8B
Wednesday, February 8, 1995
UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Widow seeks NAACP position
The Associated Press
BEND, Ore. — The widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers declared her candidacy yesterday for the chairmanship of the financially troubled NAACP.
Myrile Evers-Williams, a former corporate executive and longtime NAACP board member, said she decided to seek election because the nation's oldest civil rights organization needed a "fresh start."
"The organization's highly publicized infighting has detracted from its primary objective of advocating the civil rights of the disenfranchised," she said in a statement from her central Oregon home. "We must get the NAACP back on course."
William F. Gibson, the current NAACP chairman, has held the post since 1985, but his leadership has been questioned since former Executive Director Benjamin Chavis was fired Aug. 20 for settling an employee's sex discrimination claim for $332,400 without telling the board.
Last month, seven board members filed a federal lawsuit accusing Gibson of improperly spending $1.4 million in pension and tax-exempt grant funds.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is scheduled to elect its chairman at its annual board meeting on Feb. 18 in New York.
Evers-Williams, 62, was urged to run by some on the 64-member board of directors and received support for her decision from civil rights leaders and friends.
She wasnotready to give interviews, her media representative, Gwen Williams, said.
NAACP labor director John Johnson declined comment except to say, "I have known Myrle for many years and have tremendous respect for her."
Johnson referred questions to Gibson, whose secretary said he was too busy to comment.
Evers-Williams is former commissioner of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, where she managed a
$1 billion budget and supervised 7,000 employees.
She also has been an executive at Atlantic Richfield, a Los Angeles-based oil company; an executive at Seligman & Lapz, a New York-based advertising firm; and an administrator in the Claremont Colleges system in California.
She said she would work to reunify the board, rebuild its credibility and financial accountability and revive membership.
"The respect and integrity of the NAACP, which was earned through the sacrifice of many over the past 86 years, has diminished," she said.
Evers, a field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP, was killed by a sniper in the driveway of his Jackson, Miss., home on June 12, 1963.
Mistrials were declared twice in 1964 after all-white juries deadlocked in the case against white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. An interracial jury convicted him of murder last February, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Wyandotte County gets new sheriff
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — For the third time in two weeks, the scandal-plagued Wyandotte County Sheriff's Department has a new leader, this time a veteran city police officer whose brother is police chief.
Maj. Michael S. Dailley, whose brother Tom runs the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department, has been chosen to fill the unexpired term of Sheriff Bill E. Dillon, who resigned Jan. 24 under an ethics cloud.
"I'm elated that I'm going to be able to do something for this community," said Dailey, 52, after his selection from a field of seven candidates Monday night by the local Democratic Party.
Dillon's temporary replacement, his son-in-law, Undersheriff James A. Stevens Jr., also resigned within hours of being appointed when it was learned he was under investigation.
Under state law, the political party of the outgoing sheriff elects his replacement and submits the decision to the governor for approval, said Wyandotte County District Attorney Nick Tomasic. Without objection from the governor within seven days, the person selected automatically becomes sheriff, he said.
Dillon, who was elected sheriff, resigned in the midst of an investigation by state and local authorities of alleged criminal activity and administrative problems in the department. Stevens resigned after it was learned he also was under investigation.
The issue that finally forced Dillon's resignation was inadequate annual training of departmental employees.
The Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, which trains officers for mandatory state licensing, discovered 33 of the sherrif's 62 sworn officers failed to meet minimum training standards last year and could be decertified by the state and dismissed from the department.
Meanwhile, in the last year at least 10 sheriff's employees have resigned or been fired over other allegations, ranging from smuggling drugs to inmates to misuse of public funds. Seven of those 10 face criminal charges or already have been convicted.
Dailey will serve the 23 months left in Dillon's term. He said his first job would be to bolster morale in the department and address problems in finance, deputy training and the administration of the county jail.
On the police force, Dailey has been public information officer, hostage negotiator and has commanded divisions including investigations, fraud and arson, traffic and data systems.
The past year, Dailey was instrumental in establishing the city's first community policing program.
THE NEWS in brief
PARIS
French doctor, jailed for AIDS scandal, denied parole
The former head of France's state-run blood bank — the man who would not spend money to protect the public from contracting the AIDS virus — was denied parole yesterday.
Dr. Michel Garretta was the central figure in a public health scandal that left more than 1,000 hemophiliacs infected with the AIDS virus.
