Rights Leader Faces Gun Charge Hearing

Rights Leader Faces Gun Charge Hearing

BY WILLIAM B. TREML

News Courts Reporter

A local black civil rights leader, charged with carrying a concealed weapon, was released on his own cognizance Monday after demanding a District Court examination on the felony charge.

Charles Thomas, 38, head of the Black Economic Development League, was arraigned on the weapon charge before Fifteenth District Court Judge Pieter G. V. Thomassen.

Elmer E. White, a local attorney who represented Thomas in several trespass cases several years ago, appeared as temporary legal counsel for the defendant at the arraignment.  White had learned of Thomas's arrest in a hallway of the District Court moments before the arraignment.

The attorney told Judge Thomassen he would represent Thomas for the limited purpose of arraignment, and until a decision on permanent legal counsel could be made.  White demanded examination on the charge and the judge set May 12 for the examination.

Attorney White, noting that Thomas is a long-time resident of the city and has no previous felony convictions, asked for the personal recognizance bond.  The judge granted the request after Ann Arbor Detective Robert J. Winter said his department had no recommendation for bond. 

Prior to the arraignment, one of the arresting officers, uniformed Patrolman Duane Hayes, appeared before Judge Thomassen to testify to facts of the arrest. Hayes' testimony was given before the judge signed the criminal complaint and warrant against Thomas.

Hayes said he and his partner, Patrolman James Tieman, took Thomas into custody Sunday at S. First and W. Liberty Streets where they stopped a van the defendant was driving. The stop was made for a traffic violation, Hayes said.

The officer said while his partner talked to Thomas, he went to the front of the van where he saw a cardboard box between the front bucket seats. He said he found in the box a .357 magnum hand gun wrapped up in a newspaper.

The previous day, the Police Department had received a complaint that a black man was seen leaning out the window of a van pointing a hand gun at a group of youths, Hayes said. The van Thomas was driving at the time of his arrest matched the description of the vehicle being sought in the gun incident, police said. 

At the arraignment. Judge pointed out to attorney White and Thomas that the maximum Circuit Court sentence on the concealed weapons charge in the event of a conviction is five years in prison.  He also told Thomas that if he failed to appear for the May 12 examination, a warrant for his arrest would be issued.

Since the early 1960's, Thomas has been prominent in movements by local black residents in civil rights actions. One of his major projects was formation in 1970 of the Black Economic Development League, designed to provide funds for the poor of the area.

As part of that project Thomas led “sit-in" demonstrations at various local churches, reading the "Black Manifesto" to sometimes unwilling white congregations. The "Manifesto" was a document demanding cash payments to blacks by white congregations as "reparations” for past racial discrimination. Thomas was twice arrested and convicted of trespass charges during that project.

As a result of Thomas's demands, 40 local congregations banded together to form the Inter-Faith Council of Congregations, an organization established to deal with poverty generally in Washtenaw County. Over the past five years, the Inter-Faith Council has raised from its' various congregations $453,235, most of it coming from Ann Arbor churches. Of that amount. $132,447 has been given to Thomas’s BEDL.

George Neely of the Executive Comrnittee of the Inter-Faith Council, said today his group will have no official comment on Thomas’s arrest until additional information is available.

“My personal view is one of concern." Neely said. "Mr. Thomas, in my opinion, has done a good job in the community and I have no doubt he will continue to do so. I hope for a timely and just hearing of the matter in which Mr. Thomas has an opportunity to speak on the issue personally. I am sure that other members of the IFCC share this view."

News Photo by Robert Chase

Detective Winter (Left) Follows Thomas To Arraignment