http://www.charleston.net/pub/index/news1.shtml
Three longshoremen facing felony charges in connection with last year’s waterfront clash have worked out a plea agreement with First Circuit Solicitor Walter Bailey and will go before a judge Tuesday, their attorney said Thursday, a day after two other longshoremen pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge.
“The Charleston 5 are finally free,” said Kenneth Riley, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422. “This is a tremendous victory for the labor movement in South Carolina.”
On Wednesday, two ILA members, Jason Edgerton,22, and Kenneth Jefferson,41, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of “engaging in a riot where a weapon was not used,” under a law that forbids “engaging in a riot, rout or affray when no weapon was actually used and no wound inflicted.” As part of the plea agreement, Bailey dismissed felony rioting charges, which carried a maximum of five years.
Circuit Judge Victor A. Rawl sentenced both men to 30 days in jail or a $100 fine.
The three other dockworkers - Ricky Simmons,38, Peter Washington Jr. ,48, and Elijah Ford Jr.,48, - are scheduled to appear before a judge Tuesday, their attorney Lionel Lofton said, declining to discuss the details of the plea agreement. “We’re going to get it over with.”
Until last month, the five were under house arrest. Facing felony riot charges, they were scheduled to go on trial Tuesday. Union activists also had scheduled what they were calling an “internationalday of solidarity” of prayer vigils and port closures.
“It’s been called off,” Riley said. “This great news will be heard on the docks, throughout the state of South Carolina, across the country and around the globe.”
Several hundred dockworkers clashed with police Jan.20,2000, outside the State Ports Authority’s Columbus Street Terminal, in opposition to the Danish ocean carrier Nordana Line’s use of non-union dockworkers instead of ILA longshoremen. More than 10 people were injured.
Vowing “jail, jail and more jail” for those who took part in the riot, South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon indicted five dockworkers on rioting charges, after a judge tossed out less severe charges against eight men.
That triggered an international public relations campaign to, as Riley has said, “free them from prosecution.” Bright yellow “Free the Charleston 5” signs, billboards and bumper stickers popped up across the region, and ILA officials raised more than $400,000 for a legal defense fund from other unions around the world. More than 4,000 union activists from across the country showed up for a rally in Columbia last June. Union officials accused Condon of using the prosecution to gain support for his gubernatorial campaign, a charge Condon denied.
Last month, Condon handed the case to Bailey, saying that he thought the prosecution had become too politicized.
That broke the impasse that led to the plea agreements, Lofton said.
Condon’s spokesman, Robb McBurney, declined to comment on the plea deals. “We’re letting solicitor Bailey handle it.” Bailey could not be reached for comment late Wednesday and Thursday.
Riley said the prosecution helped energize the labor movement in South Carolina, a state with the second-lowest percentage of union workers in the country. “We will build on this victory to bring greater attention to the plight of working men and women in our state.”
Others said the case gave Charleston a black eye.
“Adverse publicity and discord with the union is not a good thing, so frankly we’re glad to see this thing getting resolved,” said Bernard S. Groseclose Jr. , SPA president and chief executive officer. He said that some international shipping lines were nervous about what might happen if the longshoremen were found guilty of more severe charges.
“This issue has been very divisive, and we’re very relieved that it has been brought to an end,” added John Hassell, president of the Maritime Association of the Port of Charleston. “Everyone has been a loser in this whole process, the whole way through. I don’t think there is anything we can point to and say, ‘that’s good, ‘ except to say that it’s over.”
