Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [92]
For the next eight years she committed herself to funding the scholarships, which covered everything—room, board, books, and tuition, plus a spending allowance. She selected the scholarship winners from a list of incoming students and made sure each knew of the requirement to maintain a B average. When a couple of them let their grades slip, she wrote to them: “I understand that the first year is really difficult and there were a lot of adjustments to be made. I believe in you. We all made an agreement that it would be a three-point average, not a 2.483 and I know you want to uphold your end of the agreement, because I intend to uphold mine.”
Her good intentions crashed in 1995 when one of the scholarship students alleged sexual harassment by Vernon Winfrey after seeking his help for additional funds. “I needed the money to take a summer microbiology class,” said Pamela D. Kennedy. “Mr. Winfrey [was] a family friend and asked me to meet him at his barbershop. I expected it to be a short meeting.”
After twenty-five minutes, she said, Vernon, sixty-two, excused himself to go to the bathroom. She claimed that when he returned he exposed himself and made an obscene gesture before grabbing her, kissing her, and begging her to touch him. “ ‘I’m doing you a favor,’ he said. ‘You need to do me a favor. Tomorrow’s my birthday and you could really make an old man happy. Come on, honey.’
“At that moment, I knew I had been set up,” she said. “He purposely had me come down to the shop when it was closed so we would be alone. Other girls might fall for his act, but I wouldn’t think of prostituting myself. I told him, ‘How dare you! I don’t care if you are Oprah’s father and can help me. I refuse to have sex with you.’ ” She said she ran from the barbershop and Vernon chased her down the street, trying to make amends. “ ‘Honey, I hope this doesn’t ruin our friendship,’ ” he said.
That same day, January 30, 1995, the twenty-eight-year-old student filed a complaint with Nashville police against Vernon, a former member of the Metro Council. The crime of indecent exposure carried a fine of up to $2,500 and a jail sentence of several months. Vernon denied the charge. “I regret the day I ever let this girl set foot in my barbershop,” he said. “Obviously she has dollar signs in her eyes.”
When the sex scandal hit the press, Oprah was silent for a day or so. Then she issued a statement, standing foursquare behind her father. “He is one of the most honorable men I know,” she said. “In his professional and personal life he has always tried to do what is right and help people.”
When the police began investigating her father, she sent lawyers to Nashville to help him. His accuser passed a lie detector test, which was made public, but weeks later prosecutors determined there was not sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and dropped the charges against Vernon, in large part because Ms. Kennedy’s lawyer, Frank Thompson-McLeod, had solicited a bribe, saying the charges would disappear if Vernon paid a certain amount of money. The attorney was arrested and lost his license to practice. Ms. Kennedy was not charged. “Greed is the only reason I can conclude that