Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
5
Questions remain about slur allegation
Three weeks after prominent black leaders publicly demanded that Mobile City Councilman Stephen Nodine apologize for uttering racist remarks -- an allegation Nodine has denied -- details surrounding the accusation remain elusive, and some of the leaders have downplayed their previous call.
State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, who by many accounts organized the May 29 call for an apology, has not responded to numerous Mobile Register telephone calls.
And Greg Wood, the man who filed a March 30 complaint detail
ng the allegation, is no longer talking to the newspaper.
Wood's complaint, first sent to Mobile's Human Relations Commission -- which declined to look into the matter -- accused Nodi
ne of walking into the Waffle House restaurant on Sprin
g Hill Avenue during the weekend of Feb. 20 and using the word n-ggers while complaining about slow service.
The Mobile branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in a May 19 letter, called upon the Mobile City Council to take action.
Nodine, who is white, responded by calling the matter a political maneuver to discredit his candidacy for the District 2 seat on the Mobile County Commission. Nodine had said he was not at the Waffle House on Feb. 20.
Recently, Nodine declined to make any comment on the accusation on advice of his attorney. Mark Erwin, who said he is representing Nodine, declined to say whether Nodine was at the Spring Hill Waffle House at all during the weekend of Feb. 20.
On May 29, eight of Mobile County's black elected officials gathered for a news conference at Mobile Government Plaza and called for Nodine's apology. That event was held three day
s be
fore Nodine and Ralph Buffkin beat Austin Rainwaters in the Republican
primary, causing a runoff on June 29.
County Commissioner Sam Jones and Mobile Councilman Fred Richardson, both of whom were there May 29, have said since that they simply were calling for an end to what they perceived as race-baiting in the campaign.
Others attending the conference were Figures, D-Mobile; Mobile City Councilman Thomas Sullivan; state Rep. Yvonne Kennedy, D-Mobile; state Rep. Bill Clark, D-Prichard, and Mobile County school board members Hazel Fournier and David Thomas Jr.
Figures read a statement outlining the group's position and said, We are demanding a public apology from Mr. Nodine.
Richardson, in a Thursday interview, said, I don't know anything about what happened at
the Waffle House.
He said Figures' mention of Nodine by name went beyond the group's formal statement.
Richardson said he first heard about the Nodine allegation f
rom City
Council President Reggie Copeland. Attempts to reach Copeland for comment have been unsuccessful. [/
b]
Frequent customer:
Richardson is a regular patron of the Spring Hill Waffle House, where, he said, he has been going since 1975. When asked why one of the waitresses would not have mentioned something to him about the reported event, Richardson said, I asked that same question.
He said the waitresses told him that someone else told them not to say anything. He said that from talking with the waitresses, he believes that person was Wood. This person came to interview them and advised them not to say anything to anybody.
Wood, who attended the May 29 news conference, said in an interview with the Mobile Register last month that he was not at the Waffle House when Nodine allegedly
made the remarks. Instead, Wood said, he was relaying complaints from some of the employees.
Wood since has declined requests for further comment.
Sullivan said he believes the Nodine accusation and said the Waffle House employees, with whom he has not talked, had no reason to lie.
I talke
d to several people that have talked to them, and they said it was true, Sullivan said. I don't know the people I talked to, but they said it was true, and they were there.
Sullivan, when questioned further, said he believes that one of the people he talked with was Wood, the man who had complained to the Human Relations Commission.
Fournier said she believes it was Wood who told her about the Nodine accusation. When asked if she believed Nodine uttered the racial slur, Fournier said, I believe he was capable of doing it. When pressed, she said, I believe the person who said he said it, because he had no reason t
o lie.
Group researched matter:
Clark said that before the news conference, the group of leaders took time researching the matter before standing in fron
t of Government
Plaza.
It was slow and deliberate, Clark said. I'm convinced that something happened, and the only thing is that I'm not able to lay my hand on a Bible about is that it w
as him (Nodine) for sure, because I didn't see him.
At the news conference, Clark said, We are comfortable, have witnesses and won't tolerate more denials. We expect nothing less from him.
Kennedy did not return Register telephone calls this week or last week.
Thomas interrupted the beginning of a telephone interview this week by saying he had a long-distance call. Thomas said he would call back, but he did not. Attempts to reach him afterward were unsuccessful.
Wood declined to answer questions about his background during a May 6 interview with the
Register about his complaint.
At that meeting, Wood was joined by John Gavin, a campaign worker for former County Commissioner Freeman Jockisch, who at that t
ime was running for
re-election against Nodine, Buffkin and Rainwaters. Jockisch dropped out of the race after he was convicted of fraud last month in Mobile federal district court.
A Register reporter asked if Wood could be interviewed in private,
and Gavin left. Gavin said he had no involvement in the Nodine accusation.
Gavin said Wood called him because he did not know who else to call; he said Wood knew Gavin had a copy of a document from the NAACP regarding Nodine.
