By Rick Lee
York Daily Record/Sunday News

Dec 7, 2005 — On a sultry July night in 1969, a terrified Hattie Dickson cowered in her white car as a barrage of bullets fired by young toughs and misguided teens ripped through the windows and tires and punched holes in the fenders and doors.

Her sister, Lillie Belle Allen, lay dying on the street, a few feet away, her body ripped open by a single rifled shotgun slug.

Tuesday morning, more than 36 years later, Dickson, proudly erect, led her family into City Hall to meet with York officials.

There, York Mayor John Brenner outlined a $2 million civil settlement and offered his condolences to her, Allen's daughter and other family members for the Aiken, S.C., woman's untimely and senseless murder.

"On behalf of the citizens of the City of York, all 40,862, we are very sorry for your loss," he said. "And I know no monetary settlement and no community dialogue will bring back Lillie Belle Allen, but I hope as a community we all will continue to heal, and we all will continue to work to make our community even better because that's really what York is about." Dickson is the sole surviving occupant of the car that was shot up on North Newberry Street on July 21, 1969. Her parents, the Rev. James and Beatrice Mosley, and her husband, Murray Dickson, all lived through the shooting physically unscathed. Over the years, they passed away.

In January 2003, Dickson, her sister Jennie Settles and Allen's children, Debra Grier and Michael Allen, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city, former police officer and past Mayor Charlie Robertson and former officers Dennis McMaster, James Vangreen, Ray Markel and Ronald Zeager.

The suit alleged the ex-cops had instigated violence against minorities in the 1969 riots, resulting in Allen's death, and that the city had covered up the officers' roles.

The two men convicted in 2002 of Allen's murder and the seven others who pleaded guilty to lesser charges were not named as defendants in the civil suit. Robertson, the sitting mayor when he was arrested for murder, was acquitted of all charges at trial.

After meeting with Brenner in his office Tuesday, Dickson, Grier, family members and their two attorneys faced a bank of cameras in the lobby of City Hall with the mayor. Brenner said the proposed settlement, to be paid at $200,000 a year, required city council approval. He also said he would request the resurrection of "community dialogues" in the fashion of the York Charrette, which was organized following the riots.

"We need to examine the conditions of mistrust, misunderstanding and missed opportunities ..." he said.

At the end of his prepared speech, the mayor hugged Dickson, who responded, "God bless you."

"I'm glad it's all over, and I'm leaving it all behind," Dickson said. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

Assistant city solicitor Don Hoyt explained the settlement came after mediation sessions between the parties at the direction of U.S. Middle District Court Judge Yvette Kane. He said the mediations were "well-negotiated" and that the settlement releases all of the defendants, including the former police officers, from the suit.

"This is the end of it," he said.

Hoyt said the city analyzed the case based on risk. The family risked the judge tossing the case on the statute of limitations, and the city risked the case going to trial despite the passage of time.

The family's attorney, Harold Goodman, of Philadelphia, noted that Allen, 27 when she was gunned down, would have been 64 this Christmas.

He said the agreement was "not just a monetary settlement."

"No one can bring back a mother, a sister and a friend," he said. "Lillie Belle Allen can rest in peace."

After the news conference, Goodman said, "Any lawyer worth his or her salt would have liked to have brought it to closure in the courtroom.

"But the fact of the matter is that would benefit no one. Had we gone to trial and gotten, say a $40 (million) or $50 million judgment, which the City of York obviously couldn't pay, its taxpayers couldn't bear, and which would have only resulted in more heartache for the family, we really would not have accomplished anything."

Details concerning the family's share of the settlement, less attorney fees and costs, are not yet available.

Brenner said he will appoint a steering committee in January "that represents our places of worship and our racial, cultural and socio-economic diversity" to lead the community dialogues.

Its first order of business, he said, will be a "tasteful, visible and durable" memorial to Allen and York City Police Officer Henry C. Schaad, the other person killed during the race riots. Schaad's brother, Barry, said he was surprised by Brenner's announcement. He said a memorial had been discussed years ago, around the time of the criminal trials.

"Maybe now we'll have something to go forth," he said. Goodman said that the Crispus Attucks Community Center already has offered space for a separate memorial for Allen, whose "name in the city seems to be as significant as Rosa Parks'."

He said the complete settlement - the $2 million, the community dialogues and the memorials - "could not happen if reasonable people did not come together."

Brenner said the first $200,000 installment will come from the financially beleaguered city's risk management account and will become part of the city's overall budget in coming years. "We know we can make this work," he said.

Staff writer Teresa Ann Boeckel contributed to this report.

