Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 18, 1990
McLANE
Continued from page 1
with you when you're done?'
"Of course I asked, 'What's the
problem?' I thought there must be an
emergency... (The officer) said
There's no problem, I just want to
have a word with you when you're
done.-
When McLane left the stall, two
officers - Peter Sutton, a campus
safety officer and Peter Larocca, a
University-hired State Security
guard - asked McLane if he was a
staff member or a student, and re-
quested to see his ID.
McLane refused to show any
identification until the officers gave
him a reason for seeing it.
"I asked them what the problem
was. They didn't respond. I asked
'Why do we have to have a conver-
sation in the bathroom?' and tried to
leave. As I was walking out of the
door, (Sutton) stepped in front of
me, and I bumped into him. He said,
'If you do that again I'll file assault
charges."'
According to McLane, the offi-
cers threatened to arrest him if he re-
fused to show his ID.
"I knew they couldn't arrest me.
They were using intimidating tactics.
It was two on one. Only me against
them."
University officers do not have
authority to arrest people, but they
can read individuals the Trespass
Act - instructing the person to
leave an area or face possible arrest.
McLane, a University employee
at the time, finally produced his staff
ID. The officers told him there had
been reports of robbery in the build-
ing and of unauthorized people being
in the library. They allowed McLane
to go. Before leaving, McLane
informed the officers he felt he had
been harassed and asked for their
names and badge numbers.
Sutton told him his name, but
Larocca refused, and according to
McLane, said he would only release
his badge number if McLane re-
leased his social security number.
McLane left without knowing who
the second officer was.
Sutton would not comment on the
case, and Larocca could not be lo-
cated for comment. But in written
statements given to the Affirmative
Action Office following the incident,
the officers said they were following
procedures.
"While at the (library), I had oc-
casion to enter the basement men's
restroom," Sutton wrote. "I noted
that a subject was in one of the stalls
with the door closed and had no
backpack with him either in the re-
stroom or on the floor of the stall. I
was in the restroom for approxi-
mately five minutes, during whic-
time the subject remained in the
stall."
Sutton left the restroom and re-
turned five to 10 minutes later, to
find McLane still in the bathroom.
"I felt that this was an inordinate
amount of time to be in the stall, and
advised the person that I would like
to speak with him," Sutton wrote.
Larocca concurred: "People who
go in and out of the men's room and
stay a long time usually turn out to
be people who don't belong in the
building."
Legally, the officers probably did
not do anything wrong, said Ronald
Egnor, an Ann Arbor attorney who
specializes in discrimination.
"University security people are
entitled to keep the buildings secure.
But it's a little weird," he said. "If
the (officers) blocked the exit,
there's a question of false imprison-
ment, but it's not enough to warrant
a lawsuit," he added.
According to Larocca's state-
ment, security officers routinely
check bathrooms for "homosexual
behavior," for smoking and drinking
alcohol in the stalls, for "street peo-
ple," and for people engaging in
substance abuse.
Larocca said Sutton asked
"politely" but "forcefully" for
McLane's ID and told him if he did
not show them ID, they would read
him the Trespass Act. Blane said the
officers never mentioned the act.
"You never legally have to show
anyone anything," Egnor said refer-
ring to Blane's refusal to show his
ID. However, Egnor said good sense
would guide most people who knew
they were not doing anything wrong
to show their ID.
McLane believes the officers
questioned him because he is a gay
man.
"I'm convinced they were harass-
ing me because they thought I was
waiting to have sex in the bath-
room," McLane said.
But the alleged harassment,
McLane said, was not as upsetting as
the way the University dealt with his
complaints following the incident.
"They didn't follow any of the
procedures they say they're sup-
posed to follow. I never got any in-
formation. They didn't have a time-
line. I had to beg for appointments
(with the director of Affirmative
Action). If there's a system, it's not
there," McLane said.
McLane tried several avenues to
force the University to discipline the
officers. Throughout, he said, offi-
cials either refused to return his calls
or took an inordinate amount of time
to do so.