Gavin said NAACP President Lettie Malone had called him and given him a copy of a handwritten statement from a Waffle House employee, accusing Nodine of racial slurs.
Malone said Thursday that she does not remember giving Gavin the statement.
Clint Ulmer, former Mobile County Sheriff candidate, said Wood is a freelance bounty hunt
er who does work for his company, Bandit Bonding.
Ulmer has been a political ally of Jockisch.
Ulmer said he has zero involvement in the Nodine al
legation. I had nothing
to do with it, Ulmer said.
DeeJeania Jackson, who owns CIR Security Services, a company that handled the Spring Hill Waffle House security, said Wood is a private investigator who did freelance work for her company. Jackson called Wood trustworthy and
honest.
Wood is not registered with the Mobile Police Department as a private investigator or a security guard, according to the department.
Three employees interviewed:
The Register has talked to the three employees named in Wood's letter. A fourth employee, Bryan Baxter, declined comment when reached at another Waffle House.
Employee Juanita Barnes has told the Register that she was helping a customer who became impatient with the way his order was being handled and who directed the racial epithet at her. Barnes could not id
entify Nodine as the customer but said she was told by a security official later that it was Nodine.
Richardson said Barnes told him that she
knew it was Nodine who made
the slur after later seeing Nodine on television.
Barnes said in a Register interview last month that she and Simone Jones, another waitress, were the only two blacks in the entire store.
The complaint filed by Wood and the NAACP letter stated other b
lacks were present.
Thursday, Barnes said she meant that she and Jones were the only black employees there.
Jones, in the signed statement offered by Gavin, said a man who appeared to be drunk came in, used a racial slur and caused a scene. At notation at the top of the statement says, Re Nodine.
Jones said late Thursday night that she stands by the statement. She declined to make any further comment.
Tara Harrell, who was working as a cook that night, said something happened, but she was to
o busy filling orders and couldn't concentrate on the incident. Harrell said she asked Baxter to handle it.
She said a security off
icer later identified Nodine as
the man involved in the commotion. She said she believed that the guard, whom she did not name, was there during the disturbance but could not say for sure.
State Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile, said he would have been at the news conference had he not had a previous engagement. However, Buskey said, he has no
t talked to Nodine.
State Rep. Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, said that he didn't have enough information to attend the news conference.
I didn't see a real reason to be there, Mitchell said. I was told about it, but I chose not to participate. I have a difficult time believing that it happened.
*****************
The Mobile Register needs to continue to hold these n-gger's feets to the fire!
g*ddamn n-ggers! Wake up America and smell the negro.
T.N.B.
Questions remain about slur allegation
Three weeks after prominent black leaders publicly demanded that Mobile City Councilman Stephen Nodine apologize for uttering racist remarks -- an allegation Nodine has denied -- details surrounding the accusation remain elusive, and some of the leaders have downplayed their previous call.
State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, who by many accounts organized the May 29 call for an apology, has not responded to numerous Mobile Register telephone calls.
And Greg Wood, the man who filed a March 30 complaint detail
ng the allegation, is no longer talking to the newspaper.
Wood's complaint, first sent to Mobile's Human Relations Commission -- which declined to look into the matter -- accused Nodi
ne of walking into the Waffle House restaurant on Sprin
g Hill Avenue during the weekend of Feb. 20 and using the word n-ggers while complaining about slow service.
The Mobile branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in a May 19 letter, called upon the Mobile City Council to take action.
Nodine, who is white, responded by calling the matter a political maneuver to discredit his candidacy for the District 2 seat on the Mobile County Commission. Nodine had said he was not at the Waffle House on Feb. 20.
Recently, Nodine declined to make any comment on the accusation on advice of his attorney. Mark Erwin, who said he is representing Nodine, declined to say whether Nodine was at the Spring Hill Waffle House at all during the weekend of Feb. 20.
On May 29, eight of Mobile County's black elected officials gathered for a news conference at Mobile Government Plaza and called for Nodine's apology. That event was held three day
s be
fore Nodine and Ralph Buffkin beat Austin Rainwaters in the Republican
primary, causing a runoff on June 29.
County Commissioner Sam Jones and Mobile Councilman Fred Richardson, both of whom were there May 29, have said since that they simply were calling for an end to what they perceived as race-baiting in the campaign.
Others attending the conference were Figures, D-Mobile; Mobile City Councilman Thomas Sullivan; state Rep. Yvonne Kennedy, D-Mobile; state Rep. Bill Clark, D-Prichard, and Mobile County school board members Hazel Fournier and David Thomas Jr.
Figures read a statement outlining the group's position and said, We are demanding a public apology from Mr. Nodine.
Richardson, in a Thursday interview, said, I don't know anything about what happened at
the Waffle House.
He said Figures' mention of Nodine by name went beyond the group's formal statement.
Richardson said he first heard about the Nodine allegation f
rom City
Council President Reggie Copeland. Attempts to reach Copeland for comment have been unsuccessful. [/
b]
Frequent customer:
Richardson is a regular patron of the Spring Hill Waffle House, where, he said, he has been going since 1975. When asked why one of the waitresses would not have mentioned something to him about the reported event, Richardson said, I asked that same question.
