3B
LIFE/t^e Cltarlotte $o£t
Thursday, May 11,2006
Woman goes from jaU to grad
Continued from page IB
that time in the inner city
that Nunn says she didn’t
really think twice about get
ting involved with a drug
dealer.
That, along with being in
love,” she said. “I was 19, and
I think that we clicked early
on, like from the moment we
met, you know, there was just
this chemistry.”
The drugs themselves were
not an attraction, Nimn said.
Though she drank and occa- ’
sionally smoked marijuana,
Nunn said she never used
cocaine.
But Nunn did become
involved in cocaine deals—by
answering the phone, taking
messages and driving her
boyfriend to meetings.
“It just became a part of my
life, the same way it was his.
You know, I was with him all
the time—I answered the
phone, they’d call, it wouldn’t
be a big deal to me,” she said.
That life came apart on
May 17, 1989, when Monte
Nunn tried to purchase 20
kilograms of cocaine from a
government informant.
Serena Nunn was one of 24
people indicted in the case.
A jury convicted Nunn of
cocaine possession—6.5
grams of powder cocaine and
4 grams of crack were found
hidden in her bedroom—as
well as aiding and abetting
an attempt to possess 20 kilo
grams of cocaine with intent
to distribute, and conspiracy
to possess with intent to dis
tribute. In April 1990, U.S.
District Judge David Doty
sentenced her to 15 years and
eight months in prison.
In 1997, Nunn’s case
attracted the attention of a
young lawyer, Sam Sheldon,
who read about it in the Star
Tribime of Minneapolis while
passing through town. He
took her case pro bono and
set about gathering letters of
support for a commutation.
The most powerful support
came from Doty. In his letter
to Clinton, Doty said “no
judge in America”would have
given Nunn the sentence he
did if there had been a way
out of it. Clinton commuted
Nunn’s sentence, along with
those of four other drug con
victs, on July 7, 2000. She
was released the same day.
While in prison in Arizona,
Nunn earned her associate’s
degree through correspon
dence courses at a nearby
commimity college. After her
release, she continued her
education at Arizona State
University, where she earned
a bachelor’s in political sci
ence in 2002.
When she applied to law
schools, both Clinton and
Doty wrote letters of recom
mendation.
At Michigan, Nunn is in
many ways like any other
student. As she sat by a rain-
streaked window inside a
Starbucks near campus, she
talked about her plans to
study for the Michigan bar
this summer and her hopes of
getting a position at the
Public Defender Service in
Washington, where she
worked last summer.
David Santacroce, a profes
sor in the Michigan Clinical
Law Program, in which stu
dents handle real cases, said
Nunn projected poise and
self-confidence in the court
room.
“She understands probably
like no other law student the
criminal justice system,” he
said. “She’s really good at
relating to our clients.”
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Harlem choir sex abuse victim speaks out
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK-For years,
the boy at the center of the
sexual abuse scandal that
shook the Boys Choir of
Harlem was referred to only
as “Student A” or “the choir
boy victim.”
Now he just wants to be
called by his name, David
Pinks.
Pinks, once held captive by
shame and fear, no longer
fears the abuse will istaini or
itainti his manhood, and he'
wants other sexual abuse vic
tims, especially boys and
men, to talk openly about
their own ordeals.
“I’m not afraid anymore
because I know I didn’t do
anything wrong,’’Pinks said
in an interview with The
Associated Press. “That
embarrassment and shame
that were there—that demon
is not going to hold me back.
I’m able to speak out.
“There’s a lot of other people
out there going through the
same situation I’ve been
through and maybe even
worse,” he said. “They need
that voice. Ill be that voice.’
Even at 20 years old and 6
feet 2 inches taU, Pinks says
he became “petrified”recently
when he thought he spotted
Frank Jones Jr., who sexually
abused him starting at age
12. His heartbeat quickens
whenever he smells the
cologne or lotion his abuser
wore.
“When I think of Jones I
don’t think of now,” he says.
“My mind is stiU when I was
12,13.1 stOl know how strong
he is and what he’s capable
of”
Five years after Pinks’ reve
lations, the choir he left also is
struggling to recover. It once
performed at the White
House and Vatican and on the
soundtracks of the films
‘Malcolm X” and “Glory.”
