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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=Donald Edgar "Don" Hathaway, Sr. |office=Sheriff of Caddo Parish, Louisiana |term_start=June 1980 |term_end=July 1, 2000 |preceded=Harol..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Donald Edgar "Don" Hathaway, Sr.
|office=[[Sheriff]] of Caddo Parish, [[Louisiana]]
|term_start=June 1980
|term_end=July 1, 2000
|preceded=[[Harold M. Terry]]
|succeeded=[[Steve Prator]]
|office2=President of the National Sheriffs' Association
|term_start2=1996
|term_end2=1997
|preceded2=John J. Pierpont
|succeeded2=Fred W. Scoralick
|office3=Public Works Commissioner in [[Shreveport]], Louisiana
|term_start3=November 9, 1970
|term_end3=November 27, 1978
|succeeded3=Position abolished under new city charter
|office4=Secretary-Treasurer, Caddo Parish Police Jury since 1984 the Caddo Parish Commission)
|term_start4=May 1967
|term_end4=1970
|preceded4=Robert S. Cavett
|succeeded4=Joe Abramson
|birth_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
|birth_date=October 20, 1928
|death_place=
|death_date=
|death_cause=
|resting_place=
|religion=[[United Methodist]]
|occupation=Retired public official<br>
[[Insurance] agent
|spouse=Betty Lou Moore Hathaway
|children=Bridget Hathaway Bell<br>
Paige Hathaway Wolfe<br>
Don Hathaway, Jr.
|residence=Shreveport, Louisiana
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|alma_mater=St. John Berchmans Cathedral School<br>
[[Clifton Ellis Byrd]] High School<br>
[[Louisiana Tech University]]
|branch=[[United States Navy]]
|rank=Lieutenant}}
'''Donald Edgar Hathaway, Sr.''', known as '''Don Hathaway''' (born October 20, 1928),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/donald-hathaway/e361095078456|title=Donald Hathaway|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref> is a [[business]]man and retired [[politician]] from his native [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]]. From 1970 to 1978, Hathaway, a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]], was his city's last public works commissioner,<ref>In [[Shreveport]] and in other cities with the municipal commission form of government, the commissioner exercised legislative functions on the city council and an executive role as a municipal department head. This position should not be confused with that of county commissioner, most of whom were and still are elected by single-member districts. County commissioners are the "legislators" of a county (called parish in Louisiana), with the county judge normally in the role of the "executive" head of the county. In Louisiana, the executive of the parish may be known as the police jury president, the president of the parish, or a parish "administrator," depending on the structure of the parish government. City commissioners could not be chosen on a district basis, as their administrative duties affected the entire city. [[African American]]s were not then elected to city government in most parts of the South. Soon an outcry in the [[civil rights]] movement raised legal challenges to the city commission governments.</ref> an office abolished effective November 1978 with the implementation of a new city charter. From 1980 to 2000, he was the [[sheriff]] of Caddo Parish]] in the northwestern corner of his state.<ref name=pastsheriffs>Past sheriffs, Caddo Parish History, accessed June 14, 2014; no longer on-line.</ref>
==Background==
Hathaway attended the Alexander Grammar School in Shreveport through the seventh grade and then enrolled at St. John's College (later called St. John's Military High School), where he served as a lieutenant during his sophomore year.<ref name=politicalcard/> He graduated in 1946 from the public [[Clifton Ellis Byrd]] High School in Shreveport, at which he lettered in [[basketball]] and [[baseball]]. In 2000, he was inducted into the [[Clifton Ellis Byrd]] High School Hall of Fame, along with the songwriter Tillman Franks and [[B. L. "Buddy" Shaw]], a former Byrd principal and a former member of both houses of the state legislature.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.byrdhighalumni.org/hall_of_fame.htm|title=C. E. Byrd High School Hall of Fame Inductees: 2000|publisher=C. E. Byrd High School Alumni Association|accessdate=June 16, 2014}}</ref> Hathaway served in the [[United States Navy]] and later retired as a lieutenant.<ref name=politicalcard/>
