Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 April 1977 — Page 1
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EX-PROBER REVEALS
Ray names accomplices in King slaying
Councilman’s allocation of job money under fire
Federal money intended for jobless poor
How money intended to help underprivileged youth secure work ended up in the private business of a City-County councilman has a large section of the Indianapolis citizenry aroused. To make matters worse, certain black spokesmen have called the councilman in question a “racist” with next-to-no concern for the poor’s joblessness, living conditions is not just limited to blacks and so-called white liberals, but to conservative Republicans as weD,” read a tersely worded statement circulated at Tuesday night’s council meeting. Signed “Concerned Citizens for Indianapolis,” it also accused Richard F. Clark of being bitterly opposed to proposals to improve the inner-city, while heading a firm cited in complaints filed with the city’s Human Rights Commission. Something in the neighborhood of $34,000 haa been earmarked for Clark's firm. All - American Employment Service Inc., to counsel youths on job interview and search and eventually find them jobs. Since he heads the powerful TURN TO PAGE 18 Crime Scene-
Elderly
Shot during ‘horseplay,’ off-duty officer may be paralyzed for life
Boy, 11, is nabbed as heroin pusher
A 24-year-old Indianapolis Police officer shot by a fellow officer in what Police Chief Eugene Gallager termed “a case of foolish horseplay," faces the bleak possibility of being paralyzed for the rest of his life. The injured patrolman, Harry Dunn Jr., was shot last Wednesday night outside the Tally-Ho Tavern, 211 W. 34th, by Patrolman James Highbaugh, 32, who is believed to have attempting to “scare” Dunn with his .357 service revolver when the weapon accidentally discharged- the bullet striking Dunn in the neck and severing his spinal cord. Both patrolmen, who are assigned to the department’s team policing unit, were offduty at the time of the shooting but had gone to the tavern accompanied by two informants in an attempt to arrest a man believed to have been involved in a recent bank robbery. The victim’s father, veteran
lot on the west side of the building,” Sgt. Dunn related. Dunn said his son, accompanied by the two informants, waited at the entrance to the tavern for several minutes for Highbaugh to come around from the parking lot and, concerned that “something might be wrong,” walked to the end of the building to check on
the partner.
“Just as he (Harry Dunn Jr.) got to the corner of the building, Highbaugh jumped out with his service revolver in his hand and hollered bang.’ ” “For some reason, a reflex action or something, Highbaugh evidently pulled the trigger on the revolver and
Harry Jr. crumpled to sidewalk,” the injured police man’s visibly shaken father told
The Recorder.
Dunn also added that he “just can’t find it in myself’ to blame Highbaugh. “He’s a good police officer and it was just a freak accident-something that won’t happen again in a million years.” He added that he knew “Harry Jr. wouldn’t want Highbaugh to lose his job because of
the incident.
Meanwhile, at Wishard Memorial Hospital, where the younger Dunn was listed in critical condition Wednesday, doctors fought to save his life and his mother and father-they hoped for a miracle.
the NEW YORK--
An alleged drug pusher spotted from a Harlem rooftop led investigators to a heroin stash with a street value of up to $500,000. The pusher, police said, was 11 years old. Police said they saw the boy make several trips into a building on West 115th Street and return to the street to peddle the heroin. When they grabbed him, he had $1,000 in his pockets and was expertly making change lor a clusters who were waiting to make a
purchase.
