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Protesters confront witness in Iverson murder By LEE HUBBARD Special to The NaUooal Newtpaper MtofanAMOCBBM BERKELEY, Calif. ? The actions, or inaction of David Cash Jr., were at the center of a midday protest during the first day of school at the University of Califor nia at Berkeley. Cash, 19, was at the Primadonna Hotel in Nevada on May 25, 1997, when his friend Jeremy Strohmeyer, allegedly fol lowed Sherrice Iverson, a 7-year old girl into a woman's bathroom and raped, strangled and killed her. The demonstrators, including Iverson's mother, Yolanda Manuel, were on hand at U.C. Berkeley's Sprawl Hall, to protest Cash's fail ure to stop the rape and murder or notify the authorities about the crime. Strohmeyer was arrested after a viewer recognized him on TV in a videotape from the casino. The tape showed him following Iverson into the woman's bath room. "The killing was a joint effort. This guy (Cash) watched a 7-year old get raped, strangled and killed," said Najee Ali of Project Islamic Hope, who is one of the spokespersons for Manuel. "He has the blood of a 7-year-old baby on his hands." Under a "Good Samaritan law" in some states, Cash could have been tried for his failure to stop or report t^e crime he wit nessed. But he now is one of the main witnesses for the state of Nevada against Strohmeyer. / Iverson's shocking murder and Cash's inaction in the crime, has sparked a nationwide collection of 20,000 signatures demanding Cash be charged in the brutal rape and murder. It also led to the rally which brought a bus load of peo ple from South Central Los Ange les, to the campus "I am outraged by the whole situation said Pat Devin, from Los Angeles I don't see how someone can be present when a child is molested and just walk away." Manuel, Devin and other pro testers want U.C. Berkeley officials to expel Cash, or make the atmos phere so unpleasant he will leave. "If I was going to school, I would be outraged to see him going here," said Devin. At an afternoon press confer ence, Robert Berdahl, chancellor of the school read a prepared statement expressing remorse and sympathy to Manuel over the death of her daughter. He called the action, "a brutal and senseless act of violence," but said he took exception to calls for the university to expel Cash. "As a public institution, the university has due process proce dures it must follow in cases of dis missal. This student has not been charged with any violation of criminal law or the campus student code that would provide ft basis for any such review. We cannot set aside due process based upon our outrage over a particular instance." He said that members of his staff have met with Cash, but he will not ask him to leave unless he violates a conduct code of the schools Leroy Iverson, Sherrice's father, arrived with his two children at the Primadonna Hotel, in Clark County Nevada at 1:45 a.m. He went off to gamble, leaving his 14 year-old son, Harold, in charge of his 7-year-old sister Shernce. He gave both of them money to play video games in the arcade, but it wasn't until 3:30 a.m. that he began to search for the pair. He found his son Harold, and they began to look for Sherrice. It was allegedly during this time that Strohmeyer came in contact with the little girl in the arcade. Cash, according to a Las Vegas grand jury testimony, said that Strohmey er began playing with her, throw ing wet paper towels at her. Sherrice walked into the ladies room, and Strohmeyer followed her, grabbing her from behind and taking her into a stall. In a grand jury testimony Cash said at this point he "went over to the door (in the stall). The door was locked. So I went into the stall to the left and boosted myself up on the toilet and looked over," at Strohmeyer and Iverson in the stall, he said. "I reached over the stall," said Cash. "Jeremy Strohmeyer was restraining her. I believe he had his ? I believe it was his left hand over her mouth muffling her screams. I believe it was his right hand that was holding her stomach." It was at this point that "I (Cash) was tapping Jeremy on the head trying to get his attention telling him to let go, trying to get him to come out of the nestroom." "I was tapping on his fore head," said Cash later into the grand jury testimony. "At one point, I accidentally knocked off his hat. He looked up at me, kind of in a stare, you know, like ? like he didn't care what I was saying. At that point I exited the ladies rest room." According to a statement made by Strohmeyer in a Long Beach Police Department's arrest report, he