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| Date Posted |
November 17, 2010 |
| News Title |
Accused Commissioner Addresses His Supporters |
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Web Administrator |
BY ANDREW GANT, STAFF WRITER
DAYTONA BEACH -- Suspended City Commissioner Derrick Henry turned to faith Tuesday night, and a chorus of his most ardent supporters showed they still believe in him, too.
"There comes a point in everybody's life when you need somebody," the suspended city commissioner said to a raucous burst of applause Tuesday night in the sanctuary at Hope Fellowship Church. "And I'm a witness that I have not been forsaken or abandoned at my point of need."
Then came the resounding reply: "Amen."
Supporters of Henry and his campaign manager Genesis Robinson -- both of whom face criminal charges for alleged election violations in the Aug. 24 primary -- rallied Tuesday at the church on Derbyshire Road and cheered as Henry and his pastor asked for prayers for a quick resolution to the case.
"There was absolutely no intent to break any laws, but rather there was a zealous effort to help those who seemingly could not help themselves," rally organizer the Rev. L. Ronald Durham said. "As their elected representative, Mr. Henry saw this as a solemn duty, which he tried to fulfill."
The 41-year-old commissioner, who also is an assistant principal at his alma mater, Mainland High School, was arrested Oct. 27 on charges he and Robinson, 21, requested absentee ballots for almost 100 voters in Zone 5, where Henry easily won re-election.
State law says a person may request ballots only for himself or herself or for immediate family members.
Durham, Henry's longtime pastor at Greater Friendship Baptist Church, called the incident "a simple case of misunderstanding" requirements of "a little-known law."
"This obscure law," Durham said, "has placed both Mr. Henry and Mr. Robinson in the desperate position of literally having to fight for their lives and their future."
Durham, who heads the recently formed Committee to Support Derrick Henry, said, "an unscientific survey of the community has shown us that virtually none of those surveyed had ever heard of this law."
Henry said nothing to address any specifics of the allegations but leaned heavily on his record of service.
He told of his grandfather, Samuel C. O'Quinn, a wealthy civil-rights era businessman who was shot and killed in 1959 outside his Centreville, Miss., home. Henry said O'Quinn was "secretly working with the NAACP on voting rights" before the ambush, and "I have spent the last 25 years trying to live up to the measure of his sacrifice."
The Tuesday night rally had the call-and-response feel of a Sunday church service, and both Durham and fellow pastor Victor Gooden quoted several pieces of scripture as congregation members nodded or called out in affirmation.
"Let this be the portrait of a great man," Gooden, president of the Daytona Beach Black Clergy Alliance, said as he described Henry, the man he said set a solid example for young black men in his community.
After about 40 minutes, reporters were asked to leave the sanctuary so the committee could hold a private meeting.
Henry exited quickly after his remarks. Durham told the crowd to "stay off the camera" because "you can easily do more harm than good" as the committee and all its congregants shape one consistent message.
The co-defendant Robinson did not speak, but he and his family were there for the rally.
"All of this attention being directed towards me is quite embarrassing, and certainly it is not what I would want us to have to spend our time doing," Henry said. "But the reality is this is where I find myself. ... Please continue to pray for me, pray for this young man. He is the fruit of my work ... and I believe in my heart he is going to do great things, extraordinary things."
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