The Affirmative Action Office
would not release information to
McLane about his case. Until the
Daily obtained his case file under the
Freedom of Information Act last
February, McLane did not know
Larocca's name or that a "formal
hearing" of Sutton had occurred, ac-
quitting him of all wrongdoing.
McLane's pursuit for compensa-
tion from the officers and the Uni-
versity began the Saturday the inci-
dent occurred.
After leaving the library, he left
messages with several University of-
fices that handle harassment cases.
Following a discussion with Jim
Toy, the director of the Lesbian and
Gay Men's Programming Office
(LGMPO), McLane began docu-
menting the incident, noting the
date, time and nature of all interac-
tions between himself and various
University officials. The folder in
which he keeps these records is sev-
eral hundred pages thick.
On Oct. 26, 1988, he began at-
tending counseling sessions to learn
how to become a "survivor." On
Oct. 27, he met with Vice Provost
for Minority Affairs Charles Moody,
and on Nov. 4, he met Mary Ann
Swain, then interim director for Af-
firmative Action.
"In the beginning I felt like I had
someone who was doing her job,"
McLane said of Swain. "She was
always very pleasant, polite and
treated me with respect. But once the
investigation started, her hands were
tied."
Swain declined comment on
McLane's case, but according to
documents filed in McLane's case
file, she contacted Leo Heatley, the
director of the Department of Public
Safety and Security, on Nov. 4, and
asked him to obtain a written state-
ment from Officer Sutton, the only
officer McLane named in his com-
plaint.
According to notes taken by Af-
firmative Action representative
Brian Clapham in March, Swain
conducted a "formal hearing" in
which Michigan Association of Po-
lice union representative Craig Aleo
represented Sutton.
McLane was never informed a
hearing was to take place, and never
heard any results.
Swain referred comment on the
hearing to the Affirmative Action
Office.
"We have no material in our file
about it," Clapham said. "I don't
know why he wasn't told. I'm not
sure what the results were." Nor
could Clapham explain why McLane
was not told of the hearing.
In July, Swain sent McLane a let-
ter in which she said "my investiga-
tion suggests that Officer Sutton's
interactions with you were within
the policies of the Office of Public
Safety and Security... I did not find
evidence that you were harassed on
the basis of sexual orientation."
In the letter, Swain said she was
willing to set up a meeting between
McLane, Heatley, and herself to dis-
cuss whether Public Safety policies
"differentially affect members of the
University community."
McLane, dissatisfied with the de-
cision, contacted Swain's office and
asked that action be taken on his
case. He complained that none of the
measures he had suggested as com-
pensation had been met.
The demands, which Affirmative
Action had asked him to provide,
included a written public apology;
discipline of the two officers with a
record of the incident on their file;
mandatory training on the issues of
sexual orientation for the officers;
and the publication of Department of
Safety and Security operating proce-
dures.
Nothing happened on the case
until November, after Swain took
another position in the administra-
tion and Clapham took over the case.
Clapham and McLane continued to
discuss the case, but nothing con-
crete occurred.
Then, on March 15, McLane re-
ceived a letter from Clapham in-
forming him there were no "further
avenues of internal appeal" which he
could take.
Clapham recommended Blane
write to the state's Department of
Humanities if he decided to pursue
the appeal.
McLane has not decided if he
will take the case to the court sys-
tem.
"I'm in school now; I really don't
'have the time," he said. "It takes so
much energy... I don't know if it's
worth it."
DAILY
CLASSI FIEDS
IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press and staff reports
Israeli court sustains order
to evict 150 Jewish settlers
Jerusalem - A Jerusalem District Court panel yesterday upheld an
order to evict 150 Jewish settlers from the Arab Christian quarter of the
Old City, fueling anti-Israeli protests.
The settlers immediately appealed the decision.
Several dozen Palestinian women and masked youths demonstrated in-
side the Church and Holy Sepulcher, venerated as the site of Christ's
burial and regarded by many as Christianity's holiest shrine.
Visiting pilgrims and tourists stared as 40 to 50 protesters waved
Palestinian flags and chanted "PLO! PLO!" and "Israel no! Palestine yes!"
inside the dark church.
