Roanoke County man accused of preying on drug-addicted women
The Roanoke Times } Jan. 12, 2016
By Amy Friedenberger
A 71-year-old Roanoke County man set to go to trial in April on more than a dozen prostitution charges is “a monster who preys on addicted women,” one accuser told police, according to a search warrant.
A search warrant was unsealed this week at the request of The Roanoke Times. An eight-page narrative describes interviews from five currently or formerly incarcerated women who said Gordon Reaves Parker preyed on young women with drug addiction problems coming out of jail by giving them drugs, or cash for drugs, in exchange for sex.
Parker is accused of targeting possibly seven women going through a drug recovery program, the Alpha program, at the Roanoke City Jail, according to the warrant filed in March by Virginia State Police Special Agent Aaron Valley. Parker would put money on their jail accounts and offer to help them financially once they got out of jail, such as buying a car, paying for college or getting tattoos, the warrant said.
One woman alleged Parker spent about $15,000 on her by paying for her court fines and attorney fees, putting money on her jail account, and buying her clothing. Another believes he spent $10,000 on her.
Court documents reveal little about Parker, and they don’t indicate any affiliation with drug treatment providers or the Alpha program. Parker’s attorney, David Steidle, said Tuesday that Parker denies the allegations. Steidle said he has not seen the search warrant.
At first, some of the women thought Parker, whom they referred to as their “sugar daddy,” had good intentions, according to the warrant. Eventually, they realized he was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” as one woman described him to Valley. Parker asked the women once they were out of jail to have sex with him in exchange for money, which they would use to support their relapsed drug habits, Valley wrote.
Parker was arrested Aug. 17 on seven felony counts of soliciting prostitution, three felony counts of residing in a bawdy place and six felony counts of prostitution in a bawdy place, which is a place used for lewd acts. Three women — Brittany Dawn Hill, 26; Jaedi Lee Moore, 21; and Heather Marie Wagoner, 29 — have been charged with prostitution in conjunction with the case.
According to the warrant, trouble began in the Alpha female pod once Wagoner arrived. One of Wagoner’s podmates told Valley that before Wagoner’s incarceration, she went to work for Parker as a nurse to take care of Parker’s wife, who has Alzheimer’s. But Parker just wanted to have sex with Wagoner, the woman said.
The warrant alleges that Wagoner and another unnamed woman helped Parker connect with other inmates in the pod by phone. Parker logged nearly 500 phone calls, totaling 114 hours, with several incarcerated women between July 2014 and January 2015, the warrant says.
Roanoke Sheriff’s Deputy Chief David Bell said the jail does not monitor calls around the clock due to volume and does not have a way to track who puts money in inmates’ accounts.
Alpha was established through the Roanoke Sheriff’s Office for male offenders in 1992. The program started treating female inmates in 1996. The female pod has space for 12 to 16 inmates.
The program, which is staffed by Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, has two benefits: Convicted offenders who complete it can often see reductions in their sentences, and they get a chance to try and beat their drug addictions. Alpha inmates spend 120 days in the program while incarcerated, followed by another 36 weeks of outpatient treatment after they’re released.
In the phone calls, Parker asked the women to come to his house in north Roanoke County upon their release, according to the warrant. There, the document said, he offered the recovering drug addicts his prescribed pain medication Dilaudid, morphine and cash to buy heroin.
One woman said she was able to resist the temptation at first, but after a box of syringes showed up in the mail at Parker’s house, she used his Dilaudid and went on a two-week binge, according to the warrant. Then another woman bought heroin for her. She told police she felt she could not leave Parker’s house because of her addiction and dope sickness.
Dr. Kim Penberthy, with the University of Virginia’s Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences Department, isn’t familiar with the case but said those in the early stages of recovery are very vulnerable to triggers.
“When they come out of that controlled environment and go back into the world, it’s then up to them to avoid those triggers,” she said.
So if someone places drugs in front of them, Penberthy said, “They are not at a strong enough point to resist.”
One woman told Valley that “Parker enjoyed watching everyone ‘shoot-up’ drugs, he would be naked, have pornographic movies playing.” She said she took dozens of Dilaudid tablets, and in exchange, she had sex with Parker four to five times that week, according to the warrant. He was a “predator who preys on people who have drug problems,” she told Valley.
In November 2014, that woman admitted she was using drugs and turned herself in. She returned to jail, according to the warrant. At least one other woman failed a drug test and went back to jail. One woman told Valley she cheated on her test to avoid drug detection.
Two of the women told the special agent that Parker had cameras in his house, and Parker said he would show the videos to a probation worker if they stopped coming to his house.
According to the search warrant, police seized 28 items from Parker’s house, including DVDs and CDs, a video camera, three unopened syringes, a laptop, an iPad and handwritten letters from female inmates.
A counselor from Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare became aware of Parker and reported the allegation to Sean Sweeney, a probation and parole officer, who then reported it to his supervisor, the warrant said. That launched an internal inquiry and police investigation.
Officials at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare did not respond to a request for comment.
“I’m biased, but I think Alpha is a wonderful program,” Sweeney said Monday. “We’re lucky to even have it. For someone to just destroy the integrity of it, it makes me sick to my stomach.”
