05/18/01: mayor won't step down

[Freakapotimus]

Indicted York mayor says he won't step down

He is charged with giving ammunition to a gang during a riot. A woman was killed.

By Amy Worden
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

YORK, Pa. - Charles H. Robertson, the mayor for eight years and before that a career police officer, was charged yesterday with murder for allegedly providing ammunition in the race-incited shooting death of a young black woman in 1969.

Robertson, 67, who this week won the Democratic nomination for a third term on a platform of unity, said defiantly before turning himself in to authorities: "I am still the mayor of York."

He said repeatedly that he had no intention of resigning, despite damning testimony from grand jury witnesses, including a fellow police officer.

According to testimony made public yesterday, Robertson, then a veteran officer, incited a crowd on the eve of the killing of Lillie Belle Allen in July 1969, saying, "If I weren't a cop, I would be leading commando raids against n i g g e r s in the black neighborhoods."

The case of a deadly small-town race riot just north of the Mason-Dixon Line and the quest for justice decades later attracted scores of reporters. At the county courthouse, newsboys with mailbags hawked a special edition of the York Dispatch, yelling, "Mayor surrenders - read all about it."

Robertson was arraigned at a district justice's office early yesterday before being taken in handcuffs to the York Police Barracks. He was released on $50,000 bail, half the amount set for five others previously arrested in the case. A seventh man was charged yesterday.

York County Court Judge John Uhler said that in setting the amount, he took into consideration Robertson's position as mayor and his standing in the community. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for next Friday.

Rick Knouse, one of those indicted in the Allen case, testified before the grand jury that Robertson provided ammunition to members of a white gang who riddled Allen's family's car with bullets. Knouse said he owned a 30.06 rifle and that Robertson gave him 30.06 ammunition and told him to "kill as many n i g g e r s as you can."

Dennis McMaster, a York police officer in 1969, told the grand jury - the first in York in 25 years - that he saw Robertson provide 30.06 ammunition to one of the men charged in the killing.

Robertson told the grand jury that after a white police officer was shot, he had borrowed a 30.06 rifle and ammunition and took it on patrol with him.

District Attorney H. Stanley Rebert said the bullets allegedly distributed by Robertson were not the same as the one that killed Allen, but he said the mayor was culpable because of his involvement in events leading to the death.

Robertson has admitted shouting "white power" at a rally, saying such language was common at the time, but he has adamantly denied any involvement in Allen's death.

"I have read the affidavit, and I am innocent of all things that were written," he said at a news conference on the steps of City Hall.

[Freakapotimus]

Allen, a 27-year-old mother of two from Aiken, S.C., was visiting her family here the week of the riots. She and four family members were attacked by a mob on July 21, 1969, when their car stalled on railroad tracks. Allen got out of the car and was shot as she tried to help her sister, Hattie Dickson, who was driving.

Also yesterday, a seventh man was arraigned on murder charges in the case. Clarence Eugene Lutzinger, 48, admitted under oath to the grand jury that he fired either a .22- or a .25-caliber pistol at Allen's car the night she was killed, a police affidavit said.

After a seven-month investigation of a case reopened only last year, a grand jury last month recommended that 11 people be indicted. Prosecutors said they expected to arrest four others by the end of next week.

Robertson, who is single and has raised an adopted son, was a police officer for 29 years before being elected mayor in 1993. He said he was not a racist and blamed his actions years ago on the divisive times.

"There were pockets of blacks and whites fighting against each other," he said. "It rubbed off. I've changed since then."

Robertson edged Democratic challenger Ray Crenshaw by 48 votes in this town of 47,000 in the mayoral primary Tuesday, but yesterday's arraignment brought calls for him to leave office.

"He should step down for the good of the community," said Jeffrey Kirkland, president of the city school board.

Kirkland, who is black, said he was glad to see the justice system finally move on a case that many thought would never be solved. "The process needed to happen," he said.

At the Maple Donuts shop, two white workers were split on the issue.

"He shouldn't resign. I think he should be forgiven for what he's done," said Stella Hansford, 47. "I really don't think Charlie handed out the bullets back then."

"I think he should resign," said Michelle Topper, 38. "He has no right to run our city government, seeing as what he's charged with. We want York to be a better place. This puts a blight on York. If he really cared, he would resign."

Gov. Ridge said the case was a reminder of a racist past.

"This is a wrenching time for Charlie Robertson, but it's been a wrenching 30 years for the family of the victim," Ridge said. "It's also a painful reminder of how tough it was not only in York, Pa., but in the country during the '60s when racism raised its ugly head."

The case has thrust this city about 90 miles west of Philadelphia back to a time when simmering racial tensions erupted in a week of terror and violence, ignited in part by the shooting of Taka Ni Sweeney, a black resident, on July 17, 1969.

The next day, a white rookie York police officer, Henry Schaad, was shot as he patrolled in an armored car. He died of his injuries. More than 60 other people were injured, and city blocks were burned to the ground. There have been no arrests in Schaad's death, which is under grand jury investigation.

Rebert denied any political motive for the timing of Robertson's arrest and said there had been "no conscious decision to wait until after the primary."

Rebert said he had asked the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the state Attorney General's Office to review the case.

In a statement, Rebert said: "Justice for Lillie Belle Allen and Henry Schaad has been delayed for over three decades, in part due to the divisiveness of racial politics. It is unconscionable to argue political considerations as justification for any further delay."

Amy Worden's e-mail address is [e-mail].

[shorbe]

Has he actually been found guilty yet? That article didn't seem to say so. If he hasn't been found guilty, then so far, he hasn't done anything wrong. In that case, he should be under no obligation to resign. When or if he is found guilty, he shoud. Until then, accusations aren't grounds for resignation.

Why can't people understand that?

shorbe