Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Oct. 11, 1990, edition 1 / Page 12
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PagG A12 W’iiston~S^Iein Chronicle Thursday. OctobGr 11, 1990 Neglect case raises issues Continued from A1 ■ The day after charges wore filed, the Legal Aid Society of Northwest North Carolina referred Tolliver to Black Family Focus, a support group begun in February for people like Tol liver. According to Leo Faye Mack, a counselor for the group, the Depart ment of Social Services is supposed to refer clients to Black Family Focus, but they had not done so in this case. From a one hour counseling sc.s- sion with Tolliver, Mack said she was ■ able to recognize her client needed ■help. She said Tolliver was “pleading” ■ for help. “I’m not excusing the moth- ■ er,” Mack said. “She needs psycho logical help.” ■ “1 don’t think agencies should be let off the hook,” Mack said. “What have they been doing? They forgot they had a responsibility here.” According to Mack, the Social Ser vices worker assigned to Tolliver, Pam Harper, had only visited her one time in the oast nine months. Exchange SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now) has workai with Tolliver in the past, but is not currently helping her. George Bryan, director of SCAN, said, “We reached a point where it was appropriate that we didn’t w'ork with her.” Ho said ho was not at liberty to say exactly w'ho referred Tolliver to SCAN, but it was not Social Services. Tolliver has also worked with the Donna Browm, a social worker with the Winston-Salcm/Forsyth County Schools. Brown could not comment on the case and did not say whether she was currently working with Tolliv er. Mack said Tolliver should have been referred earlier to Black Family Focus, and a recommendation should have been made to take her sick child into protective custody. “I would have gone in as a coun selor and worked with the mother,” Mack said. Several people from the support group would have helped Tol liver clean up her house to make her living situation better, said Mack. “I’m tired of agencies getting money and not doing what they're supposed to do. Who are they accountable to when something like this falls through the cracks? Who is responsible for a situation before it even happens?” Mack asked. “There are 100 more families just like that that need the same kind of help this woman did and didn’t got it,” she said. Tolliver is now a part of Black Family Focus, and her three youngest children have been taken into protec tive custody. She is free on SI,000 bond before her uial, which is sched uled for Oct. 30. Hunt trial nears end Continued from A1 The defense tried to discredit pro.sccution witness Jesse Moore Jr. as well. Moore had testified earlier that many inmates heard Hunt boast - Of the crime. The only other inmate ■'Moore could name specifically, Jackie Wiemer, testified Friday that ■ he had never heard Hunt speak of the incident. Earlier this week, a psycholo gist testified that Marie Margaret Crawford, Hunt’s girlfriend, had a reputation for lying. Crawford had testified that Hunt had told her ho had spoken to her of the crime. FJowell Lee Hagie, brother of Donald Hagie, testified that his brother was a very dishonest per son. Donald Hagie had previously testified that Hunt had spoken to him of the crime while they were in prison together. Tuesday , Ycates, ending his closing argument .said Johnny Gray, who telephoned the police on the morning of the murder, was proba bly involved in the crime, too, but that was an issue to be dealt with in another trial. He used Sykes’ shoes as a visual aid, saying the murder not only took Sykes’ life, but her dignity and privacy as well. He was graphic in his descriptions of the crime, which cau.sod Sykes’ family and supporters to cry. He explained the inconsisten cies in the testimonies as human nature. Would you feel better if their stories were exactly the same, he asked the jury. Stein began his closing argu ment Tuesday, saying Hunt was not hiding behind the bedrock of rea sonable doubt but is .standing on it. The burden of proof rests with the prosecution, he reminded the jury. Both he and Ferguson, who began his closing argument Wednesday, asked why Gray had not been investigated but had been pampered and paid up to this point. Ferguson spent almost four hours giving his closing argument Wednesday. Referring to the prose cution’s case, he said, “A pile of trash doesn’t get better as it gets bigger.lt just gets harder to see through.” He said nobody disputes the tragedy of Sykes’ death, but the prosecution’s case is weak. The prosecution’s witnesses are con victs, liars, and murders, none of whom presented evidence that was Blacks & Democrats Continued from A1 Rena Murchison, elections supervisor in Alamance County, said voter registration activity has been very heavy for both Republi cans and Democrats. "People are just registering "everywhere _ the churches, schools