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No plans to track

freed killer

By Stephanie TaylorStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | A man released from a mental hospital here after kill-ing and dismembering his stepfather 13 years ago will not be monitored by state or federal authorities.

Michael Har t, 41, originally from Huntsville, was released from Tay-lor Hardin Secure Medical Facility last week.

In 2000, in a Madison County circuit court, Hart had been found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect of killing stepfather Girts Upeslacis, but psychiatrists recom-mended that he be released after determining that his mental state was caused by years of heavy drug use, not an underlying mental ill-ness. Hart had not taken psychiat-ric medications since 2004 and no longer showed signs of psychosis, according to court documents.

A source said this week that Hart

Warrant issued

for arrest of agent

By Adam JonesStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | A sports agent ac-cused of breaking a state law regard-ing his profession did not appear in court Wednesday, prompting the judge to issue a warrant for his ar-rest.

Raymond Savage, head of Savage Sports Management in Newport News, Va., was supposed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge for sending an employee to visit then-University of Alabama football player Tyrone Prothro without being a registered sports agent. He instead sent a note from his family doctor saying he could not travel because of treatment of a “cardiac event” in September.

Tuscaloosa Circuit Court Judge Scott Donaldson told attorneys at the hearing that it was not uncom-mon for criminal defendants to have medical issues before court appear-ances, but the note from Savage’s doctor did not provide enough de-tail. He revoked Savage’s bond and issued a writ for his arrest.

“I don’t have enough information to say that I’m putting his health in jeopardy by making him come here,” Donaldson said. “If I get some sort of serious medical report, I’ll do what I al-ways do and make a judgment call.”

Don Valeska, assistant Alabama attorney general prosecuting the case, said state attorneys will notify Virginia police of the warrant.

“If he gets stopped for a traffi c violation tonight, he’s going to be arrested,” Valeska said.

Savage was arrested in October 2008 on a misdemeanor charge of initiating contact with an athlete with-out being a registered sports agent in Alabama and a felony charge of fail-ing to register as a sports agent. He posted $20,000 bail and was released from the Tuscaloosa County Jail the same day, court records show. The felony charge was later dropped.

He is accused of sending one of his employees, Jason Goggins, to visit Prothro in the hospital to solicit agent representation after Prothro broke his leg in a game against the University of Florida

A cultural lesson with fun and games

By Patty VaughanSpecial to The Tuscaloosa News

Drums, feathers and beads will decorate Moundville Archaeo-logical Park for the next three

days as the 22nd annual Native Amer-ican Festival began Wednesday.

Live performances, handmade ar-tifacts and games line the mounds as thousands of people fi lter through to learn about the Southeastern Indian culture.

Betsy Irwin, director of the Native American Festival, said she wanted to focus solely on this particular culture.

“Our goal is to teach people about the Southeastern Indian culture,” she said. “All of the individuals involved in the festival need to be a Southeast-ern Indian or distinctly related to the Southeastern culture.”

She said that about 7,500 children already have reservations to come to the festival this year.

“We have tons of area around, so we broke down the festival into dif-ferent components,” she said.

Those include vendors who sell

arts and crafts, as well as an area to showcase artifacts for people to ob-serve. There is also a living history campground that dates back to the ear-ly 1800s, Irwin said. Enactors dress in clothes from the time period and are camped throughout the park to show how Southeastern Indians lived.

“We have a performing stage, tar-get ranges, which has atlatl (throwing a 7-foot stick), bow and arrow, blow guns and rabbit sticks,” Irwin said.

One new aspect of this year’s festiv-ities is the newly renovated museum, which was fi nished in April.

“The museum was remodeled in the ’70s, but it did not connect the artifacts with the people,” Irwin said. “Our job was to reconnect it and give people a feeling of Mississippi cul-ture. It helps write the story.”

Irwin noted that the University of Alabama raised $5 million for the mu-seum, and the incentive for the proj-ect that started 10 years ago.

“There had to be $250,000 of in-dividual donations,” Irwin said. “We had about 1,000 to 1,500 people work-ing on the project.”

