The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 537

BBS SECTION SUNDAY JANUARY 20 1991 DEATHS 4B She iiliami Herald aame A I I UL I I LI old Xr A JX' -fa i 4 I rvfr- A Sfo 4jp ACLU sues 2nd county alleges bias in elections pil 1 By PATTY SHILUNGTON Herald Staff Writer Civil rights lawyers Friday filed the second legal challenge in less than a month against a Florida county that has never had a black elected to countywide office And it be the last such suit the American Civil Liberties Union takes on in Florida said Neil Bradley associate director of the southern regional office in Atlanta are looking at several other jurisdictions" Bradley said will undoubtedly be more lawsuits filed" The suit filed in Tampa federal court says the Hendry County election system unconstitutionally discriminates against the black minority which makes up 18 percent of the population of 26903 Only one black in the history of the south central Florida county has even run for countywide office the suit says In 1968 Orvell Lewis ran for county commission and lost Filed by Florida Rural Legal Services and the ACLU the lawsuit is nearly identical to one the same groups filed Dec 24 against DeSoto County politicians In that southwest Florida county too no black has ever been elected to countywide office and only one black has ever run DeSoto County a strong said Cristina Correia a Florida Rural Legal Services attorney of the Hendry suit The ACLU has filed about 200 similar voting rights lawsuits throughout the South and lost one since 1982 Bradley said The Hendry suit claims that countywide elections discourage blacks from even trying to participate in politics Lawyers say more blacks would run for office if they had a chance of winning Clifford Collins the national director of voter education in Baltimore Md said recently that there are many counties especially in the South with virtually no black representation on political panels is the rule as opposed to the exception particularly in those counties with at-large Collins said The Hendry suit asks a judge to order single-member districts the county Under that system sioners and school board members would be elected by districts instead of in countywide elections thus ensuring black representation on the boards the humane thing to said Jesse Robinson one of three plaintiffs in the Hendry case in Hendry County want to be heard And they want to be represented by black people" By PHIL LONG Herald Staff Writer FORT PIERCE An 18-year-old accused of overpowering a patrolman during a traffic stop and killing him with his own 9mm automatic is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge Officer Danny bulletproof vest stopped many of the 14 slugs that Billy Leon Kearse allegedly fired Fort Pierce Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said But several hit the officer in unprotected places Parrish 29 an oft-commended officer member of the department's ceremonial honor guard and of the Special Response Team became the third Fort Pierce officer to die in the line of duty in four years Two other officers have been shot during the same period but they survived Kearse a burly six-footer with a long juvenile record gave officers a lengthy interview after the arrest describing the shooting In the tape-recorded statement Kearse says he was on probation and feared that a traffic arrest might send him back to prison He panicked officers said Kerlikowske was unable to nail down criminal record Saturday but said he believe Kearse was on drugs or drunk when events began unfolding Friday night just west of US 1 near the heart of Fort Pierce Kearse was driving a blue Monte Carlo the wrong way on Avenue A about 7:45 pm police said Parrish flipped on his blue lights and pulled Kearse over at the north side of the intersection of Avenue A and Fifth Street Kearse had no driver license and there was no record of his name in the state motor vehicle computer a 911 dispatcher told the officer When Parrish began to arrest Kearse on the no-driver-license charge a fight started investigators said There were no witnesses for the next few seconds But around the comer just over a block away a cab driver whom police identify heard the crack of pistol fire By the time he got around the comer the Monte Carlo was fleeing and Parrish lay mortally wounded The cab driver fumbled with car radio yelling for help Then he gave first aid Within moments ser geant and sometime fishing buddy LP Lasenby was there Soon the neighborhood was flooded with police and medics Parrish was rushed to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center three miles away where he died Officers sped to notify his wife Mirtha and parents After checking the registration other officers raced to two houses where they believed they might find the owner one not far away and another just outside city limits At the second house they found the owner who was not the driver and they found Kearse They searched the house and found gun investigators said