State & Local
Page 2
The Battalion
Friday, January 28,11
Fric
Ti
Town looks back on teen-ager's
abduction.
The Associated Press
GILMER, Texas — Robert and
Cathy Carlson don't expect their
17-year-old daughter will ever be
coming home.
She disappeared one rainy
night two years ago and apparent
ly no one in this East Texas com
munity of nearly 5,000 people has
heard from her since.
The silence and the town's
peace of mind were shattered last
Friday when a grand jury indict
ed eight people, including Gilmer
Police Sgt. James York Brown, on
charges of kidnapping, sexually
assaulting and imprisoning Kelly
Wilson before she was stabbed to
death.
The girl's body has never been
found.
Residents of the close-knit
community about 110 miles east
of Dallas have been helplessly
drawn into a scandal that is cast
ing a shadow over an otherwise
quiet town.
Brown's supporters maintain
the 35-year-old lawman never
would have gone along with such
a diabolical scheme.
"I work with him and I don't
believe it,” said Becky Skinner,
indictment
secretary for the Gilmer Police De
partment. "I would trust him with
my own kids.”
Brown's devotion to the case
makes it hard to believe he was
involved in her death, Kelly's
stepfather said.
Kelly Wilson disappeared on
January 5, 1992. Around 8 p.m.,
she left the video store where she
worked to deposit the night's re
ceipts, according to police reports
and the store's manager.
"We drove by a couple of times
that night,” Carlson said. "Things
were busy so, we didn't stop."
Authorities say that Kelly ap
parently returned to the store. Po
lice later found her car and her
purse in front of the store. The
tires on 1985 Dodge Charger had
been slashed.
Michael Biby, 17, pleaded
guilty to slashing the tires and
served 90 days in jail. He insisted
he knew nothing about the girl's
disappearance and was not
named in Friday's indictments.
Always at the center of the
search for Kelly Wilson was
Brown, who made the rounds of
the town distributing fliers that
display a smiling, girl who once
was a member of the Gilmer High
of officer
School dance squad.
Later, it would be a case al
ready under investigation that
would provide investigators
with a crucial break in Kelly Wil
son' disappearance.
On May 29, 1993, Eugene W.
Kerr, 67, his wife, Geneva Kerr, 62;
their sons, Danny Kerr, 41, and his
common-law wife, Connie Martin,
27; Wendell Kerr, 45, and Wen
dell's wife, Wanda Kerr; Roger
Holeman, 44, a former Gilmer po
lice officer, and his girlfriend Tam
my Smith, 25, were arrested on
child molestation charges.
Scott Lyford, a special prosecu
tor for Galveston, said it was dur
ing his investigation of the child
molestation case that he first re
ceived evidence implicating
Brown. The most damaging blow
to Brown came from Martin.
"We have concluded that she
is reliable based on other evi
dence in other cases,” Lyford
said Wednesday.
Martin told authorities that she
and her co-defendants were re
sponsible for Kelly's murder. In ex
change for her cooperation, Martin
will not be prosecuted in connec
tion with Kelly Wilson's case.
Republicans try to stop March 8 primary
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — A federal lawsuit filed by seven Re
publicans seeks to halt the Texas March 8 congression
al primary, claiming "racial gerrymandering” has
made U.S. House district boundaries in Texas illegal.
The suit, filed Wednesday in Houston, wants the
primary elections to be put on hold until the Legisla
ture draws new district lines that cluster neighbor
hoods rather than ethnic groups.
The plaintiffs are seven Republicans from Hous
ton and Dallas who belong to a larger group called
the Texas Coalition for a Color Blind Texas.
The current Texas map "represents an unconstitu
tional effort to segregate the races for purposes of
voting," the suit says.
Although the suit "targets all 31 congressional dis
tricts in Texas, it is aimed more specifically at districts
like those represented by U.S. Reps. Gene Green and
Craig Washington, both Houston Democrats.
Green's 29th District, sprawling from Spring
Branch through southeast Houston to Baytown, was
created for the 1992 elections to include much of the
area's growing but geographically dispersed Hispan
ic population.
Washington's 18th District, created in 1970, con
tains mostly black neighborhoods in Houston's inner
city. It was redrawn for the 1992 elections to accom
modate a new "Hispanic” district, leaving it about
half black and running in patches.
Both districts were created under the Voting Rights
Act, which ended the practice in some Southern states
of weakening the power of minority voters by spread
ing them into mostly white election districts.
The lawsuit protests the moves.
The U.S. Supreme Court signaled support for such
an argument last May when it ruled in a North Caroli
na case that white voters' rights may have been violat
ed with the creation of two majority-black districts.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that district
maps deserve court scrutiny when they are "so
bizarre" that they appear "unexplainable on grounds
other than race." The new districts, she added, "bear
an uncomfortable resemblance to apartheid."
And in December, a federal appeals court threw out
a Z-shaped, majority-black district in Louisiana, using
the same reasoning as in the North Carolina case.