The fourth-grader later told
PRESIDENT CITES MINNIE RIPERTON: President Carter late last week presented the American Cancer Society’s 1977 Courage Award to Ms. Minnie Riperton, nationally known black entertainer who has tried to help other women by publizing her own personal experience with breast cancer. The presentation took place in the Oval Office at the White House. Ms. Riperton was introduced to the President by Ann Landers, nationally syndicated columnist and the 1977 national crusade chairperson. Options education report accepted by board
By MARCUS MIMS
on the day of his arrest TURN TO PAGE 18
Narcotics detective not guilty in bribery case
In one of the most dramatic
Det. Sgt. Harry Dunn Sr. told courtroom trials in many a The Recorder that his son and y ear , narcotics Detective J. C. Highbaugh had driven seperate Crawford was acquitted by a cars to the tavern where the Criminal Court jury of charges informants were to have poin- that he accepted a bribe to ted out the suspected bank reduce charges in a 1973 drug robber. arrest. It took the jury only two “Harry Jr. parked his car in h ours to return the verdict, front of the tavern and High- The jury thus rejected the baugh drove up on the parking testimony of Crawford’s former
partner, John M. Sima, ^ho ^finally with possession of 456 said he ahd Crawford accepted grams of marijuana. The $300 from an Indianapolis at- charge was later reduced to
man beaten with
crutches; assailants loose
After the beating last Thursday of an elderly Northeastside man, two suspects are wanted by police on charges of strong armed robbery. One of the men faces an additional charge of inflicting injury while committing a felony, police said. Police said James Ogden, 85, 3600 block of North Sherman, suffered multiple facial lacerations and head wounds after he was beaten about the head and body with his own crutches by one of the men following a robbery attempt. Ogden is listed in stable condition in Community Hospital. The suspects, police said, entered the home shortly after 8 p.m. by breaking in the front door. Ogden was beaten after the suspects tried unsuccess-
fully to make him give them his wallet. Police said the Ogden home was completely ransack-
ed.
The victim’s wife, Dollie Ogden, 78, was also taken to Community for possible shock. She informed police of the incident from a neighbor’s home. Mrs. Ogden described the assailants as between 20 and 30-years-old, 6-0 140 pounds, with a large afro; and 5-8, 170 pounds with a medium afro. Homicide detectives say the descriptions fit the general description of suspects involved in a recent string of residential
Thursday night of a 30-year-old man following a disturbance in a near-West side tavern, police said. Police said two other suspects are wanted for assault and battery and violation of the
1935 Firearms Act.
Police said Phil Hart, 1300 block of Fall Creek, was arrested on preliminary charges of assault and battery with intent to kill in the shooting of Fred Bottoms, 1200 block of West 26th, following a disturbance in Ritz Lounge, 2800 block of North Harding. Hart’s case is being continued to may 25 in Municipal Court 10 following an appearance last
torney to influence action on a drug-possession case. Both Sims and the attorney, Robert G. Mann, were granted immunity from prosecution. When the verdict was returned, a number of plainclothes detectives in the courtroom cheered. Presiding Judge John B. Wilson told the jury of four men and eight women, “If nothing else, you’ve learned firsthand the difference between making an accusation and proving an accusation". The trial opened Monday with the state charging that Crawford took $150 from Sims, who said he had gotten it from Mann who sought a reduction of the charges against Isreal J. Jiles, who was charged ori-
A plan that would allow parents to help choose the type
police he had some 150 packets ° f school they want for their
children and determine its curriculum and teaching techni ques was accepted by the Indianapolis Board of Commis
sioners, Tuesday.
If approved by the board, the “Options Education” plan would also give teachers some choice as to the kind of school they want to teach and provide a constitutionally acceptable and educationally enriched solution to the problem of desegregating the public
schools.
Presented to the board by the School community Action Team (SCAT), a sub committee of the Community Advisory Council, the system would operate within the policies of the board. Individual optymal schools may differ in educational philosophy, in school organization, in methods of teaching, and in the ways they are administered. All children, matter which option is
possession of less than 10 grams, a misdemeanor, and Jiles was fined $41 and costs and received a suspended 1-10 year sentence. He served 10 days in Marion County Jail. Mann testified Monday that Sims approached him in 1973, and said that for $300 he would “make certain representations” to the prosecutor, who would reduce charges. Mann testified he told his client about the offer and on Nov. 21, 1973, gave Sims the money in small bills.This contridicted Sims’ testimony in which he said the money was two $100 bills and two $50 bills. Mann had a
receipt for the money.
