Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Jurors deadlock over library race bias suit
DURHAM -- A jury deadlocked Friday in a librarian's racial discrimination lawsuit against the Durham County library.
Barbara Paquette, who is white, sued the county library after she was fired in 1998. She had been appointed the acting head of the Stanford L. Warren branch, which is in a historically black community. Paquette was told she was let go because of a "continuing pattern of inappropriate interpersonal interactions with co-workers and supervisors."
She
estified that her supervisor, Priscilla Lewis, kept her out of the loop and ignored Paquette in favor of other employees who were black. Paquette was replaced by Brenda Watson, who is also black.
<
br>One of Paquette's employees told her several times that she wa
s not qualified to work with the children in the community in part because she favored Dr. Seuss readings over stories from African culture.
During the trial, which began Tuesday, county library employees testified that the problems were with Paquette's inability to work with others. She was also insubordinate, they testified.
"It did not have anything to do with race," Deputy County Attorney Lowell Siler argued to the jury Friday.
Paquette was let go while she was still a probationary employee and had no right to appeal the decision.
Her attorney, Dan Read, told the jury that no one was going to admit to being racist. When Paquette was fired, they said
nothing about problems with her work and documented no performance issues in her file.
"They told her in writing why they fired her, and now their lawyer is up here saying something else,&
quot; Read said.
Read told the jury that racism has changed since the era of separate library buildings and other relics of Jim
Crow laws.
"This is how it exists in Durham in 2004," Read said.
Paquette is now head of a library branch in another state that she prefers not to name.
"My feeling is, nobody should have to go through this, but there are people having to go through this at the county," she said. Earlier this week, Superior Court Judge John Jolly told the lawyers out of the presence of the jury that Paquette's case was "thin."
One juror was dismissed during the trial because of a scheduling conflict. Another juror was released Friday when he returned to court late. The remaining 11 deliberated for about two hours Friday when
they first reported that they were deadlocked 10-1.
The seven whites and four blacks returned to the deliberation room when Jolly told them to keep trying. They returned soon, and the foreman
told the judge that the one holdout juror would not be swayed. Just before 6 p.m., Jolly declared a mistrial.
Read said jurors told Paquette after court that the
10 votes were in her favor.
"It's unfortunate when things end this way, but on the other hand, we'll be back," Read said.
************************
What are the odds that the one hold out on the jury was a n-gger? Wake up America and smell the negro!
T.N.B.
DURHAM -- A jury deadlocked Friday in a librarian's racial discrimination lawsuit against the Durham County library.
Barbara Paquette, who is white, sued the county library after she was fired in 1998. She had been appointed the acting head of the Stanford L. Warren branch, which is in a historically black community. Paquette was told she was let go because of a "continuing pattern of inappropriate interpersonal interactions with co-workers and supervisors."
She
estified that her supervisor, Priscilla Lewis, kept her out of the loop and ignored Paquette in favor of other employees who were black. Paquette was replaced by Brenda Watson, who is also black.
<
br>One of Paquette's employees told her several times that she wa
s not qualified to work with the children in the community in part because she favored Dr. Seuss readings over stories from African culture.
During the trial, which began Tuesday, county library employees testified that the problems were with Paquette's inability to work with others. She was also insubordinate, they testified.
"It did not have anything to do with race," Deputy County Attorney Lowell Siler argued to the jury Friday.
Paquette was let go while she was still a probationary employee and had no right to appeal the decision.
Her attorney, Dan Read, told the jury that no one was going to admit to being racist. When Paquette was fired, they said
nothing about problems with her work and documented no performance issues in her file.
"They told her in writing why they fired her, and now their lawyer is up here saying something else,&
quot; Read said.
Read told the jury that racism has changed since the era of separate library buildings and other relics of Jim
Crow laws.
"This is how it exists in Durham in 2004," Read said.
Paquette is now head of a library branch in another state that she prefers not to name.
"My feeling is, nobody should have to go through this, but there are people having to go through this at the county," she said. Earlier this week, Superior Court Judge John Jolly told the lawyers out of the presence of the jury that Paquette's case was "thin."
One juror was dismissed during the trial because of a scheduling conflict. Another juror was released Friday when he returned to court late. The remaining 11 deliberated for about two hours Friday when
they first reported that they were deadlocked 10-1.
The seven whites and four blacks returned to the deliberation room when Jolly told them to keep trying. They returned soon, and the foreman
told the judge that the one holdout juror would not be swayed. Just before 6 p.m., Jolly declared a mistrial.
Read said jurors told Paquette after court that the
10 votes were in her favor.
"It's unfortunate when things end this way, but on the other hand, we'll be back," Read said.
************************
What are the odds that the one hold out on the jury was a n-gger? Wake up America and smell the negro!
T.N.B.