Hathaway subsequently was the student body president<ref name=politicalcard/> of [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], from which in 1951, he received a degree in [[business administration]].<ref name=walkeralley>{{cite web|url=http://walkeralley.catylist.com/jsp/agents/agent_overview.jsp?agentID=3395394|title=Donald E. Hathaway|publisher=walkeralley.catylist.com|accessdate=July 10, 2014}}</ref> Hathaway is a former member, officer, and president of the Louisiana Tech Alumni Association<ref>"Louisiana Tech Alumni Association office," ''The Shreveport Times,'' October 16, 1957.</ref> and was the original secretary-treasurer in 1962 of the Louisiana Tech Foundation and the second president, whose membership included later state circuit court Judge Charles Allen Marvin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/administration/policies-and-procedures/3101.php|title=Policy 3101 - Introduction, Foundation Programs and Operations, and Future|date=August 26, 2000|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=June 23, 2014}}</ref>
In 2012, Hathaway was part of the fundraising campaign for the renovation of the floor and the renaming of the Robert "Scotty" Robertson Memorial Gymnasium, an alternate practice facility for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and Lady Techsters basketball teams, named for the eight-time Hall of Famer, Coach Scotty Robertson.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.latech.edu/2012/10/18/tech-to-honor-legendary-coach-with-renaming-of-gymnasium-court/|title=Tech to honor legendary coach with renaming of gymnasium, court|author=T. Scott Boatright|date=October 18, 2012|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sportsnola.com/sports/local-sports-news/louisiana-tech-news/586476-tech-memorial-gym-renovation-under-way.html|title=Tech Memorial Gym Renovation Under Way|date=August 2, 2012|publisher=''The New Orleans Times-Picayune''|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
Hathaway was an active member and president of the Shreveport Jaycees. He is a former [[Chamber of Commerce]] director. He has been affiliated with the American Legion and the Forty and Eight veterans organizations as well as Kiwanis International. He is a long-term member of the Noel Memorial [[United Methodist]] Church in Shreveport.<ref name=politicalcard/>
After his term as sheriff, Hathaway began working in the commercial [[real estate]] business, affiliated with Walker-Alley & Associates in Shreveport.<ref name=walkeralley/> He was also in the [[insurance]] business in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mustardpages.com/Directory/Shreveport-LA/25/General-Insurance|title=Hathaway, Don|publisher=mustardpages.com|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
Hathaway is married to the former Betty Lou Moore (born January 1933), formerly of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] in Webster Parish.<ref name=politicalcard/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20070218/LIVING/702160353/Maggie-Martin-Krewe-Justinian-members-gather-Another-Day-Paradise-brunch|title=Krewe of Justinian members gather for 'Another Day in Paradise' brunch|author=Maggie Martin|date=February 17, 2007|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 14, 2014}}</ref> She is the daughter of Reece E. Moore (1905-1970) and the former Frances Willene Herring (1913-1989), who are interred at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Haughton in south Bossier Parish. The Hathaways have three children, Bridget H. Bell; Paige H. Wolfe (born March 1963), and Donald Hathaway, Jr.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=54063208|title=Frances Willene Herring Moore|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref> (born April 11, 1965), who is an [[attorney]] in the Shreveport firm of Sockrider, Bolin, Anglin, Batte, & Hathaway, a former Caddo Parish assistant district attorney, and a former U.S. assistant attorney.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linkedin.com/title/assistant+district+attorney/in-us-768-Shreveport,-Louisiana-Area/|title=Don E. Hathaway, Jr.|publisher=linkedin.com|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>The junior Hathaway is married to the former Camille Latour, the daughter of Thomas G. Latour, Sr. (1936-2012), who was a physician/psychiatrist and thoroughbred and[American Quarter Horse racer from Indian Bayou in Vermilion Parish in southwestern Louisiana. Don and Camille Hathaway have two sons, Donald Hathaway, III, and Thomas Hathaway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stallionesearch.com/default.asp?section=6&story=10488|title=Louisiana Horseman Dr. Thomas G. Latour, Sr., Dies||date=February 13, 2012|publisher=stallionesearch.com|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
