MEET ONE OF THE SAVIORS OF THE DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS
St HOPE is one of private companies Michelle Rhee wants to have take over some DC pubic schools. She was formerly on the board of St HOPE
SACRAMENTO BEE After a
State law requires that authorities be notified immediately when school officials learn of such an allegation. But - before police were called in by the teacher - Johnson's attorney, Kevin Hiestand, questioned the girl during an internal investigation, according to interviews and e-mails obtained by The Bee.
Following the school's internal investigation, the student recanted.
At the time of the April 2007 allegation, former NBA star Johnson served as a teacher, interim principal and head of
Erik Jones, the teacher who made the report to police, resigned over the way the matter was handled by the school.
"St. HOPE sought to intimidate the student through an illegal interrogation and even had the audacity to ask me to change my story," Jones wrote in his May 15 resignation letter.
In response to a detailed summary of issues raised by this article, the Johnson campaign released a one-paragraph statement late Wednesday:
"St. HOPE takes any claim of harassment seriously, particularly in the case of a minor. In this case, St. HOPE acted swiftly to follow its federally mandated requirement to investigate. An impartial three-person panel found that the allegation was unfounded, a finding that was later confirmed by law enforcement. We consider the matter closed given the findings of law enforcement and out of respect for the minor involved."
When a Bee reporter asked about the matter at a Sacramento Press Club lunch Thursday, Johnson responded briefly.
"I think the allegations at the school were handled in the way that you would want them handled," he said. "Immediately they followed all the normal protocols that they were supposed to follow . . . I think it was pretty clear there was nothing there.". . .
Police Chief Rick Braziel said that the police report confirms that the attorney had contacted the girl before they got involved. "We knew there was an internal investigation done before the date we were notified," Braziel said. "We did ask the young lady whether anyone had influenced her - her answer was no."
Jones, who heard the girl's original account, and a classmate who also was there, told The Bee that Hiestand suggested they alter their versions of what they heard. Both said they refused.
The classmate, Dora Bromme, said Hiestand pulled her out of class and told her the girl making the allegation had recanted. In an interview, Bromme told The Bee that Hiestand said he was from "human resources" but did not identify himself as a lawyer.
She said Hiestand told her that the student "told us that (Johnson) just kissed her on the forehead and gave her a pat on the shoulder and left."
"I said to him 'I can tell you for a fact that's not what she said,'" Bromme said. "He was changing around the story."
St. HOPE classifies the incident as "harassment," and Hiestand said he participated as the school's federal Title IX officer. Police, however, investigated it as a child sexual abuse case because the minor alleged Johnson had touched her breasts.
"Our investigation found the allegations were rumor and innuendo, and not based on any evidence," Hiestand wrote in his Thursday e-mail response. . .
Diane Karpman, a Los Angeles-based expert in legal ethics, said cases like the Sac High situation raise several questions, including the importance for lawyers to disclose dual roles and receive a formal waiver from the school board.
St. HOPE board minutes for the past year show no request for a waiver. The board is appointed by Johnson and he served as its chairman until January.
Hiestand said he disclosed that he was Johnson's private attorney and had been retained to represent St. HOPE to "every party involved in the investigation, including the student and her guardian."
Hiestand is a vice president of Johnson's private development company, Kynship, according to state incorporation papers. His relationship to Johnson is "personal and legal counsel," a federal document states. And he receives a monthly retainer of $2,800 from
When Johnson played point guard for the Phoenix Suns, Hiestand was his spokesman. In 1995, Hiestand also got involved in a
In a recent interview, Jones gave a detailed account of events he said led up to his resignation. He said the girl's initial comments came during a senior class retreat in
As the group prepared breakfast on April 23, Jones said, the girl confided to him, counselor Jill Tabachnick and two classmates that Johnson had touched her inappropriately on several occasions.
The classmates, Dora Bromme and Lisa Wood, corroborated Jones' account. When contacted by The Bee, Tabachnick - who was laid off from Sacramento High at the end of the school year - confirmed she heard the girl's allegations and she confirmed Jones' account of the school's handling of the situation.
Jones said the girl demonstrated to the
"The situation grossed me out and that was not the first time," Jones quoted her as saying in his report to police.
"(Johnson) has also done this to other girls in the class," Jones' child-abuse report quoted her as adding. "And with one of the Hood Corps students he tried to crawl into her bed. And that is why she quit Hood Corps."
Hood Corps, another arm of St. HOPE, is a nonprofit organization based on an urban Peace Corps model that enlists high school students and recent graduates. The girl who spoke up in
Under federal AmeriCorps provisions, St. HOPE was required to report both allegations immediately, according to Marta Bortner, a spokeswoman for California Volunteers, the state office that channeled AmeriCorps grants to Johnson's Hood Corps. That never happened, she said.
After being shown Jones' child abuse report, California Volunteers on Tuesday turned the matter over to the inspector general for one of its umbrella organizations, the Corporation for National and Community Service. . .
Jones said the Sac High student was worried about telling people about Johnson because "he is a family friend, but I feel creeped out when he does this."
The girl's mother, asked to comment last week, said only "nothing happened" and hung up. The girl didn't respond to requests for comment. . .
Detectives also said they did not pursue the information Jones passed on about the young woman who left Hood Corps. They gave two reasons: She was not a juvenile and the allegation that Johnson tried to get into her bed "doesn't indicate conduct of a criminal nature."
SACRAMENTO BEE - Kevin Johnson's St. HOPE nonprofit is under investigation by the federal government for allegations including misuse of federal funds and Johnson's sexual misconduct toward two participants in its Hood Corps, an urban Peace Corps-type program, according to a government attorney.
Dan McGuire, legal affairs secretary for the Governor's Office -- which manages all the state's AmeriCorps programs -- said Friday morning that the probe was launched after The Bee raised questions about Hood Corps. These questions included the failure to report the sexual allegations related to a student and a teenage volunteer, the program's religious and physical aspects, and the types of work volunteers were doing.
"We were quite alarmed," McGuire said. "We called the inspector general and started the process."
McGuire said further details, including financial issues, should come from the
We proposed that DC become a state, an article that led to the
creation of the DC Statehood Party. Years later both the Washington
Post and the NY Times editorially endorsed the idea.
We argued that the historic buildings on and around Pennsylvania
Avenue (running from the White House to the Capitol) should be
saved contrary to official plans of the time. These plans were
eventually reversed and the buildings were saved.
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