North Carolina Newspapers

®ltp latlu (Ear Urel F Volume 102, Issue 43 101 years of editorial freedom Serving the students and the University community since 1893 >, n^ikr hjfcTl-'jKTy *a ~ > i **f gPWfty jMftMB HP® >■ <i. wi- ,v ■fiv *SIIBI S " v ' ■ ISffpm ’?IVV r'U PH ~ \ .~. * ** DTH/KATIE CANNON Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl Fox talks with other court personnel on Estes Drive Tuesday while the jury examines the site where Kristin Lodge- Miller’s body was found. Lodge-Miller was killed on a morning run July 15. Search for BCC Director Will Wait for Fund Raising BY THANASSIS CAMBANIS SENIOR WRITER The search for anew director of the Sonya H. Stone Black Cultural Center has been delayed until fund raising for the facility has made “significant progress,” University officials said this week. “On the advice of the black cultural center advisory board, I have delayed be ginning the search while we proceed with fund raising,” said Provost Richard McCormick. Plans for a freestanding building call for $7 million. The UNC development office has been coordinating the fund raising as part of the S4OO million Bicentennial Cam paign. “If we’re going to attract the top candi date, we don’t want to tell them their first job is to raise $7 million,” McCormick said. Journalism Professor Harry Amana was chairman of the BCC Advisory Board when it recommended the search delay. Amana, whose term ended in May, was succeeded by Harold Woodard, an assistant dean of the General College. “We thought if we conduct a national search and tell the person we don’t have a building, we don’thave abudget, we won’t get the response we want,” Amana said. Local Merchant Leads New Campaign To Rid West Franklin of Panhandling BY JAMIE KRITZER city EDITOR Stacy Franklin is worried. Several weeks ago, when an intoxicated vagrant entered her restaurant on West Franklin Street, yelled at several custom ers and then threatened to punch her with his brass knuckles after she tried to remove him, Franklin decided to take action. On Tuesday morning, the Ham’s man ager met with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce to discuss the pos sibility of an ordinance that would give police more authority to remove vagTants creating disturbances on a restaurant’s prop erty. Franklin and several other business owners talked about their concerns with the chamber as a part of “Chat With the Editor's Note Summer's a time for fun in the sun... and a time to be part of the Tar Heel, published every Thursday until July 28. All desk editors are looking for students interested in writing, photography and copy editing experience. Applications for staff po sitions are available in the DTH office. Union Suite 104. No experience is necessary. If you have any questions about the appli cation process, please contact Kelly Ryan, DTH editor, at 962-0245. WEEKLY SUMMER EDITION Margo Crawford resigned as BCC di rector Jan. 31. Chancellor Paul Hardin appointed Harold Wallace, vice chancel lor for university affairs, to serve as interim director until a permanent replacement is named. “We have a very competent director in Harold Wallace,” McCormick said. McCormick hesitated to set a concrete date for when the search might begin or name a dollar amount that could signal the beginning of the search. “I’d like to have an impressive amount of the fund raising completed,” he said. “Maybe we will be in a position by next fall. I think we’ve made a good start.” McCormick and Amana said they hoped the national search would net a top-notch director for the new BCC. The absence of a permanent director might hinder fund-raising efforts, but Amana said he was pleased with the deci sion to delay the search process. “If we had a really high-powered per son, it would help fund raising, but we didn’t feel we could get the high-powered person under the circumstances,” Amana said. “It’s sort of a Catch-22.” The BCC Advisory Board recom mended that the search be delayed just as Please See BCC, Page 4 Chairman, ” a monthly gathering of people from the business community. This month, businesspeople made the panhandling is sue their primary concern. “Folks are reluctant to go downtown because of aggressive panhandling,” said Richard Williams, chairman of the cham ber. “I think it’s a good idea to discuss.” Franklin said she hadn’t worked out many of her proposal’s details and didn’t know how it would go over with towns people, but she was confident it could put a dent in the business community’s pan handling problems. “Customers have been saying that it makes them uncomfortable coming up the sidewalk when they come here,” she said. “People are at the front door waiting for them.” Williams said concerned business own ers would have a chance to voice their opinions before the Chapel Hill Town Council in the next few months. But Franklin, who is new to the area, said she was worried that her actions would be misperceived by people thinking she was trying to discriminate against the pan handlers, many of whom are homeless. “Idon’thave a personal vendetta against these people,” the Greensboro native said. “I’m just doing it for business reasons. “If someone is not embarrassed to ask you for money, that’s okay. But that’s as far as it goes.” Begging and harassing passers-by who walk the busy street at night have become Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone? James Thurber Chapel HUI, North Carolina THURSDAY, MAY 26,1994 Simpson BY JAMIE KRITZER CITY EDITOR HILLSBOROUGH—After more than three days of deliberation, at least five motions by the defense for a mistrial and an unusual trip for jurors to the scene of the July 15 shooting of Kristin Lodge-Miller, jurors found Anthony Georg Simpson guilty of second-degree murder and not guilty of attempted rape. Orange County Superior Court Judge Gordon Battle will decide this morning whether Simpson will get the maximum penalty of life in prison. The verdict was delivered at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. If Simpson had been found guilty of first-degree murder and of attempted rape, he could have faced the death penalty. Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl Fox and public defender James Williams wouldn’t comment in phone interviews after the verdict. At the courthouse, Williams said he was pleased with the verdict and that he didn’t expect much public outcry. Simpson could face 50 years or life in prison, which is the maximum penalty for second-degree murder. Even with the maxi mum sentence, Simpson would be eligible for parole in 10 years. But Battle could hand down a presump tive sentence, which means Simpson would face 15 years in prison. Under the pre- Legislators Give Go-Ahead to Pursuing Recall BYLYNN HOUSER CITY EDITOR Two processes, a recall bill and a school board investigation, are in motion to settle the question of whether city school board member LaVonda Burnette should remain in office. Legislators decided Tuesday to sponsor a recall bill that would make Chapel Hill and Carrboro voters the first in the state to have the power to remove a school board member from office. N.C. Sen. Howard Lee, D-Or ange, said Wednes day that he expected to introduce die bill this week or early next week. “We don’t perceive, at least at this point, any significant op position,” he said. “But it’s hard to tell about these things.” School board member LAVONDA BURNETTE could face a trial-like hearing to determine whether she acted immorally. Lee said the bill might encounter more opposition down the road, but at this point, the National Association for the Advance ment of Colored People was the only sig nificant opponent. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Educa tion members decided in January to pur- commonplace. The bus station and the homeless shelter, where many street people congregate, are nearby. Franklin and other merchants along West Franklin Street have threatened to call police when panhandlers have gotten too unruly with their customers. Jennifer Roberts, a saleswoman at Uniquities on West Franklin Street, said that several times panhandlers had offered to wash a large front window in exchange for money at the two-year-old women’s clothing store. “We can’t let them do it,” she said Sunday. “It scares some of the customers.” Panhandling ordinances are no stranger to the area—Durham is attempting to pass one, and Carrboro already has. Carrboro’s panhandling ordinance was prompted by a growing concern that loiter ers were disturbing residents on public prop erty. Mounting complaints from residents about panhandlers and loiterers on the city’s sidewalks forced Carrboro police Chief Ben Callahan to propose the ordi nance to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. It went into effect in October. Since then, no arrests have been made using the statute. But the panhandling ordinance has raised a legal concern. In Carrboro, the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union has challenged the ordinance on grounds that Please See VAGRANTS, Page 5 Convicted of Lesser Charge sumptive sentence, the judge finds no miti gating or aggravating factors to hand down a maximum penalty. Simpson then would be eligible for parole in three years. Debate throughout the trial centered on the question of whether Simpson commit ted the murder with premeditation. First-degree murder means that killing must have been premeditated and deliber ated, which means it was carried out “in a cool state of mind.” Second-degree mur der is characterized by lack of premedita tion or deliberation, which means the de fendant acted on the spur of the moment. During the trial, Williams, Simpson’s attorney, made several motions for a mis trial, most of which came when the jury was in deliberations. Williams charged early Wednesday that the jury was deliber ating endlessly without coming to a deci sion. Jurors grappled with Simpson’s fate for three days, since lawyers’ closing argu ments were heard Monday morning. The jury was made up of four black women, two white men and six white women. The directors of two Chapel Hill women’s groups said they were disap pointed with the verdict but were waiting to see if justice would be served through Simpson’s sentencing. “Naturally, I’m disappointed,” said Margaret Henderson, director of the Or ange County Rape Crisis Center. “Of sue the recall bill to let the voters who elected Burnette determine her fate rather than making the decision themselves. But the board announced in a news conference last week that State Superin tendent Bob Etheridge had instructed the board in an April 26 letter to hold a hearing to determine whether the allegations against Burnette were true. Etheridge clarified in a May 23 letter that in addition to determining if the alle gations were true, the board also must decide if they constituted “immoral or dis reputable conduct.” If declared so, a state statute requires that Burnette be removed. Etheridge’s April letter included copies of letters and news articles he had received from two Chapel Hill residents who de manded action on allegations in the ar