==Political life==
After working during the 1950s and early 1960s in insurance and investment banking, Hathaway joined the staff of the Caddo Parish Police Jury in 1962. He was named secretary-treasurer of the jury on May 10, 1967.<ref>Veta Samuels, ''History of Caddo Parish Police Jury - Caddo Parish Commission since 1840.''</ref>The police jury, the traditional governing body of the parish, was renamed in 1984 as the Caddo Parish Commission.<ref name=politicalcard>{{cite web|url=http://bossier.pastperfect-online.com/36091cgi/mweb.exe?request=record&id=4400185E-5047-4AF4-9A37-764013325364&type=301|title=Hathaway's campaign card|date=1970|publisher=bossier.pastperfect-online.com|accessdate=June 19, 2014}}</ref>
===Shreveport public works commissioner, 1970-1978===
Hathaway stepped down as police jury secretary-treasurer in 1970 to contest the office of Shreveport public works commissioner under the then commission form of city government. He replaced an interim commissioner on the city council who had taken office on January 1, 1969, following the resignation of the 34-year incumbent, [[H. Lane Mitchell]], who was caught up in a 1971 scandal involving four counts of theft in the office which he had already vacated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/19711060246So2d814_1915.xml/STATE%20v.%20MITCHELL|title=State v. Mitchell|date=May 3, 1971|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Hathaway was one of five citywide elected commissioners who acted in both executive and legislative roles in the governance of Shreveport municipal affairs for an eight-year period. He presided over the public works department as an executive and cast a single vote on the Shreveport City Council, when it in met in public session. His administration of the office coincided with that of [[Mayor]] [[Calhoun Allen]], who was technically the "commissioner of administration." Hathaway's council colleagues included fellow Democrat Public Utilities Commissioner William "Bill" Collins, and after Collins resigned in 1977, [[Billy Guin]], a [[Republican Party|Republican]] who served for the remaining year-and-a-half in that position, as well as Finance Commissioner [[George A. Burton]], the first Republican to hold Shreveport municipal office since [[Reconstruction]], and Public Safety Commissioner George Wendell D'Artois, Sr. (1925-1977), who was forced from office in the summer of 1976 in another corruption scandal.<ref name=copsgobad>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/10/brad-kozak/when-cops-go-bad-i-the-tale-of-george-dartois/|title=When Cops Go Bad I: The Tale of George D’Artois|author=Brad Kozak|date=October 19, 2011|publisher=thetruthaboutguns.com|accessdate=June 10, 2014}}</ref>
====D'Artois corruption case====
Under pressure from the business community, the city council unanimously announced in the spring of 1976 that it would investigate Commissioner D'Artois regarding a series of corruption cases in the public safety department. When public opinion swung against the council members for "investigating themselves," Mayor Allen called for the probe to be turned over to the office of state Attorney General [[William J. Guste]]. Allen and D'Artois were previously allies on the council,<ref>"L. Calhoun Allen's Victory handshake with George W. D'Artois," ''The Shreveport Times,'' August 17, 1974.</ref> but Hathaway had often opposed them both. When Allen called for D'Artois to step down from office voluntarily while the state probe proceeded, Hathaway said that he thought that it made little difference whether D'Artois remained in office while the investigation was underway because he believed that Guste's staff would conduct a thorough, fair investigation. Guste's investigators soon indicated the probe would go beyond the public safety department, with Mayor Allen and Utilities Commissioner Collins as well.