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Landmarks Manager Leaves MemphisPreservation planner Darrell Cozen has ended his six-year tenure as manager of the Memphis Landmarks Commission July 2nd to move to Pasadena, California. His resignation was "strictly a family move," Cozen says. "Our family is all back in California," he says. "Family is important to people in the South, so everyone understood." Cozen, who has a master's degree in city planning from Cornell University, and has been doing historic preservation for more than 20 years, says that he enjoyed his work and his time in Memphis. "I was proud to be a part of putting the Evergreen neighborhood back together," Cozen says. "And the passage of the preservation plan one-and-a-half years ago that was unanimously approved by the city council." The November 1997 historic preservation plan expanded the Landmarks Commission's jurisdiction and promoted historical preservation throughout Memphis. "I've felt good about the things I've done and the people I've met," says Cozen. In Pasadena, Cozen will be working as a historic preservation and design planner for the city's three historic districts, reviewing designs for new buildings, government facilities, and condominiums. The Landmarks Commission has not yet found a replacement for Cozen. —Mary Cashiola Dispatcher Sues For Sexual HarassmentA former dispatcher supervisor for the Shelby County Fire Department is suing the department for $1.1 million for sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Mary Clayton alleges that she was the subject of harassment from fellow supervisor Allen Lane. She claims Lane nicknamed her "Buttermilk" because she had "large tits." She also says that then-fire chief Michael Molder referred to her as "McClit." Molder, she claims, had embarked upon an 11-month campaign to remove her after she refused his sexual advancements. She further claims that some male employees, including Lane, openly watched the pornographic "Spice Channel" in her presence. Clayton also alleges that her supervisors punished her during this period by changing her shift schedule four times in four months. The county, however, has not been sympathetic to Clayton's cause. Both she and Lane in late 1998 were demoted after she filed her complaint. County general services director Earnest Gunn told reporters at the time that both Lane and Clayton had contributed to a sexually charged atmosphere. The demotion was unusual because the county knowingly opened itself up to possible retaliation. -- Phil Campbell Resource Center Gets New Image
Brenda Canady, manager of the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center (MSARC), is referring to the new sign on the center's building at 2675 Union Extended. The logo shows a figure stretching its arms around the sun. MSARC tries to walk a fine line between anonymity and publicity. With a thoroughly innocuous-looking building, MSARC offers discretion for sexual-assault victims. At the same time, since its mission is to persuade victims to report rape and other forms of sexual assault, Canady says the center must make itself better known. -- Phil Campbell Sheriff Corrects 8-Year MistakeThe Shelby County Sheriff's Department corrected an 8-year-old mistake last month by "reinstating" four officers involved in the 1991 beating of Bertram Brunson. In the sheriff's eyes, these officers Glenn Ray Essary, Chris Jones, Marvin Wilson, and Donald Scott Wright have been performing their duties as patrol officers. Some have even moved up in rank since they were taken off suspended status in late 1991, when the department's internal-affairs unit investigated charges that they and other deputies contributed to Brunson's coma and vegetative state after Brunson tried to resist arrest one night in Hickory Hill. After the investigation, however, the department never bothered to tell the Tennessee Department of Safety about the officers' return to duty. Nashville had officially believed that they were still suspended into mid-1999. As a result, the officers should technically not have been working all those years as commissioned law-enforcement officials. Had they been subjected to lawsuits in the eight years after the Brunson incident, the department might have been subject to additional liability. Sheriff's Department legal adviser Don Strother says that the state certification statuses of the officers were clarified as soon as the department was made aware of the oversight. The Sheriff's Department has never acknowledged any mistakes on the part of its officers, but Shelby County government agreed to pay the Brunson family $3.5 million out of court, the largest such settlement in the history of Shelby County government. — Phil Campbell Elkington Disputes Claims of Financial TroublesSo, just how bad are Beale Street developer John Elkington's finances? The issue of Elkington's financial situation came up earlier this month, during a Memphis City Council meeting. The council was debating whether to approve his appointment on the Center City Commission. Although it appeared that the developer would have potential conflicts of interest by serving on the commission, the council ultimately gave the appointment its okay. Elkington got one dissenting vote from council member John Vergos, however, who said that he had a problem with the developer's business affairs. During that July 6th meeting, Vergos claimed that someone had given him a list of "50 to 60" lawsuits and judgments involving unpaid debt by the developer. "To be sued as many times as John Elkington has been sued is not normal in the ordinary course of business," Vergos later told the Flyer. "It indicates to me that there are some credit problems." Elkington, however, told The Commercial Appeal's Bill Dries, "That all happened in 1992 and '93. All that is public record. All that's been paid off. That's all a bunch of baloney. He's a mean-spirited person if he [Vergos] said that. He knows