ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 29, 1994                   TAG: 9407290096
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NAACP FUNDS PLEDGED TO SEX-HARASS PAYOFF

Without the knowledge of his board of directors, the executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People committed the financially troubled organization last year to payment of as much as $332,400 to a former employee who had threatened to sue him for sexual harassment, according to court records and NAACP officials.

In an out-of-court settlement between the executive director, the Rev. Benjamin Chavis, and Mary E. Stansel, who was a deputy of his for a month last year, he agreed that she would be paid two lump sums totaling $50,000 and then six monthly installments of $5,400 each.

Under another provision of the agreement, Chavis was to arrange for Stansel to find a job outside the NAACP that would pay her at least $80,000 a year. In the absence of any such job offer to Stansel within six months of the aqreement, which was negotiated in November, the civil rights organization was to pay her an additional $250,000.

Stansel now contends that Chavis reneged on the promise of a job and is suing him and the NAACP for that $250,000. Neither the court papers filed in the lawsuit nor the out-of-court settlement give any details of the sexual harassment she alleges, and Stansel declined to discuss the matter.

Lawyers for Chavis denied Stansel's claim of harassment and said she had obtained the out-of-court agreement by threatening Chavis' reputation with a fraudulent accusation.

One lawyer said Chavis had tried to find employment for Stansel but could not because she had overstated her qualifications.

The legal battle with Stansel comes as Chavis already is fighting off critics within the NAACP and among its supporters, who have been angered by his financial management and his overtures toward Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, among other matters.

Chavis entered into the settlement without the knowledge or approval of the organization's 64-member board or the NAACP's in-house legal counsel, several board members said Thursday. Some board members reacted with shock and outrage when told of the agreement.

``I don't know a thing about it - not a word,'' said Mark Steppe of Detroit, chairman of a special board committee trying to raise money to reduce the NAACP's estimated debt of $3 million. ``This is a moral fraud. I did not know. I had not been advised as a board member that this case had occurred and the settlement was effectuated.'' 


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