<ref name=bkeith/> D'Artois did not step down voluntarily but was forced to resign on August 6, 1976, when he was arrested for conspiracy to murder his former advertising specialist, [[Jim Leslie (Louisiana)|Jim Leslie]] of Shreveport. He died of complications of heart surgery ten months later in June 1977<ref name=facesofthepast/> in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]]. Many unanswered questions remained,<ref name=bkeith>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NvpN1t9TMrgC&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=George+Wendell+D'Artois&source=bl&ots=FLoGsv9uIL&sig=M4vFHkw4ijLolZvKDlHRFDjmACg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=w0-XU5b6FuqH8AHr-YCoCQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=George%20Wendell%20D'Artois&f=false|title=The Commissioner: A True Story of Deceit, Dishonor, and Death|author=[[Bill Keith (Louisiana politician)|Bill Keith]]|publisher=Pelican Publishing Company|location=Gretna, Jefferson Parish, [[Louisiana]]|year=2009|pages=101, 106|isbn=9781-58980-655-9|accessdate=June 16, 2014}}</ref> such as what role if any D'Artois had in the assassination of Jim Leslie.<ref name=copsgobad/>
====Challenge to commission form of government====
The [[interest group]], Blacks United for Lasting Leadership, Inc., an [[African-American]] [[civil rights]] organization in Shreveport, filed a [[class action]] lawsuit against the City of Shreveport to force an end to the commission form of government. In 1974, blacks constituted 32 percent of the Shreveport population, but no African American had served on the city council, which since 1910 had consisted of five commissioners, including the mayor. By the time of the 2010 Census forty years later, Shreveport was some 55 percent black in population, and whites were unable again to win the mayor's office.<ref>2010 General profile of housing and population characteristics for Shreveport from the U.S. Census.</ref> BULL alleged that the inherent at-large feature of the commission government operated unconstitutionally to dilute the votes of blacks. The United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana agreed and declared the commissi government unconstitutional under the [[14th Amendment]] to the[[ United States Constitution]]. The decision was affirmed in March 1978 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] in [[New Orleans]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://openjurist.org/571/f2d/248/blacks-united-for-lasting-leadership-inc-v-city-of-shreveport|title=Blacks United for Lasting Leadership, Inc., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, vs. the City of Shreveport, Defendants-Appellants|date=March 29, 1978|publisher=openjurist.org|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Shreveport hence switched to the [[mayor-council]] form of government with the fast-approaching 1978 elections, when Commissioner Don Hathaway ran a strong but losing race for mayor to then automobile dealer, [[William T. "Bill" Hanna]], who made issue that he was an "outsider" to the troubles that had befallen City Hall, since Government Plaza. <ref>[[James C. Gardner]], ''Jim Gardner and Shreveport,'' Vol. II, (Shreveport: [[Sarah Hudson-Pierce]]'s Ritz Publications, 2006), pp. 224–225.</ref> Utilities Commissioner Billy Guin was another unsuccessful candidate for mayor in the September 16 nonpartisan blanket primary.<ref>''The Shreveport Times'', September 17, 1978</ref><ref>''[[Shreveport Journal]],'' September 18, 1978.</ref>
Days after his defeat for mayor, Hathaway on November 21, 1978, Hathaway joined Mayor-elect Hanna, outgoing Mayor Allen, and outgoing Commissioner Guin for the dedication of a new Exhibition Hall on the riverfront, a structure later named in Allen's honor,<ref name=facesofthepast>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=M5AwFlQTMywC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Don+Hathaway+of+Shreveport&source=bl&ots=4Yocs9HljP&sig=jG8nD7l-LuFkUFugjJ_O5Mv3SDQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OEKiU7nmI-OU8QH5jIHgDg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBjgy#v=onepage&q=Don%20Hathaway%20of%20Shreveport&f=false|title=Shreveport: Faces of the Past|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Company|location=[[Charleston]], [[South Carolina]]|author=[[Eric Brock]]|date=2001|pages=43-44|isbn=0-7385-1416-0|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>now known as StageWorks of Louisiana.
