Casino Slaying Spurs Push for New Laws

Responding to the murder of a 7-year-old girl in a Nevada casino bathroom, legislators in California and Nevada said Friday that they are considering legislation to make it a crime to keep quiet after witnessing an assault on a child.

State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) and Nevada Assembly Majority Leader Richard Perkins (D-Henderson) said they hope to introduce legislation soon in response to the 1997 slaying of Sherrice Iverson of South Los Angeles.

Police say that Sherrice was molested and slain by Jeremy Strohmeyer, a Long Beach teenager who will go on trial next week in Las Vegas. Strohmeyer’s friend, David Cash, said he saw Strohmeyer struggle with the girl and later heard Strohmeyer confess. But Cash kept silent, telling police “I didn’t want to be the person who takes away his [Strohmeyer’s] last day, his last night of freedom.”

Cash has not been charged because there is no law in Nevada that requires crime witnesses to come forward. His statements of indifference have triggered public outrage, including a demonstration Wednesday at UC Berkeley demanding his expulsion.

Perkins said that under the bill he plans to introduce in February, when legislators reconvene, “any crime against a child, whether you had knowledge of it at the time or afterward, you must come forward.”

A spokesman for Hayden said he plans to introduce similar legislation in the California Senate next year.

“It boggles the mind that someone can witness the molestation and ultimate murder of a young girl and walk away and suffer no consequences,” said Rocky Rushing, a spokesman for Hayden. Cash has insisted he saw only the struggle, not the molestation or the strangulation.

Meanwhile, Sherrice’s mother, Yolanda Manuel, called for an apology Friday from the UC Board of Regents, charging that UC Berkeley police mistreated her after Wednesday’s protest. A university official said the complaint was unjustified.

Manuel and her supporters said they were forced to wait at a campus police station for 20 minutes to meet with Chancellor Robert Berdahl. But they left before Berdahl showed up, saying they felt intimidated by the police.

“I’m outraged at the treatment she received at our protest,” said Naji Ali, a Muslim clergyman who has acted as a spokesman for Manuel.

Ali and other supporters suggested that Manuel is not getting the same respect as the family of other high-profile murder victims because she is an African American. “I’ve seen better treatment at a Ku Klux Klan rally,” he said.

University spokesman Jesus Mena said that Manuel and her supporters were simply asked to wait at campus police headquarters. He said it is the same office where the Rev. Jesse Jackson waited to meet with Berdahl to discuss affirmative action in April.

Manuel’s supporters say that they have collected 20,000 signatures on a petition urging Nevada authorities to charge Cash as an accessory in the girl’s murder.