2-THE (CAROLINA TIMES, SAT., NOV. 15. 1975
: 1 'jr. .. ...
Continued From Page 1-B
government cannot be given any
credit for eliciting from Hood
and Washington the information
used to prosecute the Charlotte
Three.
THE FACTS
WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE
ROLE OF FEDERAL AGENTS
IN THE LAZY-B
PROSECUTION?
The picture, while not
absolutely clear, is obvious
enough, especially when we
realize that almost all the
evidence showing g federal
involvement came from the
federal agents themselves the
very ones who were, and
continue to be, so interested in
putting Jim, T. J. and C. P.
away. ,
Here is a basic outline of the
federal involvement in the
Lazy-B case: .
(1) In 1970, Hood and
Washington (the two state
witnesses) were arrested during!
period of racial unrest in.
Oxford, N.C., with the dynamite
and guns In their car. According '
to t former U.S. attorney,,
within hours they were in the
U.S. Attorney's office in
Raleigh, N.C., being asked to
give evidence against Jim Grant '
and others.
(2) In 1971, after their
release on bond, flight from the
country, and recapture, Hood
and Washington were again
imprisoned in N.C. Federal "
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
agents Noel and Walden began
interrogation Hood and
JUDGE SAT EQVlI TUItUS DOVtl DBUD FOU L'RV TOLU
Washington. The two witnesses
gave them a numberer of
statements, including one
concerning the Lazy-B.
(3) Noel and Walden notified
the state authorities about the
Lazy-B statement and provided
them with copies.
(4) Hood and Washington
refused to testify in an case,
state or fedreal, unless given
protective eustody and a sum of
money. N. C. officials notified
federal agents that N. C. had no
provisions for protective custody
or cash payments. After
extensive negotiations in
Washington, 0. C. and Raleigh,
N. C, federal officials headed
by 'tWtn assistant Attorney
General Robert Mardian agreed
to provide the necessary custody
and cash.. All documents
available indicate that the
agreement included any state
prosecution, including the
Lazy-B trial
(5) Alcohol Tobacco and
Firearms (ATF) agent Noel was
the only officer, state or federal;
who appeared before the state ,
grand jury which Indicted the
Charlotte Three. , :
46) When . state prosecutor
Moore: wanted Hood and
Washington at the Lazy-B trial,
he called up federal ATF agent
Noel and requested " their
presence. Noel produced them.
. (7) ATF agent, Noel testified
that he helped prosecutor Moore
prepare for the trial "
(8) Both Noel and Walden
were present and assisting the .,
prosecution in the Lazy-B trial
Walden went out to get the bank
RIGHT in Tl Tl 1
WORK
KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR
By Reed Larson
Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive;
easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.
- Lord Brougham (1828)
It's impossible not to be impressed and, indeed, unsettled by
Leon Knight when he latches onto the subject of compulsory
unionism and education. -
The former president of the faculty association at North
Hennepin Community College in suburban Minneapolis is an"
unabashed liberal, both politically and philosophically, an officer
of the Minnesota Democratic Party, and a member of the party's
"liberal" wing. '
As a college instructor, he also is unremittingly dedicated to
the idea that his duty as an educator is to provide his students
with the academic' tools necessary to make their own decisions.
"...In education, and particularly in higher education," Knight
says, "the idea of academic freedom, the idea of the dissident
person, the idea of the person who marches to. a different drum,
is very precious.
"And yet, unionism is coming in and saying 1 must march to
that drum." . '
Knight doesn't claim that union organizers actually try to
interfere in the classroom. The problem is more subtle, and more,
serious. "They don'4 come and mess with me very much. But if
they can determine not what I teach in the classroom, but
whether I teach at all, that is the ultimate threat to academic
freedom."
It's that threat - that union officials will gain control of
education by turning the teaching profession into a closed "union
shop" (a stated goal of the National Education Association) -which
Knight and his colleagues hope to counter with a new
organization, Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism
(CEAFU).
A division of the National Right to Work Committee,
CEAFU has but a single goal - to oppose subservience to the
NEA, American Federation of Teachers, American Association of
University Professors, or any other group which would make an
educator's continued employment depend on his or her
Willingness to support that group.
card used against the defendants
as rebuttal evidence.
(9) Noel delivered the $3,000
payments from the U. S. Justice
Department to Hood and
Washington five days after the
Lazy-B trial. One month later he
gave them $1,000 each from
Treasury Department funds. The
Treasury Department document
concerning these payments listed
one of the reasons for the
payments as a reward for
testimony in the Lazy-B trial
(10) According to Joe Europa
of the Charlotte police
department, the state relied
entirely on the federal officers
to produce the testimony of
Hood and Washington, which
was the only real evidence in the
case. The Charlotte police
officer supposedly in charge of
the case, Earl Fesperman, didnt
even show up for the trial
In the face of this evidence -all
of it produced under oath
from officers very hostile to
Reddy,; Grant,: and Parker
Judge Ervin chose to. find that
the actions of the federal
officers,' Noel and Walden, had
nothing to do with the Lazy-B
trial and that even if they did,
the state couldn't be held
. responsible for them. -"
CONSEQUENCES AND
IMPLICATIONS
The . defense by this action
(Ervin's decision) Is thus
effectively barred from access to .
federal files and records relating
to the investigation, And federal
investigating officials and their
supervisors are shielded against
any. accountability for their
investigatory actions by having
apparently "passed the ball" on
to state officials.
But at what point of federal
involvement in .a so-called
"local" case does federal
' investigation" become, in fact
federal prosecution through,
state officials? Without the
possibility of review of the
entire investigatory and
prosecutions! process it is clearly
impossible to say at just what
point the actual ' decision to
prosecute was made and who
made it
Yet we feel that these are
questions which it should be
possible to ask. We feel further
that if the part played by federal
investigative agencies in "iocal"
trials is allowed to remain
unknown, and to be a "secret"
that is kept from the jury and
the defense, then these agencies
have, . in fact, been empowered
to act as a secret police force,
accountable to no one but their
superiors and protected from
any possible ' review of or
challenge to their activities. Such
a situation would be a dear
abuse of their intended power..
WHAT CAN WE DO?
We have decided, therefore,
to ask for a hearing before the
House Judiciary Subcommittee
on Courts, Civil Liberties and
the Adminis tration of Justice,
in order to request that they
conduct? special investigation
"into the possible abuse of federal
investigatory ; powers in the
Lazy-B case. We will also ask
that the Subcommittee draft a
bill, to be presented to Congress,
which -would protect future
defendants against the abuse of
' such power.
" : The name of the Chairman of
- the Subcommittee on Courts,
, Civil .Liberties and the
Administration of Justice is
ROBERT W, KASTENMEIER'
PLEASE WRITE TO HIM andl
tell him how important you feel
it is that a hearing be granted on,
the question of the possible
abuse of federal investigatory
powers in the Lazy-3 case..
Mention the facts, that federal
agents of both the Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms Division
of the Treasury Department
took part in the Lazy-B
investigation, gathered evidence,
paid witnesses (with approval for
payment coming from such a
high authority as Robert
, Mardian, then head of the
Internal Security Division of the
Justice Department), and
participated in the trial itself ;
yet that they (and the State)
: were allowed to conceal the full .
extent , of .their participation, :
apparently on the grounds that
such' information would have
been immaterial to the jury.
Help lis insist that the full
extent of federal participation in
local trials is not , an
"immaterial" matter, in any
case, to any citizen.
The address is:
. Mr. Robert W. Kastenmeier,
Chairman,' Subcommittee On
Courts, Civil Liberties and the
Administration of Justice, U.S.
House of Representatives,
Washington, D. C.
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FLORENCE, S.C. - Giving the 'Black Power" ukite. Herman FinMta of Florence astride hU
h92!'."!SirltZ'. about 3' march city sileS rTpTcS?
shootina death of a bbek man by a white policeman. The marchers walked about one mile to the
dty-county complex where black leaders spoke to the crowd. int miiiTO TO
liuos Off
Dca taw
Haitian refueees in FlnrlH
prisons for criminals Manatee
Jail, Bradenton and Hardee Jail,
Wauchila)' are being fed four
slices of bread a day nothing
else! - and are never allowed out
of their cells for exercise. Rev.
Jacques Mompremier, who heads
the Haitian Information Center
in Miami and visited the refugees
on October 30, warned that the
prison conditions gravely
endangers the refugges' health.
The Haitians are part of a
group of 81 refugees previously
imprisoned in Immokalee,
Florida. In protest against the
oppressive conditions there, 75
of them went on a hunger strike
on October 1, shortly after one
of the refugees, William Isidor
attempted to commit suicide,
third Haitian to try. Admitting
that he was out "to break the
strike," Miami Immigration
Service Director Edward Sweeney
on October 7 sent some of the
refugees to detention facilities
2,000 miles away in Port Isabel,
Texas, and others to the
Bradenton and Hardee, Florida
jails.
In a statement on the
refugees' plight, Dr. Paul
Lehmann, Chairman of the
American Committee for
Protection of Foreign bom,
declared:
"After having twice risked
their lives, first in conflict with
the Duvalier regime and then in
voyaging across 800 miles of
ocean over-crowded and flimsy
sailboats, these Haitian refugees,
the Pilgrims of today, are in
danger of finding "asylum" here
by being carried out of prison in
a coffin the same fate as
Turenne Deville's, who
committed suicide in a Miami
jail on the eve of his scheduled
deportation to Haiti in March
"It Is high time that
Attorney General Edward Levi
intervened to rectify this
travesty of justice