THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9501300066
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
It began when some scaffolding fell atop musician Thomas M. Williams Jr. during a windy Republican rally for Oliver North in 1992.
Williams - veteran fiddler, 23-year ``Hee-Haw'' regular, and a musician for the movies, ``Take This Job And Shove It,'' ``Coal Miner's Daughter,'' and ``Play Misty For Me'' - was hurt.
So he sued. For $20 million.
The list of defendants reads like a who's who of Virginia Republicans. Named were the Suffolk Republican Party, the state GOP, the 4th Congressional District GOP, the Republican-backed Victory '92 organization, and the trucking company owned by the former head of Suffolk's GOP.
But attorneys for each layer of Republicanism have been scrambling to get their party organizations excused from the case.
The Suffolk GOP, worried about the potential liability, even retained a prominent Democrat as its defense lawyer.
A hearing will be held Tuesday to decide who can be sued, and whether the entire matter ought to be moved to Suffolk, where the rally occurred.
According to motions filed in Richmond Circuit Court, the Virginia GOP, the 4th Congressional District GOP and Victory '92 will ask Richmond Circuit Judge T.J. Markow to let them off the hook.
If they succeed, it would leave only one defendant - the Suffolk GOP, represented by Jesse J. Johnson Jr., a Democratic stalwart who is chairman of the city's electoral board.
At that same hearing, attorneys for all layers of the Republican Party will argue that the civil trial be moved to Suffolk.
Ethel Henry, who took control of Suffolk's GOP a year ago, declined to comment on the suit or what could be interpreted as an abandonment by her party's state and regional leaders.
Motions filed by Suffolk's GOP contend the event was ``organized, supervised and funded'' solely by Victory '92, a Republican fund-raising arm that no longer exists.
Pat McSweeney, chairman of the state Republican Party, also declined to comment. However, in an affidavit filed in the case, he contends that the event was organized and supervised ``exclusively'' by both Victory '92 and the Republican Party of Suffolk.
The state and district parties argue they should be dropped from the lawsuit because they had no responsibility for the planning or supervision of the event.
An attorney for the Republican Party of Virginia said last week that asking to be excused from the lawsuit is a tactical move, not political.
``There is absolutely nothing political in this,'' said Robert Brame, a Richmond attorney representing the state GOP. ``If you can get five or six parties out, you take that step. And if there were a chance to get Suffolk out and leave the state GOP in, we'd do that.''
The lawsuit, filed in July, contends that Williams, 56, was hired to perform at the fund-raiser Oct. 3, 1992, at Constance Wharf by the banks of the Nansemond River in Suffolk.
According to records in the Suffolk Department of Parks and Recreation, the treasurer for the Suffolk GOP signed the city permit and deposited $100 in the name of Victory '92 for the fund-raiser.
Lawyers for Victory '92 filed a motion in August asking that it be dismissed from the suit. They contend the organization, which helped fund state and local Republican campaigns, was disbanded in 1993.
Williams' suit says that while he was performing with the Old Dominion Opry atop a flatbed truck, he suffered ``great injury'' when ``scaffolding and other equipment and material . . . collapsed and fell on the plaintiff.''
Both the state and district parties contend they had no ``involvement whatsoever in the construction and supervision of the scaffolding and equipment involved in the accident.''
Witnesses said the scaffolding came loose and fell when the wind caught a Republican banner that was stretched between the supports.
Among the injuries, the lawsuit said Williams suffered ``permanent bodily disfigurement.''
An official with the Old Dominion Opry said Friday that Williams is no longer with the Williamsburg-based organization.
Williams, reached Friday at his home in Williamsburg, declined to discuss the suit, but he said he has undergone two neck and two shoulder surgeries since the accident.
Kitt Webb, who was head of the Suffolk GOP at the time of the North fund-raiser and whose company provided the truck, has also declined to comment on the lawsuit.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT REPUBLICAN PARTY OLIVER NORTH CAMPAIGN INJURIES
SUFFOLK REPUBLICAN PARTY by CNB