Now with a reduced, mostly
volimteer staff, the choir of 50
boys, which was evicted fix)m
its home, performs Saturday
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW - As a black
man in Russia, life for
Gabriel Anicet Kotchofa
means being home by 9 p.m.,
never using public transit
and hearing abusive remarks
when he goes out with his
white wife.
“Sometimes I even go to the
shop with my wife and we go
separately, so nobody knows
that we are together,” the
native of Benin says.
Still, his experience has
been milder than that of
many blacks, Asians and
dark-skinned Caucasians in
Russia—he hasn’t been
killed, maimed or even
attacked.
“I’m a very lucky person. I
have never been aggressed,
because I know where to go,
when to go and how to
behave myself,” said
Kotchofa, an academic.
Race-based attacks are ris
ing sharply in Russia, a
reflection of the xenophobia
that Was under the surface in
Soviet times. In 2005 alone,
31 murders and 382 assaults
were race-connected, accord
ing to the Moscow-based
Sova human rights center.
Already this year, 14 people
have been killed in racial
attacks. The attacks hit espe
cially hard at natives of Third
World countries who have
night at Jazz at Lincoln
Center.
In 2001, when Pinks was
15, he told_ choir officials that
he had been abused by Jones,
who directed the choir’s coun
seling and summer camp and
chaperoned members on trips
for more than two decades.
But choir leaders—including
founder and chief executive
Walter TumbuU and his vice
president and brother Horace
TumbuU—did nothing. Pinks
and investigators maintain.
Rnks then told his mother,
who notified police. In late
2002, Jones was convicted of
24 counts of sexually abusing
the student and sentenced to
two years in prison. .
In 2003, city investigators
concluded that the TVimbulls
ifaUed to report serious aUe-
gations of abuse! of Pinks by
Jones. Moreover, the inves
tigative report said, the
TumbuUs continued to aUow
him to be near students.
Walter Turnbull, who
remains chief conductor,
called what happened to
Pinks “very imfortunate.”
“We have done over the
years all the things that we
could to make sure that we
did the best thing, the right
thing,” said TVimbull, who
said he has had no contact
with Jones, now 56. “The
regret that I have is that
David felt he was not treated
correctly.”
Jones’ attorney, Theodore
Goldbergh, said his client stiU
insists he did nothing wrong.
The attorney said Jones was
especially attentive to Pinks
because the young man had a
“strained” relationship with
his family.
Jones, along with the
Turnbulls, the city and oth
ers, now faces a civil lawsuit
filed by Pinks. As for the
choir, it is miUions of doUars
in debt and had to relocate to
a Harlem church after the
city evicted it from a public
school.
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Health gets a boost
Continued from page 1B
example: convulsions, fever higher than 105 degrees, difficulty
breathing) after receiving a vaccine, inform your doctor imme
diately.
, Vaccines are an important way to protect our children. Give
them the best opportunity for the future by assuring they
receive vaccines on time. The goal for our community is to have
a 90 percent immunization rate for all children between the
ages of 19 and 35 months. Remember, knowledge is power, but
it is what you do with it that makes all the difference!
Contribution by Eva Gomez, RN
For more information about the Maya Angelou Research
Center on Minority Health, visit our website at
httpy/www.wfubmc.edu/minorityhealth. Or, for health infor
mation caU (336) 713.7578.
In Russia, dark skin
foreigners face bias
come to Russia to study,
because of the country’s com
paratively low tuition costs or
because they are blocked
from studying in the West by
stringent visa regimes.
A few months after arriving
from Gabon in 1999 for stud
ies at People’s Friendship
University in Moscow, Juldas
Okie Etoumbia was shocked
by the beating death of a
Guinean student in their dor
mitory. The victim had
refused to open the door for a
cleaning lady in the early
hours of the morning and she
returned with several men
who bludgeoned him with a
hammer.
But Etoumbia, 28, was
determined to follow through
with studies that he hopes
will lead to a career as a
diplomat.
“There are times when I
think I should have never
come to this country. But you
realize that you came for a
noble cause, to get an educa
tion, and you are obliged to go
through with it,” he said.
Although he said he’s never
been attacked, he’s lost coxmt
of the insults tossed at him.
Once, traveling on the
Moscow subway, he lost his
grip and brushed the hand of
a fellow-passenger—who
demonstratively took out a
handkerchief and wiped his
hand.
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