and neighborhoods,” she said. "Up until this week voter registration had been split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. But now we have more blacks regis tered, mostly with the Democratic Party.” Contributing to the voting furor is the Senate race between three-term Republican Sen. Jesse Helms and his challenger, Harvey Gantt. Gantt is the first black Democratic Senate candidate nomi nated this century. While getting voters regis tered is important, even more important is getting them to the polls, officials said. "Our main concern is going to be on get-out-the-vote,’’ said Tom Ballus, state GOP spokesman. "In 1986 we had 300,000 Republi can-leaning voters who didn’t go to Sparrow Continued from A1 L ■•.' Catherine, age 28, Barbtira, age 26, >: Theodora, ago 24, and Arthur, ago Catherine has given Sparrow two grandchildren; Lydia, 4 and ■Melanie, 2. Sparrow was born in Charlotte and is 54 years old. Sparrow went to Duke Univer sity on a Naval ROTC scholarship ■J '_tb get his degree in civil engineer- .'Bg- After college he went into the i .'■> ft^avy and was assigned to the USS ■- Wasp stationed in Boston. Sparrow ■ • worked for the Winston-Salem '■ Journal while attending Wake For- i cst Law School. Sparrow had i worked in private practice in Win- i ston-Salem from 1966 until 1987, i when he became district attorney ! after defeating Republican James ! Gatto in the 1986 election. Sparrow ! was a Republican before he ran for i . ; district attorney in 1986. Sparrow i is currently the chairman of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Coalition on Alcohol and Drug : Abuse. • Bavltlog of Court Cases: 1 When Sparrow took office in • ■^r^'36 cases awaited trial, but the load ! untried cases have grown to over I in his time as district attorney, Djlccording to the records of the ■ office of the courts. I ^jC^parrow said when he took office the caseload was artificially low. A total of 6,700 cases were filed in 1989, and the district attorney’s office had only 12 prosecutors to deal with them. Sparrow said. He said the percentage of cases disposed of since 1984 is down statewide. Even with the tremen dous increase in the number untried cases, the median age of untried cases in Forsyth County is 80 days, while the statewide median age is 100 days, according to Sparrow. Sparrow said that pending cases can have a chilling effect on the personal behavior of the accused. Sparrow said ho is trying to use his experience and the experience of his assistant district attorneys to make the system more efficient. He pointed out that the number of cases filed since he took office has increased dramatically, a figure over which he has no control. The court system is not going to get more peo ple to handle the cases. Sparrow said. Three weeks ago Sparrow initi ated a “vertical prosecution” plan where six Superior Court a.ssistant district attorneys go to Probable Cause Court, or screening court, on Friday. They pick up their cases there and follow them through from the outset. Sparrow said this will eliminate a lot of inefficiency and duplication of effort because the attorneys will get the cases earlier. Drugs: Sparrow said that drugs have proliferated in Winston-Salem. In 1985 only 300 drug cases were filed, but last year the number was as high as 1300. Sparrow said he has a “firm record” on drug prosecutions. He said Forsyth County has sent more people to prison than any North Carolina county except Mecklen burg and Wake counties. But the job of his office, he said, is to pre sent the facts, not to sentence the offenders. Sparrow has two assistants who specialize in drug cases, one of which was hired three weeks ago to investigate the more serious drug ttafficking cases. Continued from A1 V • ’ . '•--Chapel Hill and his J.D. from Wake Forest Law School, was an assistant district attor- ■ (ley for two years under Republican Frank Yeager. He then entered private practice, where he has been ever since. He has used his 20 years of trial experience to give something back to the Forsyth Coun ty community; Keith shared his legal expertise by being a criminal law instruc tor at Forsyth Technical Community Col lege. He has experience in federal drug ca.ses and jury trials and was also chair- niiin of the Forsyth County Board of Elec tions for four terms. ■ Backlog of Court Cases: Keith holds that one of the main ptoblems with the local court system is the backlog of cases, which leads to atrocious plea bargaining. He believes the backlog could be alleviated if court time were uti lized better. Some of his suggestions I'or ' better time utilization arc as follows: . Keith wants assistant district attor neys assigned cases before the defendant's indictment by tlie grand jury so the attor neys can be familiar with their cases and will be prepared to try tliem more quickly. He also wants them to keep lime logs and flow charts of the cases they handle. Keith said the number of African- American