The State - News from March 15, 1989

An American Indian accused of kidnaping 14 people in a North Carolina newspaper office is being held in San Francisco on federal flight charges, an unusual step that may allow the government to avoid formal extradition proceedings. Lawyers for Eddie Hatcher accused the government of taking revenge on Hatcher for winning acquittal last October on federal hostage-taking charges. Hatcher, 31, and Timothy Jacobs, 20, both Tuscarora Indians, were accused of holding as many as 20 people hostage for 10 hours in February, 1988, in the offices of The Robesonian newspaper in Lumberton, N.C. They said they were trying to draw attention to their allegations that law enforcement officials were involved in drug trafficking and other corruption. After their acquittal in federal court, the two men were indicted by a Robeson County grand jury last December on state kidnaping charges.