===Caddo Parish sheriff, 1980-2000===
====Duties as sheriff====
Hathaway soon rebounded politically upon his election on December 9, 1979 as the Caddo Parish sheriff and ''ex officio'' tax collector. The one-term incumbent, [[Harold M. Terry|Harold Monroe Terry]], did not seek reelection, and Hathaway defeated his fellow Democrat Jim Adger, an agri-businessman, in a runoff contest, 55.6 to 44.4 percent. The election corresponded with the narrow victory of Republican [[Davd C. Treen]] as governor.<ref>''The Shreveport Times'', December 10, 1974, p. 1.</ref>Hathaway was reelected thereafter with little opposition thereafter through his retirement in July 2000. In his last election in October 1995, Hathway polled nearly two thirds of the ballots cast against two opponents, a fellow Democrat, Jerry Henderson, and Donnie Ray O'Briant, a Republican.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 21, 1995.</ref> The sheriff in Caddo Parish frequently serves multiple terms; Hathaway's predecessor, Harold Terry , was an the exception. Terry served only one term from 1976 to 1980, the shortest tenure of any Caddo Parish sheriff in the 20th century.<ref name=pastsheriffs/>
Under Hathaway, the sheriff's department increased over two decades from 150 to 600 deputies; the budget, from $8 million to $32 million annually. He introduced programs to assist deputies enrolled in higher education programs. He altered recruiting and hiring to incorporate background checks and [[polygraph]]s.<ref name=ejbrock/> Homer C. Bryant, Jr. (1924-1999), a Shreveport native and [[Purple Heart]] recipient during [[World War II]], was Hathaway's major in charge of criminal investigations; a polygraph examiner, he was particularly known for his expertise and dedication to law enforcement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=27311821|title=Homer C. Bryant, Jr.|publisher=''The Shreveport Times'' via Findagrave.com|date=July 11, 1999|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Hathaway standardized compensation and introduced incentive pay. Hathaway brought all divisions of the office into three functional components: (1) Administration, (2) Detention, and (3) Operations. He computerized the tax division, record keeping, and collections departments. He doubled the number of deputies on patrol. He created or expanded already existing special teams for hazardous materials, special response, search and rescue, and helicopter monitoring. He established substations at strategic locations.<ref name=ejbrock/>
In 1982, Caddo sheriff's deputies responded to a call of an abandoned 36-hour-old infant boy weighing seven pounds, wrapped only in a towel, and in excellent condition. He was found in a carport at a house on Red Oak Lane along with an attached note asking that good parents be found. The child was taken to LSU Medical Center pediatric services for transition to proper authorities. Hathaway said, "We probably have to assume the baby was not hospital-delivered, if only because hospitals [then] usually keep newborns longer than thirty-six hours. On the other hand, if the baby were home-delivered and without the help of a doctor, there would be no record of birth." Chief deputy David Milton Almond (1937-2003)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=96144305|title=D. Milton Almond|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=184&issue_id=12004|title=International Association of Chiefs of Police Deaths|publisher=''Police Chief Magazine''|location=Alexandria, [[Virginia]]|date=January 2004|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref> said that the abandonment was only the second such case that he had witnessed in his then seventeen years in law enforcement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15140coll23/id/1749|title=Newborn Boy Found in Carport|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Ray Waddle and Mike Silva (photo)|date=February 24, 1982|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref>
In 1987, Hathaway announced that his deputies engaging in [[undercover]] drug purchases had obtained thirty [[warrant]]s and made at least seventeen arres]s. All suspects were booked with distributing such substances as [[amphetamine]]s, [[marijuana]], [[cocaine]], and [[valium]]. One suspect was charged with the distribution of a false representation of a controlled dangerous substance.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/11469462/|title=Undercover drug buys net arrests|date=October 9, 1987|publisher=''The Galveston Daily News''|location=Galveston, [[Texas]]|page=8|accessdate=June 21, 2014}}</ref>