removed Iverson's clothes and molested her. Strohmeyer, according to the police report, "squeezed her neck to stop her from screaming," then molested Iverson again. He then broke her neck before leaving the restroom. Thirty minutes passed between the time that Strohmeyer entered the ladies bathroom, and exited it, to meet Cash back in the arcade. The two walked out of the casino where Strohmeyer said, "he killed her" according to Cash's grand jury testimony. The two talked about the inci dent further as they looked for Cash's father. After they located him^tlysy left the Primadonna Casino and went back to Las Vegas, and then they drove back to Los Angeles later in the day. It would be two days before Strohmeyer was arrested. One of the issues that has come up has been the mind frame of someone who could watch or know that a child is getting molest ed without stopping it. Dr. Nathan Hare, a psycholo gist with the San Francisco-based Black Think Tank, said that some people are scared to speak out about incidents because they may be labeled wrongly as a snitch. "He was probably in a real quandary at the time," said Dr. Hare. "He might have felt that he might be accused of the crime also." After Strohmeyer told Cash that he killed Iverson, Cash asked him, if his victim had been aroused. Dr. Julia Hare, also of the Black Think Tank, said Cash could be a "voyeur" and may need to see a psychiatrist or a psycholo gist. In the year following the death of Iverson, Cash was very quiet about the matter, and completed his first year at U.C. Berkeley. But he spoke out few months ago. Dur ing a KSLX call in show on July 20. Cash said he .took no responsi bility for Iverson's death. "It's a very tragic event, OK. But the simple fact remains that I do not know this girt," said Cash. "I do not know starving children in Panama. I do I do not know people that die of disease in Egypt. The only person I knew in this event was Jeremy Strohmeyer."* Dr. Julia Hare said that while Cash "may not have committed a crime physically, he did commit the act men tally," but it would be a mistake to kick him out of school, if he hasn't been charged with a crime. "Berkeley will start a terrible precedent if they kick him out without any proof that he commit ted a criminal act," said Dr. Hare. "Morally he did commit a crime by not stopping the rape or telling the authorities, but legally there is a problem there." The 20,000 signature-petition demanding that Cash be tried as an accessory to Iverson's murder, is being sent to the district attorney of Clark County. The race issue While Manuel has downplayed the issue of race regarding her daughter's death, Clark County officials have reportedly said two witnesses have claimed that Strohmeyer, who is white, used racial epithets to describe the mur der. Observers also question See Murdw on A3 mzSUnuMtm ANNIVERSARY AUTO PAINT m off sun ESTIMATES! Jftt BODY WORK! WHY WE ARE NUMBER ONEII msmsv ?Saa paint tatt rasa Its posted at oaf aliops. Earo-Paint avallaMa la moat colors. Tfsofco Vans Sport/Utlllty VoMclos sod ssms colors sllpMly Oiplior OPEN MON.-FRI. 7:30 AM-?:00 PM ? SAT. 6:00 AM-NOON CHATTANOOGA / ROSSVILLE ? 2915 Rossville ? 423-697-1891 PLUS 610.00 E.P.A./HAZ. CHARGE CFP Photo by The A?oeiafd Priw/Btmrt !??nil Participant? at tho Million Youth March gathor during Harlomi Mil lion Youth March. Civil rights leaders blame police for melee j at New York rally ' By PAUL SHEPARD ? THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER ATLANTA - The Rev. Jesse 1 Jackson and other civil rights lead 1 ers said Monday that New York 1 City police overreacted in breaking ? up a youth movement march in * Harlem organized by a controver ' sial former Nation of Islam 5 spokesman. "It was regrettable that young * people whose sole purpose was to ; lift themselves up were subjected to , ? that treatment," said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. "There ; was a clear overreaction on the r part of the police department." Jackson, Mfume and others ?; spoke at the Million Youth Move ment March, where 3,500 to 4,000 % people from around the country >\ spent their Labor Day weekend in a series of workshops and a march ? J- aimed at focusing attention on the ; plight of black youth and launch * ing a movement to empower them. The event in Atlanta had simi , ? lar goals to Saturday's march in < ? Harlem, which ended with a clash % between police and the crowd. Rally organizer Khallid Abdul J Muhammad told participants to *' beat up police officers "if they so ? much as touch you." Muhammad also suggested that if