front of his Lombardy Market.Lee is being held in the Richmond City Jail on charges of malicious wounding, attempted robbery and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, said Stacey F. Garrett III, the deputy commonwealth’s attorney handling the case.Sheriff Andrew J. Winston of Richmond and the city Commonwealth's Attorney Aubrey M. Davis Jr. tried to force Lee to undergo surgery for removal of the bullet.But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing an earlier Richmond Circuit Court decision, ruled Sept. 14 that the surgery could be dangerous, and that placing Lee under general anesthesia to conduct the operation violated his constitutional rights.“The intrusion is so extensive and generates such risk that the surgery cannot be allowed to proceed,” the appeals court said.It noted that medical experts said it is safer to leave the bullet in Lee’s shoulder indefinitely.“The proposed surgical procedure would constitute an unreasonablesearch in violation of Lee’s” privacy rights, the appeals court said,Garrett said doctors who have examined Lee can feel the bullet about an inch beneath his skin.“The surgery would take less than half an hour ... It's simple minor surgery,” he said.Watkinson said he seldom works in the store but was filling in for an injured employee the night of the attempted robbery. He was carrying the day’s receipts and the gun because the store had been robbed only six days earlier.“I was locking up when 1 saw him coming across the street at me, and Iknew what he wanted ... He yelled ‘freeze’ and held the gun out at me. We both fired at one another. ... 1 knew I'd hit him. I knew he dropped a shoulder when I hit him,” said Watkinson.He said the robber, whom he identified to authorities as Lee, ran oft through an alley next to the store.Watkinson was brought to the hospital in an ambulance summoned b v bystanders in the b u s y neighborhood, and Lee was picked up by police as he sat wounded under a tree several blocks away.Lee told police he had been shot by someone who tried to rob him.
Newspaper Details
Daily News-Record
Harrisonburg, Virginia, US
Tue, Apr 17, 1984
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Harvard U.
MA, USA 09 Nov 2023
Other Publications Near Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg Republican
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Harrisonburg Evening News
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Daily News-Record
