Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 5 October 2006 — Page 31

The Muncie Times • October 5, 2006 • Page 31

NEWS BRIEFS

continued from page 29 graduate of Prince George’s public schools. These issues, they touch home for me. These are my friends, my family, and my neighbors. These are people whom I have known all my life. I have prepared for this job all of my life, to return to your community and to be able to lead your community.” Peters, a White Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm, is a graduate of Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools. He says he doesn’t think the racial aspect matters to voters. “I think people are going to vote for people who get results whether or not you are Black or White or Hispanic,” says Peters. “People are going to go for the person they believe is going to get the job done.” Blacks who elect Whites in majority Black districts do so for several reasons, says Bositis, one being a lack of political knowledge by constituents. “Less than a quarter of the people in the country can name their U. S. House member,” he says. “So, you can imagine that is even less so with their state representative.” Henry is hoping this will not work against him. Because Henry nearly defeated Green in the 2002 Democratic Primary with 45 percent of the vote, and Peters currently serves on the County Council, they are considered the leading contenders for Green’s seat. A third candidate, Greg Holmes, a Black project manager and political newcomer, remains in the race, but is not considered close to a front-runner but could take votes from

Henry. Though not all AfricanAmerican politicians are strong advocates for issues that affect Blacks, Bositis says Black candidates are usually the choice in Black districts because of the perception that they will be more sensitive and identify with issues. “The thing is the care and compassion on the issues that affect the district.” The last NAACP Legislative Report card showed only two Black Caucus members receiving Cs - Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA.) and Ford of Tennessee - while the other 41 got As and Bs, indicating that Black legislators are stronger advocates for Black constituents. African-Americans’ inability to elect candidates of their choice it is often because of the lack of political self-interest and strategy, says Thomas N. Todd, a civil rights lawyer and former president of the Chicago chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Operation PUSH. “If we’re ever going to make electoral politics work for us, whomever is elected - whether it’s a Black person because we decide the Black person is the best candidate or a White person or Hispanic based on our basic needs - you need voter registration for the ability to vote, you need voter education which informs us how to vote our own best interest and we need voter participation,” says Todd. “We don’t usually have those things. As a result of that, we don’t make informed electoral choices.”

Head of Black Uniform Supply Company Prepares to Don Prison Outfit WASHINGTON - The brothers that controlled Terry Manufacturing Co. in tiny Roanoke, Ala., near the Georgia border, seemed to have it all. They had millions of dollars in federal contracts to supply uniforms for U.S. soldiers and outfit the U.S. Forest Service. They were one of only two companies that made uniforms for McDonald’s Corp. The National Hockey League awarded them a contract to make fan gear and the 1996 Olympics gave them a contract as well. With $50 million in annual sales, Black Enterprise magazine listed Terry Manufacturing as one of the largest Blackowned businesses in the United States. For years, Roy and Rudolph Terry, both graduates of Morehouse College in Atlanta, seemed to have taken the company founded by their late father in 1963 - the same year Gov. George C. Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent desegregation - to new heights. But when cash flow problems developed, they sunk to new lows, defrauding banks, obtaining money under false pretense from longtime friends, associates, and a string of celebrities, including Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, basketball great Lenny Wilkens and actors Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith. Prosecutors said more than $20 million was fraudulently obtained by Terry.

On Sept. 11, when the nation will be reflecting on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in suburban Washington, D.C., Roy Terry is scheduled to be sentenced in a federal court in Montgomery, Ala. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Terry has pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud, crimes punishable of up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. However, under a plea agreement, Terry is expected to be sentenced to 11.3 years, roughly a third of the maximum term he could have received had he gone to trial. Speaking to reporters shortly after Terry agreed to the plea deal, George Beck, the defendant’s attorney, said: “Any mistakes that Roy made were due to his extreme dedication to keeping his company going and his people employed while other apparel companies abandoned the United States and went overseas.” Roy Terry’s younger brother, Rudolph, served eight months at a federal facility in Montgomery for fraud and paid $800,000 in restitution. In announcing Roy Terry’s plea agreement, Leura Garrett Canary, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, said Terry pled guilty to six counts of bank fraud, one count of misuse of pension plan funds, four counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of transporting the proceeds of fraud across state lines. Several principals in Swanson Funeral Home - the Detroit Company that handled the burial of Rosa

Parks - loaned money to Terry. One of them, O’Neil Swanson, is still owed $350,000, according to court records. Many of the people loaned Terry money after he said he wanted a make a special purchase of lowcost fabric or was waiting on payment from federal agencies, court records show. Terry also falsely claimed that he was starting a new business venture with radio personality Tom Joyner, though no entity was ever launched by them. In addition to submitting false documents to banks, the U.S. Attorney stated, “Mr. Terry further acknowledged that, at least from January 1, 2003, through February 18, 2003, he engaged in a pattern of check kiting during which he would deposit Terry Mfg. checks written on an account at Bank of Wedowee into another Terry Mfg. account at First Bank of Roanoke, and then do the same thing in reverse between the accounts to maintain the appearance of an inflated account balance. During this period, he fraudulently obtained over $2 million in additional funds belonging to First Bank of Roanoke and the Bank of Wedowee for his own use at Terry Mgt. based on the over $8.5 million in checks written between the two accounts.” At a time Terry was fleecing banks and friends, he was also misusing employees' pension funds. Canary, the U.S. Attorney, said Roy Terry “knowingly and intentionally misused employee and employer contributions to the Terry Mfg. company pension plan. Specifically, continued on page 32