rally partici > pants were attacked, they should take guns from the police and 5 shoot them. 2 Five civilians and 16 police offi - cers were hurt in the debris-throw ing skirmish which broke out at the court-ordered ending of the four- ? hour Saturday rally. Violence C erupted as Muhammad concluded his remarks. Civil rights leaders i said the violence took place ; because police commandeered the podium. "I haven't seen that type of overreaction since Mayor Daley % sent the police out after demon strators at the 1968 Democratic | convention," said Jackson. "I think ' the people showed an amazing < ?; amount of sobriety and that * l towards the end of the events ! police started the problem." The Rev. A1 Sharpton, a New '' York activist who spoke at both j : youth marches, said the Harlem ?, episode will reinforce many of the ; negative messages the young peo ? pie heard about police from the , - podium Saturday. "Their reaction will only underscore what they have heard and how they already feel about ! police and the mayor there," ; Sharpton said. "It shows how insensitive they all are." New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said police prevented seri ous rioting, property destruction and injuries. "When the police come out with that kind of result, can't you have the decency to congratulate them?" he asked. "If there's anoth er incident like this, I hope it's han dled as well." Giuliani accused reporters of blaming cops for the skirmish instead of march organizers and speakers. He cited "an outrageous displacement of responsibility and the typical anti-police knee-jerk reaction that happens in the media." He also said police gave rally organizers a five-to seven-minute grace period after the march's scheduled end at 4 p.m. "They moved in with great restraint," Giuliani added. The Atlanta march was far dif ferent than the one in Harlem. Absent were any hateful words by speakers. Muhammad has been roundly criticized for rhetoric against Jews, whites, Pope John Paul II and South African Presi dent Nelson Mandela. Absent also was any massive police presence at the Atlanta march site that would feed any fears among marchers that the day could end in a confrontation. In Atlanta, there were discus sions of how black youth cap end its economic isolation and create a 1990s movement to re-ignite the spirit and values of community empowerment broached at the Million Man March in 199S. "You can never tell what type of embryo will germinate from an event like this," said Jackson. "Will this become liberation day? One can only hope they are not too accustomed to oppression." Valerie Morrow, 16, who came to march with SO high school stu dents from Detroit, said one day people would look back at Sept. 7, 1998 as the day black youth were reawakened. "We are stepping out on our own," Morrow said. "We need the help of elders but we are starting this from the ground up." "They could just as easily be sitting on the beach or making bar becue," said Rosemary Bolden, an adult supporter of the march. "I give them credit." "It's significant that this is a movement and that means a process has begun," said Mfume. "But this is the first time I can recall our youth from around the country coming together over the serious issues, not games. Whatev er after this is what historians will debate." j Anita Hill to teach at I Brandeis University { THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WALTHAM, Mass. - Anita I Hill, whose alle gations of sexual lifl harassment | almost undid I Clarencel Thomas' nomi- [v| nation to become 1^^ a Supreme Court justice, has joined ^ the faculty at Brandeis University. This fall, Hill will teach two courses in the Waltham school's Women's Studies department: Race and the Law and Women, Media and the Law. Brandeis officials said they sought Hill, a former University of Oklahoma law professor, because she is one of the country's pre-emi nent legal scholars. "She's very accomplished in her field, and she can add a very valuable dimension to student / study here," said Brandeis spokesman Dennis Nealon. Hill gained national attention in 1991, when she accused Thomas her former boss at the Equal Employment Opportunity Com mission - of sexually harassing her. In recent months, Hill has been promoting her newest book, "Speaking Truth To Power," an autobiographical account of the stormy 1991 confirmation hear ings. Twirl pasta, sip wine, and bid furiously )' on great stuff to benefit Contact: Helpline of the Triad 723-4338 Sunday, September 1998 4:00-7:00 pm , ? 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