LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
PROFILES
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1996 13C
Former KU student radical tackles notorious legal cases
Continued from page 1C
'n' roll. What can I have a very good time. What I say?' he said.
Rage training
The arrest was for interfering with the duties of a KU police officer, a misdemeanor. It happened on May 21, 1979 - graduation day - after Kuby unveiled a banner protesting KU investments in South Africa.
Administrators said Kuby was violating a university policy barring "political advertisements" at KU events. Police were ordered to arrest him.
Kuby argued that the university was abusing its power — that his banner was a political statement, not an ad.
A year later, he was back as a free man. Charges filed after the first arrest had been dropped after prosecutors determined that Kuby simply hadn't committed a crime.
crime.
"I believed at the time there may have been a violation of his constitutional right to free speech," said Mike Malone, then district attorney and now a Douglas County district judge.
In 1980, Kuby and about 30 other people brought signs to commencement in a free speech protest. One banner, unfurled after the protest started, said "Help! We're being arrested." Under orders from administrators, police tore banners from the hands of Kuby and other protesters.
Kuby, who was not arrested in the protest, claimed that an officer deliberately broke his arm. Malone brought in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to look into Kuby's claim. After the KBI investigation was completed, Malone decided there was insufficient evidence to show that officers injured Kuby on purpose.
Today, Kuby points out that he never hurt anyone, never blocked a doorway — never broke a law of any kind — in the protests.
"It was not particularly radical stuff," he said. "It was the kind of thing you'd expect from good Jeffersonian Democrats — the idea that people ought to be able to say what they want to say and write what they want to write."
Malone agreed with the analysis.
"I think the university, and rightfully so, was a bit red-faced about this thing." he said.
In late 1980, he left Lawrence to attend law school at Cornell.
"There were some who said, 'When he goes to law school, he'll be like everybody else. Three years from now, he'll be driving a Porsche or something.'" said Miller, who joined Kuby in the 1980 protest and was arrested. "I thought, 'With Ron, I doubt it.'"
Two years later, he joined Kunster's staff as a clerk.
"If anything, I'm clearer now than I ever was in that we were right," he said. "Our vision of the university was the one that remained true to what a university should be. We disrupted no classes, barred no one in any doorway ... it was a simple exercise of free speech."
16 years after
He has long hair now, plus a beard and a moustache.
KU police no longer arrest people for violating university policy — only for breaking laws. Denney, who said he supported students' right to protest then and now, credits Kuby for spurring that change.
"People recognized quite clearly that the university police should not be used for anything but maintaining law and order, and that drove it home that the use of the police as 'the army of the administration' was not the thing to do. If I ever saw him in person or talked to him on the phone, I would thank him for doing that." Denney said.
Dykes said he could vaguely remember Kuby's name and could not recall the protests.
whether those policies were correct or incorrect, it's difficult to say now," he said. "I'm sure Mr. Kuby feels correct in his course of action, and I wouldn't expect him to feel any other way."
Denney, whose department Kuby accused of police brutality, catches Kuby on TV now and again, discussing one of his cases. It's like seeing an old, fond acquaintance, he said, adding that someday he'd like to talk to him about his days at KU.
"Between he and I, there was never a raised voice," Denney said. "I can remember many of
our conversations today, because of the uniqueness of them. They were totally civil."
In his desk, Malone keeps a letter from Kuby praising him for his "honesty and integrity" and offering him an endorsement.
"I realize that a public endorsement from me is as helpful as an endorsement from Castro, so I will keep my support silent unless otherwise instructed by your campaign manager," Malone read, laughing.
Back to the books
Kuby is overseeing 10 police brutality cases, five murder trials, 80 to 90 total cases. Miller, who visits Kuby periodically, said Kuby lives in a modest Manhattan apartment with his wife and daughter.
"He does make money at his practice, but he's not fabulously wealthy," he said.
On Kuby's office wall, there's a picture of him and Kunstler posing with the Ohio chapter of the Hell's Angels. Kunstler died last year.
"Yesterday, I was out in Queens with the Rev. Al Sharpton, meeting with the DA and trying to get a police officer indicted for shooting a shirtless, barefoot man from behind," Kuby said during a recent interview. "He was shot in the head, the bullet entering his skull in the back and traveling downward toward his spine."
He said the bullet path proves that the man was leaning down, or kneeling. He point-blank accuses the officer of having committed an execution.
There's a picture of reggae musician Bob Marley, his image captured during a performance at KU, hanging on his wall.
It's one of many things — trinkets, memories and friendships that tie him to Lawrence.
"Even the bad times at KU were times that nonetheless were rich in experience and learning," he said. "And actually, maybe it's through the sort of distorting prism of history, but I can think of no bad times in Lawrence."
He comes back to Lawrence periodically. After apartheid fell in South Africa, he wrote a letter to the KU Endowment Association and sent his membership dues.
"Maybe we can be friends," he wrote.
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RENÉE KNOEBER/JOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
Ervin Huslig is the man behind the master key at Kansas University Facilities Operations. The lock shop handles locks on all academic buildings on campus.
University locksmith holds key to academia
BY JILL HOGAN
As head locksmith of the Kansas University Facilities Operations lock shop for 10 years, that talent has served him well. Husling oversees the maintenance of all the locks on academic buildings on campus.
SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL-WORLD
The work of the locksmith is intricate but can call for a degree of roughness.
Huslig recalled a time when he was gentle with a lock and finally, when he became forceful out of frustration, it opened.
Ervin Huslig has a way with locks.
"You pick and pick and just when you've called for assistance, it opens for you," he said. "It's like you have a relationship with the lock."
Through some students and faculty might think it convenient to have a locksmith on campus in the event they lock themselves out of their car, they'll be in for a
The responsibilities of the locksmith are to duplicate keys, monitor who has the keys and order parts so all locks are functioning properly.
About 12 lockouts occur daily, Huslig said. With a staff of two working under him, they have their hands full replying to all the requests for help.
long wait. This department responds only for academic buildings.
The lock shop deals primarily with heavy duty industrial locks, many of which cannot be duplicated.
"The housing (department) has their own separate locksmith department." Huslig said.
"The strangest lockout call I ever received was from the Lawrence Police Department at 3 a.m.," Huslig said. "Teller's restaurant was then owned by the KU Endowment Association, and someone had not locked it. I had to find the key at that time and go downtown and lock it."
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