VOTE
Tuesday
November 6
The News-Journal
Established 1928 ? ~ * -
The Hoke County News - Established 1928
Volume LXXV1 Number 28 RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROUNA
The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905
$10 PER YEAR 25 CENTS
cases being eyed by DSS
By Ed Miller
Out of 154 applications taken by
the Department of Social Services
(DSS) for emergency crisis energy
funds, 10 are being held pending a
review on possible fraud charges.
The investigation was prompted
when applicants falsely claimed
they had no fuel for the coming
winter, and were given "crisis"
assistance, a DSS spokesman said.
"Ten cases out of 154 is too high
a percentage," Hoke County DSS
Director Ken Witherspoon said
last week.
"The Department of Social Ser
vices is taking a hard stance on
misrepresentation of need for crisis
funds," Witherspoon said.
According to the DSS director,
there are two types of energy
assistance presently operating in
the county.
Applications for low income
energy assistance money are being
taken at the Driver License Ex
aminer's building just off Prospect
Avenue.
Emergency crisis fund applica
tions are also handled at the same
location, but these are two dif
ferent types of assistance.
The emergency crisis funds are
those being misrepresented right
now, said Witherspoon.
Persons requesting the funds
must be completely out of heating
fuel, said Witherspoon.
When DSS finds that a person
qualifies on paper, the oil com
pany or gas supplier is called and
fuel is taken to the home.
About 100 gallons of oil is nor
mally authorized by the service,
said Witherspoon.
Already this year, there have
been cases where the oil company
was called and asked to deliver fuel
to area homes.
Upon filling the tanks, it was
found that some 120 gallon tanks
would only hold SO gallons of fuel.
The oil company knows the sizes
of the tanks it must service, said
Witherspoon.
The persons requesting the
assistance misrepresented the
situation because they signed
papers saying they were completly
out of fuel.
"That constitutes fraud,"
Witherspoon said.
Checking out the applicants in
question will not be a matter
routine, said the director.
There will have to be an in
vestigation, he said.
Witherspoon has stopped taking
applications for those emergency
crisis funds until the cases
suspected of fraud have been
cleared up.
The local DSS is expected to
begin taking applications again on
December 1, said the director.
There is $2S,000 in the crisis
fund and when that money is gone,
the program is over, said Wither
spoon.
There have also been some cases
reported in the county of possible
abuse to energy assistance funds.
Cases of people receiving energy
assistance checks and cashing them
without paying fuel bills were
reported several times last year.
"There is nothing that says peo
ple cannot do that, said Withers
poon.
Assistance money does not have
to be designated toward energy,
said a spokesperson for N.C.
Department of Natural Resources
(DNR).
"All people who get checks have
heating expenses," said Kay Fields
of the Assistance Payment Section
of the N.C. DNR.
"We have found that this (check
(See CRISIS, page 10A)
Just a few dabs
With a lit tie paint and a wig, this carnival goer will
look like a clown. Face painting was just one of the
many activities during Saturday night's TMH
Halloween Carnival held at Upchurch School. The
event earned over $2,800 for the summer TMH pro
gram.
Hoke clients probed
for food stamp fraud
By Ed Miller
The Hoke County Department
of Social Services (DSS) is current
ly investigating 37 cases of
suspected food stamp fraud,
members of the DSS Board were
told Monday.
Although there are over 4,600
persons who are currently receiv
ing food stamps in Hoke County, a
"xflfptS^dWonate amount of time
jmt by local DSS staff
mcmbersinv?tfpKl?ig*frtfa3iTdod~"
Stamp Coordinator Judy Locklear
told the board.
t There are 1,363 households in
Hoke County now served by food
stamps, Locklear said.
'""The program serves 4,600 people
with about $171,099 in food
stamps per month, and about 50%
of Locklear's time is spent handl
ing food stamp fraud, she said.
According to Locklear, most of
these persons are now being caught
because of the new computerized
food stamp applications.
All applicants must fill out
forms and those forms are keyed
into the computer, she said.
In the past, a major type of food
-stamp fraud ma& i'duaJ particip.^ . .
tion."
That is when a person applies
for food stamps in Hoke County
and then goes to Scotland or
Robeson counties and applies there
too, she said.
Those persons are being caught
now because, if they use the same
social security number they used
elsewhere, it will show up on the
computer.
In the past, many people who
were on food stamps were also
working, said Locklear.
The DSS computers are now
capable of being hooked up to
social security memory banks and
if people worked under the same
number given for food stamps,
TKeyiffrsaogiirr- < ? =? >
Locklear will be working with
these cases to make sure DSS gets
back food stamp money that was
misrepresented.
Presently, DSS can recap all
losses on fraud.
