If history is the study of change over time, 2009 will undoubtedly be remembered as a dynamic time in the history of our area. It was a year filled with dramatic changes in the areas of economics, politics and social justice — changes that made an impact on all those who call the Piedmont Triad home. Here are the Top 10 local stories of 2009 as published in the pages of YES! Weekly:
THE SAGA OF KALVIN MICHAEL SMITH
On Jan. 8, Superior Court Judge Richard L. Doughton weighed his decision for approximately 30 seconds before declaring that the defense team for Kalvin Michael Smith — the man convicted of brutally assaulting store clerk Jill Marker during an armed robbery of the Silk Plant Forest shop in December 1995 — failed to prove its claims during a plea hearing to grant Smith a new trial. Smith’s attorney, David Pishko, had built what appeared to be a strong case that unethical behavior by Winston-Salem police officers and prosecutors from the Forsyth County District Attorney’s office led to a wrongful conviction of Smith, but Doughton was not swayed.
In an exclusive interview, Smith told YES! Weekly he was “coerced and tricked” by former Winston-Salem police Detective Donald R. Williams, the lead investigator in the case, into writing a false statement where he stated he was at the Silk Plant Forest shop on the night of the assault. Smith said his biggest regret was responding to Williams’ request for an interview in January 2007 at the Winston-Salem Public Safety Center.
“I should never have went down there, but I had trust back then,” Smith said. “I had trust that the [police] were there to serve and protect, not to coerce and railroad.”
In March, the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee adopted a resolution by a vote of 7-2 that it could find no credible evidence to show that Smith was at the Silk Plant Forest shop at the time of the attack on Marker.
In April, Forsyth County Judge Edgar B. Gregory upheld the city of Winston-Salem’s summons to compel Williams to testify before the city council about his role in the Marker assault investigation.
On June 11, Williams testified for nearly six hours in a closed session meeting of the Winston-Salem City Council.
On Dec. 17, Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Richard W. Stone ordered that Williams’ testimony be released publicly. The City Attorney’s office posted a transcript of Williams’ testimony on the city’s website on Christmas Eve.
MITCHELL JOHNSON FIRED AS GREENSBORO CITY MANAGER
On March 3, the Greensboro City Council voted 5-4 to fire Greensboro City Manager Mitchell Johnson amid the “black book” controversy surrounding the Greensboro Police Department and heavy criticism of the way Johnson handled former police Chief David Wray’s resignation.
Mayor Yvonne Johnson, Councilman Robbie Perkins, Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small and Councilwoman Goldie Wells opposed the resolution to fire Johnson.
In late February, the US Justice Department undertook a review of discrimination claims made by dozens of black police officers. The review marked the second time the Justice Department had looked into allegations of wrongdoing in the Greensboro Police Department under the administration of former Chief David Wray. In 2006, the FBI investigated to determine whether criminal prosecution was warranted.
Thirty-nine black officers had already received permission from the Justice Department to file suit against the city after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission failed to negotiate a settlement between the city and the officers. Councilwoman Trudy Wade and Scott Sanders were later added as codefendants in the black officers’ lawsuit. The saga continued as the Justice Department complained that lawyers retained by the city of Greensboro restrained interviewees speaking about employees that had not signed releases as the federal agency conducted its investigation into complaints of racial discrimination by the 39 black police officers suing the city.
IMMIGRATION ISSUES
During an April 1 forum on the 287(g) program, the Rev. Mark Sills questioned Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes on his agency’s handling of immigration violations. Sills expressed concerns that Latinos are increasingly being subjected to racial profiling under federal programs that allow local law enforcement agencies to check the immigration status of people stopped by the police. The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a memorandum of agreement in October.
At the April forum Sills grilled Barnes on his office’s criteria for questioning a suspect’s immigration status, and how the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office could be skating on thin ice regarding federal laws against racial profiling.
As public outrage has exploded in recent years about illegal immigration, law enforcement agencies have clamored to sign up for 287(g) as program spending has increased from $5 million in 2006 to $54.1 million this year. In 2007, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office’s 287(g) application had been held up and Barnes enlisted the aid of then US Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who persuaded ICE to give the sheriff’s office access to the Department of Homeland Security’s Automated Biometric Identification System database.
