FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Jim Rybicki

Public Information Officer

Phone (703) 842-4050 Fax: (703) 549-5202

Email: usavae.press@usdoj.gov
Web Address: www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae

January 30, 2008

Suffolk Man and Four Others Indicted for Malicious Destruction of Communication Lines and Systems

(Norfolk, VA) – Keith Arlan Pickens, age 32, of Suffolk, Virginia; Heather Maureen Yerigan, age 27, of Suffolk, Virginia; Dale C. Merrill, age 36, of Chesapeake, Virginia; Marina Bernadette Long, age 34, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Sarah Jo Carr, age 25, of Suffolk, Virginia, were all named as defendants in twelve-count indictment returned on January 23, 2008. The first count of the indictment charges all five with conspiracy and the remaining substantive counts charge malicious destruction of communication lines and systems. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and Alex J. Turner, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Norfolk Field Office, announced the indictment after it was unsealed today.

The indictment alleges that from January of 2007 through July of 2007, the defendants stole copper grounding bars and copper wiring from cellular telephone towers and thereafter sold the stolen copper to local salvage dealers. The defendants entered over 100 cellular tower sites located in 17 different jurisdictions in the Eastern District of Virginia and eastern North Carolina. Upon entering onto the tower sites, they forcibly removed the copper grounding bars and copper wiring, thereby injuring the tower sites and telephone equipment, and potentially impairing cellular communications systems in the affected areas. The damage to the cellular equipment is estimated to be approximately $270,000.

The defendants each face a maximum of 5 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and 10 years for each substantive count.

The investigation of this case was handled by the Norfolk Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of law enforcement from Chesapeake, Hampton, Isle of Wight County, James City County, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Southampton County, Suffolk, Surry County, Sussex County, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and York County, Virginia, and Camden and Currituck, North Carolina. Assistant United States Attorney Steve Haynie is prosecuting the case for the United States.

Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.