Electronics Buff Pleads Guilty to Taping Wilder Call

NORFOLK, Va. —  An electronics buff whose recording of a telephone conversation by Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder contributed to a feud between Wilder and Sen. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.) pleaded guilty Tuesday under a plea agreement.

Robert W. Dunnington, 44, pleaded guilty to a single charge of interrupting and disclosing electronic communications. U.S. District Judge John A. MacKenzie set sentencing for Dec. 11. Dunnington could receive up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Dunnington, a restaurateur, had a hobby of monitoring and recording cellular phone calls using equipment in his Virginia Beach, Va., home, Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Wiechering said.

Officials said that between February, 1988, and October, 1990, Dunnington overheard and taped hundreds of cellular phone conversations, including one Wilder made in October, 1988. Wilder, who then was lieutenant governor, now seeks the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination.

In the taped conversation, Wilder told a political supporter he thought Robb, a fellow Democrat and a rival, was finished politically because of published reports linking him to cocaine parties.

Robb denied attending parties where drugs were used and easily won the Senate election.

Dunnington, who was a Robb supporter, “was angered by comments in the conversation” and arranged to get a copy of the tape to Robb’s staff, Wiechering said.