By Amy Friedenberger
A 71-year-old Roanoke County man set to go to trial in April on more than a dozen prostitution charges is “a monster who preys on addicted women,” one accuser told police, according to a search warrant.
A search warrant was unsealed this week at the request of The Roanoke Times. An eight-page narrative describes interviews from five currently or formerly incarcerated women who said Gordon Reaves Parker preyed on young women with drug addiction problems coming out of jail by giving them drugs, or cash for drugs, in exchange for sex.
Parker is accused of targeting possibly seven women going through a drug recovery program, the Alpha program, at the Roanoke City Jail, according to the warrant filed in March by Virginia State Police Special Agent Aaron Valley. Parker would put money on their jail accounts and offer to help them financially once they got out of jail, such as buying a car, paying for college or getting tattoos, the warrant said.
One woman alleged Parker spent about $15,000 on her by paying for her court fines and attorney fees, putting money on her jail account, and buying her clothing. Another believes he spent $10,000 on her.
Court documents reveal little about Parker, and they don’t indicate any affiliation with drug treatment providers or the Alpha program. Parker’s attorney, David Steidle, said Tuesday that Parker denies the allegations. Steidle said he has not seen the search warrant.
At first, some of the women thought Parker, whom they referred to as their “sugar daddy,” had good intentions, according to the warrant. Eventually, they realized he was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” as one woman described him to Valley. Parker asked the women once they were out of jail to have sex with him in exchange for money, which they would use to support their relapsed drug habits, Valley wrote.
Parker was arrested Aug. 17 on seven felony counts of soliciting prostitution, three felony counts of residing in a bawdy place and six felony counts of prostitution in a bawdy place, which is a place used for lewd acts. Three women — Brittany Dawn Hill, 26; Jaedi Lee Moore, 21; and Heather Marie Wagoner, 29 — have been charged with prostitution in conjunction with the case.
According to the warrant, trouble began in the Alpha female pod once Wagoner arrived. One of Wagoner’s podmates told Valley that before Wagoner’s incarceration, she went to work for Parker as a nurse to take care of Parker’s wife, who has Alzheimer’s. But Parker just wanted to have sex with Wagoner, the woman said.
The warrant alleges that Wagoner and another unnamed woman helped Parker connect with other inmates in the pod by phone. Parker logged nearly 500 phone calls, totaling 114 hours, with several incarcerated women between July 2014 and January 2015, the warrant says.
Roanoke Sheriff’s Deputy Chief David Bell said the jail does not monitor calls around the clock due to volume and does not have a way to track who puts money in inmates’ accounts.
Alpha was established through the Roanoke Sheriff’s Office for male offenders in 1992. The program started treating female inmates in 1996. The female pod has space for 12 to 16 inmates.
The program, which is staffed by Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, has two benefits: Convicted offenders who complete it can often see reductions in their sentences, and they get a chance to try and beat their drug addictions. Alpha inmates spend 120 days in the program while incarcerated, followed by another 36 weeks of outpatient treatment after they’re released.
In the phone calls, Parker asked the women to come to his house in north Roanoke County upon their release, according to the warrant. There, the document said, he offered the recovering drug addicts his prescribed pain medication Dilaudid, morphine and cash to buy heroin.
One woman said she was able to resist the temptation at first, but after a box of syringes showed up in the mail at Parker’s house, she used his Dilaudid and went on a two-week binge, according to the warrant. Then another woman bought heroin for her. She told police she felt she could not leave Parker’s house because of her addiction and dope sickness.
Dr. Kim Penberthy, with the University of Virginia’s Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences Department, isn’t familiar with the case but said those in the early stages of recovery are very vulnerable to triggers.
“When they come out of that controlled environment and go back into the world, it’s then up to them to avoid those triggers,” she said.
So if someone places drugs in front of them, Penberthy said, “They are not at a strong enough point to resist.”
One woman told Valley that “Parker enjoyed watching everyone ‘shoot-up’ drugs, he would be naked, have pornographic movies playing.” She said she took dozens of Dilaudid tablets, and in exchange, she had sex with Parker four to five times that week, according to the warrant. He was a “predator who preys on people who have drug problems,” she told Valley.
In November 2014, that woman admitted she was using drugs and turned herself in. She returned to jail, according to the warrant. At least one other woman failed a drug test and went back to jail. One woman told Valley she cheated on her test to avoid drug detection.
Two of the women told the special agent that Parker had cameras in his house, and Parker said he would show the videos to a probation worker if they stopped coming to his house.
According to the search warrant, police seized 28 items from Parker’s house, including DVDs and CDs, a video camera, three unopened syringes, a laptop, an iPad and handwritten letters from female inmates.
A counselor from Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare became aware of Parker and reported the allegation to Sean Sweeney, a probation and parole officer, who then reported it to his supervisor, the warrant said. That launched an internal inquiry and police investigation.
Officials at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare did not respond to a request for comment.
“I’m biased, but I think Alpha is a wonderful program,” Sweeney said Monday. “We’re lucky to even have it. For someone to just destroy the integrity of it, it makes me sick to my stomach.”
