Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 10

DETROIT FREE JAN. 12, 1980 BRIBERY, KICKBACK CASE Shareholders drop $50 million lawsuit against Henry Ford II FORD, from Page 1A chairman a as he neared retirement from daily duties at the auto company. It was also the suit that angered Ford the most, and he Ignored his attorneys' advice by calling a news conference in may 1978 to deny point-by-point the charges in the suit. The case was subsequently thrown out of two New York courts for lack of jurisdiction. The action has been officially dead since September, but Cohn had vowed to refile the suit "in Alaska if necessary." Cohn could not be reached for comment on the statement released by Ford.

A Ford lawyer said the statement was jointly agreed upon by Cohn, Pollack and attorneys for Ford Motor and Henry Ford. Cohn told the Free Press last may that he had not collected any legal fees in the case and would not unless and until he won damages on behalf of his clients. THE SETTLEMENT says Cohn and Pollack "have agreed not to continue in Michigan courts or elsewhere" the suit on behalf of a handful of Ford Motor Co. stockholders. White House pushes gasohol By DAVID HESS Free Press Washington Staff WASHINGTON The White House unveiled its anxiously awaited new gasohol program Friday, and it turned out to be largely a rehash of existing efforts and proposals with one new twist.

At a press briefing here, White House domestic chief Stuart Eizenstat, Deputy Energy Secretary John Sawhill and Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jim Williams outlined a four-point program to stimulate more production of ethanol. Ethanol is a 200-proof form of alcohol distilled from corn or other plants that can be mixed with unleaded gasoline to boost octane and stretch gasoline supplies. The blend is called gasohol. Three of the four points announced at the briefing included proposals that President Carter has already made to Congress. Henry Ford: "There was no wrongdoing," the statement says.

THE FOURTH, which Eizenstat readily admitted was the only new element in the president's gasohol program, would establish a 10-year, $3 billion loan and loan-guarantee program to build small to medium-sized ethanol distilleries. The other three elements of the program are tax credits and exemption for ethanol production and use. These are now before Congress and appear to have enough support for eventual passage. The aim of the combined program, Eizenstat said, was a sixfold increase in ethanol production by sometime in 1981. The 1981 target is for a production capacity of 500 million gallons a year equal to 10 percent of unleaded gasoline production.

At the moment, American distillers are capable of producing up to 80 million gallons of ethanol a year. Labor's plight in the 1930s inspired Harry Casselman By DONNA BRITT Free Press Staff Writer A Chrysler Corp. assembly line may seem an unusual place to learn an appreciation of labor law, but that's where Detroit-area attorney and arbitrator Harry N. Casselman first became interested in his specialty. Mr.

Casselman told family members that as a University of Michigan law student working part-time at Chrysler in the mid 1930s, he found conditions at the non-union shop untenable. Casselman expressed those views to a law professor who was dean of the U-M law school, the educator stalked out of the classroom in consternation. "Despite that, the dean respected his intelligence and scholastic ability so much that he helped my father find his first job," his daughter, Carol Casselman, said Friday. "He was really that good," added his daughter, herself a law student. Harry Casselman died Wednesday of a heart attack.

He was 66. A Detroit-area resident for most of his life, Toronto-born Mr. Casselman got his bachelor's degree from U-M in 1934. He graduated from the obituaries Gordon of the Marvelettes Services for Georgeanna Gordon, 35, an original member of the now defunct Motown singing group the Marvelettes, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Holy Family Catholic Church, 27800 Annapolis, Inkster.

Mrs. Gordon, who was forced to give up her singing career because of illness about two years before the group disbanded in 1970, died Sunday at her Inkster home from the lupus disease, her family said. While students at Inkster High School in the early 1960s, Mrs. Gordon and four other girls formed the singing group. They were spotted by Motown founder Berry Gordy during a talent show at the school and signed to one of Motown's subsidiary labels, Tamla.

Their first recording, "Hey, Mr. climbed to the top 10 of the soul charts, and the group made its debut tour of the United States. In recent years Mrs. Gordon had been a student at Wayne County Community College and a secretary at Plymouth State Hospital, her family said. Mrs.