Nephew charged with shooting
By Ed Miller
A McCain area man was wound
ed last week after being shot by his
nephew.
Kenneth David Harris, of Rt. 3,
Raeford, was arrested on a war
rant last Friday charging him with
assault with a deadly weapon with
intent to kill after he allegedly shot
his uncle Fredwin L. Harris, accor
ding to a report filed Monday by
Hoke County Sheriff's Detective
Ed Harris.
Kenneth Harris, 20, was out of
jail on $5,000 bond after being
released Saturday, records at the
Hoke County Jail show.
Fredwin L. Harris, also of Rt. 3,
Raeford, was taken to Moore
County Memorial Hospital where
he was interviewed by the Hoke
County detective.
According to the report, Fred
win and several other people were
sitting out in front of his mother's
(See NEPHEW, page 11 A)
Raeford man receives 10 years for offenses
By Ed Miller
I Ten years in the North Carolina
Department of Corrections was
given to a Raeford man, after he
was found guilty in Hoke County
Superior Court last week of
numerous offenses, ranging from
drug possession to breaking and
entering.
John (Yogi) Bradley Gordon,
24, was found guilty of possession
of marijuana, possession of
diazepam, possession of house
breaking tools and numerous
counts of breaking, entering and
larceny, Superior Court records
show.
Gordon, who was arrested June
23 on the possession of marijuana
and possession of the "anti
anxiety drug" diazepam was found
guilty and given one year on those
charges.
The charge of possession of
housebreaking implements got
Gordon another three years,
according to records.
When arrested on that charge,
Gordon had a 21 inch pruning saw,
a claw hammer, a "dark chaser"
lantern and a 13 and one half inch
screwdriver, records say.
According to a warrant issued to
Raeford Police Detective James
Murdock, the tools were used by
Gordon to break into Raeford
business Fashions Unlimited.
On felonious breaking, entering
and larceny charges stemming
from robberies at Fashions
Unlimited, Universal Marketing,
Inc. and The Little Whale
Restaurant, Gordon got two more
three year sentences, records say.
According to sheriff and police
reports filed at the times of the
robberies, S8.888.20 worth of
guns, knives and ammunition was
taken from Universal Marketing
and over $ 1 , 3 1 7 in f ood stu f fs were
taken from The Little Waale.
Gordon had also been charged
with and was found guilty of
breaking, entering and larceny into
an unoccupied house belonging to
Elsie McNeill.
Over $68 in fixtures were taken
from the house and Gordon was
sentenced to three more years for
the crime, records say.
Because two of the sentences
were deemed by Superior Court
Judge D.B. Herring, to run con
currently, Gordon faces a max
imum of 10 years in prison, a
spokesperson for the Hoke County
Clerk of Courts office said.
Around Town
By Sam Morris
?? ?
The weather is still like summer
time and according to reports, we
are due more of the same for this
week.
? * *
Be sure to vote Tuesday,
November 6. If you don't then
please be silent about the affairs of
our nation, state ahd country.
? ?-. ?
Several years ago Robert Gatlin
asked me to go with him to the
dedication of Cameron Home,
situated on land between Vass and
Cameron. Robert was a trustee of
the Baptist Children's Home,
which operates this home, the
land that was donated by a distant
relative of mine was Owned
originally by my graat -great grand*
father
I hadn't heard much aboftt the
place recently until Gatlin brought
me t^e following article out of
"Y '
Choice
Hoke County voters will hevt
on opportunity Tuesday to do o
pot In shaping the local school
system, os weU as the political
and economic future of the no
tion. We take a look at the
chokes In today's Section B of
The New Journal,
n. i
School board
hearing case
Members of the Hoke County
Board of Education were se
questered behind closed doors
Monday and Tuesday to hear
evidence in a case involving the fir
ing of a former county Teacher of
the Year.
Prosecution testimony conclud
ed Monday night after a 10-hour
session in the contract hearing for
West Hoke teacher Ethelyn Baker.
The hearing, which is being held
in the board room of the Depart
ment of Education building on
Wooley Street, is expected to con
clude on Wednesday.
An arbitrating review panel
earlier recommended unanimously
that Baker, who was the Hoke
County Teacher of the Year in
1982, be rehired and returned to
her West Hoke classroom.
Baker is being represented by
Charlotte attorney Yvonne Evans. '
The Board of Education's
lawyer is Martin Erwin of Raleigh.
Hot morning
Creole Wiggins looks over the scene after the
H Merest Fire Department responded to a burning
cmr in the Scurlock area Monday. Wiggins Is walk
ing toward her husband's old Butck. According to
Wiggins, she was lying across her bed when she
smeUed smoke. One fireman was heard to say that
the /Ire had to have been set. " Don V ask me how It
caught fire. I don't know, " Wiggins said.