Police imposter gets three years in Henrico

A Henrico County man convicted of attempted abduction and impersonating a police officer will serve three years in prison after an effort to dismiss a key conviction against him failed yesterday.

Henrico substitute Circuit Judge James E. Kulp rejected defense arguments to vacate Shay Cameron Mann's conviction of using a firearm in the commission of a felony; Commonwealth's Attorney Wade A. Kizer argued that there was sufficient evidence for the conviction, which carries a mandatory prison sentence of three years.

Earlier this month, Kizer had agreed to consider dropping the gun conviction as part of a new plea agreement, but he said yesterday that he determined the judge did not have the authority to approve such a change.

Vacating the firearm conviction would have erased the mandatory prison time it carries, raising the possibility that Mann, 31, could have left the courtroom yesterday a free man. He has been in jail since his arrest in February.

That prospect angered the victim in the case, Doreen Dickens, who said in an interview last weekend that she still fears Mann and felt that any agreement to alter his convictions represented a failure of the justice system. She did not return phone calls for comment yesterday.

Mann's family and supporters said they were saddened by the outcome.

"It's very disappointing," Mann's father, William Mann, said yesterday. "I thought the county and the judge seemed to be on track of agreeing to a different sentence than this. I was expecting to have Thanksgiving dinner with him."

Kulp sentenced Mann to eight years and suspended all but the mandatory three years on the firearm conviction. In addition to use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, Mann was convicted of impersonating a police officer, brandishing a firearm and attempted abduction.

Kulp ordered Mann to get rid of any police materials still in his possession and to stay away from the victim.

Kizer said yesterday after court that he agreed to consider an effort to amend the gun conviction after hearing testimony regarding Mann's character at a hearing earlier this month. Kizer said he felt that guilty pleas by Mann to abduction, rather than attempted abduction, and other charges would have addressed the seriousness of the case.

Mann, a doctoral student in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, was convicted in August based on testimony and a police investigation that he followed a Chesterfield County woman across the Willey Bridge in a Ford Escape equipped with policelike paraphernalia, blinking headlights, a dashboard computer system, and a cagelike structure in the back.

Dickens, 49, testified at trial that after she pulled over, Mann spoke into a device similar to walkie-talkie, said he was ordering uniformed backup, and flashed a badge and what appeared to be a gun tucked in his pants.

She said he ordered her into the back of his vehicle three times during the encounter in February before he sped off when a concerned passer-by appeared.

Mann, who looked tearful at times during the hearing yesterday, told the court he regretted what happened.

"It was an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation," he said and then acknowledged the judge's assertion that he should have "just kept going."

"It's a sad situation that this man finds himself in," Kulp said, noting that he stands by his findings of guilt. "The court can't see the reason behind the actions of Mr. Mann."

Earlier this month, before Kulp continued a sentencing hearing because of efforts by the defense and prosecution to explore altering the gun conviction, professors and family members described Mann as an outstanding, first-in-his-class student within VCU's psychology department.

He had worked at the Richmond City Jail as a counselor and had a promising future, they testified.

Everett L. Worthington Jr., a professor in VCU's psychology department who had testified for Mann and was among his supporters in the courtroom yesterday, said the convictions may destroy Mann's ability to counsel inmates in the state's prison system. But he said Mann still may have a future in the private sector.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .