Sam Garrison - Back To Roanoke

Back To Roanoke

Garrison later moved back to Roanoke, and later ran into financial and legal problems. The Washington Post noted: "He was a partner in a failed Roanoke restaurant and disco. The business had $1 million in debts when it closed, and Mr. Garrison declared bankruptcy. His partner, left with the debt, conspired to kill him to recover $300,000 in insurance, a court later found.

In 1980, as a court-appointed attorney representing a bankrupt mobile home firm in Georgia, Garrison was indicted in a $46,000 theft from its trust. He was convicted and disbarred and served four months of a one-year sentence. (In 1993, the Virginia Supreme Court restored Garrison's law license).

In 1982 he publicly revealed that he was gay. Subsequently, he joined the Democratic Party and became active in party politics and in the gay rights movement, among other things, unsuccessfully campaigning for Virginia to repeal its anti-sodomy laws.

He was appointed in 2003 to the Virginia Council on Human Rights by Governor Mark R. Warner.