assistant district attorneys should reflect the racial composition of the county. He said he would hire at least four, and maybe five, experienced, compe tent, African-American assistant district attorneys. There arc currently two African-American assistant district attor neys. Clerks from Wake Forest Law Sch(X)l or paralegals could be used to help prepare cases for court. Keith stud. He would like to prioritize jail ca.scs to reduce the jail backlog, which was rec ommended by the Forsyth County Jail Population Committee in its report dated Aug. 24,1989. Kcitli proposed court be in session on Fridays, as it currently is not, and several beyond reasonable doubt, Ferguson said. He also questioned why the witnesses all saw Hunt but didn’t see each other. Bowman also began his closing argument Wednesday afternoon, insisting on Hunt’s guilt. The intent of the crime was to torture, he said. “It’s sadistic. It’s sick.” “The once white shroud is drip ping in the blood of Deborah Sykes, battered by the truth of the evidence you’ve heard on the witness stand, heavy with the guilt of Darryl Eugene Hunt,” Bowman said. His argument will continue Thursday. The jury will decide Hunt’s guilt or innocence when all closing arguments have been com pleted. the polls.’’ That was the year Democrat Terry Sanford defeated Republican Jim Broyhill for the state’s other seat in the U.S. Senate. John Humphrey, state Demo cratic Party spokesman, said the party is counting on strong grass roots efforts to get Democrats to the polls. ney must strike a tough balance between in-court work and adminis trative functions. He said that although he spends a majority of his time outside of court, he likes to try cases. He will be stepping back into the courtroom Oct. 15 to prose cute Blanche Taylor Moore. The district attorney’s office has a duty to remain independent and is obligated to seek the truth in all cases, he said. When the district attorney is independent from the police department, it gives the police more credibility. According to Sparrow, from July 1989 to June 1990, the district attorney’s office obtained convic tions in 75 percent of all jury cases in the county. The conviction rate for DWI cases was 84 percent in 1989, according to North Carolina Department Victims Rights: Sparrow said he has no strong feelings about a victims rights amendment to the North Carolina Constitution. He said he is in the business of enforcing the law. DA’S Role: Sparrow said the district attor- Reason For Wanting Office: Sparrow said the district attor ney’s job is the most challenging job in the state for a trial lawyer. It is the best opportunity for a lawyer to render service to the public, he said. He said seeing the younger people in his office develop is a source of great encouragement to him. nights a week for domestic relations court Night court would eliminate people’s needing to take time off from their day jobs to appear in court. Drugs: Keith said the biggest problem bring ing people in the courts today is drugs and drug-related crimes such as robbery and murder. He has been on several drug raids as an attorney in Winston-Salem and plans to continue if he is elected. A Spanish-speaking assistant district attorney would be included in Keith's staff, he said. In Winston-Salem, drug dealers who speak only Spanish have elab orate rings, and the district attorney’s office needs to be able to communicate with them when they arc arrested. Victims Rights: Keith favors a law, not an amend ment to the state constitution, which would require that the arresting officer and the victim of the crime, be notified of the suspc.ct’s triid date atid of what the district Bedroom Sal( OVER 40 SUITES TO CHOOSE FROl, $489.95 and up Includes - Dresser/Mirror-Chest Night Stand - Head Board and Frame Free delivery • "In House" Financi Hi HlLLCRE F rurniture 505 N. Liberty Street, Downtown across from Posti) Mon - Sat 9-5:30 (Closed Wed) 72S WORLD HEAVYWEK CHAMPIONSHIP DOUGLA HOLVnEI IICIIIKR2 imEMRAI attorney plans to do with the case (try or plea bargain). He said there should be a check-off sheet in every case file where it can be recorded that the police officer and the victim were contacted, DA’s Role: Keith said he would be more of a hands-on district attorney. He said he loves to try cases, and he would be given a chance to perfect his trade as district attor ney. Reason For Wanting Office: Winston-Salem needs a district attor ney who will aggressively target and go after professional drag dealers so the city docs not become overrun with drugs and crime, Keith said. Keith has worked with drug cases for years, and he said they have scared him to death. He s,aid if the drug problem is not aggressively addressed soon, in four or five years the citizens will lose their city, and Winston-Salem will be like other big cities. 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Oct. 11, 1990, edition 1
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