Accompanied by two Federal
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tions as a component of desegregation plans. The setting of final guidelines for desegre gation will be the responsibility of the local district court and the board. The necessity for racial guidelines means that the job of developing an options system may be slightly more complicated. Because choices of options must be modified to fall within those guidelines, first choice may not be available to.
everyone.
A resolution to adopt three specific recommendations in the report was tabled until the board’s next meeting April 26. TURN TO PAGE 18
List of names given to House comm.: Sprague WASHINGTONConvicted assassin James Earl Ray has been feeding congressional investigators a growing list of persons he says helped him escape from prison, obtain a weapon, and then flee the country after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Richard Sprague, the controversial former chief investigator for the House Assassinations committee, disclosed Monday that Ray began changing his story that he had no outside help in the slaying during a series of prison interrogations by House inves-
tigators.
Sprague also told reporters that before he quit the inquiry, he learned the Central Intelligence Agency had destroyed what may have been a tape of Lee Harvey Oswald in a phone conversation with the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City a few weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas. Spra'-'" detailed the progress oi the assassinations committee under his leadership at an angry press conference in which he warned that Congress is too political to investigate effetively the deaths of Kennedy and Dr. King. Before his resignation, Sprague said. Ray told him and TURN TO PAGE 18 Investigators term church blaze arson
Arson investigators say a flammable liquid was used to ignite a $25,000 fire which last Saturday swept a near-East side church and apartment building. Firemen, accompanied by five pieces of equipment, battled the blaze at Full Gospel Church, 2200 block of North 'Sheldon, for nearly two hours. Denise Covington, 17, a resident in an apartment above the church with her mother, discovered “clouds of black TURN TO PAGE 18
Condition of woman found
beaten in park
no
chosen, would acquire basic skills and would cover a normal range of school subjects. According to the report, some federal district courts have accepted educational op-
Cash and housing aid, jobs weighed as welfare options
robberies of Northeastside Friday in that court, whites. After a disturbance in the A 25-year-old man was arres- m, rox, ted in the shooting late last TURN TO PAGE 18
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MAtOR NAACP LIFE*: Umym WUmm H. Hadnt m [i a dNWfc to Or. AJ). Ptaka
•a • Bfe ■emherahip m tor Um Advance■eat ef Catored Peepto. Atoe partidpatfa* to the eecaatoa is Mrs. Gertrade German.
Director of Regtoa ID, NAACP, of Cetombtu, Ohio. Dr. Ptodmey stated, This to the first Mayer of tUs city to ever pvchaae a Hie membership sad the first to de it ea televtotoa.’ The mayor has contributed to the old Legal Defense Fend tor many years. Mrs. German was presented an citizenship sward by the mayor.
WASHINGTONWelfare revisions ranging from guaranteed jobs to a cash assistance program for all poor persons are among the options for a Carter administration proposal being considered by tlfe Department of Health, Education and Welfare. A welfare task force last week presented four types of proposals to an HEW consulting group, which appeared to be divided over a number of basic issues in welfare reform. The document was on welfare revisions being considered at President Carter’s instructions. The four plans vary widely in cost-ranging from $6 billion to $8 billion for the cheapest to between $30 billion and $40 billion for the most expensive. One of them is expected to become the basis of a welfare system overhaul to be presented by May 1 to the President, who is scheduled to send his recommendations to Congress later this year. There were no public indications last week which path the HEW task force and Secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. would choose. Sources familiar with the studies under way, however, said they sensed a consensus was building around a form of cash assistance program that would replace several of the existing welfare grant systems. It is similar to, although broader than, the old negative income tax concept that - underlay the Nixon administration’s aborted family assistance plan. Under the plan, the income
floor for a family of four would be about $4,350, or 75 percent of the current poverty level income. That is neither as high as welfare rights groups would want nor as low as many members of Congress have favored in the past. The plan would replace such existing welfare programs as aid to families with dependent children, food stamps, supplemental security income, and a low-income housing supplem-
ent.
The cash assistance would be A piece of the rock-
available to all types of low - income households, including single individuals and couples with children. It would have cost between $6 billion and $8 billion in 1974, the fiscal year used by the task force for
comparative purposes.
