Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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MA couple on trial for racial plot BY DENISE LAVOIE . ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON — A white couple ac cused of plotting a “racial holy war” went on trial Monday with prosecu tors saying they hoped to blow up black or Jewish landmarks and cleanse society of non-white people. Defense attorneys for Leo Felton, the mixed-race son of civil rights activists, and his girlfriend, Erica Chase, said the couple’s views amounted to talk, not action. Felton, 31, and Chase, 22, have pleaded innocent to charges of con spiracy, obstruction of justice, mak ing counterfeit bills, firearms and explosives violations. Felton is also charged with bank robbery and con spiracy to commit bank robbery Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore Merritt said the two were part of a small Aryan cell “committed to the idea that not all men were created equal.” To finance their plans, Merritt said, Felton made counterfeit mon ey and robbed a bank of $1,100 with a former fellow inmate, Thomas Struss. Struss is expected to testify that Felton told him he was making a fer tilizer bomb like the one used in Oklahoma City to destroy the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Prosecutors said Struss agreed to testify in hopes of winning a re duced sentence on a gun possession charge in a separate case. Felton also kept a list of possible targets that included the Revs. Jesse Jackson and A1 Sharpton, director Steven Spielberg and other well known Jewish and black figures, Merritt said. The case broke open in April 2001 after Chase was arrested trying to pass a counterfeit bill at a doughnut shop. Police found bomb-making material in the couple’s apartment along with newspaper clippings of an upcoming ceremony at the New England Holocaust Memorial and photos of the Leonard P. Zakim ♦ RACIAL PLOT, SEE PAGE 4 Man pleads guilty in HIV scare BY JOE KAFKA ASSOCIATED PRESS HURON, South Dakota — An HIV-infected college student whose arrest on charges of having unpro tected sex with a woman spread fear on campus and prompted the test ing of hundreds of people for AIDS pleaded guilty Thursday and could get up to 15 years in prison. Nikko Briteramos, a 19-year-old SiTanka-Huron University basket ball player from Chicago, is the first person prosecuted in South Dakota under a 2000 law against knowing ly exposing someone to the AIDS virus. Sentencing was set for Aug. 20. In - return for his guilty plea, two oth er charges involving the same wom an were dropped. Prosecutors said Briteramos had learned in March after donating blood that he was HIV-positive, and had unprotected sex with the wom an in April. Health officials became alarmed when Briteramos and three other people in and around Huron, a town of 12,000, were diagnosed with the AIDS virus. He was arrested in April. Because Briteramos reported multiple sex partners and many of those people also had several part ners, 237 people were tested for the AIDS virus. The woman has tested negative for HIV, prosecutors said. “This plea bargain protects the victim from ever having to testify in open court,” prosecutor Mike Moore said.. CA mayor asks for calm, peace BY SANDRA MARQUEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Mayor Roosevelt Dorn on Saturday called for video cameras in police cars in the wake of the nationally-televised videotape of a white police officer punching a handcuffed black teenager in the face. Dorn also said he was confident Inglewood residents would not re sort to violent protests of the July 6 incident. People across the country keep asking, when is the riot going to happen? ... That is not part of the agenda,” Dorn told members of the National Alliance for Positive Action, a nonprofit civil rights group. Meanwhile, elected officials praised Inglewood officials for their response. That has included re opening investigations into two pre vious complaints against Officer Jeremy Morse, who was shown on the tape slamming Donovan Jackson's head onto a police car and punching the 16-year-old in the face. Morse has been placed on paid leave pending the investigations. In New York, the Rev. A1 Sharpton said he planned to be in Inglewood Sunday to add his voice to the chorus of protest. ju you hjuk ai ine lape, uiei e is no justification, there is no rhyme or reason, to take a handcuffed young man who has already been apprehended, throw him on the hood of the car and begin beating on him,” Sharpton said in his week ly radio address Saturday. The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that a second white officer also struck Jackson before the videotape rolled. Morse's partner, Officer Bijan Darvish, wrote in a police report ob tained by the Times that he punched Jackson twice in the face before the teen was handcuffed because he was afraid the youth would hit him. The report also cites Morse as saying he struck Jackson after the handcuffed youth grabbed his testi cles, causing “extreme pain.” An attorney for Jackson's family told the Times that he was skeptical of the police report. Joe Hopkins said he believes that all four Inglewood officers at the scene “took turns” beating Jackson before the videotaping began. The videotape was made by Mitchell Eugene Crooks, an unem ployed Northern California man, a fugitive since 1999 when he was con victed in Placer County of driving under the influence, hit and run and petty theft. He was flown to Auburn on Friday to serve a seven-month criminal sentence. Security CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 These are all common-sense tac tics for both protecting yourself and your valuables. Remembering them in a rush, however, is not always easy, but Director Ellis contends that keeping these methods in mind at all times is the best way to pre vent future attacks like Lewis’. PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN/THE GAMECOCK This calibox is located on the northwest corner of East Quad. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com • Large one and two bedroom floor plans • Located close to campus • Great roommate floor plan •Walt in closets • Swimming pool and two tennis courts •Car wash area, laundry facility and wei gbt room CALL ABOUT OUR GREAT SPECIALS! Call us @772-9409 °r Stop by -100 Bryton Trace (across from Pulliam Wray by the flashing yellow light) I