that's not the fact. "Everyone in the real estate business after the tax reform act of 1988 had problems. I paid my dues many times over for the problems in the early '90s. It's not fair to keep harping on that at this time in my life." Oddly, Vergos won't share his alleged list of lawsuits with anyone, saying that he doesn't want to be held responsible for the inaccuracies it may contain. Elkington had a response for Vergos: "He tried to give the impression that we are going out of business. That's bullshit." The cases Vergos referred to are not currently pending, Elkington stresses. So the Flyer went to court records to see what it could find out. It turns out that Elkington has had 10 lawsuits filed against him or his company since January 1, 1993: six in Chancery Court, two in General Sessions Court, and two in Circuit Court. Among those, the Flyer found two currently active lawsuits against Elkington or Per-forma: one in Chancery Court, and a slip-and-fall case in Circuit Court. One of the cases involved a story the Flyer has already reported. Playhouse on the Square sued the developer for sponsoring a play and never paying for it. According to the suit, he had promised to contribute $3,000 for Playhouse's January 1997 production of Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor. The case was settled out of court in mid-March. "They [Performa] received all the benefits of sponsorship," says Gail Moore, director of development for Playhouse on the Square. "They just never paid." These benefits included free tickets and a marquee bearing Performa's name. Every time Playhouse called the company, Moore says, the theatre was told that the problem would be handled immediately. "They never produced one document," says Elkington, claiming he was in Russia at the time. Lawsuits are sometimes part of the cost of doing business, and Elkington has won a few and lost a few. Here are some noteworthy debt-related lawsuits filed against him or Performa in recent years: · Businessman and philanthropist Avron B. Fogelman is suing Elkington, claiming that the developer has not paid a $137,360.18 balance on a promissory note. The suit was filed in Chancery Court in the spring of last year. "We have a payment plan on that," says Elkington. · Barry E. Sterling of Memphis filed suit against Performa Entertainment in August 1996, claiming that Performa had hired him in January 1996 but had never received a salary before he quit in July 1996. The judge ruled in Performa's favor in December 1997. Daniel Connolly Beale Street Club Settles LawsuitB.B. King's Blues Club Inc. recently settled out of court with the family of an Oxford, Mississippi, man who died outside the Beale Street club, shortly after a fight with some of the club's bouncers. The family of Jeffrey Alexander sought $15 million from both the club and the Memphis Police Department after the July 1997 incident. Police officers had been on the scene after the fight occurred, but U.S. District Court Judge Jerome Turner dismissed any claims against them. The amount of the settlement the Alexander family reached with the club is confidential, attorneys for the family say. Twenty-seven-year-old Alexander's death was ruled the result of "accidental traumatic asphyxiation" by the Shelby County Medical Examiner's office. The Alexander family claimed that Alexander died because bouncers sat on his chest for about 10 minutes, making it impossible for him to breath. Alexander died in the hospital 11 hours later. The club's attorneys claim Alexander was drunk, rowdy, and the aggressor, and that club employees did their best to restrain him. The attorneys for the Alexander family, however, argue there was no fight and say Alexander was thrown to the ground without provocation as he turned around to retrieve his belongings. Not one but two separate videotapes captured portions of the incident. Both tapes, along with the statements of some independent witnesses, contradict the testimony of employees of B.B. King's, who claim that Alexander was conscious and either walking, talking, or cussing as he was escorted out of the club just before 1 in the morning after a party with his Hardin's-Sysco co-workers. The first tape was taken by Beale Street security cameras. Although much of this footage is obscured by street banners and club signs, it shows four men, apparently all employees of B.B. King's, carrying Alexander's limp body out of the club. The second tape was taken by a tourist inside the club, who shot footage of Alexander lying motionless on the street. Only his legs are on the curb. The rest of his body lies on Beale Street itself, with his hands cuffed, and his head close to the exhaust pipe of a police squad car. Had the case gone to trial, jurors might have ruled against the club based on depositions by club employees. The most unconvincing piece of testimony came from Richard Leachman, the assistant manager who was involved in the Alexander fight. "We were being flipped around like rag dolls," he testified during a sworn deposition. "The young man was very strong." Leachman's testimony is weakened because he gave false statements about his criminal background. Although he claimed to have a clean record during the discovery phase of the lawsuit, he changed his statement during his deposition. In 1991, Leachman was charged with vehicular homicide in Crittenden County, Arkansas, after his wife died during an illegal drag race. "It was not a case where it was my fault," says Leachman, who pled guilty to the charge. "I didn't understand [the charge] was criminal until it was brought to my attention." Leachman was also arrested a few years before that incident in Virginia, where he was charged, but not convicted, on three counts of armed robbery. The family of Jeffrey Alexander has promised not to discuss the case further. As for Leachman, he no longer works at B.B. King's. He is currently employed by the Hard Rock Cafe just down the street. Phil Campbell |