Native American Festival runs through Saturday

PACs in bribery case

once runby Raby

By Bob JohnsonThe Associated Press

MONTGOMERY | Congressional candidate and veteran political con-sultant Steve Raby once ran four north Alabama po-litical action com-mittees that author-ities say were used to route $200,000 from a Dothan casi-no owner to a state senator in a vote-buying scheme. Raby says he re-linquished control of the PACs weeks before the money transfers.

An indictment unsealed Monday in a State House bribery probe said the owner of the Country Crossing casino in Dothan, Ronnie Gilley, issued four checks for $50,000 each in March 2010 to four separate north Alabama PACS. Au-thorities said the funds were intend-ed for state Sen. Harri Anne Smith’s

PHOTO | MEGAN SMITH

Jimmy Sanders demonstrates hunting camp materials Wednesday at the Moundville Native American Festival. The festival runs through Saturday.

Michael Hart intends to move out of state to live with family

Case linked to attempt to sign UA’s Prothro

STATE FINANCESAlabama’s acting finance director sees a brighter future in the new fiscal year. | 1B

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R.L. Leh-mann, left, portrays a Scottish trad-er as he talks to children about how a trader would have lived and survived during the 1700s at the Moundville Archaeo-logical Park Native American Festival on Wednesday.About 7,500 children already have reservations to come to the festival this year.

STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON

Michael Hart, 41, killed and dismem-bered his stepfather 13 years ago.

NATIVE AMERICAN FESTIVAL

Where: Moundville Archaeo-logical Park

When: Weekdays 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (The Moundville Native American Festival runs through Saturday)

Cost: Adults: $10, Children: $8Info: http://moundville.ua.edu

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Steve Raby is the Democratic nominee in the 5th Congres-sional District.

STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON

Krista Holbrook weaves a basket.

ACA thrivingdespite late

coaching changes

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Gamecocks receiver presents challenge for Crimson Tide defense | Sports 1C

S.C.’s top threat

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Festival vendor Larry Smith said he sells many items, in-cluding candles, flutes and other handmade items.

“We do this as primarily an educational event for school-children,” Smith said. “So many times there are erro-neous facts about Indian cul-ture in history books. This

is a hands-on experience of how they lived. It shows the true value of Native American and the South Indian culture. Children get in touch with their past to understand their future.”

George Reed, principal at Corinth Adventist School in Corinth, Miss., brought a group of students and said he’s wanted to attend the festival for a while, despite the three-hour drive.

“We get to interact in crafts

and making things and learn about the Native American culture,” Reed said. “We read and hear about it, but it’s better in person. We can understand it better.”

Irwin said that learning about the culture at an event such as the festival is important.

“Children are studying Moundville and the Southeast-ern people,” Irwin said. “A lot of our culture was introduced by Indians, and the Southeast-ern culture is thriving.”

FESTIVALCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A

STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON

Mary Smith, a feather-worker, weaves feathers into a pattern at the Native American Festival at Moundville Archaeological Park on Wednesday.

in October 2005.Initiating contact with an ath-

lete without being a registered agent is a class-A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year of imprisonment and a fi ne up to $2,000. Failing to register is a class-C felony, punishable by one to 10 years imprisonment and a fi ne of up to $5,000.

A trial date was set for Wednes-day, but attorneys reached a plea deal in September in which Savage agreed to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge and accept a suspended jail sentence and $2,000 fi ne. The plea agree-ment also would have banned him from operating as an agent in Alabama, Valeska said.

Savage’s attorney, Jim Stan-dridge of Tuscaloosa, said he was no longer an active sports agent, and that the plea deal was in the best interest of his client.

The details of the plea agree-ment were supposed to be approved by Donaldson on Wednesday, but the deal is off the table after Savage failed to appear, Valeska said.

Valeska said that at some point, an agent who commits a felony in Alabama will be charged and put in jail, but the facts in Savage’s case weren’t as strong. Still, the message needs to be sent that the state takes its sports agent laws seriously, he said.

“Nobody comes to the state of Alabama without following the law and talks to college ath-letes,” said Valeska, who has prosecuted cases against agents since the state law was passed in 1988.

Before a previous plea hear-ing in September, attorneys and Donaldson were told he had a “cardiac event.” After a confer-ence call a week ago, the plea hearing was set for Wednes-day.

On Tuesday, Standridge faxed a note from Savage’s family doc-

tor reporting he was undergo-ing treatment and was restricted from travel.

