
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993                   TAG: 9310300198
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAMPTON                                LENGTH: Medium

LAWSUIT FILED OVER IVERSON STORY

A bowling alley attendant filed a $1 million lawsuit against Sports Illustrated on Friday for allegedly portraying her as a racist in a story on former prep athlete Allen Iverson.

Julia Weaver's lawsuit stems from an article titled "Southern Discomfort" in the magazine's Oct. 25 issue. The story described racial tensions in Hampton since Iverson and three other young men were sentenced last month for their roles in a bowling alley brawl that injured three people.

Weaver works at the bowling center where a melee pitting blacks against whites took place on Valentine's Day. The Sports Illustrated article does not mention Weaver by name, but its second paragraph provides this description of what happened when Iverson and his friends went bowling that night:

"The woman at the counter sent them to the end of the alley, to a lane against the wall. To Michael Simmons, the tight end who has been a pal of Iverson's since grade school, that always seemed to happen. You boys, over there."

Trial evidence showed Iverson and his friends bowled on lanes nine and 10, not against a wall of the 32-lane alley. Ms. Weaver, the only woman working at the counter that night, said she also didn't assign the group to lanes and didn't call them "you boys."

Officials at Sports Illustrated refused to comment on the suit.

"I don't think we have any further comment than the one we've already stated - that we stand by our article at this present time," said Roger Jackson, the magazine's publicity director.

Weaver's lawsuit names as defendants the article's reporter, Ned Zeman, and the publisher of the New York-based magazine.

Iverson, 18, a former standout basketball and football player at Bethel High School, is serving a five-year term after being convicted of felony maiming by mob.

Meanwhile, a federal agency said it will investigate alleged civil rights violations in the convictions of the four.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights plans to check out "allegations that somehow there has been a gross disparity in the administration of justice," said Ki-taek Chun, deputy director of the agency's eastern regional office.

Supporters of the four allege the prosecution was racially motivated because no whites were charged.

by CNB