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Saturday, November 21, 1998
Lubbock officials make goodwill visit after
police clear coaches
By SONJA BARISIC
Associated Press Writer
HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -- The mayor of Lubbock, Texas, traveled
to Hampton University and publicly apologized Friday to the women's
basketball coach, her husband and an assistant, who were jailed
but never charged in an alleged flimflam operation.
Coach Patricia Bibbs, her husband, Ezell, and assistant coach
Vanetta Kelso were handcuffed and taken to jail Monday in Lubbock,
where the team was preparing to play No. 12 Texas Tech. The game
on Tuesday was canceled.
All three, who are black, said they believe race played a role
in how they were treated.
"I hope you will accept my deep regret that your coaches
were in our city and they had to go through that terrible experience,"
Lubbock Mayor Windy Sitton said during a news conference at the
university.
"My mission today in coming here is to help remove any
suspicion, any doubt about the guilt" of the three, and "to
do anything that I possibly could to help preserve the dignity
of Hampton University," she said.
Hampton president William R. Harvey said he, the Bibbses and
Kelso accepted the apology.
"The apology indicates that there is recognition that
there was wrongdoing," Harvey said. "It takes a big
person to do what Mayor Sitton has done, and I believe her apology
is genuine."
Harvey said the university still was considering whether to
pursue legal action. He has contacted O.J. Simpson defense lawyer
Johnnie Cochran.
Harvey also noted Lubbock Police Chief Ken Walker had not issued
an apology. Sitton said she had not asked Walker to come to Hampton
with her.
"My only statements on the matter of an apology are those
that I issued yesterday," Walker said Friday. "I don't
want to get into a tit-for-tat."
Walker said Thursday: "I regret that the Hampton coaches
were at the wrong place at the wrong time. I wish we had known
then what we know today."
Before the news conference, Sitton and three other Lubbock
city officials met privately with the coaches and Hampton officials.
The Bibbses and Kelso attended the news conference but declined
to comment.
Sitton said she has asked Walker and City Attorney Anita Burgess,
who also went to Hampton, to look into the police department's
handling of the case.
"I've seen no evidence personally that Lubbock police
officers were not acting lawfully and that they were not acting
professionally," said Sitton, who said she went to the police
station Monday night when she heard the Hampton trio had been
detained.
Sitton said the police acted upon a sworn statement from the
alleged victim, who positively identified Kelso as the person
who tried to perpetrate the scam on her.
After studying security tapes from a Wal-Mart store where the
alleged incident occurred, police announced Thursday that the
Bibbses and Kelso could not have been involved.
The tape showed the three had no contact with the alleged victim
either in the store or its parking lot, Walker said.
Walker denied race was a motive in detaining the three visitors
and said the alleged victim identified them. But the alleged victim,
Elenita Hester, since has told police she no longer was sure they
were the ones who tried to con her, he said.
The victim's husband, Randy Hester, issued a statement Friday
saying his wife had made the identification from 60 feet away
and later realized she was mistaken when she saw Kelso on television.
"According to her response, we felt that she was comfortable
with the identification," Walker said. "Without any
doubt whatsoever, she identified the coach as having been involved."
The alleged flimflam is known as a "pigeon drop."
A con artist says he or she has found a purse with a lot of money
and tries to persuade the victim to put up money to retain a lawyer
so that they can both lay claim to the purse.
Bibbs was selected the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference coach
of the year last season, her first at Hampton. Her team was the
MEAC co-champion.
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