Gordon, who was divorced from Billy Gordoon, a member of another former Motown group, the Contours, is survived by her son, Darrian; her mother, Mrs. Annabelle Tillman; and three sisters, Sharon, Anna Marie and Thea. Burial will be at Metropolitan Cemetery. The Rev. Perkins, church founder Services for the Rev.

Newton E. Perkins, 66, Detroit chaplain and youth worker, will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, 3712 Preston. Mr.

Perkins, who founded Iconium Missionary Baptist Church on the east side, died Jan. 4 in Harper Hospital. He was the Protestant chaplain at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Detroit. He was an Army veteran of World War II.

He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and graduated from the Detroit Bible College. He was a member of the NAACP, the United Negro College Fund, the Morehouse Club and the Foster Parents for the State of Michigan. Survivors include his wife, Hazelle; five daughters, Barbara, Pamela, Lorraine, Cora Ann and Bronda; six sons, Wesley, James, Daryl, Robert, Anthony and Jimmy; a stepmother, two sisters, and a brother. HIGHLAND PARK COMMUNITY COLLEGE REGISTRATION WILL CONTINUE THRU JAN. 18 "The company and the defendants named in that suit have denied, and continue to deny, those charges," the statement continues.

"Mr. Cohn and Mr. Pollack said it now appears that there was no wrongdoing by Henry Ford II or the others although a reading of the complaint demonstrates plaintiffs' disagreement with various company The statement also notes that investigations of various charges in the suit have also been conducted by Ford Motor's audit committee, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Department. Those probes "render unnecessary any futher litigation over the charges," the settlement says.

The internal investigation by the company's audit committee resulted in Ford's personal repayment to the company last of $34,585. Ford said that covered expenses run up by his year estranged wife, Cristina, at an apartment 1 in the Carlisle Hotel in New York without his knowledge. THE CHARGES, which Cohn's law firm says partly originated with ex-Ford Motor executives, included: That Henry Ford accepted $750,000 in kickbacks from the Canteen Corp. in return for an exclusive concession to provide food and beverages at company facilities. That Ford Motor paid a $1 million bribe to an Indonesian official i in connection with the awarding of a Ford Aerospace contract in that country.

A Justice Department grand jury probe of that case is not expected to result in indictments, though it has been established that a bribe was contemplated at lower levels of Ford Motor. That Henry Ford accepted a $2 million bribe from Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, in return for building a car stamping plant in that country. Mrs. Marcos is a jet-set friend of Cristina Ford's. Various squandering of company money on Ford and his friends and family.

The end to the suit doesn't necessarily mean that Henry Ford has heard the last from Cohn. The lawyer is also representing Benson Ford a nephew of the Ford Motor chairman, in a suit against the organization that manages Ford family investments. The suit against Ford Estates in U.S. District Court says Henry Ford is one of the family members who conspired against Benson Jr. to deprive him of cash and stock the Ford heir says is owed him under various trusts.

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CASSELMAN WAS director of industrial relations for the Hygrade Food Corp. from 1954 to 1964. As a state fact apfice, Mr. Casselman listened pointed by the governor's ofto the arguments of both sides of labor disputes involving Michigan teachers, police and firemen. According to friend and associate Robert Pisarski, Mr.

Casselman was assigned to 32 such Michigan teacher disputes in 1965. Thirty-one of the cases were settled successfully. "That's a pretty amazing record," said Pisarski, direcof the Michigan Employment Relations Commission in Detroit. "He was able to accomplish it because his personalIty was so overwhelming and his wealth of knowledge so vast that he simply inspired people's confidence." Mr. Casselman was field examiner, attorney, chief law officer and regional director of the 7th Region of the National Labor Relations Board (Michigan).

He was a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators, the Michigan bar assoclations and the Industrial Relations Research Association. Other survivors include his wife, Muriel; two sons, Gary and David; a sister, and a brother. There will be a memorial service at 12:15 p.m. Sunday at Temple Israel, 17400 Manderson in Detroit. SAVE THIS AD $295 $128 THIS VALUE WEEK'S SPECIAL SHEEPSKIN COATS Warm, genuine shearling lambskin leather coats with cut fur edges in all their natural beauty.

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