ticles. The articles reported that Burnette had made false claims about her educa tional background during her campaign and continued to make false claims when confronted with it after the election. Etheridge had told the board in a Dec. 17 letter that it “may wish to investigate the matter further. ’’ McCormick said the board had not pursued a hearing based on that letter because the directive was too weak and would have invited a lawsuit. Now that the board has received stron ger directives from Etheridge, McCormick said the board was obliged to investigate. McCormick said that although he un derstood that the state preferred to stay out of local affairs, he believed the wording .iiir .... [v , ... ' • DTH/SARAH DENT North Carolina attackman Greg Langhoff (4) battles for position with a Virginia player. The Tar Heels lost to the fifth-seeded Cavaliers in an NCAA quarterfinal game to snap a 5-year Final Four streak. See story, page 7. Jogger’s Death Propelled Local Gun Control Debate BYLYNN HOUSER CITY EDITOR Asa speech therapist, Kristin Lodge- MilleT intended to spend her life helping others. She never knew it would be her death that would help countless others by awak ening a community to the reality of crime. Public outcry and sentiment over her murder remains high following the trial of 18-year-old Anthony Georg Simpson, who admitted firing five shots at Lodge- Miller as she jogged along Estes Drive last July. In the past 10 months, residents’ out rage has prompted two gun buybacks and the passing of a local gun control ordinance. course, we don’t know what the sentence will be. That could make a big difference in the final perception of whether justice is served.” Orange County Women’s Center Di rector Catherine Dickman agreed, adding that she realized the jury was faced with a gave the state a larger role in decision making than it was accepting in this case. He said he had interpreted Etheridge’s April letter to mean that Etheridge already had determined that the allegations consti tuted immoral and disreputable conduct, and the board needed to decide only whether the allegations were true or false. But that was not what Etheridge had in mind, said Glenn Keever, director of com munications in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. • “The statute is very vague,’’saidKeever. It allows the state superintendent to autho rize local boards of education to investi gate anything that involves school board members, but not to make the decision for them, he said. AI McSurely, Burnette’s lawyer, agreed. “I have shown this statute to many law yers, including myself, and it is not clear first of all what the roles are of the superin tendent and the school board,” he said. “And second, nobody knows what im moral or disreputable conduct means. If lying is immoral and disreputable conduct, then a lot of school board members will have to be very careful.” McSurely added that no one had both ered to look up “student.” “It sure doesn’t mean enrolled,” he said. Neither Etheridge’s letter nor the resi dents’ letters stated specific charges against Burnette but only referred to the attached newspaper articles and editorials. The letters were from Watts Hill, Jr., a Too Re-Laxed Newj/Fcatuns/Ans/Spoits 962-0245 Business/Advertising 962-1163 C 1994 DTH Publishing Corp. AD rights reserved. But it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of these measures, Chapel Hill police spokeswoman Jane Cousins said. “In the last several months, they’ve been taking fewer guns in, from people carrying guns or those used in commit ting crimes,” she said, noting a crime decrease in Chapel Hill during the last six months. “But we can’t directly tie that to the date the ordinance went into effect.” Cousins added she only knew of one arrest made under the new gun control ordinance. One of the founders ofNorth Carolin ians for Gun Control, Beverly Kawalec, Please See CRIME, Page 4 difficult decision. “We don’t want to sec ond-guess the jury, "she said. “It’s possible to come up with the same sentence time with second-degree as with first-degree. We need him not back on the street.” Please See SIMPSON, Page 2 parent who has had children in the school system and attorney Lunsford Long, on behalf of his client, David Mage, who has two children in the school system. McCormick projected that sometime before or during the board’s June 6 meet ing, the board would go through the ar ticles, list the allegations and decide what type of evidence or testimony was needed foreach. Thehearingdatewillprobablybe set June 6. The earliest it could be held would be early July, said McCormick, be cause the board must officially notify Burnette and give her at least 30 days to prepare her response to the charges. At the hearing, the board will receive only firsthand evidence and vote on whether that evidence convinces them that each allegation is true. Members will then vote on whether any substantiated allega tions constitute immoral and disreputable conduct. Because the statute does not de fine immoral and disreputable conduct, members must use their own judgment Only five members will vote because Ruth Royster will be moving in June and Burnette will not be allowed to vote. McCormick said the hearing could be closed because discussions of an elected official’s performance were exempt from the open meetings law. The board probably will focus on inci dents that occurred after Burnette was sworn in. Touw said, “The board has indi cated to me that they are concerned about her conduct as a school board member.”