Augusta focus. ([Augusta, Ga.) 198?-current, July 11, 1996, Image 1

Augusta focus., July 11, 1996, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextA ("c*lc?lu‘zll'iuu | ~ Heritage Unity SO\ Street “ Festival See Page 3 Coach Smart victim of ‘shakedown’, lawyer says <M An Augusta Focus Exclusive: Coach Otis Smart reports that mother of girl who reported sex-capade tried to extort money from him. =By Timothy Cox “SAUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer AUGUSTA A local high school coach recently arrested for sexual battery charges, said extor tion is the primary motive behind what his lawyer de scribesas a “shakedown”bid. T T ; . - }. _‘.’;(., e ) Coach ERt / ; Otis cwg W Polygraph test results are favorable. Photo by Timothy Cox In an exclusive interview with theAugusta Focus, Otis Lee Smart Jr., head coach of Lucy C. Laney High School boys’ football, girls’ basket ball and track teams, said he’s the vietim of an extor tion attempt by his accuser’s mother. : Jack Long, Mr. Smart’s legal counsel, agrees mali ciousintentisbehind allega tions against his client. “I can say there’s some truth to the extortion charges,” he said. According to Mr. Smart, the mother of one of his former playersthreatened to give Richmond County school authorities a detailed letter about an event which happened in July 1995 un less the Laney coach gave the mother SIOO for a rental INSIDE s, 3 . A w«*’%ﬁkﬁ e B ol O L N '3&; e DA% %e Y A:,‘,;QZ: o x; ) / i ; 4 «f"«”‘s*% b . oW R : é*‘ &z% ' Ly ?%Sr ‘:,%« s % yo @ s i i y 2 Tl : %ﬁ% i 2 (% % # World/National News .........ccovvvvvenenennn 2 ® Local/Regional News ........................... 3 WPeable i ik B MARTBOME iii it itk BT MEAOEEE ¢ i R s BACIONOEROOR . ..........iSOOO s vvinoiiogs D WLivingL L b e WBPOIE 0l i na s RLI A BOBRICh NEWS. ..o it BORERRHar. .. asiin il OTBRINGAR . iiiiiiiilntia SUIE payment. Mr. Smart said he first heard about the letterin late May when the woman walked up to his car in the Laney parking lot upon his arrival at school. “She got kind of loud and told me something about a letter. I didn’t even want to see it. She said something like ‘Coach Smart,lcanhave your job.” After he refused to pay up, Mr. Smart said he started hearing the letter had been photocopied and forwarded to “higher-ups” in the school system. On June 25, after being informed of a warrant for his arrest, Mr. Smart turned himself in to the Richmond County Sheriff's Depart ment. The misdemeanorcharges stem from allegations of sexual ~ misconduct chronicled in the letter. According to a police re port filed at the Sheriff's Department May 31, Mr. Smart’s accuser—now a 19- year-old college student — told authorities the coach touched her legs, thighs and breasts, then tried to force her into a sexual act. After she resisted the coach, Mr. Smart took her home. The incident allegedly oc curred a year ago at Mr. Smart’sresidence, the report showed. : Mr. Smart and Mr. Long said all accusations are false and the girl was never at the coach’s house. See LANEY COACH, page 3 B The move to create a ‘multiracial’ category is not welcomed by civil rights groups who fear - a depletion in the ranks of blacks and other racial minorities. By Linda Mathews NEW YORK TIMES Edward Cooper, a Portland, Ore. husinessman, isblack. His wife and business partner, Bar bara Mclntyre, is white. Their 12-year-old son, Ethan McCooper, is, like his name, a blend of his parents, and harder to classify. On Ethan’s school forms and other official papers, his par ents sometimes chéeck both the “white” and the “black” boxes. If“other” is available, theycheck that and write in “interracial.” When ordered to choose be tween “black” and “white,” they ~ JULY 11- 17,1996 VOL. XV NO. 759" - | Vaval Black Arts Fest Shinesl @ i ' P i 7 *a&‘ P 5 s N " g 0 i “ 4 e W | ; ‘.‘"MV’ ‘ ‘: i£ /i 7. ; AZUCAR NEGRA: Afro-Cuban diva Celia Cruz was the featured musical attraction at the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. Fans danced in the streets. "They came} by thé’ hundreds g to be - showered, ' “and’ inspired by = '3 the diversity of the Black Experience RACE MATTERS Mixed race families ponder impact of new racial category A g .8 » / g Ty : Lﬁ e B b e v m—— ' e Pe 7V WU 1 ‘1 it ; ! i " 7"’,‘:"“‘.‘# v& i‘n T i l:{:f";.. i A dancer in traditional Cuban ¢ostumes celebrates the African influence on that nation’s music and culture. At right a trio of bata drummers hold forth for the excited throng gathered on Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue in front of the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church. Photos by Frederick Benjamin _ Unions between blacks and whites _ are still relatively rare, accounting - for only about one-seventh of all © inferracial marriages. resolutely leave the form blank. What they would like to call the light-skinned, dark-eyed boy with the reddish-brown hair is “multi-racial.” They may yet get their way, if the Federal Government yields to growing pressure and adds a “multira cial” category to the census in the year 2000. “This is an issue that isn’t going away,” said Mary Wa ters, a Harvard professor of so ciology who teaches a course on race. “We're riding such a big wave of interracial marriages that inevitably there are going to be many more people who can claim a multiracial identity if it’s permitted.” Creating another category for people who do not fit the exist ingracial categories—or whose children do not fit—is not a simple matter. Indeed, a pro posal to do so, which has been pending before the Federal Of fice of Management and Bud get for three years, has been denounced by some of the nation’s leading civil rights or ganizationsas an unnecessary, expensive move that would de plete the ranks of blacks and otherracial minorities and eur tail their political power. A decision is expected from 0.M.8. by mid-1997. At least five million people will be affected by the Government’s decision-—the three million Americans who told the Census Bureauin 1990 that they were married to or See MULTIRACIAL, page 2 black churches Cj;:fare faced with an _ insurance dilemma. .~ See Page 12 Local firm enmeshed in bias lawsuit P&G subcontractor is slammed by EEOC probe stemming from rash of 1994 firings of black workers. By Frederick Benjamin Sr. AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer AUGUSTA Racism in the workplace may be more common than most people would like to think. Most of the time, how ever, workers must put up with theracially-tinged ver bal abuse and other forms of harassment. Even in the more flagrant cases, the bur den of proof exacts a heavy toll mentally and finan cially, as some workers in Augusta recently discov “For John H. Dean, 46, a retired military man, the fight against racism in the workplace provided a valu able lesson — you may not always win, but you must always continue to fight. Mr. Dean’s 30-month fight against racism paid off re cently when the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled in his favor against the At lanta-area firm that fired him after he complained about their poor treatment ofblacksatan Augusta work site. The federal agency found that Mr. Dean, a former employee of Rogers Techni cal Services, Inc. based in Roswell, Ga., was termi nated in January, 1994 in Hart unable to pull away; runoff set By Frederick Benjamin Sr. AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer AUGUSTA Vowing to work hard in the August 6 runoff elec tion,Judge Bettieanne Hart made an impressive show ing in Tuesday’s general primary. In the only con tested election for the Au gusta Circuit Superior Court, Judge Hart ran ahead of challenger Neal Dickert and former District Attorney Mike Eubanks, but did not receive enough votes to avoid a runoff elec tion. Hart captured 14,640 votes, Dickert received 10,419, Eubanks received 9,882, and Larry 1. Smith received 1,834 votes. Hart was the top vote-get ter in Richmond and Burke counties and Mike Eubanks was the top vote-getter in Columbia County. Political observers will be watching to see to whom BULKRATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID NO. 302 | AUGUSTA.GA | retaliation for his vocal op position to racial discrimi nation. Rogers Technical, at the time, was a subcontrac tor of Proctor & Gamble in Augusta. “The hostility came from the first morning we were waiting to come into the gate,” Mr. Dean said. “A black man that worked for P&G came by and one of the supervisors, David Camp, called him a boy.” Almost immediately, ac cording to Mr. Dean’s ac count, he brought the mat ter to the attention of Mr, Will Rogers. “Itold Mr. Rogers we were men, not boys, and we were going to be called by our names.” Afterthat, Mr. Dean said, he thought the matter was closed,buthe was mistaken. “Mr. Camp went back to name-calling again. [ said, you can call someone a boy, but you can’t call me a boy. I'm from Georgia and, in Georgia,ifyou call someone a boy, those are fighting words,” Mr. Dean said. “Mr. Camp said, ‘l'm from Ala bama and I think it’s bullshit.” After those initial con frontations, things did not go smoothly for Mr. Dean. See BIAS SUIT, page 3 Judge Bettieanne , Childers . Hart faces @ runoff L Al challenge i from Neal Dickert. Mr. Eubanks and Mr. Smith throw their support. Runoff elections are notoriously difficult to predict because turnout is always light. In other local races State Rep. Jack Connell soundly defeated Richmond County State Court Solicitor Rob ert W. “Bo” Hunter. Mr. Connell collected 63.8 per cent of the 2,616 votes cast. Mr. Connell does not face opposition in the November general election, In the race for Richmond County State Court solici tor, Sheryl Jolly received 72.21 percent of the votes cast. Joe Neal Jr. cameina distant second.