But state Democratic Party executive director Ed
Martin said the Texas congressional districts have al
ready been cleared in court and the Justice Depart
ment for compliance with the Voting Rights Act.
He also said it was incorrect to compare the Texas
districts represented by minorities with those that
were challenged in North Carolina.
"The districts in Texas don't stretch hundreds of
miles across the state. They represent people who
work, live and worship in one community," he said.
The Texas lawsuit was filed by lawyer Paul Hurd
of Monroe, La., who worked on the Louisiana case.
Fraternity to sponsor Miss Black and
Gold scholarship pageant Saturday
Rv Antmla Neave<; and modeIin g competitions. They are also judgec
y Q on their answer to an impromptu question.
Thc Baitauon
Eleven Texas A&M women will compete for the
title of Miss Black and Gold Saturday at 7 p.m. in
Rudder Theater.
The pageant is the last event during Alpha Phi
Alpha Week.
Brian Williams, a chairman of the Miss Black &
Gold pageant and member of Alpha Phi Alpha,
said the pageant is the fraternity's biggest event of
the year.
"The Miss Black and Gold pageant showcases
talented African-American females," Williams
said. "It also provides the winners with scholar
ships at the local, regional and national levels."
The contestants were chosen on the basis of per
sonal interviews and have been rehearsing for the
pageant eight hours a day.
Contestants are judged in evening gown, talent
Kathy Polk, a sophomore accounting majorans
contestant, decided to compete in the pageant after
attending last year's pageant.
"I'm not a very talkative person, and Miss Biad
and Gold has made me more outgoing," Polk said
"I've also made eleven new friends."
Another contestant, Audra Robertson, a senioi
chemistry major, said she is really excited about
competing in Saturday's pageant.
"All of us have progressed beautifully and
such a strong sisterhood through working on tb
pageant," Robertson said, " Tm more excited tk
nervous about competing. I'm with friends."
The title of Miss Black and Gold offers conte>
tants a chance to be role models for African-Ameri
can women and children, Robertson said, and en
courages them to continue their education andk
come community leaders.
B
Richards comes under scrutiir
Governor's office regularly shreds phone bill records
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — A spokesman for Gov. Ann
Richards on Thursday branded "a tempest in a li
brarian's teapot" a newspaper report that Richards'
long distance phone calls and those of her staff are
destroyed as soon as the bills are paid.
"We have been operating under the same set of
circumstances, the same rules, that (former Gov.) Bill
Clements adopted in 1989. And we have been fulfill
ing the law,” said Bill Cryer, Richards' press secre
tary.
The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that
while other state agencies keep records of phone
calls for at least three years, Richards' aides regularly
destroy her itemized long-distance records after each
monthly bill is paid.
Richards' staff says the action is legal under a law
and procedure that outlines how state records may
be destroyed.
"There is no conspiracy over here,” said Cryer. "I
doubt Ann Richards even know what that (records)
retention schedule even looks like."
Richards, in Houston on Thursday, called the re
port "much ado about nothing."
"1 think the whole deal was that a reporter
thought that we should keep our phone records
longer than the archives people required either Bill
Clements or me to do," she said.
"I've always said anybody can see anything we
do in my office," the governor told reporters. "Un
fortunately, I haven't got any secrets."
Cryer said that since Richards took office in 1991,
the schedule for retaining the records had been re
viewed twice by state lawyers and archivists.
"They never raised an issue about whether those
records were being kept. This is silly," Cryer said.
The Chronicle reported that a state archivist said
itemized long-distance telephone records are sup
posed to be kept at least three years.
William L. Dyess, director of records managar
for the Texas State Library and Archives, tol
newspaper that archivists intended that iten
long-distance records be kept for three years.
"The billing detail in our opinion probably sk
include the detail listing," Dyess said.
However, Dyess conceded how confusioni
the retention schedule could be made.
There is a three-year record-keeping period!
"billing records" and a billing verification deste
tion allowed for "long-distance telephone logs."
The only long-distance record now availablefc
the governor's state telephones at her office is Oct
ber1993.
November and December bills have not yets
Co
rived from the General Services Commission, whic
serves as the state government's telephone compaE
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchis
contended that a political double standards
work.
Contin
Ithe co
want t
guess
"Kay Hutchison has kept and turned over tote and it <
In c
the press and prosecutors the records of every sk
telephone call made at the Treasury during herb Jefern
year term," David Beckwith said. Rating
"Yet she is prosecuted for destroying recoi biild
while Democrat office holders are ignored,' 'toj/ails c
with said. . Bendin
Hutchison, a Republican, is scheduled forti t and“ac
Feb. 7 on ethics charges from her tenure as state trwie pari 1
surer. I Dr.
She is charged with four felony counts of misitne res
ing state employees and equipment and of tampjuniver
ing with governmental records and physical e
dence in an attempted cover-up. K;
The state records-tampering law makes itacrir
if someone "intentionally destroys, conceals,: 1
moves or otherwise impairs the verity, legibilih
availability of a governmental record."
Violation is a misdemeanor or third-
felony.
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