saw ?sm
Pop Warner Battles
Conference Races tighten as the
season enters seventh week
PAQEB11
The Gospel Truth
Five Royales' member, Jimmy
Moore, returns to gospel roots.
PAGE B1
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30 Pages This Week
Thursday, October 18, 1990
Winston-Salem Chronicle
50 cents - ? - 9 ? "The Twin City's Award-Winning Weekb
Step One to close
outreach programs
By TRACY L. PROSSER
Chronicle Staff Writer
Step One Substance Abuse Ser
vices will soon close its offices in
- Winston-Salem's public housing
communities. The drug prevention,
Catherine Powell
education and consultation service
agency says it has become finan
cially impossible to continue these
outreach efforts.
Step One's Outreach Services
program was funded by a three-year
grant from the Office of Substance
Abuse Prevention (OSAP), a federal
agency. The grant, which was
awarded in 1987, runs out Oct 31,
1990. The outreach offices have
been in the public housing neigh
borhoods for those three years.
? ? Bert Wood, president of Step_
One, said the organization applied
to have the funding continued for
two more years, but the request was
denied. The request for about
$150,000 a year for the next two
years was one of 700 proposals
?received by OSAP. Only 28 grant
proposals were funded this year.
"The competition was extreme,"
Wood said.
Having been turned down by
OSAP for continued funding of the
four workers serving the public
housing neighborhoods, Step One
asked Forsyth County and the
Forsyth County United Way for
enough money to fund two outreach
workers apiece, Wood said, but both
requests were denied.
Step One recently received a
$50,000 grant from the Governor's
Please see page A 12
Steve Neal Ken Bell
Campaign '90
Candidates differ on
budget debt solution
Chronicle Staff Report
Steve Neal is the Democratic
candidate for the position of U.S.
Representative for the fifth district
in the elections Nov. 6.
A Winston-Salem native, Neal
began his career as a mortgage
banker before he became the owner
and president of a company pub
lishing community newspapers in
Stokes, Forsyth, and Yadkin coun
ties. He joined the House of Repre
sentatives in 1975, and currently
serves on the House Committee on
Banking, Finance and Urban
Affairs and chairs its Subcommittee
on Domestic Monetary Policy,
which oversees the Federal
Please see page A10
Chronicle Staff Report
Ken Bell is running on the
Republican ticket for the position
of U.S. Representative from the
fifth district of North Carolina.
Born in Bedford, Ohio, Bell
moved to Winston-Salem 25 years
ago. He attended Wake Forest Uni
versity for his undergraduate stud
ies and Wake Forest Law School to
earn his law degree. After school,
Bell was an assistant United States
attorney for the Western District of
North Carolina in Ashevillc. While
I there, he served as lead attorney for
I the Presidential Organized Crime
and Drug Enforcement Task Force
and prosecuted drug importers and
Please see page A 10
the
BEST
CHOICE
Center
1521 ? 14th St.
IYi 722-0597
T iv V
3" if
Photo by L.B Spea* Jr.
The Best Choice Center on E. 14th Street was forced to close after nearly seven Inches of rain
fell last week, causing the building to be flooded.
Photo by LB. Speas Jr.
Oh Wow!
Five year old Garry Jones is all smiles over the elaborate design
he received during a recent street festival in Winston-Salem.
Hunt supporters say he
11 ?!W*J *' ? ? 1 * i i Wntn^ii'4 ii? I'll i ii n; ;iii'tii,v ? - ?
never stood a chance
By TRACY L. PROSSER
Chronicle Staff Writer
Less than two hours after the jury began
deliberating Thursday, Oct. 11, Darryl
Eugene Hunt was convicted of the firsniegree"
murder of Deboraji Sykes.
Sy Ices' body was found in a field off West
End Boulevard on Aug. 10, 1984. Hunt was
charged with the crime in 1985 and was con
victed. The decision was overturned by the
North Carolina Supreme Court in May 1989.
Hunt's second trial, moved from Forsyth
County to Catawba County because of pretrial
publicity, was heard by Judge Forrest A. Far
rell. H. Dean Bowman, Surry County district
attorney, and his assistant James C. Yeates III
were the prosecuting attorneys. James E. Fer
guson II and Adam Stein defended Hunt.
The trial began Monday, Sept. 17, with
the selection of the jurors. Eleven whites and
one Hispanic were chosen; no African-Ameri
cans were selected. For three weeks attorneys
from the defense and prosecution made
motions, cross examined witnesses. Hunt
never took the stand in his own defense.
The trial came to an emotional conclusion
when Farrell read the jury's decision to the
courtroom.
After the vcrdict, Hunt said, "I'd like to
say in open court, I'm innocent of these
charges even though I've been found guilty."
He was sentenced to life in prison and
was then taken to Central Prison in Raleigh.
