Indictment
Are Asked
U.S. Attorney H.M. Michaux Jr.
said Wednesday he recornmended that
the Department of Justice begin criminal investigations and seek indictments against participanta in the Nov.
3, 1979, anti-Ku Klux Klan rally,
which left five Communist Worker
Party members dead.
Michaux, on his last day in office as
U.S. Attorney, said that he sent a
three-page memo to the Justice Department on May 5 but did not indicate in the memo any specific persons
or groups that should be charged.
"My recommendation is that the
department begin with prosecution in
this matter and seek indictments. I
did not specify what persons or what
groups to anyone at all."
A Superior Court jury acquitted six
Klansmen and Nazis last November in
one of the state's longest trials.
Michaux said the verdict "stunned"
him and that he has been actively investigating the possibility of bringing
federal civil rights charges since the
trial.
_ Michaux criticized the department
for not acting sooner on his recommendation. "I really am disappointed. It
didn't take me six or seven months to
come up with my conclusion, and they
are far smarter than I am."
John Wilson, a Justice Department
spokesman, said he did not want to
comment on the memo, calling it an
"internal affair." He did say, however,
that it would be "months" before a
decision is reached whether to prosecute.
The Nov. 3 shootout occurred at the
start of a "Death to the Klan" march.
Members of the CWP had written letters to the Klan challenging them to
come to the rally.
When a caravan of Klanmen and
Nazis drove through the southeast
Greensboro neighborhood, a stick and
gun fight ensued and five CWP mem-
bers were killed.
Wilson said the matter was "complicated and complex" and that many
legal matters still need to be resolved.
He said- that it was-possible that individuals charged with civil rights violation where there is a murder involved
could go to jail for life.
Although not going into the specifics of the memo, Michaux said there
i (See_ Michaux: A-12, Col. 1)
Midiaiix.
From Art
were three philosophical reasons that
he asked for the indictments.
"Irrespective of a person's ideological difference, five people were killed.
Number two is that they were in an
innocent neighborhood; and number
three, what happened is a signal to
other terrorist oganizations. They
may think they can do the same thing
and get away with it."
Reaction to Michaux's memo was
immediate, some of it sharp.
During an interview with a reporter, Michaux received a telephone call
which he later explained was from
Klansman Joe Grady of Winston-Salem, complaining about Michaux's recommendations.
"Everyone is talking about preserving life," Michaux told Grady by telephone. . "And then everyone wants to
take a life away because of ideological
differences. There are other other
ways of doing this, and I am going to
find some way of doing it.
"You know what I am? You call me
red. I am red, white, and blue.
"I am sorry you feel disappointed. I
really am, Joe. I am saying some civil
rights were violated, and it could very
well be those people living in the community who were innocent.
"You're going to tell me those kids
running around that neighborhood
playing are not innocent victims of this
thing? And that those old people living
in the community weren't victims?
What was Jerry Paul Smith (one of
the Klansmen acquitted in the trial)
doing blazing away with those two six-
shooters?"
Smith, who lives in Maiden, reached
by telephone for comment on Michaux's recommendations, said: "You
can take ... (Michaux) and bury him
just like they buried Sandy Smith.
Now print that in your lie newspaper." Sandy Smith was the only black
killed in the Nov. 3 shootings.
Coleman Pridmore, another Klansman acquitted in the trial, was more
subdued. "I hope the Justice Department doesn't go through with the indictments. I think the jury spoke the
truth when they let us loose. I think
the case should be forgot about.
"If anyone's civil rights were violated, it was ours. We were the ones
traveling in a public street and attacked."
An attorney for the Greensboro Justice Fund, representing widows and
\ ^ m
H.M. Michaux Jr.
victims of the shootings, praised Michaux's recommendation. "It is ex-
tremly significant that a U.S. attorney
after a lengthy investigation, has recommended criminal prosecution for at
least some of those responsible for the
assassinations on Nov. 3," Earl Tock-
man said.
"We are in full agreement with
prosecuting all Klano.rien and Nazis
involved, and the victims will fully
cooperate with prosecutors."
Michael A. Schlosser, Guilford
County district attorney who prosecuted the 1980 murder trial, said that
the state court would assist the federal court in its investigation if its help
was requested. Schlosser said that
Michaux told him of his memo to the
Justice Department about a month
ago, but Schlosser did not comment
further, on the conversation.
Michaux appeared in buoyant spirits
in his last day in office as a Democratic
political appointee Wednesday.
Although much of his last day was
spent fielding questions from reporters about his.May 5 memo, Michaux
took the time to relax and joke.
After speaking to Grady on the
phone, Michaux remarked, "If I decide to run for Congress, Joe Grady
said he won't support me."
Michaux, who is the only black to
serve as a U.S. attorney in the state's
history, said, "I am in an upbeat
mood. It's been four exciting years."
