Newspaper Page Text
Burglars strike
local NAACP head
taking $5,500
Page 1
Vol 10 No. 4
Richard Pryor
burned critically
SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. -
Comedian Richard Pryor,
burned over 50 percent of his
body when a cigarette lighter
exploded, remained in critical
condition early Tuesday with
only a one-in-three chance of
surviving, a hospital spokesman
said.
Only 33 percent of
third-degree bum victims
injured as severely as Pryor
recover, according to
physicians treating the
celebrity at Sherman Oaks
Community Hospital.
Dr. Jack Grossman, a burn
specialist and plastic surgeon
who treated Pryor for
third-degree bums Monday
Burglars take $5,500
from NAA CP head
Over $5,500 in property was
taken last Monday from the
home of Georgene
Hatcher-Seabrook, president of
the Augusta Chapter of the
National Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People.
According to Richmond
County sheriffs department
reports, Ms. Hatcher-Seabrook
told deputies that someone
entered her 500 block Ponte
Vedra Drive home sometime
between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Monday when a window on the
south side of the house was
broken.
Items taken during the
break-in included sterling silver
flatware valued at $4,500,
along with jewelry, three pairs
of silver candlesticks, a silver
Ruffin displeased
Police receivership ended
Federal Judge Anthony A.
Alaimo last week ended Mayor
Lewis A. Newman’s
appointment as receiver of the
Augusta Police Department
and permanently prohibited
the department from acts of
discrimination and violations
of any provisions of an order,
filed in Brunswick, Ga., last
Monday.
The action ends seven years
of litigation in a discrimination
suit filed on behalf of all black
officers in the Police
Department. Alaimo found in
his order that the department,
under Newman’s leadership
since October 1979, had met
the court’s stipulations.
‘‘Discriminatory
employment and disciplinary
practices in the Augusta Police
Department appear to have
ceased. The effects of past
discrimination have been and
continue to be dissipated,” the
order read.
Alaimo’s order said the
department reached 41 percent
minority hiring in November
1979 and appeared to be
holding steady at that figure.
However, attorney John H.
Ruffin, who represented the
plaintiffs, said he was unhappy
Augusta ■Nms-Srufwu
night, said the actor was
engulfed in flames after a
cigarette lighter exploded,
igniting his clothes.
Pryor, 39, was severely
burned over his chest, back,
face and arms, Grossman said.
St. Hal DeJong of the Los
Angeles Police Devonshire
Division said officers were
called to Pryor’s home in
Northridge when the accident
occurred and were told he had
run screaming from the house
when his clothes caught fire.
Los Angeles County Fire
Department spokesman Ned
Chatfield said firefighters
received a call from a woman
who said she had seen a man
salt shaker and a total of seven
pairs of silver salt and pepper
shakers.
Deputies are investigating a
suspect in the case, the report
indicates.
Meanwhile, deputies are
probing the break-in of a
Beauford Avenue home in
which nearly $1,900 in
property was taken Monday
after the burglar cut his arm as
he entered the home.
Dorothy L. Coxson, 45, 600
block Beauford Avenue, told
deputies that someone broke
into her home sometime
between 8 a.m. and 11:10 a.m.
The report states that entry
into the house was made when
the glass on a front door was
broken, and the door unlocked
from lhe inside. The report
with the resolution of the
litigation.
The attorney said he does
not think discriminatory
practices have been eliminated.
The 40 percent quota for
minority personnel in' the
police department was a “bare
minimum” rather than a goal,
he said.
“I think the decision is a
license for the Police
Department to do what they
want to,” he said Wednesday
after receiving a copy of the
order. “I think we’re worse off
now than when we started.”
However, Ruffin said he
would not know what, if any,
further action would be taken
until after he has talked with
his clients.
The order also directs the
city to appoint within 30 days
a citywide affirmative action
officer with an assistant for the
Police Department, rather than
one simply for the department.
Newman said the city
received several applications
for the position several months
ago, and will begin interviewing
applicants soon.
“We were sort of expecting
this,” he said.
A full-time police employe
Judge ends
police department
receivership
Page 1
on fire running down the
street. He said she gave two
addresses to check, but they
were unable to locate the man
at either.
However, while returning to
the station, the firefighters saw
a badly burned man walking
down a street. He was not on
fire but “he was in a lot of
pain,” Chatfield said.
The hospital’s assistant
executive director, Gary Swaye,
said that no friends or relatives
were with Pryor when he was
admitted to the hospital.
However, Sgt. DeJong said
officers believed a relative was
at the comedian’s home when
the accident occurred.
further states that blood was
found nearby, indicating that
the burglar cut himself as he
reached inside the door.
Items taken in the incident
included SSOO in cash, a .38
caliber pistol, a portable TV,
jewelry, an AM-FM radio, and
clothing, the total value of
which was estimated at $1,899.
Deputies are also
investigating a weekend
burglary at the OIA Casket
Company, 300 block
Laney-Walker Boulevard, in
which over $1,500 in property
was taken.
Reports state that the
building was entered sometime
between 6 p.m. May 30 and
8:30 a.m. Monday when a fan
in a rear window was pulled
out.
will be appointed as affirmative
action officer, but the position
will not be a new one, the
mayor said.
The Augusta City Council
Finance Committee already has
approved the concept of a
citywide affirmative action
officer, he said.
Alaimo’s order also allows
the mayor, with the advice and
consent of City Council, to
appoint a chief of police and
moves the hiring, firing and
promotion of police officers
under the jurisdiction of the
chief, with confirmarion by the
city’s Public Works Committee.
The revisions remove this
authority from the receiver.
Before former Police Chief
Allen L. Scott was firmed
named temporary receiver, the
Civil Service Commission had
power over the police
department employes. Under
the order, the commission will
hear grievances and other
operational plans.