AT A GLANCE

The latest: York Mayor John Brenner and the family of Lillie Belle Allen on Tuesday outlined a $2 million lawsuit settlement in the 27-year-old woman's murder during the 1969 race riots. City council vote: Unanimous approval. Payment plan: $200,000 each year for 10 years. Source of money: The city's general fund, from a risk-management account to pay legal claims against the city. Other plans: Resurrection of community dialogues in the fashion of the York Charrette, which was organized following the riots, plus a memorial to Allen and York City Police Officer Henry C. Schaad, also killed during the riots.

BRENNER'S WORDS

Mayor John Brenner turned to Hattie Dickson, Lillie Belle Allen's sister, during the news conference Tuesday to make this statement:

"Now much has been said about an apology from the city. What I want to say today is to the family.
"On behalf of the citizens of the City of York, all 40,862, we are very sorry for your loss. And I know no monetary settlement and no community dialogue will bring back Lillie Belle Allen, but I hope as a community, we all will continue to heal, and we all will continue to work to make our community even better, because that's really what York is about."

HISTORY OF THE CASE

• 1969
• July 17: Taka Nii Sweeney, 17, is shot by an unseen gunman when Detective George Smith stops him and friends for violating the city's youth curfew. White and black gangs be gin rumbles that afternoon.
• July 18: Officer Henry C. Schaad, 22, is shot while riding in one of the police department's two armored trucks. He dies Aug. 1.
• July 21: Lillie Belle Allen, 27, of Aiken, S.C., is shot and killed while on a trip to visit her sister in York.
• July 22: National Guard troops roll into town with tanks, jeeps and armored trucks.
• 2000
• June 14: York County District Attorney's Office announces plans to seek a grand jury to investigate the murders of Schaad and Allen.
• Sept. 27: A York County judge impanels a grand jury to investigate the two murders.
• 2001
• April 26: Robert and Arthur Messersmith are the first of 10 men to be arrested in the death of Allen. Among them is York Mayor Charlie Robertson, one of the first police officers to arrive on the scene of her death.
• Oct. 30: Police arrest Stephen Donald Freeland and Leon Forrest Wright and charge them with Schaad's murder.
• 2002
• Oct. 19: Robertson is acquitted. Robert Messersmith and Gregory Neff are found guilty of second degree murder in Allen's death. The other suspects have previously pleaded to lesser charges.
• 2003
• March 13: After seven hours of deliberation over two days, a jury convicts Freeland and Wright of second-degree murder in Schaad's death.
• April 21: Freeland and Wright are sentenced. Freeland, who had about 3½ years left on an eight-to-20-year drug sentence, receives nine to 19 years in state prison for his role in Schaad's murder. Wright receives 4½ to 10 years in prison.
• 2000
• Dec. 6: City settles a civil claim filed by Allen's family, agreeing to pay the family $200,000 a year for 10 years.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

• In the Allen case
• Arthur Messersmith, 52, was sentenced to 1½ to three years for criminal attempt with the intent to kill and conspiracy to commit an unlawful act. He was paroled this fall.
• Rick L. Knouse, 52, was sentenced to nine to 23½ months for conspiracy to commit an unlawful act. He was paroled in May 2003 and died in June of natural causes.
• Clarence "Sonny" Lutzinger, 53, was sentenced to nine to 23½ months for conspiracy to commit an unlawful act. He was sent back to prison in October 2003 for a parole violation and has a parole date of February 2009.
• Robert N. Messersmith, 56, is serving a nine-to-19-year sentence for second-degree murder at Mahanoy State Correctional Institution in Frackville.
• Chauncey Gladfelter, 53, was sentenced to three to 23½ months for conspiracy to commit an unlawful act. He was paroled in February 2003.
• Thomas P. Smith, 54, was sentenced to three to 23½ months for conspiracy to commit an unlawful act. He was paroled in February 2003.
• Gregory H. Neff, 57, is serving a 4½-to-10-year sentence for second-degree murder at Pine Grove State Correctional Institution in Indiana, Pa.
• William C. Ritter, 54, was sentenced to nine to 23½ months for conspiracy to commit an unlawful act. He was paroled in August 2003.
• Ezra Slick, 55, is serving a two-to-five-year sentence at Laurel Highlands State Correctional Institution in Somerset for criminal attempt with the intent to kill and conspiracy to commit an unlawful act.
• Charlie Robertson, 71, was acquitted by a jury of first- and second-degree murder and lives in York.


• In the Schaad case
• Stephen Freeland, 53, was serving a nine-to-19-year sentence at Somerset State Correctional Institution for second-degree murder. He died there of natural causes on Oct. 24.
• Leon F. Wright, 57, is serving a 4½-to-10-year sentence at Houtzdale State Correctional Institution in Houtzdale for second-degree murder.
• Michael Wright, 55, was sentenced to time served, 86 days, for conspiracy to commit an unlawful act. Baltimore City Police believe a shot and burned body found after an apartment fire there on Nov. 18 is Wright's. They are awaiting positive identification.