Restay rant firing draws protests
Motions end
Bjorklund
hearings
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Editor .
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Three motions filed by attor
neys for Roger Bjorklund and
the stale were partially scaled
Tuesday in Lancaster County District
Court. ..
Judge Donald Endacott ordered the
documents partially closed, but de
clined to close the pretrial hearing to
the press and public.
Chief Deputy Lancaster County
Public Defender Scott Helvic filed
two motions in Lancaster County Dis
trict Court. In the first motion, Hclvie
said Scott Barney should be prohibit
ed from testifying at the trial.
Bjorklund and Barney both arc
charged with first-degree murder in
the 1992 slaying of University of
Nebraska-Lincoln student Candice
Haj*ms.
Fourteen paragraphs in the motion
were sealed and not read by the judge
during the hearing.
In Helvie’s second motion, he said
Lancaster County Attorney Gary
Lacey should be recused, or disqual
ified from his position in the trial,
because of prejudice or personal in
terest.
Sandy Summers/DM
KM Huff, • sophomore archeology major at UNL, and Bait) Bair, former publisher of
Woman's Journal Advocate, protest the firing of a gay employee outside the Green
Cstssu restaurant Tuesday morning.
two days a week. »
Boltc gradually increased his
hour* dining the year, but in Au
gust he requested to return to the
rwo-day-a-week schedule. The re
qpaeat was approved by a manager
A few weeks later, Livcngood
asked the manager to fire Boltc
because he allegedly was too ef
feminate. The manager said Boltc
was agood employee and shouldn’t
be Tired.
Boltc left for vacation. When he
relumed Sept. 2. the manager told
him he had been fired. Two other
employees. Kevin Caught in and
Gia Rauch not. quit in protest.
Livcngood said Boltc was not
filed because he was gay. Belle's
achedultng conflicts became too
steal a problem to accommodate,
he said
Boltc had asked not to work on
two football Saturdays, Livcngood
Mid.
“We need pan-time employees
during our busy time,” he said.
“His schedule didn't work with our
schedule.”
Livcngood said he knew Boltc
and other employees were homo
sexuals long before the day Bolte
was fired.
Nebraska has no policy banning
job discrimination on the Basis of
sexuality, said Marlayn Cragun,
executive director of the Nebraska
Civil Liberties Union, in a tele
phone interview..
Tuesday ’s protesters advocate a
bill introduced last year to thestate
Legislature that would make it ille
gal to discriminate against people
on the basis of their sexual orienta
tion.
Pat Greene, a member of the
Coalition forGay and Lesbian Civ
il Rights, said the bill would not
mandate quotas for hiring gay or
lesbian employees.
Greene said she and other local
homosexual-rights advocates
— II
His schedule didn’t
work with our
schedule.
— Livengood
owner, Green Gateau
-tf —
would push for the bill to become
law in this year’s legislative ses
sion.
Boltesaid he had no plans to file
a lawsuit because he allegedly suf
fered discrimination. Current Ne
braska laws give him no grounds
for a suit, he said.
Bolte, who supports the bill,
said he was pleased the event had
drawn much attention to further his
cause of equal rights for homosex
uals.
“I’ve become much more of a
celebrity than I had hoped,” Bolte
said. - -—
The judge read Helvic’s motion,
which said that because Lacey filed
the charges against Bjorklund, he
shouldn’t prosecute the case. Five
paragraphs in the motion were scaled
by Endacott.
Helvie did not return telephone
calls for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The motion filed by the county
attorney’s office was almost com
pletely scaled by Endacott.
All three motions can become un
sealed at any time, Endacott said.
Attorney Alan Peterson, who rep
resents various Nebraska media orga
nizations, objected to sealing the
motions. The objection wasoverruled
by Endacott.
The judge said Tuesday’s hearing
was the last before Bjorklund's trial.
Jury selection begins Monday in
Sidney, and the trialwill start Oct. 25
in Lincoln.
Baraev hasher butts heads with parents, dinosaur fans
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Day event*. hn and other UPC membcm have
considered a Barney boxing match, a Big Bird
va, Barney baah or evcrythmg-but-Barncyi
event*
The Nov, 10baah i*a month away, but Fox’*
name already haa become a naughty word in
aonte local household*
"Prom what I've gathered. I*m noted a*one
of the moat haled men in Lincoln now," Ik xaid
"It'a turning into more of a personal attack."
Pox'* name appeared in lour of the five
letterato the editor concerning the Barney Ba»h
m Monday k I incoln Mai newspaper
"I have no idea where thia thing ia going to
go," he aaid It grows every day
Po* haa lalkedto reporter* Irom California,
< anada and many of Nebraska'* papers He *
retd • story in USA Today about his brainchild.
He has dedicated a wall in the UPC office to
post letters and newspaper articles on Barney
isaucs. ,
Fox has fielded calls for the past two weeks
from angry parents and other concerned citi
zens. Even University of Nebraska-Lincoln
alumni have called threatening to withdraw
financial support if Fox follows through with
the event.
“I've had to put a lot of things off so I can
take care of this little monster.** Fox said. “It's
affecting my classes, my personal life. It's
grown to mammoth proportions."
It's even stretched into hut home life.
“If this is Barney, go away We don't want
to talk to you," is the message that callers hear
on the answering machine at Fox’s house
"Honestly, I'm sick or it. For something so
small, it's gotten so big," Fox said. "People
have forgotten how to laugh. This is all Tun and
games/'
Besides, he said, the Barney Bash was cre
ated solely for students. Fox said he had yet to
hear student criticism of the event.
"If the students don't want this thing to
happen," he said, "it ain’t going to happen."
Fox said adults had told him he failed to
understand children's love for Barney. But Fox
said he was still a child at heart.
"I'm the biggest kid imaginable," Fox said.
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S— BARNEY on 2
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showed a need for an engineering
