MOVIES - Feb. 1, 1989

Lawrence Rainey, who was the Neshoba County (Miss.) sheriff when three civil rights workers were slain in rural Mississippi in 1964, is seeking a public retraction and damages from the producers of “Mississippi Burning,” claiming the movie portrayed him as a “terrorist.” “They didn’t use my name but nobody in Mississippi or any other state has any doubt they intended that sheriff to be me,” said Rainey, 65, now employed as a security officer in Meridian, Miss. “We will be mailing a demand letter for a retraction and that’s a prerequisite for a lawsuit under Mississippi law,” said attorney James McIntyre of Jackson, who represents Rainey. McIntyre represented the former sheriff during a federal court trial in Meridian that followed the slayings. Rainey was acquitted on charges of violating the civil rights of the three workers.