| Transcript |
HOUSTON VOICE • DECEMBER 3, 1999
LOCAL NEWS
INSIDE
NEWS
Woman robbed, shot after leaving Montrose bar
Around the Nation 5
Advocacy group flunks Bush
on AIDS report cord 5
Calif, anti-gay marriage initiative renamed . .5
Supreme Court to rule on hole crime
sentences 5
High school students sue to form alliance .. .5
Prosecutors will seek death penally In killings 5
McCain attacked for meeting with goy GOP . .6
VOICES & ECHOES
Kuhiak: A profile in courage
Plant: Resolutions for a new year .
letters
OUT ON THE BAYOU
Happy Holliday! 15
Just between us girls 15
Out in Print: 'Crisis of Desire' 16
Bestsellers 16
Ealing Out: Inside charm turns unappetizing 19
On Singe: Slice of life is 'bang on' 21
Community Calendar 22
Occasions 22
Past Out: Intimate 'Boston marriages' 23
MyStors! ..27
CLASSIFIEDS 24
CARMART 25
BUSINESS DIRECTORY ...26
Issue 997
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by MATTHEW A. HENNIE
Houston police are asking for the public's help in identifying two suspects in the
robbery and shooting of a 31-year-old
woman Sunday a few hours after she left a
Montrose bar.
Tracey Lynn Deal, 31, remains in fair condition at Ben Taub General Hospital after
being shot several times in the face, chest
and hands sometime after she left Chances,
1100 Westheimer, part of a complex of
nightclubs primarily for lesbians, police
said.
Robbery apparently motivated the
attack, said John Cannon, a Houston Police
Department spokesman. There is no evidence that the incident took place because
Deal was at a bar for lesbians, he said.
"It's way too early to say it was anything
other than a robbery," Cannon said.
Today, investigators were expected to
release a videotape of two men who used
Deal's debit card at two local banks after
she was abducted, shot and dumped in the
10,000 block of East Haven sometime after
2:30 a.m. Sunday, police said.
Deal's family was also expected to post a
$5,000 reward for the arrest and indictment
of her attackers during today's briefing at
police headquarters on Travis Street,
authorities said. CrimeStoppers has also
offered a $1,000 reward in the case.
"These suspects are cold and bold/' said
homicide Sgt. L.D. Foltz, a case investigator. "We need to get them off the streets.
Someone will recognize the men on the
videotape. Someone has seen her car. Call
us, please."
Deal called a friend about 2:30 a.m.
Sunday and said she was at Chances,
which was preparing to close, police said.
About two hours later, Deal—who had
been shot several times—managed to crawl
more than 300 yards to awaken residents of
an apartment complex at 10280 Windmill
Lakes and ask for help.
Police would not comment on where
Deal lives.
Her assailants allegedly forced Deal,
driving her 1996 Honda Accord, to
Whataburger on South Shepard about 4
a.m. They ordered $9 in food, police said.
Less than an hour later. Deal was discovered by residents of the Windmill Lakes
apartment complex.
Her Honda Accord, described as a white
4-door with license plate VCB 71C and with
a Green Bay Packers sticker on the windshield, is still missing, police said.
Less than two hours later, police said,
two suspects in the case were videotaped at
two banks withdrawing money from an
ATM using Deal's debit card. Some $400
was taken, authorities said.
Investigators were expected to release
segments of the videotape during the briefing today to help identify the two men.
A third suspect in the robbery has used
Deal's credit card, police said.
Houston Police
Department
Homicide Division
713-308-3600
CrimeStoppers
713-222-TIPS
UH wants to rehire prof it fired before lawsuit
Jury verdict prompts school to revise sexual harassment policy in
case that was first for Texas
by GIP PLASTER
What a difference a few weeks makes.
A dental department chairman at the
University of Texas Houston Health Science
Center found guilty last month of sexually
harassing a male professor who worked for
him now faces termination after refusing the
school's request for his resignation.
The harassed employee, who was fired by
the school after he complained about the
harassment, has been offered his old job.
Former dental employee Luis Mota, who
is gay, was awarded $448,000 last month
after a federal jury found that the he was
sexually harassed by the Dr. Raul Caffesse,
the acting dean of his department.
The |ury also found that thc university
failed to take prompt action to stop the
harassment, then retaliated against Mota by
firing him when he complained to school
officials.
The university asked Caffesse to resign
last week and gave him the Thanksgiving
holiday weekend to consider his decision.
When the professor refused to resign, the
university launched termination proceedings, according to David Bates, a university
spokesman.
If Caffesse fights the firing, the process
could take as long as a year, but he could
resign at any time. He is now on paid
administrative leave.
"He is not being dismissed simply
because he was part of a lawsuit the university lost," Bates said.
The proceedings are based on testimony
from the trial that suggests Caffesse lied to
his supervisors and concealed important
information from them, school officials said.
And the university has offered to rehire
Mota.
Joe /Ahmad, one of Mota's attorneys, said
the job offer came in the form of a terse letter
attached to a court motion. The letter,
according to Ahmad, does not specify what
type of job is being offered or whether it
would be a comparable, tenure track position.
Mota has not decided whether he will
accept the offer, Ahmad said. He is currently
employed at the University of Pittsburgh.
Ahmad said that although Caffesse will
likely be gone from the school, other university officials are responsible for the way the
complaint was handled, and those officials
remain at their jobs. Before he can make a
decision about the offer, Ahmad said Mota
will need to know if he will "report to the
same villains in the case minus Caffesse."
"This is a university that basically treated
him as an outcast from the moment he complained. They took a rather disdainful view
of someone complaining of samesex sexual
harassment," Ahmad said.
The job offer could be a cost saving measure for the university. If the offer is deemed
by the judge to be in good faith, it could
replace $330,000 in front pay that Mota won
in the case. If Mota refuses an offer made in
good faith, he will lose the money, Ahmad
said.
Ahmad expressed concern that nothing
has changed at the university except the
removal of Caffesse. But university officials
say changes are being made.
"The one thing that is underway that
would make Mota's situation better is that
the sexual harassment policy under which
he made his complaint is under review and
being revised," Bates said.
University of Texas system officials were
concerned with the school's timeliness in
resolving the situation and with making
sure a method of separating employees
involved in complaints is established, he
said.
The university denies that it retaliated
against Mota and is appealing that part of
the judge's verdict. The school does not plan
to appeal the verdict of sexual harassment.
Mota is being offered the same position he
left, Bates said. But some of the perks that
previously accompanied his position are no
longer available because they were funded
by grants which have since expired. Bates
would not elaborate.
A lawyer for Caffesse told the Houston
Chronicle that the verdict is not cause for the
university to breach its contract with
Caffesse.
Caffesse testified during the trial that he
had a sexual encounter with Mota, a native
of Venezuela, at a June 1996 dental conference in Mexico, but Caffesse promised Mota
then that it would not happen again.
But in August, Caffesse booked the two
into only one hotel room for another conference, forcing them to share. Caffesse asked
Mota to join him in bed during that trip and
during a later trip to Orlando.
Caffesse testified that he was joking. Mota
canceled future dental trips to avoid staying
in the same room with him.
Because Caffesse approved Mota's teaching contract, Mota said he felt pressured by
the advances.
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