Æ 1,1 |Jo rt lattò © b seru rr
August 29. 2007
L aw
Page B 3
J ustice
Klansman Gets Small Media Confront Big Issues
Life in Prison
continued
For black teens murdered in ‘60s
(AP) - James Ford Seale, a cell every night and visit with you
reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was to teach you what it meant by love
sentenced Friday to three life of your fellow man.”
terms in prison for his role
in the 1964 abduction and
murder of two black teen
agers.
Seale, 72, wasconvicted
in June on federal charges
of kidnapping and con
spiracy in the deaths of 19-
year-olds Charles Moore
and Henry Hezekiah Dee,
who d isappeared from
Franklin County, Miss., on
May 2, 1964 and whose
bodies were found two
months later in the Missis
sippi River.
.
Seale showed no emo
tion as U.S. District Judge
Henry Wingate read his
sentence.
Wingate told Seale the
crimes committed 43 years
ago were "horrific” and
"justice itself is ageless.”
He denied a defense mo
tion to allow Seale to be Reputed Ku Klux Klansman James
free on bond while his case Ford Seale is escorted to the
federal courthouse Friday in
is appealed.
Jackson,
Miss.
Federal public defender
Kathy Nester filed a notice
Both of them stood about 10
of appeal. “Mr. Seale maintains
feet
from Seale, but he never made
his innocence to this crime,"
eye
contact
with them.
Nester said.
The prosecution's star w it
During the hearing, one of
D e e ’s siste rs and M o o re ’s ness against Seale was Charles
brother talked about how the vio M arcus Edwards, a confessed
lent deaths affected them and Klansman who received immu
nity from prosecution for his
their families.
“1 don’t have no hate in my adm itted role in the abductions
heart, but I'm happy for justice,” and his testimony.
Edwards said Seale told him
said Dee’s sister Thelma Collins
that heavy weights were attached
of Springfield, La.
“I hope you perhaps spend to the teenagers and they were
the rest of your natural life in then dumped alive into the river.
Seale was arrested on a state
prison thinking of what you did
to Charles Moore and Henry Dee murder charge in 1964. but the
and how you ran for a long time charge was laterdropped, because
but you got caught,” Thomas local law enforcement officers in
Moore said. “1 hope the spirit of 1964 were in collusion with the
Charles and Henry come to your Kian, Federal prosecutors say.
Locker Room Offender
Investigation Expands
Portland police think a man ar
Based on more recent testi
rested for dressing as a woman and mony. police added a count of
entering the women's locker room Unlawful Contact with aChild last
at the Mount Scott Community week.
A cco rd in g to w itn e sse s,
Center may have done the same
B enson dressed in
thing at other com
women's clothing to
munity centers.
en ter the w om en 's
Police spokesman
locker room at least
Brian Schmautz said
twice during a period
that T h o m as Lee
of several hours. Once
Benson was arrested
inside the locker room,
June 11 on one count
he changed clothing
of invasion of pyi-
with children chang
vacy. one count of
ing intoor out of swim
misuse of a public
restroom and one Thomas Lee Benson ming suits.
Benson is listed on
count of failing to
register as a sex offender after po the Oregon Sex Offender Regis
lice responded to a report of a sus try, Schmautz said.
Anyone with information is
picious person at the Mount Scott
Community Center at 553OS.E. 72nd asked to contact Officer Bridget
Sickon at 503-823-0878.
Ave.
f rom Metro
C olas on the general arch o f the
story before the cam eras got
rolling: “ You must feel great,
because you started out getting
diversity in your father’s com
pany, and now you ’ re doing it on
a citywide basis.”
Having previously been with
the city for 18 years as a plum b
ing inspector, Shabazz is plenty
fam iliar with reluctance to enter
the limelight, but the com m u
nity-m edia experience certainly
hasn't hurt him in overcoming
shyness.