It was the first time Arabs had staged a protest inside the church since
the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip began 28 months ago.
A week ago, the ultra-Orthodox Jews moved into a 72-room complex
near the church under heavy police guard, saying they wanted to establish
a Jewish presence in the Christian quarter for the first time since 1936.
The Greek Orthodox Church, which owns the property, said a tenant in
the four 100-year-old buildings illegally worked out a lease with the Jews.
The church sued to have the Jewish settlers removed.
U.S. inflation rates increase
WASHINGTON - Consumer prices, fueled by sharp increases in
clothing, housing and medical costs, shot up .5 percent in March to push
inflation to the highest level since 1982, the government yesterday.
Private economists saw the unexpectedly brisk advance in the Labor
Department's Consumer Price Index as a discouraging sign that inflation
was not retreating as they had hoped.
Through the first three months of the year, inflation has risen at an
annual rate of 8.5 percent, the fastest quarterly increase since a 10.1 per-
cent increase in the spring of 1982.
Part of the surge earlier in the year was attributed to an unusually cold
December that froze crops along the Gulf coast and sent fuel oil prices
skyward. But March declines in energy and fruit and vegetable prices were
not enough to offset widespread increases elsewhere.
While inflation is still expected to slow in coming months, the March
figure sent some economists scurrying to revise upward their forecast for
the entire year. Some said consumer prices could rise by 5 percent for all
of 1990. That would be up from a 4.6 percent increase in 1989 and the
highest annual rate since 1981.
High Court rules religious
drug use unconstitutional
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said yesterday there is no con-
stitutional right to take illegal drugs, such as Peyote, for religious rea-
sons.
Dissenting justices said the 6-3 ruling permits religious oppression of
Indians and perhaps others with unorthodox views.
The court ruled that Oregon officials may deny unemployment benefits
to two fired drug counselors who took small amounts of peyote, a cactus
"button" containing the hallucinogen mescaline, in Indian religious cere-
monies.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said it "would be court-
ing anarchy" to let a few do what is illegal for everyone else.
"We have never held that an individual's religious beliefs excuse him
from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting the conduct that
the state is free to regulate," he said.
But Scalia said states may allow religious use of illegal drugs.
In fact, many states may and the federal government already permits
use of peyote in religious ceremonies.
EXTRAS
Bostonians benefit from Ben
BOSTON - Benjamin Franklin died 200 years ago yesterday, and ac-
cording to his will that means it's now time to spend the 1,000 pounds
sterling he bequeathed to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
The pennies saved are now worth about $4.5 million in Massachusetts
and $2 million in Pennsylvania, and requests for a cut are pouring in from
as far away as London.
Franklin died in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, at age 84. In his will,
he gave 1,000 pounds sterling to Massachusetts and the city of Boston,
and an equal sum to the state of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia.
The dollar did not become the official U.S. currency until 1792.
The money came from what Franklin earned during his tenure as presi-
dent of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1785-87. He believed that
politicians should not be paid for serving the public.
Franklin specified in his will that on the 100th anniversary of his
death a part of the two trusts be used for training young people, but at
that time several interested parties sued for access to the money.
A Massachusetts court resolved the dispute there by setting up a board
of managers to control the money until the 200th anniversary.
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The University of Michigan
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
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Weds.-Thurs.
Apr. 18-19
Thurs. Apr. 19
Thurs.-Sun.
Apr. 19-22
BFA Concert
Tickets: $4 general
Studio A, Dance Bldg., 8:00 PM
Guest Master Class
Arnold Jacobs, retired principal tubist of the
Chicago Symphony
School of Music, McIntosh Theatre, 4:30 PM
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Musical Theatre
The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht
and Kurt Weill
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For up-to-date information on School of Music Events, call the
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Seniors-Please come to
Wrap-Up Party for the1
Senior Pledge Program!
Sunday, April 22nd,
8p.m. to 1a.m.
University Club in Michigan Unior
Music by "The Difference"
Refreshments and beverages avai
Admission is FREE for all seniors
pledged.
Be sure to bring your invitation ar
r..-t i r Infn r G.- - ci nn:
the
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