Newsiat
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Judge denies motion to dismiss charges
against basketball star Jayson Williams
FLEMINGTON, N J. (AP) - A state judge last week denied
a defense motion to dismiss manslaughter and aggravated assault
charges against former basketball star Jayson Williams in the
shooting death of a limousine driver.
Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman
conceded that some errors were made in
presenting the case to the grand jury hut that
they were not sufficient to warrant dismissal
of the charges.
Defense lawyers said they would appeal
Coleman's ruling.
The judge also denied a defense motion
to have manslaughter and aggravated
assault charges against Williams heard sep
arately from evidence tampering and
obstruction charges.
Defense lawyers argued that accusations
that Williams. 14. tamnered with witnesses
Williams
and evidence would prejudice any jury deciding whether to con
vict him in limousine driver Costas Christofi's death.
Acting Hunterdon County Prosecutor Steven C. Lernber
argued that all charges are intertwined. He said it would be diffi
cult to tell jurors during a manslaughter trial the crime scene had
been tampered with without saying how.
The shooting occurred early Feb. 14 at Williams' Alexandria
Township estate after he brought several guests home from a
Harlem Globetrotters game. Two guests, Kent Culucko, and John
Gordnick. have pleaded guilty to tampering charges and have
agreed to testify against Williams.
Williams could face nearly 45 years in prison if convicted on
all charges.
Williams was among the NBAs best rebounders when leg
injuries forced his retirement from the New Jersey Nets in 2000.
After the shooting, he was suspended from his job as an NBA ana
lyst for NBC. The trial is scheduled to begin on Feb. 18.
Physician, civic leader dies at 97
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - Dr. James Blaine Blayton Sr..
the first black physician in Williamsburg and a longtime civic
leader, has died. He was 97.
Blayton, who died last week, was born in Oklahoma Indian
Territory before it became a state, the seventh of 11 children.
He earned a bachelor's degree and a medical degree from
Howard University before starting a private practice in Newport
News in 1931. But with the Depression, few patients could afford
his services, and black residents of Williamsburg urged him to
become the first black doctor in their community, where the
restoration of Colonial Williamsburg was under way.
"He said, if you can feed me. I'll come up there,"' said his
daughter-in-law. Bonnie Winston Blayton.
In 1952. Blayton opened a 14-bed hospital with an emergency
room. It also had a sandwich and soda shop where young black
people could gather at a time when other businesses allowed
whites only.
Blayton was president of the statewide Old Dominion Medical
Society in the 1950s and raised money to build Williamsburg
Community Hospital in the early 1960s.
In 1983. then-Gov. Charles Robb appointed him as the first
black member on the state Board of Medicine. He was also the first
black member of the James City County School Board.
Blayton was married for 62 years to the late Alleyne Houser
Blayton. He is survived by two daughters, two sons, four grand
children and six great-grandchildren.
Duke pleads guilty to federal charges
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan
leader who took his call for "white survival" overseas during an
investigation of his activities here, pleaded guilty recently to
charges of mail fraud and filing a false tax return.
As a result of a plea agreement. Duke faces up to 15 months in
prison and $10,000 in fines. Sentencing was set March 19.
The agreement came shortly after indictments were filed
against Duke and only two days after a defense attorney said Duke
had returned to Louisiana after three years out of the country to
negotiate with prosecutors.
Duke was accused of filing a false 1998 I
tax return. The mail fraud charge accuses I
Duke of "obtaining a substantial sum of H
money" through mail solicitations and mis- I
using the money.
Prosecutors were not available immedi- I
ately to detail the charges further. But his
attorney, Jim McPherson. said that the Jus- L
tice Department had been examining Duke I
for possible income tax violations involving [
the $100,000 sale of a list of Duke support
ers to Gov. Mike Foster in 1995.
Duke
Duke had just started a speaking tour in Russia in January 2000
when federal agents raided his home in Mandeville. La. A search
warrant, based on testimony from confidential informants, alleged
that Duke took hundreds of thousands of dollars he solicited from
supporters and gambled the money away at casinos.
Until his return late last week. Duke had been lecturing and
speaking in Russia and other European countries in what became
a crusade for "white survival" against Jews and non-Europeans.
An unsuccessful candidate in prior elections, he won a
Louisiana House seat in 1988 and lost runoffs for the U.S. Senate
in 1990 and governor in 1991. all the while claiming to have jetti
soned his racist views.