In the mid-1890s, hemophiliacs in France were given tainted blood products. Investigations showed that health officials knew the products were tained but, to save money, refused to have them cleaned or replaced.
In its decision yesterday, a three-judge panel cited the "excessional extent of damages" in the scandal.
"Parole... is not an automatic right of the convicted," the judges said.
Garretta, convicted of "fraud in the quality of merchandise," was iailed in October 1992.
His right-hand man, Jean-Pierre Allain, was released on parole last year after completing half his term.
Garretta and other top government officials still face a possible trial on charges of poisoning.
LAUREL. Miss.
Fear of AIDS led to murder of gay men
Marvin McClendon admits he shot two gay men to death. He did it, he claims, to protect himself from rape and possible exposure to the AIDS virus. Prosecutors said he did it for money, robbing the men of $100 before he killed them.
The 17-year-old went on trial yesterday in the deaths of Joseph Shoemake and Robert Walters, who were shot in the head and left beside an abandoned railroad track. Their bodies were found Oct. 8.
The victims' sexual orientation also made it hard to pick a injury in this Bible Belt community. Many of the more than 100 potential jurors questioned in a group yesterday said they had strong religious objections to homosexuality.
J. Ronald Parrish, McClendon's lawyer, said Shoemake, 24, and Walters, 34, tried to rape McClendon after picking up the teen-ager near his home.
Parrish is fighting to use the results of HIV tests on the victims as part of McClendon's defense. Results of the tests have never been made public.
District Attorney Jeannene Pacific said that the night of the killings, McClendon and a friend were approached by Shoemake and Walters and offered money to accompany the two.
The friend refused, but McClendon accepted and got into the men's car "on his own free will under no duress," she said.
ADA, Ohio
Group-home fires kill one, injure15
Flames swept through a fraternity house early Monday, injuring 15 people. Authorities did not immediately know the cause.
"It spread really fast. Everyone was just running. There wasn't any time to put it out." Christopher Cole said.
The fire erupted on the second floor of the three-story Sigma Pi fraternity house at Ohio Northern University in Ada, near Lima. The brick building housed 25 students. Two were in serious condition Monday.
The state Fire Marshal's office was investigating. No damage estimate was available.
University spokesman Jack Jeffrey said one student called 911 and alerted others after he saw flames shooting into a hallway.
MINEOLA. N.Y.
Victim testifies about train shooting
The defendant in the Long Island Rail Road massacre tried yesterday to portray one survivor as a coward who used another passenger as a shield.
John Aspel of Hicksville, N.Y., was grilled for 45 minutes about what happened on Dec. 7, 1983 — the evening when he was shot three times while crouched with a stranger beneath seats on the LIRR.
Six people were killed before the gunman stopped shooting. Aspel and the stranger, Elizabeth Aviles, were among the 19 wounded passengers.
"Do you remember pulling the lady down on top of you to protect yourself?" defendant Colin Ferguson, acting as his own attorney, asked Asnel during cross-examination.
"I remember getting on the floor," replied Aspel. He and Aviles both testified that they clutched each other and ducked beneath the seat in an effort to hide.
Aviles was struck by a single bullet that apparently glanced off Aspel first.
"He's a crazy man," Aspel said of Ferguson outside of the courtroom.
Two other witnesses took the stand yesterday: Ellen Goldstone, who testified that her wedding was postponed after she was shot three times, and Marlene Francois, the only Black victim of the shootings.
Red Lyon Tavern
A touch of Irish in downtown Lawrence 944 Massachusetts 832-8228
The Kansan wants to make sure you don't butcher your relationship.
If you have been compared to this common barn animal recently,
Stop by the Kansan table on the fourth floor of the Union,119 Stauffer-Flint Hall or call 864-4358.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Coming Feb.14th
The Etc. Shop
Compiled from The Associated Press
928 Mass.
Downtown
thursdays
ladies night
free admission for ladies over 21 before 10-30
club & top-40 dance hits
DJ Dase Phillips (Kansas City)
fridays
MONDO DISCO
massive underground dance music
D] Ray Velasque?
saturdays
more bounce to the oz.
(as 10 times, get 12)
club & top-40 dance hits
DJ Ray Velasquez
OZ
NIGHTCLUB
Club culture for Kansas in the 21st century
1601 W 23 St., Lawrence, KS
(haud the Southern Hill Center)
913.843.4500
18 to room/21 to drink
18 to enter/21 to drink