A Mystery 6 Feet Deep Traffic Stop Challenged a UNC Professor Was Cited by Police for Impaired Driving in 2011
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Serving UNC students and the University community since 1893 Volume 121, Issue 103 dailytarheel.com Thursday, October 31, 2013 Firetruck A mystery 6 feet deep traffic stop challenged A UNC professor was cited by police for impaired driving in 2011. By Anna Long Staff Writer A Chapel Hill firefighter is at the center of a Fourth Amendment debate after he stopped a car driven by an impaired UNC art professor in 2011. Fire Lt. Gordon Shatley saw UNC professor Dorothy Verkerk’s car stopped at an intersection with its headlights off at 10:30 p.m. on May 27, 2011, according to the case brief. He and his crew, who were in a firetruck at the time, noticed her car weaving in and out of its lane and moving at approximately 15 mph below the speed limit. Shatley radioed police com- munications to alert them, but the case brief said Verkerk’s car continued to veer across lanes. Police still had not arrived, and Shatley said he felt he had to take action. He testified that he instruct- Dorothy Verkerk ed the firetruck’s driver to acti- was pulled over for vate the truck’s red lights and impaired driving flash the sirens to make sure by firefighter Lt. cars would stop passing them — Gordon Shatley in not to perform a traffic stop — May 2011. but Verkerk pulled over. DTH/CHRIS CONWAY Shatley got out of the fire- The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery on South Road contains more than 350 unmarked graves in the oldest sections of the cemetery. truck and approached Verkerk. He did not ask if Verkerk had been drinking or perform field sobriety tests, according to the case brief. Because Chapel Hill cemeteries hold 500 unmarked graves he hadn’t heard from the Chapel Hill Police Department, Verkerk parked and agreed to have By Tyler Clay grave sites were located,” Heindl said. “It was not unusual in most of America someone pick her up. Staff Writer According to a report by the board, more for cemeteries up until the mid- to late The incident has turned into a court case known than 60 unmarked graves were discovered 20th century to be segregated,” she said. as State of North Carolina v. Verkerk, now pending Those visiting Chapel Hill cemeteries at the West Chapel Hill Cemetery and more The first grave was dug in 1798 and at the N.C. Supreme Court. have a ghost of a chance of finding every than 50 more at the Barbee-Hargraves Heindl said because of the cemetery’s age, person buried there — more than 500 Cemetery. More than 350 of the town’s 500 many of those buried in the segregated part ‘A one-time incident’ potential unmarked graves have been unmarked graves are located in the Old of the cemetery were likely slaves. located in the town’s graveyards. Chapel Hill Cemetery on UNC’s campus. “We will never know who those people “(Performing a traffic stop) was a one-time inci- The town’s Cemeteries Advisory Board, Heindl said these unmarked graves were are, only that somebody is there,” said dent just based on what we encountered,” Shatley through a partnership with Preservation found in only three sections of the cem- Butch Kisiah, director of the Parks and said. “I can’t say we’d do it again. We did what we Chapel Hill, has discovered the unmarked etery, located on the western side — from Recreation Department and a liaison to the thought was best for the community and herself.” historic graves in three of its cemeteries. the gazebo to the barrier between the cem- Cemeteries Advisory Board. Police officers arrived on scene and issued Brenda Heindl, Preservation Chapel etery and Winston Residence Hall. But Heindl said some names of those a citation charging Verkerk with driving while Hill’s program coordinator, said the organi- “The whole section is unmarked,” said buried in the unmarked plots are known, impaired and driving with a revoked license. zation contracted a private environmental Marguerite Hutchins, a member of the like Rev. Lewis Hackney, a prominent Verkerk served on the Chapel Hill Town Council consulting firm to conduct both ground- advisory board. “Those sections could be African-American from Chapel Hill’s past. between December 2001 and December 2005. penetrating radar and electrical resistivity very valuable if there is nothing there.” And she said the graves might not have In July 2012, Verkerk and her attorney, to detect potential unmarked graves. Two of the three sections were histori- always been unmarked — a lot of vandal- Matthew Suczynski, filed a motion to have any evi- “The radar is able to analyze the density of cally reserved for African-Americans, and ism took place in the 1970s and 1980s. dence obtained as a result of stopping her vehicle soil below the surface and by measuring the the other is