By then Parrish had been dead about three hours life his dream was being a police officer said Marion Parrish the slain father lived and breathed it There was nothing on earth rather be doing He loved helping people Parrish was an Eagle Scout his father said softly recalling one of his proudest times At Fort Hood Texas where young Parrish was a diesel mechanic in the Army he counseled the base son as he worked his way through the ranks to become an Eagle was an officer you could depend on every said Lasenby He loved country music bass fishing deer hunting and the folks he worked with The flag outside police headquarters was at half staff Saturday Officers wore black ribbons over their badges The air conditioning was out in the building making the day all the more insufferable for the men and women who had worked with Parrish for 3 Vi years After the Army Parrish started as a city mechanic working on police cars He joined the police reserves and two years later got accepted on the force After an above-average career at the police academy he was assigned to the patrol division where he quickly made a reputation as an eager efficient officer was the best I ever said Doug Heinmiller his field training officer really knew the Joe Wirthman head of the depart- 6 PHIL LONG Miami Herald CRIME SCENE: The area where a Fort Pierce officer died was still cordoned off Saturday He was also considered one of the safest officers always wearing his vest and always following procedures So how did the assailant gain the advantage over Parrish? may never know exactly" Kerlikowske said personnel file contains nearly a dozen commendations One was placed there just six weeks ago when Pamsh and Lasenby chased a fleeing robberyshooting suspect The man suddenly whirled and pointed a gun at the two officers Parrish ever calm under stress his latest evaluation says convinced the man to give up Kerlikowske said stress counselors are working this weekend with officers their wives and children and others close to Parrish helping them deal with the shooting The Parrish family will receive friends from 6-9 pm Monday at Haisley Hobbs Funeral Home on West Okeechobee Road Kearse street crimes and vice division knew Parrish as one of the productive uniform officers we ever worked with He knew everybody He was always giving us information He liked the high crime areas He liked action He was a real go-getter" Prosecutors of raunchy rockers hit sour note in Broward ty'VPMW added up but the cost of the 2 Live Crew prosecution has: About $100000 records show including police overtune and the tab for sequestering the 2 Live Crew jury Taxpayers are also stuck with a $22000 bill for 2 Live attorneys US District Judge Jose Gonzalez ordered the county to pick up that tab in June when he ruled that BSO had improperly threatened to arrest record store owners That bill could shoot up another $100000 if 2 Live Crew successfully appeals order that found their album obscene a decision that barred some of the legal reimbursement Some say the poor court record will prevent similar prosecutions in the future Some say it think the First Amendment protected said Nova Law Professor Bruce Rogow the attorney for 2 Live Crew and Freeman all this came out in the open and in the press the government was skewered" Still many people supported the obscenity prosecutions And the State Office has not ruled out pursuing obscenity cases against bands and record sellers in the future Countryman said music is not Salantrie said is simply an untenable position for law enforcement to Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro who gained national attention as the lawman who ordered the arrests was uncharacteristically quiet after Too Much acquittal Navarro vowed to arrest people for buying singing or promoting obscene lyrics particularly the banned- in-Broward best-selling 2 Live Crew album As Nasty as They Wanna Be Beyond that Navarro had nothing to say "He really want to talk about said BSO spokesman George Crolius Defense attorneys invoked name repeatedly through the Too Much Joy trial Salantrie asked the jurors to Nick personal The jurors said they personally angry with Navarro but they did say their tax dollars were being wasted on frivolous prosecutions ought to spend their money catching robbers and said juror Glen Tyson of Deerfield Beach The cost of the Too Much Joy case has not been began a campaign that picked up speed and momentum contributing to a national debate over crude music versus free speech But for all the fireworks the cases set off they were largely a dud in court First was the conviction of Fort Lauderdale record store owner Charles Freeman who got a $1000 fine Then came the acquittal of 2 Live Crew in October Finally a jury openly scoffing at the case afterward took about 20 minutes Thursday to absolve Too Much Joy On Friday the State Office quietly filed papers dropping the charges against Gemnger who was charged as the promoter of the Too Much Joy concert at Club Futura The