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By Jay Conley
Burrow, 55, formally answered the charges against him in U.S. District Court in Roanoke with family members, friends and former foundation board members on hand as support. Burrow is charged with one count of bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and loan application fraud. U.S. District Judge James Turk set a Sept. 3 trial date. Burrow will be allowed to remain free on a $50,000 unsecured bond and must surrender his passport. The charges stem from an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI that began in October when the current foundation president, William McIntosh, asked for an investigation into how the $25 million memorial became $5 million in debt while Burrow was president. A Roanoke resident and former city of Roanoke engineer who later worked at Explore Park, Burrow became president of the D-Day foundation in 1996. Prosecutors allege he used phones, fax machines, e-mails and the U.S. mail to engage in a complex financial scheme to fool a California bank, at least one private donor and the commonwealth of Virginia so the foundation could obtain millions of dollars in loans, donations and taxpayer-funded grants to build the cash-strapped memorial by June 6, 2001. None of the charges allege that Burrow used the money for personal gain, but prosecutors say his reputation as a fund-raiser was bolstered by the grants and the loan. Burrow continues to receive support from people affiliated with the memorial. "I believe that he's one of the most capable administrators and managers for a project such as the D-Day memorial that I could possibly imagine," said retired Gen. William Rosson of Salem, a former foundation board member who helped choose the hilltop in Bedford where the memorial was built. "I have full confidence in him. I think we would have no memorial in Bedford today were it not for him." Former foundation board chairman Bob Slaughter, a D-Day veteran who spearheaded the creation of the memorial, said he and the board were surprised to learn of the $5 million debt but doubted that the banking procedures Burrow used were "intentionally malicious." "I just can't imagine in my wildest nightmares that Richard Burrow would serve one minute in any incarceration or be fined a nickel of money," Slaughter said. "Because he did nothing knowingly wrong." At the Leopold Gallery in Kansas City, Mo., director Paul Dorrell, who represents Jim Brothers, the artist who created most of the memorial's sculptures, also stood behind Burrow's reputation. "I always considered Richard Burrow an honest person," Dorrell said. "I just know he was trying to get the memorial built by a certain date." In Toms River, N.J., Len Lomell, an Army Ranger on D-Day and one of the men depicted in a Brothers statue at the memorial, learned Monday that Burrow had been charged. "That's a terrible thing for him to have to go through," said Lomell. "I would certainly wager that Richard Burrow is as honest as any man." Jay Conley can be reached at 981-3114 or jayc@roanoke.com.
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