For young people like Colas,
Portland State U niversity's ra
dio station can be an even easier
place to build confidence than
PCM or KBOO, a community
radio station on East Burnside.
C onfidence is not a problem
lately in the case o f 23-year-old
Arya Imig, whose KPSU show
was a jum ping off point to the
get on the 10-member booking
com m ittee of PDX Pop Now,
an independent music festival.
“ 1 was a triple-threat for PDX
Pop Now, covering it for KPSU,
Local Cut and troubleshooting
photo b > R aymond R endeeman /T he P ortland O bserver
“Urban Vibe" host Mikal Shabazz (right) recently featured Hermann and Andrew Colas, a father and
son duo who came to talk about their work supporting minority-construction contracting.
for the festival,” Imig says.
He emphasizes the importance
of getting passionately involved
with established community-me
dia programs. For PDX Pop Now,
this meant discussing which bands
were “auto-ins,” and which bands
might benefit from outside sug
gestions.
“W e spent many four-hour
sessions throw ing out band
names and trying to represent
different genres,” says Imig,
whose role as a volunteer book-
•
ing coordinator for the Top
Down festival became a little
easier. Simply by offering his
help, he was able to secure his
current favorite band. Blue
Skies for Black Hearts, for Hotel
D eLuxe’s rooftop on Thursday,
Aug. 30.
These media junkies are al
ways looking for the next big
thing.
Little will be looking to the
meetings o f PC M ’s Black Pro
ducers Association for ideas on
Saturdays at 6 p.m.
“Once we get all the potential
minority producers together, we
could do some bigger projects,”
he says.
Tougher Law Wanted for Unlicensed Drivers
The death of a 77-year-old Salem
resident by an unlicensed driver
who had been cited multiple times
caused many to ask lawmakers to
take action.
Sen. Jackie W inters has re
sp o n d ed by c o n v e n in g
a
w orkgroup o f law m akers and
agency heads to identify where
Oregon law needs to be changed.
At last T hursday's meeting,
members of the group discussed
elevating the crime of driving with
a suspended or revoked license
from a violation to a criminal of-
fense, thereby allowing judges to
imprison those who continually
disregard the law.
“There are a very small number
of Oregonians whoeontinually dis
regard rules the rest of us follow,"
said Winters. "In order to get their
attention we are going to put some
State Sen. Jackie Winters
Biker Clubhouse Raid Settled
Suit charged police misconduct
The city of Portland agreed to Court by Murphy, Suzanne Miller,
pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed the injured woman, and Tomorrow
by three parties upset with a 2004 RUST oday, the company that own s
raid on the Gypsy Joker motorcycle the clubhouse building.
At the time, police told reporters
clubhouse at 3535 N.E. Martin
that police seized guns and meth
Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Police had arrest warrants for amphetamine in the raid, but Sam
two men suspected of robberies, Hochberg, Murphy's lawyer, said
but when the wanted men weren’t the guns found in the clubhouse
there, according to the lawsuit, were legal and that the drugs were
police held club member Patrick seized in a related raid in Salem the
Murphy in handcuffs for five hours same day.
According to the suit, police tore
without charging him, injured a
woman's foot in the raid and dam apart walls, knocked holes in the
ceiling and smashed 25 framed pho
aged the clubhouse.
The suit charged that police used tographs.
"The club had to take a stand."
a battering ram and fired tear gas
rockets into the clubhouse, despite says Mark Dencklau, Gypsy Joker
the fact that the door was unlocked president. “We needed to tell the
and that there was no resistance police that we w on't be treated as
second-class citizens. We won't
from people inside.
The suit was filed in U.S. District sit by and be their target anymore."
Easy Home Loans
1 (X)% financing Available
No Closing Cost Loans
Down Payment Assistance Programs
teeth in to these laws.”
Winters cited statistics provided
by the Oregon Department of Trans-
portation which show 177 Orego
nians with a suspended or revoked
driver license were convicted of the
same violation four or more times
between 2004 and July 2007.
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