music industry and its advocates say that legal record is mixed enough to scare away any elected official sheriff or state attorney from stepping back onto the anti-obscenity bandwagon again anytime soon seems painfully clear these prosecutions will not succeed" said Ed Salantrie the attorney for Too Much Joy guitarist Jay Blumenfield juries have spoken overwhelmingly that this By DEXTER FILKINS Herald Staff Writer Like a freight train finally running out of steam the campaign to prosecute purveyors of raunchy music in Broward County rolled to a halt last week after a noisy year-long run Nobody knows whether it will ever ride again When a Broward jury acquitted the New York rock band Too Much Joy on obscenity charges Thursday and handed Broward prosecutors their second straight loss State Attorney Michael Satz abruptly gave up office decided not to pursue the case against Hollywood nightclub owner Ken Gerringer the last in a string of eight defendants charged in four separate obscenity cases The reason: Prosecutors themselves predicted they would lose in court are going to need more evidence if we are going to get a conviction" said Assistant State Attorney John Countryman who handled the three-day Too Much Joy trial imagine a case like this being filed again" The campaign to squelch obscene music in Broward County opened with a bang: 2 Live arrest in June War creates quiet desperate feeling that nobody wins Wars They touch our lives like burning brands They leave their scars on generations From such mass upheavals of order one cannot escape at any age Jean Devine is a long way from the day America plunged into World War II a long way from the 1950s psychological fallout Irom that war killing her first marriage a long way from the Korean combat death of her brother-in-law or the anti-war tumult of the 1960s and But all there still all tucked back in the memory banks And all of us share these things we who are of an age Now 1991 and she lives in march against the undeclared war in Vietnam I join them in opposition to war and killing The war will go on until 57605 Americans are dead 303700 wounded 5011 missing 587000 civilians are dead 444000 North Vietnamese In 1972 Bill died of alcohol-induced liver disease still haunted by war Jean Devine and her second husband Dr John Devine Jr came to Miami after their marriage 21 years ago He is professor at the University of Miami and a veteran military surgeon They have differing views on the Middle East war but communicate well Hers is an independent mind war gives me a feeling of quiet desperation" she tells you see the same mistakes being made over and over "When will they learn? In war nobody fashionable Bay Point Miami with her husband a professor of plastic surgery Life is ordered comfortable And still it comes back For again we are a nation at war God" Jean Devine wrote to me "have we learned nothing from the past?" I knew what she meant Regardless of position on the war our personal commitment our anxiety for the troops the fact is there The Middle East is seventh major conflict in a century Our longest peacetime was 23 years between World War I and our entry into World War II The shortest was six years between World War and Korea a war for every generation Mine was Korea as a paratrooper sergeant with the 11th Airborne Division When I was a child World War I was still a vivid American memory We sang the songs of that war watched old doughboys cough their lungs out from trench gas Living remnants of other wars survived gray-bearded ancients of the Civil War and Spanish-Amencan War All that is part of my heritage It thus made Jean letter and our subsequent talk especially significant For she wrote 8 1941: I sit in seventh-grade class listening to President Franklin Roosevelt on the radio declaring war against the Japanese after the Pearl Harbor attack day' he tells the nation will live in hometown of Lynchburg Va will become dark and dreary with air raid drills blackouts food and gas rationing Stores empty home building ceases factories turn to making weapons of war The news is awful Families receive dreaded telegrams War Department regrets to inform you A star in the window marks the home of war dead I put a Marine on the train for the Pacific He will return alive his brother will come home in a box 7 1941: 1 marry Bill a combat veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division He is 10 years older than I but unable to adjust to going back to college He drinks steadily One evening he tells me killed a German soldier in France In his wallet I found a picture of a young woman and two children He was doing his job for his country I think I also killed something inside 10 1951: A letter from my father-in-law brother Duncan 22 is missing in action in Korea We cannot believe dead The body will come home to Virginia one year later Washington DC: Our marriage is ended I am a divorcee with two children visiting in Washington where students BSSEBSSS ETESSCSEESSSa iffi if ifTi itn tn ff.