THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260443
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 69 lines
Sherry Battle, the model-turned-bondsman who is suing 10 Norfolk judges for race discrimination, reported finding a burned cross on her lawn Thursday morning.
Battle, who is black, said she found the charred 3-foot wooden cross about 5 a.m. in front of her New York Modeling Agency on Boissevain Avenue in West Ghent, near the Midtown Tunnel.
The FBI and Norfolk police and fire investigators are investigating Battle's report. The FBI is routinely called into cases of alleged civil rights violations.
It is not known who put the cross there or why. None of the three investigating agencies would comment on that question Thursday.
``They already have a couple of good leads and some other things that I can't talk about yet,'' said Chief Don Haupt, acting director of Norfolk's fire and paramedical services. ``We're in the investigating mode. . . . We're checking for fingerprints and a few other things right now.''
FBI spokesman Bo McFarland said, ``We are investigating. It is our policy to aggressively pursue all allegations of civil rights violations.'' He would not say what evidence has been found. Haupt said no message was left with the cross.
Reports of cross burnings, or ``hate crimes'' of any kind, are rare in Hampton Roads. Only eight ``hate crimes'' were reported in Hampton Roads in 1994, none in Norfolk, according to the FBI. Six were racially motivated. FBI reports do not indicate how those cases turned out.
Battle said she has received many threats by phone in the two months since filing a race discrimination lawsuit against 10 judges and three clerks of Norfolk Circuit Court. The lawsuit says the judges and clerks discriminated against Battle when her bondsman's license was suspended in 1994 for having insufficient collateral to back her bonds.
On Thursday, Battle said the most recent telephone threat came Saturday night, when an anonymous man said, ``It's war. . . . You're going to get it now.''
Battle, 35, is at the center of two other recent controversies.
In 1994, she was convicted of assaulting a fellow bondsman with a stun gun in the lobby of Norfolk's General District Court. That conviction is on appeal. A hearing is scheduled for October in Circuit Court.
Battle, according to legal sources, also is a central figure in the investigation of Circuit Judge Luther C. Edmonds, who is on a two-month leave of absence to defend himself against charges of misconduct. Edmonds is accused of favoritism in handling cases that involved Battle, sources said. A hearing against the judge is scheduled for September.
``I don't have a lot of enemies,'' Battle said Thursday. ``The enemies I have discovered have been from this bonding situation.''
Battle said someone tried to break into her business Wednesday, the day before the alleged cross-burning. She reported it to police. She also said someone cut the gas line in her car in May, soon after she filed her lawsuit.
She said she worked late at her business Wednesday and slept there overnight.
When she awoke, Battle said, she found the charred cross. It had already burned. It is not known if anyone saw the burning.
Battle said she is not frightened, but is angered by the threats and incidents.
``I'm a native here. I was born here. I'm not going anywhere,'' Battle said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Sherry Battle told police that she found the burned cross at 5 a.m.
Thursday.
KEYWORDS: CROSS BURNING BONDSMAN LAWSUIT by CNB