Chief MB. Philpot said the
changes in responsibility began
immediately after the order
was received.
However, he said he still will
have to work within the legal
limits of the policy procedures
Pryor, who was born in
1940, began his career at the
age of 7, playing drums with
professional musicians. He
moved on to night club
appearances and television
guest spots as a standup
comedian.
He was one of the authors of
the hit Mel Brooks film,
“Blazing Saddles,” has made
several record albums and
starred in such films as “Silver
Streak,” and “Greased
Lightning.”
Pryor’s latest film, “Wholly
Moses,” was scheduled for
release this week by Columbia
Pictures.
Items taken included three
three-eight-in ch drills, a sewing
machine, two electric
typewriters and a clock radio.
The total value of the property
taken was estimated at $1,556.
Also, Augusta police are
investigating the theft of 1,367
zinc die cast arm rests for
school buses from a Walden
Drive manufacturer sometime
between October and May 26.
Police answered a call at
10:40 a.m. to Augusta Plating
Co., 2300 block Walden Drive,
where an employee told
officers the arm rests were
taken from a metal building
sometime between Oct. 22 and
May 26.
The total value of the arm
rests was estimated at $1,490.
manual.
“We are in compliance and
intend to stay that way,” he
said.
Both Newman and Philpot
said they were pleased with the
action taken by Alaimo.
“We’re very glad the long,
hard pull is over. This takes the
shadow off the Police
Department,” Newman said.
“This will be a big benefit to
the chief in running the
department. It is pretty much
what we asked him (Alaimo) to
do.”
The racial discrimination
suit was filed in March 1973
against the Augusta City
Council. Civil Service
Commission, Augusta Police
Department and the chief of
police and all his successors.
The plaintiffs asked that all
discriminatory practices in
employment, conditions of
employment and promotional
opportunies be ended.
A consent order early in the
case set Police Department
minority employment at 50
percent, but that was changed
See “RECEIVERSHIP”
Page 3
Augusta man
shoots wife
in domestic dispute
Page 3
June 14,1980
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Richard Pryor
Mental exam planned
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The
woman who was with Vernon
E. Jordan Jr. the night he was
shot came out of hiding
Monday, while in Indianpolis,
police took custody a man who
telephoned them and claimed
responsibility for wounding the
civil rights leader.
Police said a man they
identified as Willie Johnson, 25
of Indianapolis, told them he
wanted to turn himself in.
Johnson was taken to Wishard
Memorial Hospital for a mental
examination, police said.
FBI public information
officer Steve McVey said the
agency was exploring
Johnson’s statements “among
numerous leads.”
“You can’t ignore somebody
making an admission like
that,” McVey said. “There’s
always a chance it could be
something, but I don’t know
that it’s anything to get excited
about.”
Authorities would not
elaborate on Johnson’s claim,
nor would they release any
details of his personal life. He
is black.
McVey said results of the
mental tests would be available
on Tuesday. Hospital officials
Man claimed he shot Jordan
declined to comment.
In Fort Wayne, meanwhile,
Martha C. Coleman said she
was willing to undergo
hypnosis to reconfirm her lack
of involvement in the crime she
feels was a “racial incident.”
“I am a very private
person,” said Mrs. Coleman,
36. “I like to keep to myself,
and the media has made it
impossible for me to do that. I
was never a suspect. I was in
the wrong place at the wrong
time.”
Mrs. Coleman, who has been
married four times and is now
divorced, made her comments
at a news conference attended
by journalists selected by her
attorney, Charles F. Leonard.
Jordan, 44, president of the
National Urban League, was
gunned down by a sniper as he
emerged from Mrs. Coleman’s
car in the Marriott Inn parking
lot in the pre-dawn hours of
May 29.
Jordan underwent more
surgery Sunday night because
of an abcess in an incision
made during his first operation
and was listed in serious but
stable condition at Parkview
Memorial Hospital on Monday.
Mrs. Coleman, a volunteer
Less Than 75% Advertising
Jesse Jackson
defiant of
death threats
Page 5
Fort Wayne Urban League
worker, said she sat in the
motel bar “until around 1
o’clock” with Jordan
discussing the Urban League
and “raising racially mixed
children” and the problems
involved. She had met Jordan
for the time earlier that night
when he made a speech to the
Urban League.
“The I drove him to my
home. I made coffee. We were
there maybe half an hour at
the most. Then we drove
back,” Mrs. Coleman said. She
added that she left the stereo
and lights on at her home
because she expected to return
soon.
Mrs. Coleman said die drove
Jordan to his comer motel
room and “was waiting for him
to get through the (car) door,
and I was looking at my rear
iew mirror. Then, I heard a
sound like the glass in my car
door window breaking. I heard
him scream, ‘l’ve been shot,’”
she recalled.
Mrs. Coleman said she ran
into the motel “in shock.” She
told the desk clerk that Jordan
had been shot and asked that
police be called. She said she
would have called police
herself, but only desk clerks
had access to the phones
behind their desk.
She said she called her
attorney at that point “because
I’m business and legally
oriented. For me, it was a very
logical thing to do.
“If someone was in die
company of a nationally
prominent person who was
shot, I wouldn’t hink they
would be thinking clearly if
they didn’t call a lawyer.”
Mrs. Coleman said tire desk
clerk showed her several
“strange messages" left by a
woman for Jordan during the
evening that listed a local
number to call for a “mixed
chicken dinner.”
She also said she did not
hear any racial slurs directed at
her and Jordan in the motel
bar as had been reported
earlier.
She said that although she is
willing to be hypnotized, a
procedure that has been
requested by the FBI, she said
officials agree that die
“probably will not recall
See “JORDAN”
Page 6
25 c