He said the waitresses told him that someone else told them not to say anything. He said that from talking with the waitresses, he believes that person was Wood. This person came to interview them and advised them not to say anything to anybody.
Wood, who attended the May 29 news conference, said in an interview with the Mobile Register last month that he was not at the Waffle House when Nodine allegedly
made the remarks. Instead, Wood said, he was relaying complaints from some of the employees.
Wood since has declined requests for further comment.
Sullivan said he believes the Nodine accusation and said the Waffle House employees, with whom he has not talked, had no reason to lie.
I talke
d to several people that have talked to them, and they said it was true, Sullivan said. I don't know the people I talked to, but they said it was true, and they were there.
Sullivan, when questioned further, said he believes that one of the people he talked with was Wood, the man who had complained to the Human Relations Commission.
Fournier said she believes it was Wood who told her about the Nodine accusation. When asked if she believed Nodine uttered the racial slur, Fournier said, I believe he was capable of doing it. When pressed, she said, I believe the person who said he said it, because he had no reason t
o lie.
Group researched matter:
Clark said that before the news conference, the group of leaders took time researching the matter before standing in fron
t of Government
Plaza.
It was slow and deliberate, Clark said. I'm convinced that something happened, and the only thing is that I'm not able to lay my hand on a Bible about is that it w
as him (Nodine) for sure, because I didn't see him.
At the news conference, Clark said, We are comfortable, have witnesses and won't tolerate more denials. We expect nothing less from him.
Kennedy did not return Register telephone calls this week or last week.
Thomas interrupted the beginning of a telephone interview this week by saying he had a long-distance call. Thomas said he would call back, but he did not. Attempts to reach him afterward were unsuccessful.
Wood declined to answer questions about his background during a May 6 interview with the
Register about his complaint.
At that meeting, Wood was joined by John Gavin, a campaign worker for former County Commissioner Freeman Jockisch, who at that t
ime was running for
re-election against Nodine, Buffkin and Rainwaters. Jockisch dropped out of the race after he was convicted of fraud last month in Mobile federal district court.
A Register reporter asked if Wood could be interviewed in private,
and Gavin left. Gavin said he had no involvement in the Nodine accusation.
Gavin said Wood called him because he did not know who else to call; he said Wood knew Gavin had a copy of a document from the NAACP regarding Nodine.
Gavin said NAACP President Lettie Malone had called him and given him a copy of a handwritten statement from a Waffle House employee, accusing Nodine of racial slurs.
Malone said Thursday that she does not remember giving Gavin the statement.
Clint Ulmer, former Mobile County Sheriff candidate, said Wood is a freelance bounty hunt
er who does work for his company, Bandit Bonding.
Ulmer has been a political ally of Jockisch.
Ulmer said he has zero involvement in the Nodine al
legation. I had nothing
to do with it, Ulmer said.
DeeJeania Jackson, who owns CIR Security Services, a company that handled the Spring Hill Waffle House security, said Wood is a private investigator who did freelance work for her company. Jackson called Wood trustworthy and
honest.
Wood is not registered with the Mobile Police Department as a private investigator or a security guard, according to the department.
Three employees interviewed:
The Register has talked to the three employees named in Wood's letter. A fourth employee, Bryan Baxter, declined comment when reached at another Waffle House.
Employee Juanita Barnes has told the Register that she was helping a customer who became impatient with the way his order was being handled and who directed the racial epithet at her. Barnes could not id
entify Nodine as the customer but said she was told by a security official later that it was Nodine.
Richardson said Barnes told him that she
knew it was Nodine who made
the slur after later seeing Nodine on television.
Barnes said in a Register interview last month that she and Simone Jones, another waitress, were the only two blacks in the entire store.
The complaint filed by Wood and the NAACP letter stated other b
lacks were present.
Thursday, Barnes said she meant that she and Jones were the only black employees there.
Jones, in the signed statement offered by Gavin, said a man who appeared to be drunk came in, used a racial slur and caused a scene. At notation at the top of the statement says, Re Nodine.
Jones said late Thursday night that she stands by the statement. She declined to make any further comment.
Tara Harrell, who was working as a cook that night, said something happened, but she was to
o busy filling orders and couldn't concentrate on the incident. Harrell said she asked Baxter to handle it.
She said a security off
icer later identified Nodine as
the man involved in the commotion. She said she believed that the guard, whom she did not name, was there during the disturbance but could not say for sure.
State Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile, said he would have been at the news conference had he not had a previous engagement. However, Buskey said, he has no
t talked to Nodine.
State Rep. Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, said that he didn't have enough information to attend the news conference.
I didn't see a real reason to be there, Mitchell said. I was told about it, but I chose not to participate. I have a difficult time believing that it happened.
*****************
The Mobile Register needs to continue to hold these n-gger's feets to the fire!
g*ddamn n-ggers! Wake up America and smell the negro.
T.N.B.