Y NEWSPAPER EOR AM) ABOUT PERQUIMANS COUNTV AM) ITS PEOPLE
Feb. 21-27 is Severe Weather
Awareness Week Page 8
Perquimans native joins Gates
medical practice Page 2
African American History
program set for Saturday....Page 6
February 25, 1999
The
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AN^ L JONTY Ll R-RY
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6 R T F " J Y C 3 79 4 4
Vol. 67, No. 8
HertfO'd, North Carolina 27944^
Weekly
Officials
oppose
Holiday
Island
proposal
Local leaders
say community
cannot create,
sustain town
By JEREMY DESPOSITO
Neither the Perquimans
County commission nor the
town councils of Hertford and
Winfall feel Holiday Island can
survive as a municipality.
A lack of businesses and
revenue would impede a suc
cessful operation, officials
claim.
Another problem - one seen
as the most pivotal in whether
Holiday Island could actually
become a town - is that the
majority of residents on the
island apparently are against
the idea currently.
Advocates for incorporation
claim to have a plan they feel
would work but agree the idea
is “dead” if the majority of res
idents vote it down in
November.
The three boards convened
at the Albemarle Commission
Building here Monday night to
exchange views on the feasibil
ity of incorporating Holiday
Island.
Officials from aU three ques
tioned where funding would
come from.
“I can’t see what they
(Holiday Island residents)
expect to gain from this,” said
BUly Winslow, Mayor Pro-Tern
of Hertford Town Council.
“Everything you read in the
paper pertains to roads.
There’s not so much
Please see Town, page 8
Champions times three
■■■
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2 '
mm
i-y.?
Daily Advance photo
The Lady Pirates celebrate a win over Manteo in the Northeastern Albemarle Conference
. Tournament in Wiiliamston Friday night. The victory was bittersweet as the team’s second-
leading scorer and rebounder, Dysheba Jennings, was ejected and,.JTlM.st sit out the first
two state playoff games. The championship was the third earned by the team this season.
The Lady Pirates are regular season conference champs, tournament champs and The
Daily Advance Four-County Holiday Classic champs.
Jones would support impeachment again
Congressman
believes Clinton
obstructed
justice, perjured
himself
By JEREMY DESPOSITO
President Clinton may have
been acquitted by the U.S.
Senate last week, but not by
Third District Congressman
Walter B. Jones Jr.
' Given the opportunity to do
it again, Jones, R-NC., said he
would act as he did last
December when he voted with
the majority in the U.S. House
of Representatives to impeach
the president.
“Oh yes (I would vote to
impeach),” Jones said
.Thursday. “I spent a lot of time
(on the case). It was a very
unhappy time and a very dis
tasteful responsibility, but I
based my decisions upon the
facts of the case. I read deposi
tions. I also spent a great deal
of my time with the informa
tion from those who represent
ed the president before the
Rep. Waiter B. Jones Jr.
(House) Judiciary Committee
and to those who represented
the committee’s position.”
“I believe to this day that
the president perjured himself,
and I believe that he obstruct
ed justice.”
However, Jones added that
because the Senate voted to
acquit Clinton, the issue is
over and it’s time to get on
with other business.
“...The Senate has made its
decision, and the impeach
ment issue is over,” Jones said
during a town haU meeting at
the Perquimans County
Courthouse Thursday night.
“The Congress will work
with the president to do what I
hope will he good for the
American people,” Jones said.
“And we’re going to disagree,
as we would no matter had
there been an impeachment or
not.
“We had a constitutional
duty, both the House and the
Senate. We followed the
Constitution and we’ve done
our duty, so the issue is over
now,” he said.
Jones apparently hasn’t
conceded on all the political
ramifications of the failed
impeachment, however.
“(Clinton) is a president
that has been impeached,” he
said. “That will be part of his
tory. That will never change,
no matter what the Senate did.
...By the action of the House,
this president was impeached.
He was just not foxmd guilty of
the articles of impeachment.”
Jones said he is still “very,
very disappointed” with what
he believes is Clinton’s lack of
character.
“I don’t know how a man
can be elected to the highest
office in the land, be one of the
most powerful men in the
Hertford
woman bitten
by E.C. teen
world and lie to the American
people, and then perjure him
self before the grand jury,”
Jones said. “To me, that is just
a sad, sad happening for him.”
