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American Morning

Reporter for 'The York Dispatch' Discusses Race Riot Killing Trial of York, Pennsylvania, Mayor Charles Robertson

Aired July 23, 2001 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to talk about the case of Charles Robertson is J.P. Kurish. He is assistant managing editor of "The York Dispatch." A series of articles by the paper helped reopen that investigation.

J.P., good morning. Thanks for joining us.

J.P. KURISH, "THE YORK DISPATCH": Good morning. Thank you.

KAGAN: I understand the mayor has already been arraigned.

KURISH: Yes, he was arraigned about 8:30 this morning. He, as expected, pleaded not guilty to the charges. Four others in the case waived their arraignments, and they filed paperwork also filing pleas of not guilty.

KAGAN: Interest in this case goes back to a series of articles done by your paper. Why was it important? Why was important? Why did your paper feel is was important to go back and look at these race riots and these killings that took place so long ago?

KURISH: From time to time, we had done articles reviewing the history of York in a lot of issues, and the race riots' 30th anniversary was coming, in 1999, and that provoked our interest.

But more interesting were the two unsolved crimes. This time when we looked at the race riots of 1969, we more or less focused on two unsolved crimes that happened and what seemed like fairly weak attempts at the time to solve the crimes. It has long been known that the police had witnesses to both crimes and even names of suspects, yet nobody had ever been interested. Our paper was interested to find out what the evidence really was and if it could be brought forth 30 years later.

KAGAN: When you say two crimes, we are focusing on Lillie Belle Allen, but also we should mention that Officer Henry Schaad also lost his life in this similar incident.

KURISH: He was shot by, apparently, a pair of snipers that waited for his armored car to cross a bridge in York, two nights before Lillie Belle Allen was killed. The two incidents really sparked and kept the racial turmoil in York going for 10 more days.

KAGAN: I understand there are plans now to exhume both of these people's bodies. What's that going to do all these years later?

KURISH: They have a lot of complicated scientific tests they can do now. We are not exactly sure what they are looking for when they are exhuming the bodies, but they certainly can tell a lot, and some of these exhumations are being done by experts in the field. We think that they might have be looking for other evidence, to suggest the path of the bullet, what type of damage the bullets might have caused to each of these victims. It's really not clear exactly what they are looking for, but certainly, they can find evidence 30 years later.

KAGAN: Can a fair trial take place all these years later?

KURISH: I think so. I think if O.J. Simpson can get a fair trial and other people can get a fair trial in highly-publicized cases. I think they have to be careful when they pick a jury, but I think they can get a fair trial.

KAGAN: Any thoughts of moving this, a change of venue by any of the defendants, asking for that?

KURISH: The defendants, actually, are probably likely to look for a York County jury. They want a jury that has the attitudes that the county had now and maybe had 30 years ago. The defense in the mayor's case has already indicated that they're going to look for a local jury. They don't want this case moved; they want local attitudes to decide the mayor's guilt.

KAGAN: What has this done to race relations in your town?

KURISH: I think more, than anything, it's forced people to talk about them, and that's uncomfortable. I think things are a little bit tense people aren't really comfortable talking about race and their attitudes about race. I don't think that the turmoil predicted by the chamber of commerce and other business leaders has really come to pass. I think the town is relatively calm, and discussions are going on now about people's racial attitudes and what can be done about them. So a lot of good things are going on right now in York because people have been forced to look at some things.

KAGAN: So today the arraignments -- and then what's next?

KURISH: We expect that the arraignments will produce a flurry of motions in the case, and they'll do a little bit more to reveal the prosecution's evidence. Up to this point, the prosecution has really only put a few cards on the table. That's led to some speculation that their case is relatively weak, but we think that the prosecution has more things, which they are not showing. Once the discovery process starts, after the formal arraignment, we expect to see a little bit more of the prosecution's case and a little bit more of the defendants challenging that evidence in pretrial motion.

That could last a really long time. The pretrial battle might last a year or more.

KAGAN: We will look for that and also for additional coverage from your paper, "The York Dispatch." Thank you so much.

KURISH: Thank you for having me.

KAGAN: J.P. Kurish from "The York Dispatch," thank you for joining us this morning.

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