Ferguson gave notice that he would appeal the
case to the North Carolina Supreme Court
Prosecuting attorneys- said the jury deter
mined that the evidence presented was suffi
cent for a conviction and that Hunt got a fair
trial.
_ The Supreme Court will decide whether
or not to overturn the verdict. Winston- Salem
attorney Larry Little, a member of Hunt's
defense team, said the attorneys will askT that
"the decision be overturned because Farrell
permitted testimony to be heard that should
not have been allowed.
After the verdict, Evelyn Jefferson,
Sykes' mother, said, "I'd like to see every
body who had anything to do with it put in a
ccll with Darryl Hunt." She also said Forsyth
County was in dire need of a new district
attorney.
Little said, "What we had in Catawba
County was a legal lynching. It was the
equivalent of trying him in South Africa....
No blacks on the jury is absurd." He said the
juryhad their minds made up aP along
^ "We are disheartened and disappointed by
this decision," said Rev. John Mendez, chair
man of the Darryl Hunt Legal Defense Com
mittee. "We are in no way defeated and don't
feel discouraged."
"Personally, I think that we didn't get a
fair hearing," said Mendez. He pointed to the
all-white jury, the white judge, the white dis
trict attorneys and the all-white news media.
According to Mendez, a white jury cannot
understand the "black experience." An
African-American would have seen through
some of the false testimony made by other
African-Amcricans and would have been more
rcccptivc to the fact that the policc department
made mistakes, Mendez claimcd.
Mendez said jury members were seen in
Please see page A 12
Claim of a deal to
drop charge denied
by RUDY ANUhKSON
Chronicle Managing Editor
An African-American woman
who claims she was physically
abused by a Winston-Salem police
officer says she was offered IT dear
- to drop the charges against the offi
cer but refused.
But neither the attorney defend
ing the policeman nor the assistant
district attorney assigned to the case
say they have any knowledge of a
deal being made.
The Chronicle first reported
the case of Thelina Westbrook in its
August 30 issue. Westbrook, who
was charged by police with operat
ing an unsafe vehicle, Tesisting
arrest, and carrying a concealed
weapon, filed an assault charge
against the officer who charge&her.
That officer, D. R. Williams,
was reassigned to administrative
duties pending the outcome of a
hearing. The Westbrook and
Williams cases are scheduled to be
heard Oct. 26 in courtroom 3-C.
Wesibrookra^ single parent and
nursing student at Forsyth Technical
Community College, wrote in a
document she read to officers in the
police department's internal affairs
division that she had asked officers
to move a patrol car that was block
_ ing her street. She wrote the car was
keeping her from parking near her
apartment at 833 Willow Court in
the Happy Hill Gardens community
the morning of Aug. 17.
She wrote she was stopped
three times by Williams in a very
short time span before she could
park her car. The Fast time, she
claims, he grabbed her and began
slinging her around violently^caus
ing injury to her arm, neck; shoul
der and hand.
Westbrook told the Chronicle
that while at the Forsyth County
Hall of Justice last week for a hear
ing on the charges, her attorney J.
Griffin Morgan informed her that
the police department would be
willing to drop charges against her
Please see page A 12
Robert J. Brown
Black business
expansion urged
By PATRICIA SMITH-DEERING
Chronicle Staff Writer
"We have some laurels, but we don't have any
laurels that we can rest on. ..because we had so far to
come from and we have so far to go." That was the
message from Robert J. Brown, founder, chairman,
and president of B&C Associates, Inc. He delivered
that message to more than 200 business owners and
guests at the East Area Council of the Greater Win
ston-Salem Chamber of Commerce First Annual
Awards Banquet held Oct. 11 at the M. C. Benton
Convention Center. The banquet was held to honor
the 1990 Minority Business of the Year and to raise
funds for scholarships awarded to business students
at Winston-Salem State University.
Brown was Special Assistant to President
Please see page A 12
Rains close center
Best Choice forced to regroup
By PATRICIA SMITH-DEERING
Chronide Staff Writer
Toxic air and pools of water arc the latest problems
plaguing the Best Choicc Center, and Dorothy Graham -
Wheeler, executive director, is concerned for the health
and safety of the neighborhood youth who arc served
by the center and of her staff. The ccntcr is located on
14th St.
The rccent rains forced Graham- Whcclet to close -
the center last week because of the severe flooding that
resulted. But, she said, nowadays it doesn't take a hard
rain to cause problems. "If it just rains steadily, the
whole lower part of the ccntcr is under water," she said.
She and her staff were back in the building this week
literally mopping up, but the facility is still closed for
business.
Aside from the heavy flooding that the center has
sustained, there is a pervasive stench emanating from
the building. "There is a large amount of carbon
monoxide in the air," Graham-Wheeler said, adding,
"We measured it using a kit from the Environmental
Health DeparUnent...Wc are trying not to stay here all
~day." She said that she has been calling around town
trying to locate a machine that can clear the air.
The currcnt dilemma has Graham -Wheeler trying
Please see page A10