Jones said parents and
lawyers will continue to wres
tle with the impeachment
issue.
“My concern about the pres
ident, by the actions of the
Senate ... I think it does two
things,” Jones said. “First of
aU, I think it sends a message
to children that is the wrong
message. Parents have a most
difficult time trying to raise
their children. And now this
man who has .. perjured him
self and obstructed justice ... is
still the president of the
United States. And so parents
have got to explain to their
children how the president
lied and (why) he’s still in
office.”
“Secondly, I’m concerned
about what type of legal prece
dent this might set as it relates
to sexual harassment cases,
obstruction of justice cases
and also perjury.
“You won’t know how
lawyers might use this case,
involving the president when
Please see Jones, page 8
Juvenile told
victim he passed
AIDS virus on
By GINGER LIVINGSTON
The Daily Advance
Six months. That’s how long
a Hertford woman will have to
wait before she finds out if the
14-year-old boy who bit her
during an assault last week
was telling the truth when he
supposedly
yelled: “I just
gave you
and
you
AIDS
hope
die.”
Melody
Thomas-
English, a 37-
year-old
mother of
two sons,
said
Saturday that
police told her she must wait
that long - the period of time it
takes the AIDS causing HIV
virus to incubate - because her
alleged attacker is a juvenile
and cannot be forced to take an
AIDS test.
Thomas-English got into
her bizarre predicament
Wednesday afternoon, while
taking a young family friend
to The Doctors Inn at
Elizabeth City’s Jordem Plaza.
As she was getting into her
car, Thomas-English said she
remembers seeing the 14-year-
old wandering around in the
parking lot. But she didn’t pay
him any mind because she was
focused on helping her friend
deal with a sore throat.
Thomas-English says she
was backing out of her parking
space when she heard a loud
thud. She said she turned
around and saw the young
man slumped against the left
side of her car, his face pressed
against the door’s glass.
Thomas-English said her
first thought was to check to
see if the boy had been hurt.
“It wasn’t like he was dirty or
violent looking, he just looked
like a boy walking from
school,” she said.
Concerned about his wel
fare, she says she got out of
her car.
When she did, the boy
grabbed her left arm and bit
her wrist, breaking the skin
but not drawing blood, she
says.
“He would not let go,” she
said. “I had a Sonic drink in
“I just gave you
AIDS and hope
you die.”
Alleged statement of
juvenile who bit
Hertford woman
my right hand and I threw it at
him and he let go.”
“My first thought was to get
back in my car,” she said. “But
he jumped on my back and bit
me on the shoulder and drew
blood. Then he goes:”I just
gave you AIDS and hope you
die.”
Thomas-English said she
later learned that the boy had
just minutes earlier been
jumping around on the top of a
minivan and on the hood of a
nearby car.
The car’s
owner,
Carol
Godfry, con-
firmed
Saturday
that the
incident
had indeed
happened.
She said the
boy had
caused
approximately
$720 damage to her vehicle.
After allegedly biting
Thomas-English, the boy ran
behind Jordan Plaza. Thomas-
English said she first
screamed for help, then decid
ed to rim after him.
“At first aU I though was, T
want to get in my car,’ but I
didn’t remember what he
looked like and all I could
think was, ‘God if you lose this
child you may never know
what you have and it could
screw up your whole life,”’
Thomas-English said.
She said she chased the boy
behind the shopping center
across Cardwell Street and
behind the Pizza Hut on
Ehringhaus Street. They even
tually ended up at an unidenti
fied transmission repair shop
where the boy began accusing
her of hitting him.
Not long afterward,
Elizabeth City police officers
arrived. Thomas-English said
the boy told officers he was
taking Ritalin, an ampheta
mine used to control attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
and had experienced a bad
reaction to his medicine.
Police took the boy into cus
tody and turned him over to
family members, Thomas-
English said.
Captain Mervin Raby con
firmed Friday afternoon than
an incident involving a boy
biting a woman and vandaliz
ing several vehicle around
Jordan Plaza had indeed
Please see Charges, page 8
Weekend Weather
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
High 40s
High 50s
High 50s
Low 30s
Low 30s
Low 30s
Mostly
Mostly
Partly
Cloudy
Clear
Cloudy