Mother Rages Against Indifference
By DON TERRY
OS ANGELES -- A shy 28-year-old from South Central,
Yolanda
Manuel makes a meager living as a public school cafeteria
worker.
Yet anytime she clears her throat to speak these days,
television news
crews rush to capture her every word.
In the past few weeks, Ms. Manuel has become another sad
symbol of
every parent's worst nightmare and of a mother's grim
determination to
protect her child, even after death.
Last year, Ms. Manuel's 7-year-old daughter, Sherrice Iverson,
was
sexually assaulted, strangled and left in a toilet in a Nevada
casino, 43
miles south of Las Vegas. On Aug. 31, jury selection is
scheduled to
begin in Las Vegas in the trial of Jeremy Strohmeyer, a
19-year-old from
Long Beach, who police say confessed to the crime but later
pleaded
innocent.
Ms. Manuel wants Strohmeyer's best friend, David Cash, 19, a
prosecution witness, to stand trial as well, because he saw at
least the
initial stages of the attack and did not go for help.
Now, she has become the spiritual leader of what she calls a
campaign
for justice to pressure the authorities to bring charges
against Cash, a
college sophomore. The campaign has attracted a coalition of
supporters
rare in this era of polarization: blacks, whites, Jews,
Christians, Muslims,
radio talk-show hosts, conservatives and liberals.
"This ain't a race issue," Ms. Manuel, who is black,
explained. "This ain't
a political issue. It's a human being issue. It's a justice
issue for a little girl
who will never be able to reach for her goals. My baby won't
ever get to
go to college."
Strohmeyer and Cash are both white.
Authorities say that Cash was with Strohmeyer at the
Primadonna Resort
and Casino in Primm, Nev., in the early morning of May 25,
1997. Cash
has said that he briefly watched Strohmeyer in the women's
bathroom and
tried to persuade him to stop struggling with the child in a
stall, before
leaving to wait outside. The police say Sherrice was assaulted
and killed
in the bathroom.
The police and prosecutors say that though Cash apparently
played no
role in the slaying of Sherrice, he did not make any effort to
save her or to
go for help. Nor did he notify police of the crime, even after
Strohmeyer
emerged from the bathroom and told him what he had just done.
"Morally," said Najee Ali, a South Central community leader
who is
acting as Ms. Manuel's spokesman, "David Cash has the blood of
Sherrice Iverson on his hands."
Legally, however, Cash's hands appear to be clean, according
to the
Clark County district attorney's office. The county
prosecutor, Stewart
Bell, who is trying the case against Strohmeyer, said that
under Nevada
law, it is not illegal to fail to report a crime. Therefore,
Cash is free to go
on with his life, Bell said.
But Cash told the Los Angeles Times last month: "I'm not going
to get
upset over somebody else's life. I just worry about myself
first."
That remark and others, including one about being able to get
dates with
women more easily because of his notoriety, enraged Ms. Manuel
and
her supporters. They began a petition drive a few weeks ago
seeking to
have Clark County authorities charge Cash in the death of
Sherrice
Iverson.
Their goal was 10,000 signatures. At a news conference Friday,
Ali
announced that the group had collected 20,000 signatures,
which he said
he will present to the authorities on the first day of the
trial.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, the author of several books about race
and class
and a radio talk-show host, is another spokesman for Ms.
Manuel. At the
news conference, he announced yet another petition drive.
The new petition is seeking to have the Nevada Legislature
enact a
"Sherrice Iverson memorial bill" that would make it a crime
for anyone
who witnesses or has knowledge of a sexual attack against a
minor to fail
to report it to the police.
Hutchinson said the group also intends to seek a similar "good
Samaritan"
law on the federal level.
"We won't rest," he said, "until we get justice for Sherrice."
Meanwhile, Cash is about to begin his second year at the
University of
California at Berkeley and two other radio talk-show hosts
have
organized a bus load of demonstrators to travel to Berkeley
from Los
Angeles on Tuesday night to demand that the school expel Cash.
Such action by the university appears unlikely, because Cash
has not
been charged or convicted of a crime.
Cash, who was admitted to Berkeley two months before Sherrice
was
killed, did not return a telephone call to his home in Long
Beach and
could not be reached for comment.
Ms. Manuel said she intends to join the protest at Berkeley
because
"David Cash shouldn't be able to get on with his life like
nothing ever
happened."
"I sure can't," she said.
According to the authorities, Cash followed Strohmeyer into
the
bathroom just as his friend was carrying Sherrice into one of
the stalls, his
hand over her mouth. Strohmeyer locked the stall door and Cash
hoisted
himself up and looked over the stall wall, authorities said.
Strohmeyer, authorities said, was taking off the child's
clothes.
Cash told the grand jury investigating the case that he tried
for several
seconds to get Strohmeyer's attention and to get him to leave.
But
Strohmeyer ignored him and Cash quickly left and waited
outside for his
friend to come out, authorities said.
The young men were at the casino with Cash's father. Sherrice
was there
with her father and her 14-year-old half brother.
Bell, the district attorney, said there was no evidence that
Cash helped kill
Sherrice. He said that according to the casino's surveillance
videotape,
Cash stayed in the bathroom for less than two minutes, while
Strohmeyer
was inside for nearly 25 minutes.
Still, Cash was there, Hutchinson said, and he should have
been charged.
The police would have charged Cash if he had been black or
Hispanic,
said Hutchinson, who is black. The authorities deny the
accusation.
"We can't deny that race has a role in this case," Hutchinson
said. "But the
mother doesn't want to bring it in. And that makes sense.
After O.J., as
soon as you mention race, you've polarized, you've drawn a
line in the
sand."
Indeed, the moment race is mentioned, Ms. Manuel shakes her
head no.
She said she has personally collected 300 signatures from
people of all
races across the city, especially from other mothers who have
had the
same nightmares and dreams. They stop her on the street and
hug her or
call her on the telephone and speak words of encouragement
until they
begin to cry.
"Mothers know what I'm going through," Ms. Manuel said. "I'm
never
going to stop hurting. I've almost had four nervous breakdowns
since
Sherrice was murdered. I'm tired, so tired. But I got to keep
going. I got
to get justice for my baby.">>
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