It would also provide some public service jobs for those recipients who are expected to work but are unable to find private employment. There is a deference of opinion in the task force and the consulting
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After being found severely beaten under a tree behind Riverside Park Community Center about 8 a.m. Monday, a 23-year-old woman was listed in serious condition in Wishard Memorial Hospital with head and internal injuries. She was listed earlier in satisfactory
condition.
Homicide Detective John Hruban said Leda Johnson, 1200 block of West 29th, was found by two Indianapolis Department of Parks and Recreation employees, Jeff Clayton, 23 and Danny Morrow, 21. Detective Hruban said the employees were driving a truck in the park at the time Miss Johnson was found. Miss Johnson had been left under the tree, beaten about the head severely with tire marks on her shoes and grease on her clothing, Detective Hruban said. He said she, the victim, also had suffered a puncture wound to the lower abdomen and was too groggy to reveal the name of her
attacker.
The victim originally identified herself to authorities as Denise Williams, but wks later identified as Leda Johnson. Homicide detectives say they believe she used the alias because she was wanted by police on a warrant for break-
is serious ing the Offenses Against Propety Act, a law relating to
theft.
Police say they have no motive or suspects in the beating. Edwards, Wright among Outstanding Young Men in U.S. Choice Edwards, deputy director of the Indianapolis area office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is one of two persons selected to appear in the 1977 edition of Outstanding Young Men of America. He a n d Alson Donald Wright, 1151 N. Sheffield, join approximately 11,000 others to be featured in the prestigious annual awards publication.
‘Kopy Kat’: from ‘alley’ to ‘TV star’
Bowen orders bigger share of state’s business to minority-owned firms
In a memorandum sent to all state department heads. Governor Otis R. Bowen has ordered that no less than five percent of the total money output be spent with minority firms in departmental contract-
ing.
In reiterating a stand he took shortly after his first term in office, the governor also ordered that aU department heads submit quarterly reports, beginning July 1, of progress made in assuring that minority
“A serious inequity...exists in the participation of the state's racial minority-owned enterprises in contracting for goods and services purchased by the state.” He cited several reasons why there is a lack of minority participation: the small number of such firms able to bid on state work, old patterns of exclusion and obsolete administrative practices which discourage such firms from making the sacrifice in time and cost to
businesses are included in the qualify and bid, and lack of
awarding of contracts. state effort.
The governor also asked that “Several of our larger divimajor prime contracors be sions have made commendable encouraged to assist in attain- progress in the last four years ing the goal by subcontracting in removing the old impediwith minority individuals and ments, offering technical assifirms. stance, securing funds and In his statement, Bowen commiting personnel to the stated: effort,” the governor contin-
ued. “The fact remains, however, that the gap between policy and performance is wide and all of us are subject to just criticism. “Accordingly, I am requesting that all departments and commissions involved in contracting for any goods or services accept a goal of five percent of the total dollar volume of such contracts to be placed with minority-owned firms or individuals.” The state’s chief executive also noted that Lt. Gov. Robert Orr, through the Department of Commerce and its Office of Minority Business Enterprise, will coordinate the efforts of the minority community. He added that the Office of Minority Business Enterprise TURN TO PAGE 18
“Kopy Kat”, the feline center of attention at The Recorder, recently changed her spots-as regards her status with other cats in the neighborhood. She became a television star Wednesday as she appearedwith her five female offspringsin a news feature on WISH-8’s “Big News ”, rivaling the tube stardom of such animal prodigies as “Morris" and “The Aristocats”. “Kopy Kat” demonstrated The Recorder staffer’s patience with her as she climbed over typesetters keyboards and walked across the page proofs for the home viewers. One of the kittens exercised a bit of “stage fright” as she carefully climbed back into her box while the cameras were -oiling. “Kopy Kat and Family" will remain on display for approxi mately two more weeks at The Recorder during regular business hours. Visitors will be presented with an official “Kopy Kat Cigar" as a token of The Recorder staffs pride in the new familv.