state
Battalion/Page 10
March 31, 1982
Jury selection begins in trial of officers
United Press International
DALLAS —Jury selection was scheduled to
begin Tuesday in the trial of three Limestone
County officers charged with negligence in
the drowning deaths of three black teenagers
following their arrest last summer at a
Juneteenth celebration.
Participants in the trial, delayed by nine
months of hearings and four changes of
venue, have been silenced by a series of gag
orders, the latest from Dallas County Criminal
Judge Tom Price, who will preside over the
trial that has meandered across east and cen
tral Texas.
Texas
Briefs
Blaze kills officer
HOUSTON — Flames ignited
by an exploding gasoline tank
truck struck from the rear by a
dump truck killed a motorcyle
policeman and w'arped a steel
overpass.
Firefighters worked 90 mi
nutes to bring the blaze under
control Monday, but were un
able to get close enough to re
scue Officer Winston J. Rawlins,
23, who an eyewitness said
struggled to free himself from
wreckage.
Rawlins, a two-year veteran of
the force, was trapped in the col
lision of the tank truck, two
dump trucks and the car which
Rawlins had stopped for a traffic
violation on the shoulder of the
South Loop East in southeast
Houston.
Home bombed
TEXARKANA — Investigators
said they have three suspects in
the weekend bombing of a rural
home damaged by at least 2 1/2
pounds of exploding dynamite.
However, Bowie County
Chief Deputy DeWayne Cannon
said no arrests appear immi
nent. He said Monday that dam
age to the house could total
$15,000.
The Steve Davis family was in
Denver visiting relatives when
the bomb exploded about 12:30
a.m. Sunday, shattering win
dows, bowing walls and knock-
. ing a hole in the foundation of
their house. Cannon said dam
age could run as high as
SI5,000. The family returned
Monday and was able to give in
vestigators information about
possible suspects. Cannon said.
Million dollar suit
HOUSTON — Lester Melvin
Main has filed a S 1 million suit
against Harris County Commis
sioner Jim Fonteno alleging he
was fired from his county job last
month because he is running
against the commissioner in the
May 1 primary.
Main, 26. said Monday he
cannot find a job now because of
his alleged politically motivated
firing from a job at the Lyn
chburg car ferry.
Main also claims he has been
denied a hearing which could
afford him an opportunity to
find out why he was fired. Com
missioner Fonteno said a hear
ing is now in the process of being
scheduled by the Harris Countv
attorney’s office.
Money orders
HOUSTON — A 37-year-old
man arrested for allegedly
trying to sell $6,000 in money
orders stolen from the Lincoln
National Bank in Chicago dur
ing the Democratic National
Convention riots of 1966 has
been arraigned on federal
charges.
Billv S. Hastings,of Pasadena.
Texas, faces a maximum sent
ence of 10 vears in prison and a
$ 10.000 fine if he is convicted on
the charges.
Houston FBI agents alleged
Monday that Hastings was
trying to sell the money orders
this past weekend for 30 percent
of the value. They said they were
unsure if Hastings participated
in the original theft of the
monev orders.
Eleven-story fall
FOR I WORTH — A steelwor
ker fell I I stones to his death,
authorities said.
Johnny Von Pennington. 23.
of nearbv Arlington was work
ing on a building under con
struction when he fell Mondas
afternoon.
Pennington was employed by
VSI Construction Co. of Grand
Prairie. lexas.
The deaths on Lake Mexia occurred during
a Juneteenth celebration, focusing on the
emancipation for blacks in Texas. The June
19, 1981, incident excited racial tension in the
community of Mexia, and fears of tensions in
two other cities have brought the trial 80 miles
north to Dallas.
Two white officers were among the three
lawmen who arrested the youths on drug pos
session charges, then loaded them into a 14-
foot aluminum fishing boat to take them
across the small lake.
The boat was swamped 50 yards offshore.
The prisoners — Steve Booker, Anthony
Freeman and Carl Baker — all drowned. The
lawmen — Kenny Elliot, David Drummond
and Kenneth Archie, a black, all survived.
The negligence charge hangs on the fact
that with a 600-pound capacity the boat was
overloaded, and that none of the six people
aboard wore a life preserver.
When officials recovered two of the three
bodies the next day, bystanders said they saw
handcuffs removed from the bodies before
they were taken from the lake.
That would explain why Steve Booker —
who, his mother said, had swum the breadth of
the lake on several occasions — had been un
able to swim the 50 yards to the shore.
But autopsies revealed no signs the youths
were handcuffed when they drowned. Drum
mond testified at a three-day inquiry in July
that two of the youths — Booker and Baker —
were handcuffed together until they got to the
boat, where the manacles were removed.
After the inquiry, the officers were charged
with negligent homicide, a misdemeanor
offense punishable by one year in county jail
and a $2,000 fine.
The case was opened at Groesbeck in
Limestone County, then moved to Marlin
when the judge disqualified himself.
At Marlin, residents feared racial problems,
so the trial was forwarded to San Marcos,
south of Austin.
The most recent move to Dallas — less than
two hours drive from Mexia — was meantto
accomodate both sides.
This month Price heard challenges to the
Dallas setting, citing pretrial publicity and
Price’s lack of jurisdiction to hear cases involv
ing official misconduct.
Price ruled against a change of venue mo
tion, and an appeals court in Austin rejected
arguments against Price’s standing tohearthe
matter.
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