“This is an obvious ruse,”Valeska told Donaldson.

Standridge argued that Sav-age’s medical problem was nota ploy, adding he had no reason to believe Savage was lying.

Goggins, Savage’s former employee, was arrested in 2006and faces the same charges asSavage. However, Goggins’ case is still pending because Savage is ahead of him on the courtdocket, Valeska said.

Donaldson said the state hasnot pushed for either case to be tried more quickly because Prothro did not lose eligibility from the incident — indeed, hiscareer ended after the injury —and the University of Alabama was not harmed. Donaldson,too, said he has allowed for de-lays because the case poses nodanger to the public.

Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.

campaign in return for her vote on a bill to legalize electronic bingo.

Gilley and Smith, an inde-pendent from Slocomb, were among 11 Statehouse fi gures indicted. They have denied do-ing anything wrong.

Campaign finance records fi led with the Alabama Secre-tary of State’s offi ce show that the four PACs receiving the money were once operated by

Raby, but a nephew of his was running them when the dona-tions were reported.

Raby, in an interview Tues-day, said he was operating the PACs through his consulting business in Huntsville, Direct Communications, but cut off involvement with the company and the PACs when he decided to run for Congress in February of this year. He said his nephew, W. Bryant Raby, is running the PACs.

“I’m not involved in any of that. I’m running for Congress,” Raby said. “I’ve never met Ron-nie Gilley.”

The campaign fi nance records reviewed by The Associated Press show that the 2010 Senate Majority PAC, the Progress for Alabama PAC and a PAC called TN Valley Citizens for Econom-ic Development each received $50,000 from Gilley Entertain-ment of Enterprise — Ronnie Gilley’s company — on April 16, a few weeks after the March 24 date cited in the indictment.

The Secretary of State’s re-cords show that another PAC, Real Democrat PAC, received a check for $50,000 from Gil-ley Entertainment in the same recording period, but campaign

fi nance reports showed the date the donation was received as Dec. 2, 2013. There was no in-dication what the correct date was supposed to be.

The campaign fi nance records show W. Bryant Raby listed as the chairman and/or treasurer of all four PACs.

Efforts to reach Bryant Raby were unsuccessful. He did not return messages left for him at Direct Communications.

The Decatur Daily fi rst re-ported that the PACs had been operated by Raby, the Demo-cratic nominee running against Republican Mo Brooks for the

open seat in north Alabama’s 5th Congressional District.

Steve Raby said the PACs have been active for several years and in the past have given money to Republican and Dem-ocratic candidates.

Brooks said he is concerned that the money was being rout-ed through PACs that had been operated by Raby.

“The public needs to know that Steve Raby is a lobbyist and advocates policy positions based on who has the most money,” Brooks said.

The federal indictment charg-es that the 11 conspired to buy

and sell votes in support of a bill to legalize electronic bingo.

Named as defendants alongwith Gilley and Smith were theowner of the VictoryLand Ca-sino in Macon County, MiltonMcGregor; state Sens. Quin-ton Ross, D-Montgomery, JimPreuitt, R-Talladega, and LarryMeans, D-Attalla; lobbyists TomCoker and Bob Geddie, who represent VictoryLand; lobby-ist Jarrod Massey and public relations executive Jay Walker,who represent Country Cross-ing; and Ray Crosby, an attorney for the Legislature who helped write gambling legislation.

AGENTCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A

PACSCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A

N.J. senator calls for anti-bullying law after student’s suicideThe Associated Press

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. | U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg said Wednesday he would introduce legislation requiring colleges to adopt a code of conduct that pro-hibits bullying and harassment af-ter the suicide of a student whose gay sexual encounter in his dorm

room was broadcast online.Lautenberg, D-N.J., made the

announcement at a town meet-ing on the Rutgers University campus in memory of 18-year-old freshman Tyler Clementi.

Clementi, a promising vio-linist, jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River on Sept. 22 after

the intimate images of him withanother man were webcast. Hisbody was identifi ed days later.

Clementi’s roommate, Dha-run Ravi, and another Rutgersfreshman, Molly Wei, both 18, have been charged with inva-sion of privacy, and authoritiesare weighing whether bias crime charges should be added.

4A THURSDAY , OCTOBER 7 , 2010 | THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS