North Carolina Newspapers

{BLIGION EDITORIALS PEOPLE E. Peter's hosts Eth Annual Keneral Assembly ^ 1 PAGE B1 f 1 . % ■ Classism is classism, and racism is racism -- and never the twain shall meet PAGE A4 t 'Y' program ' , 1^ offers fresh ‘ alternatives - PAGEA6 1 n-Salem Chronicle The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly |w.XiV,NO.50 U.S.P.S. No. 067910 Winston-Salem, N.C. Thursday, August 4,1988 50 cents 34 Pages This Week Fuller attorney, DA agree to plea bargain By ANGELA WRIGHT Chronicle Managing Editor A 34-year-old domestic worker accused of four counts of larceny and four counts of forgery will plead "no contest” to four mis demeanor charges. District Attorney Warren Sparrow has agreed to allow Versell McDaniel Fuller of 6635 El Rancho Road in Rural Hall to enter the lesser plea, according to Fuller’s attor ney Douglas Miller. Sparrow declined to comment on the matter. The plea bargain was reached just one week after a Superior Court judge granted Miller's motions for a change of venue and for separate trials for each forgery charge. Miller said that, although the plea is techni cally not a guilty plea, the judge will have Fuller to treat it as such. "It works out fine for us in that Versell doesn't have to plead quilty to something Please see page A10 / photo by Mike Cunningham Proposed complex Includes shopping and upscale housing to be located off New Walkertown Road East Winston may get new complex Joe's loses EEOC lawsuit Grocer files bankruptcy after $64,670 judgment By VALERIE ROBACK GREGG Chronicle Staff Writer 8y VALERIE ROBACK GREGG I Chronicle Staff Writer A new development in the works for East Winston will offer upscale housing, shopping facilities and about 150 permanent jobs to area residents if backed by the city, but the proposal still needs considerable city support before it can become a reality. The proposal, unveiled yesterday by Turner Development Services, asks I the city to grant the East Winston Com munity Development Corporation 14.5 acres of wooded larid off New Walker- town Road between Gerald Street and Dellabrook Road for the shopping cen ter. City Development Director J. Allen Joines said that the city has made no commitment to the project at this point, but is excited about the plans. "The developer has indicated the city's involvement through making the land available through the CDC, and the need for a city loan has also been dis cussed," Joines said. "Tlie CiXl has no formal ties with the city, but if we could help the CDC to own some of it (the development), they would make some money to help them operate and do other projects in the city." The CDC will ask the city to deed them the land and will then trade it for 20 percent of the stock in New Walker- town Market Associates, the corporate Please see page A8 Because of U.S. District Court judge ments for violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, Joe's Fine Foods recently filed for protection in U.S District Bankruptcy Court to avoid paying 564,670 in compensation, back wages and attorney's fees to a former employee. "There's no way we could pay that kind of money," Joe Choplin, president and pri mary shareholder of Big Discount Food Store, Inc., said recently. "The corporation had no capital set aside for this type of judgement. All our capital is used in opera tions." Big Discount Food Store, Inc. recently filed for protection under the federal Chap ter 11 Reorganization Plan. Chapter 11 allows a debtor to devise a plan of opera tions which allows it to pay debts while remaining a financially sound organization, William Schwenn, clerk of the U.S. District BankrupK^y Court in Greensboro, said. The reorganization plan, however, must be approved by the court and is closely monitored throughout the process. The per son or organization to which the debtor owes money is allowed to have a consider able voice in the planning process, Schwenn said. Former Joe's Fine Foods employee Dorothy Jean Lampley, 43, worked for Joe's Fine Foods on Bowen Boulevard from 1980 to 1985, and filed two complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Please see page A10 D NEWS DIGEST Compiled From AP Wire County doubles number of arrests over past two years Computers make welfare fraud easier to detect ■ Hastings Hampton ■1 [Hastings faces impeachment (MIAMI, FLA.) - A House Judiciary Commit- in* Tbesday morning to impeach U.S. Ipisirict Judge Alcee Hasting for allegedly soliciting |°nbes and leaking information about an FBI probe. |Hampton tour jeopardized ■ musician Lionel Hampton, scheduled to ll^gin a concert tour of Japan, has vowed to con- ■hnue with the planned tour despite the threat of a ^dike by his musicians. Hampton's 17-piece ^tchestra may begin a strike that could hamper his p ans for a Japanese tour. |Julian Bond files for divorce i^ormer Atlanta Senator and civil rights ^bvist Julian Bond has filed for divorce from his Alice. Bond's filing for divorce comes a year his wife rocked city government in Atlanta f alleging that her husband and others used ^aine. Bond repeatedly denied the charges and 0 charges were filed against him by investigawrs. By VALERIE ROBACK GREGG Chronicle Staff Writer A 41-year-old city woman became part of a growing group when she was arrested recently and charged with defrauding the federal government of $1,543 through welfare payments and food stamps. Gwendolyn Ryan of 3326 Arling ton Dr. allegedly failed to report that she was employed by Mark and Associ ates Inc. and continued to collect AFDC benefits and food stamps from Dec. 1, 1986 to Oct. 31, 1987, according to arrest warrants. She is one of a steadily growing number of people collecting public assistance who have recently been charged with failing to give the Depart ment of Social Services accurate employment information, and thereby collecting more money than they are eligible for. And her case is not spectacular, according to Brenda Gibson, supervisor of the Department of Social Services Fraud Unit. Welfare fraud cases have sometimes involved as much money as $10,000, she said. Ryan, however, was one of the first to fall victim to the "Income and Eligi bility Verification System" (lEVS), a comprehensive computer networking process the county began using in July, 1986 to catch potential welfare fraud both before and after it occurs. Federal law requires that an lEVS check be run on each applicant for all public assistance programs, which include Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps and Medicaid. Forsyth County came close to losing federal welfare funds because of wait ing to acquire lEVS capability, Gibson said. "We would have lost federal funds, because we were lagging so far behind other states," she said. The installation of lEVS was paid for with state and federal funds, Gibson said. The number of arrest warrants drawn for welfare fraud by the county Department of Social Services has more than doubled in the past two years thanks to the new "one-worker" system and the advanced computer networking system. Only 47 warrants were taken out for welfare fraud during fiscal year 1985-86. The number went up to 63 during the next year, and for the 1987- 88 fiscal year lopped out at 103, Gibson said. "It's not an increase in the inci dence, we're just completing more cases." Department of Social Services fraud investigator Jean Brown agreed. "We are getting some who do it three and four times," she said. Gibson said it is largely due to the county’s new system of dispensing fed eral welfare funds. "It is a direct result of the one-worker system," Gibson said. "Now we're getting to them sooner." If food stamp fraud is committed by a person who receives AFDC funds, previously only one instance would be Please see page AlO Dedication ceremony held for new low-income units By VALERIE ROBACK GREGG Chronicle Staff Writer A light rain was falling on Drayton Pines Wednesday, but the sun still shone on the hill, warming the approxi mately 60 people at the dedication of the city's newest low-income housing project located at University Parkway and 13th Street Dr. Jerry Drayton, the pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church and name sake of the development, was the hon ored guest and praised the city’s con cern for citizens' housing needs. "I can envision the happy faces of men, women and children coming home to a house on a hill instead of a back alley, to be able to sit down to dinner without worrying themselves into an early grave because they’re paying for the house, without buckets on the floor to catch the rain water, and without plastic over the windows to keep the wind and cold out," Drayton said. "As a black, I see no logical reason that anyone would destroy houses that are built for people to stay in." The 44-unit, 16-acre duplex devel opment has already been marred by vandals, leaving new storm windows shattered by rocks, bricks and even a cinderblock. The city paid $2.2 million to build the complex, and all the funds were used for construction. The land was owned by the city, but had laid vacant for several years after substandard Please see page A9 Dr. Jerry Drayton, lor whom the units are named, Is flanked by Aider- man Patrick Hairston, to the left, and Mr. Artis Bohannon, to the right.