Barnes told YES! Weekly: “Racial profiling no matter what or where is wrong; it should not occur.” When asked by the Rev. Sills about whether he would support the formation of a citizen review committee to oversee the Guilford County 287(g) program, Barnes replied, “I don’t think that would be a bad idea at all.”
Two weeks later, activists from the Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace staged a protest march in Graham to voice their opposition to the Alamance Sheriff’s Office 287(g) program. The activists were met by a counter-protest led by supporters of Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson and his immigration enforcement policies.
ALLEGATIONS OF HARASSMENT AND ABUSE LEVELED AT GPD GANG UNIT
First, then-suspended Greensboro police officer AJ Blake told reporters at New Light Missionary Baptist Church on June 2 that the police department’s gang enforcement unit has focused inordinate attention on the Latin Kings, even to the exclusion of investigating gangs that were shooting each other. “The Latin Kings have been specifically the focus, given to me by my supervisor, Sgt. [Ronald] Sizemore that he referred to as being directed by Capt. [John] Wolfe,” Blake said. “The gang unit was instructed to charge the Latin Kings with any possible violations that we could.”
Jorge Cornell, the North Carolina leader of the Latin Kings, alleged that in the 12 months since he launched his public effort to bring gangs together, the gang unit has subjected his group to a nearly constant campaign of harassment, including filing false charges to tie up his resources in legal fees and lost time and conducting illegal stops and illegal searches. Meanwhile, the Greensboro Human Relations Commission investigated five separate complaints filed against the gang unit by the Latin Kings in as many months.
“Our department’s policy is to not profile or be biased against any group or individual based on race, gender or ethnicity,” Assistant Police Chief Anita Holder said. “It’s important to remember that officers act based on behavior.” In August, Blake was acquitted of two charges of assaulting a female, two weeks after being terminated by the police department.
WINSTON-SALEM BASEBALL STADIUM CONTROVERSY
The Winston-Salem City Council voted unanimously secure an additional $15.7 million to help Billy Prim, owner of the Winston-Salem Dash minor league baseball team, complete a new ballpark between First Street and Peters Creek Parkway in downtown Winston-Salem after two heated public forums in June. The agreement brought the city’s total investment in Phase I of the ballpark project to nearly $28 million. %u2029Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, acting in his capacity as president of the Winston-Salem Alliance, signed an agreement with Prim to assign Prim’s real estate development company, Brookstown Development Partners LLC, options to purchase 38 properties in the immediate vicinity of the downtown ballpark on Dec. 15, 2006 — nearly a year before the city council approved an initial investment of $12 million in the construction of a new home for the Chicago White Sox single- A squad. Records found at the Forsyth County Register of Deeds indicate that Prim utilized a number of these properties as collateral for a $13 million loan his development company received from Regions Bank. Records also indicate that the Winston-Salem Alliance began purchasing options for properties around the ballpark site as far back as 2003.
After 10 months of inactivity, construction on the baseball stadium in downtown Winston-Salem resumed on Sept. 22. Prim had announced the day before that he had secured the necessary financing to move forward with construction on the stadium during the Winston-Salem City Council meeting. Prim said his goal is to open the stadium on April 1, 2010.
WINSTON-SALEM ELECTS THREE NEW MEMBERS TO CITY COUNCIL
Derwin Montgomery, a 21-year-old Winston-Salem State University student, won 91 percent of the vote in the East Ward race to become one of the youngest members of the Winston-Salem City Council in recent memory. Montgomery defeated four-term incumbent Joycelyn Johnson in the September Democratic primary, which paved the way for his lopsided victory on Election Day.
James Taylor, a 28-year-old juvenile justice counselor, defeated incumbent Evelyn Terry in the September Democratic primary for the Southeast Ward, which led to his easy victory over Republican challenger Chuck Woolard in the general election.
Denise D. Adams defeated Republican John Hopkins to win the North Ward seat on the council. Adams had received the endorsement of retiring city councilman Nelson Malloy, and easily defeated Hopkins in the general election.
While Montgomery, Taylor and Adams joined the council as new members earlier this month, veteran Democratic incumbents Dan Besse, Molly Leight and Wanda Merschel held on to their seats after closer-than-expected races against Republican challengers.
Robert Clark, the only Republican on the partisan board, ran unopposed.
Mayor Allen Joines, a Democrat, also ran unopposed and easily earned a third term in office.