the oldest section in the cem- suppressed on the grounds that the stop was a density, can make images of where potential etery, Heindl said. SEE GRavES, PAGE 4 violation of her Fourth Amendment right against SEE FIREFIGHTER, PAGE 4 NC groups work Congo brought to the forefront “Art on the Frontline” around ACA site highlights issues in the “When the website came online, Congo through music. Organizations in the state there were a couple of people who are trying to help the were having a terrible time,” said John By Katie Hjerpe Wingerter, outreach and education Staff Writer uninsured get enrolled. coordinator for the Council on Aging of Buncombe County, which is serving Like aspiring artists anywhere, By Eric Garcia as a navigator organization. young Congolese musicians have Senior Writer Patricia Deridder, another navigator to find a balance between their through Mountain Projects, said she education and pursuing their art. As problems continue with the fed- has heard of people being able to sign Youth in Goma and the Great eral health care marketplace website, up early in the morning or at late at Lakes region of the Democratic health organizations in North Carolina night, when she is not able to consult Republic of the Congo, however, are trying to help people enroll in with them. have to deal with another decision insurance. And Wingerter said it’s difficult to — either join a rebel militia or be Many in North Carolina have strug- educate people in his rural area. killed by one. gled with logging onto the online mar- “It’s going to be perhaps more of a “The conflict that’s taking ketplace since it opened Oct. 1. Now, challenge to provide information to place right now in the east of COURTESY OF PETNA NDALIKO KATONDOLO organizations are helping people learn people versus a large urban area,” he the Democratic Republic of the “Art on the Frontline” is a video series that depicts the problems of the Congo what their options are, either by phone said. Congo is the deadliest since World and the lives of its citizens through the music of Congolese youth. or in-person consultation, assisting Jennifer Simmons, a supervising War II, where over 6 million them with the online or paper applica- legal attorney at Legal Aid of North lives have been lost — and that’s meant to shed light on the region’s WATCH THE SERIES: tion or referring them to the federal Carolina, another navigator organiza- the conservative estimate,” said horrific conflict and its people. call center. tion, said attempts to help people sign Cherie Rivers Ndaliko, a UNC “(‘Art on the Frontline’) offers Time: Every other Thursday, Alex Sherman, co-director of the up have varied. professor who teaches Music 286, something to the rest of the globe check online for today’s video “Sometimes the website is working to show the humanity of the Student Health Action Coalition, called Music as Culture, or Media Video link: http://bit.ly/HvulRD which trains health professional stu- well,” Simmons said. “On other days, and Social Change in Africa. Congo,” he said. “To show that it’s dents to become Certified Application we work to do a paper application or The Congo has about two- not only the negative images — Website: http://bit.ly/1ivOz9O Counselors who can sign people up on the phone through the federal call thirds of the world’s supply of the hopeless images — coming for insurance, said the coalition had center.” coltan, a mineral used in all elec- from that region that reflects the to undergo an application process in But Sherman said a drawback tronic devices. Instead of regula- reality on the ground. There are the Congo will be able to speak by August to be authorized. is that paper applications must be tion, multinational companies people making sure that things go themselves,” he said. “The people The Affordable Care Act also appro- entered online. choose to illicitly extract coltan well, it’s not only war.” in ‘Art on the Frontline’ are differ- priates federal money to navigators Sorien Schmidt, state director for and other valuable minerals from With a premiere every other ent. They don’t have any political — people who give in-person consulta- Enroll America, an organization that the area. They arm rebel militias Thursday, the videos are a project agenda. This is real thinking from tions about options available through does outreach for health insurance, fueled along ethnic lines, leaving within YOLE!Africa, an organiza- the people in the streets of Goma. health insurance marketplaces. said despite the website’s problems, the region in constant war and tion founded by Katondolo that They talk about corruption in the “We provide fair and unbiased many still want information about chaos and depriving Congolese strives to create a space where government, mineral exploita- advice and help guide them through health care options.