Protest Erupts At Berkeley

Hundreds of protesters jammed into a sun-washed plaza Wednesday to demand the University of California expel a young man who kept silent about the murder of a 7-year-old girl at a Nevada casino.

The demonstration focused on Berkeley sophomore David Cash Jr. of La Palma. The protesters wanted to make it clear they think he had the chance to save the life of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson, but did nothing.

"He was in the bathroom ... and he didn't do (anything) about it," said the girl's mother, Yolanda Manuel, who traveled from Southern California with about 50 others to attend. "He could have stopped it. I'm very outraged. He is an accomplice to murder."

Cash, 19, has admitted seeing his friend Jeremy Strohmeyer struggling with the little girl in a bathroom of the Primadonna casino in Pimm, 40 miles outside of Las Vegas in May 1997.

Cash says he left before the girl was injured. But he also says Strohmeyer told him later what had happened, and Cash never came forward.

Strohmeyer goes on trial Monday in Las Vegas on charges that he kidnapped, raped and strangled Iverson in May 1997.

Many at the rally felt Cash should be tossed out of the university, where he is studying nuclear engineering. The university says they have no recourse because he hasn't been charged.

"UC officials are disturbed by the murder and the incidents we've read about in the press, but the legal process has to take its course. He has not been charged," said Berkeley spokesman Jesus Pena.

Others at the rally thought expulsion wasn't a harsh enough penalty.

"If you walk into a bank with me and I rob the bank, you're an accomplice," said Clarence Block Jr., a paralegal from San Francisco who took the day off to attend the rally. "This man is not just a witness. He did not make a bad judgment call. He is an accomplice ... he should have been put in jail."

Cash, in an electronic mail message to the San Francisco Chronicle, said Tuesday he was "completely ignorant" of the circumstances of the slaying.

"Most people seem to be under the impression that I was in a position to stop the heinous crime," the newspaper quoted Cash in a story published Wednesday. "I did not witness the alleged molestation and murder."

Cash also blamed the media for casting him in an "inaccurate and rather unfair light."

But Najee Ali, an Islamic minister who has been working on behalf of the victim's mother, called Cash a "liar."

"He's nothing more than a coward who has the blood of a little baby on his hands," Ali told the Chronicle.

Demonstrators were particularly outraged by statements Cash made in interviews. He told two Los Angeles radio stations he didn't know the victim and so could feel remorse only for Strohmeyer. The Los Angeles Times quoted Cash saying, "I'm not going to get upset over somebody ele's life. I just worry about myself first."

The newspaper also reported Cash said the notoriety made it easier for him to "score with women."

But Cash, in his letter to the Chronicle, said that was not true. He also said he felt sympathy for the victim's family.

There was little sympathy expressed for Cash. One leaflet, written in black on blue paper, carried this message: "David, may this stigma and your infamy haunt you for the remainder of your life. At least you have one, unlike Sherrice."

Written by By Catalina Ortiz