KNIGHT’S ELECTION SIGNALS SHIFT IN GREENSBORO CITY POLITICS
Bill Knight, a retired certified public accountant, defeated one-term incumbent Yvonne Johnson in Greensboro’s mayoral race on Nov. 3.
Knight led a group of conservative candidates that eked out key victories in the Greensboro City Council race. Nancy Vaughan led balloting in the at-large race, followed by Robbie Perkins. The third-place finisher, Danny Thompson, knocked off incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat. Mary Rakestraw defeated Joel Landau in the District 4 race, while Zack Matheny handily defeated challenger George Hartzman in the District 3 race. In District 5, Trudy Wade defeated Art Boyett, while incumbent Dianne Bellamy-Small earned a narrow win over challenger Luther T. Falls in District 1 and Jim Kee prevailed over Nettie Coad for the open District 2 seat vacated by Goldie Wells. As a result of the Nov. 3 elections, Republicans now hold a two-thirds majority on the nonpartisan board.
FORSYTH DA CONTROVERSY
In the span of three days in September, two groups of Winston- Salem clergy demanded that former Forsyth County District Attorney Tom Keith resign immediately from the post he had held for nearly two decades.
The Rev. Carlton AG Eversley referred to a corrected quote attributed to Keith in an Aug. 26 YES! Weekly article entitled, “Forsyth DA: Racial Justice Act inherently flawed,” during a press conference held by the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity on the steps of the Forsyth County Hall of Justice on Sept. 11.
“Mr. Keith’s apparently stubbornly held, virulently racist white-supremacist and wildly inaccurate views that, ‘If you’re African American you are six, seven or eight times or some figure more likely to have a violent history’ is at the core of the problem for Kalvin Michael Smith or any other person accused of violent crimes in Forsyth County,” Eversley, president of the Ministers Conference, said.
The original quote printed in the Aug. 26 edition of YES! Weekly read as follows: “If you’re African American, you’re six, seven or eight times more likely to have a violent history. I didn’t go out there and and say, ‘You commit eight crimes, and I’m a white man, I’ll commit one.’ That’s just instincts, that’s just how it is.”
On Sept. 9, YES! Weekly issued a correction to the quote attributed to Keith. The district attorney actually said, “That’s just statistics. That’s how it is.” Eversley said the difference of one word in a newspaper article was irrelevant when placed in the larger context of Keith’s actions in the cases of Darryl Hunt, Joseph Abbitt and Kalvin Michael Smith. During a Sept. 9 press conference at the YES! Weekly offices, Keith said he would not seek a sixth term as district attorney.
He also defended the actions of his office, stating that the men and women of the Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office serve the public to the best of their abilities “without malice or prejudice to anyone.”
Keith announced he would resign as district attorney on Nov. 30, nearly a year before the end of his fifth term. Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed then- Assistant District Attorney Jim O’Neill to serve out the remainder of Keith’s term, which expires in 2010.
DELL PLANT CLOSING
In October, Dell announced that more than 900 employees at its Winston-Salem desktop computer manufacturing plant would lose their jobs over the course of several months after the company’s announcement that it would shut down its facility in January 2010.
Dell received about $281 million in local and state economic incentives to bring its desktop manufacturing facility to Forsyth County in 2005. Winston- Salem Mayor Allen Joines said if there was a silver lining to Dell’s closing, it is a clawback provision that the $15.6 million the city of Winston-Salem put forth in incentives would be fully repaid. Joines announced that Dell had agreed to fully repay the city the money ahead of schedule on Nov. 2 — one day before Election Day.
RECESSION HITS PIEDMONT TRIAD HARD
Pace Airlines announced it would lay off 337 employees at its Winston-Salem operation based at Smith Reynolds Airport in September. CEO William Charles Rodgers was arrested by NC Department of Insurance investigators at Piedmont Triad International Airport and charged with one count of willful failure to pay group health insurance premiums. State investigators allege that Rodgers terminated his employee group health insurance without providing the required 45-day notice to his 337 employees. The folding of Pace Airlines, along with the Dell plant closing and the resulting layoffs of more than 900 workers, revealed that the Piedmont Triad was not immune to the global recession that affected communities across the nation in 2009.
Counterclockwise from top left: Jorge Cornell, Scott Sanders, Kalvin Michael Smith and newly elected Greensboro Mayor Bill Knight all made local headlines in 2009. (file photos)