A poor showing in the 1992 presidential primaries effectively
ended his flirtation with mainstream politics, although he placed
third in a 1999 congressional race in suburban New Orleans.
McPjterson said earlier that he had been negotiating with pros
ecutors for four years since a federal grand jury investigated the
sale of the contributors' list to Foster. McPherson said he did not
believe the government had enough evidence to convict Duke, but
feared that "some jurors would convict him because of who he is."
The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest
H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published
every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co.
Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. Peri
odicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual sub
scription price is $30.72.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636
Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636
j Magazine names top schools for blacks
BY AL WHITE
CHRONICLE INTERN
Black Enterprise, the lead
ing business and investment
magazine for African-Ameri
cans, released its biennial list
< bf the 50 Best Colleges and
Universities for African
Americans in its latest issue.
The criteria for the select
ed colleges were that either
the college must be an accred
ited four-year college in
which black enrollment was at
least 3 percent or that the col
lege was large and well
known. Decisions were based
on the percentage of black
undergraduate students, aver
age survey scores on the
schools' social and academic
environments, and the 2001
ratings.
More than 1,800 black col
lege presidents, chancellors,
admissions directors and
recruiters were consulted to
approve of these colleges.
Morehouse College, a pri
vate. all-male liberal arts
institution in Atlanta, Ga., has
maintained the No. 1 spot
since 2001. Other historically
black colleges such as No. 2
Hampton University in Hamp
ton, Va., and No. 3 Spelman
College in Atlanta hold seven
of the top 10 positions.
Five N.C. universities, two
of which are historically
black, were ranked among the
50 best. Duke University was
ranked 12th: University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
15th; N.C. A&T State Univer
sity, 19th; Wake Forest Uni
versity, 31st: and Johnson C.
Smith University in Charlottfc,
36th. N.C. A&T State Univer
sity holds the highest African
American enrollment in North
Carolina, with 6,610 African
American students out of
6,850 students.
The complete rankings
appear in the January 2003
Black Enterprise MagazineJor
can he accessed ^at
www.blackenterprise.com.
Photo courtesy of Black Enterprise
Publisher Earl Graves presents a framed raver of Black Enterprise to Morehouse President
Walter Massey. Morehouse was named the top school for blacks by Black Enterprise.
Robert White to leave
Greensboro to become
city's first black chief
BY JOSHUA HAMMANN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS *
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
Louisville hired its first black
police chief last week amid com
munity unrest over the fatal police
shooting of a handcuffed black
man.
Robert C. White, who has led
the Greensboro police since 1998,
will start next month as chief of
the Louisville-Jefferson County
Metro Police, created by the
newly approved merger of city
and county governments.
"I assure you that in a very
chnrt f 1 mp hip vx/ill lioiia nna nf
the finest police departments in
the country," White said at a
news conference. "My whole
focus on policing is crime pre
vention."
White is coming into a
department that has been the
target of almost daily protests
following the Dec. 5 shooting
of James Edward Taylor by a
white detective.
Taylor. 50, was handcuffed
when Detective Mike O'Neil
shot him 11 times. Police say
that although Taylor was hand
cuffed behind his back, he was
threatening O'Neil and another
detective with a knife.
Since 2000, Louisville
police officers have fatally shot
five men, all of whom were
blafck. No charges have been
brought against any of the offi
cers involved in the shootings.
White said he was familiar
with the situation but unwilling
to comment on it directly. He
did say that one of his first pri
orities will be to examine the
department's policies and pro
cedures, as well as the officers'
relationship with the communi
ties they protect. Blacks will
make up 19 percent of the pop
ulation in (he merged city-county
government.
"There are factions in all com
munities that really don't have the
relationship with the police that
they need." White said. "If there's
a perceived problem, then there's
a real problem."
In Greensboro, White institut
ed a program in which officers
went door-to-door introducing
themselves to the residents of
their beats.
"I think we got a gem," said
Mayor-elect Jerry Abramson, who
See Louisville on A8
File Photo
Chief Robert White came to lead the Greensboro Police
Department in 1998.
Pill? I
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Call
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1535 S. Martin Luther King Drive
Winston-Salem, NC
INDEX
OPINION. .A6
SPOUTS. 8 7
RELIGION. 85
CLASSIFIEDS 88
HEALTH. C3
ENTERTAINMENT....C7
CALENDAR. C9
. ? K m :
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