DA asked to probe racial memo mystery

Thursday, March 6, 2003 | 9:01 a.m.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Board voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the district attorney to investigate a memo riddled with racial slurs. The memo supposedly came from director Dan Walters.

"We all came to the consensus that the letter appeared to be forged," library board chairman Ricki Barlow said after a closed-door emergency meeting.

Board members said they had full confidence in Walters as executive director.

During the meeting, the board interviewed several library staff members who said they had never heard the director use language like that in the memo.

The memo was mailed to board members and community activist Marzette Lewis, addressed to library district Human Resources Director Bud Pierce and copied to public information officer Pat Marvel.

The memo was dated Feb. 17, four days after a board meeting in which Lewis, president of the Westside Action Alliance Korps-Uplifting People, and about 14 others protested the district's proposal for a bond issue to build new libraries.

The memo contains racial slurs aimed at Lewis, who is black, and other women who demonstrated.