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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 w .. I isal |t •? ’irWn nhX IT H X wjbu (CW- - i < ’• < «r ■ mi Ar> MHHB -■■ ’ ' i £ ‘ ’? it* <> ■ < f v iMR” X Jr i Ej i r' w \. r / * a-K - Sifc ’ MHliKllKr ■ !< ' l BSSSa fflSSv UnU wßv WW UV 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