In 1983, Hathaway had introduced the canine corps for use in [[narcotics]] detection.<ref name=pastsheriffs/> In 1998, Caddo deputies with the help of drug-sniffing dogs uncovered two bags at the Greyhound bus station in Shreveport containing $310,000 and $20,000 in narcotics. A man from Pensacola, [[Florida]], caught by random search with $4,000 in his possession, confessed to owning the two unclaimed bags. Hathaway said the $314,000 was "by far the largest amount of money we've picked up in this type of investigation." Sixty percent of the funds went to sheriff' department coffers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.drugs.busts/Z2evt1RVAMM|title=Suspected Florida Drug Dealer Caught on a Greyhound|date=August 28, 1998|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref>
=====Public relations=====
In 1983, Sheriff Hathaway was part of a contingent of six hundred supporters of [[Governor]] [[Edwin Edwards]] who joined Edwards in a celebratory tour of [[France]] and [[Belgium]]. The tab of $10,000 per person was used to retire Edwards's 1983 campaign debt of $4.2 million.<ref>"Marion Edwards, brother of ex-Louisiana governor, dies at 84," ''The Alexandria Town Talk,'' January 13, 2013.</ref> Edwards had just scored the third of his four nonconsecutive term as governor by unseating the Republican [[David C. Treen]]. On a train in [[Paris]], Hathaway was presented a drawing on a menu of an oak tree by the Louisiana artist [[George Rodrigue]] before Rodrigue became famous with his blue dog symbol. In 2004, Rodrigue came to Shreveport with incoming Governor [[Kathleen Blanco]] and made an appearance at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, where he autographed Hathaway's menu from more than twenty years earlier.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgerodrigue.com/january11-2-2004.htm|title=Blue Dog Artist Visits Shreveport With Portrait of Governor Blanco|publisher=KTAL-TV|author=Justin Herndon|date=January 11, 2004|accessdate=June 21, 2014}}</ref>
In 1984, in a celebration of Freddie Spencer's victory the previous year in the Grand Prix [[motorcycle]] racing World Championship, Hathaway made Spencer an "honorary deputy" as the Shreveort native returned home for "Freddie Spencer Day," declared by Mayor [[John Brennan Hussey]].<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MvO5RoR1buMC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=Don+Hathaway,+former+sheriff+of+Caddo+Parish,+LA&source=bl&ots=Pfp00uIVlU&sig=c1rZdrejZCqJ2Eh63VVmGqTCvIk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=p9KkU9qCJcukqAaJhIJ4&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCTgU#v=onepage&q=Don%20Hathaway%2C%20former%20sheriff%20of%20Caddo%20Parish%2C%20LA&f=false|title=Freddie Goes Home a Hero|publisher=''Cycle World]]''|date=January–May 1984|accessdate=June 20, 2014}}</ref>
====Housing inmates====
As sheriff, Hathaway found himself frequently at odds with his two former employers as police jury treasurer and as public works commissioner, the Caddo Parish Commission and the City of Shreveport, in regard to the financial cost of housing inmates at the Caddo Correctional Institute, a penal farm at Spring Ridge near Keithville in southern Caddo Parish known for a high rate of unrest and inmate escape. On May 17, 1992, deputy Darren Wayne Hill claimed serious brain injuries sustained during a riot at CCI, now know as CCC for Caddo Correctional Center. Hill hence filed suit against Hathaway on the grounds that the sheriff was negligent in maintaining order at the facility. However, Hill never won a judgment through the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second District in Shreveport because of procedural errors in his claim. Hill had sought financial relief through the Sheriff's Pension and Relief Fund as well as damages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/1999908741So2d167_1784.xml/HILL%20v.%20HATHAWAY|title=Darren Wayne HILL, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Donald HATHAWAY, Sheriff of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, Defendant-appellee|date=June 16, 1999|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Originally, Sheriff Hathaway was responsible only for the jail within the courthouse in Shreveport. On April 6, 1982, however, the sheriff's department assumed full control of the penal farm from the former police jury, the predecessor of the Caddo Parish Commission. Hathaway renamed the facility the Caddo Detention Center. In time, Hathaway was overrun with the increasing number of inmates and the associated rising costs to shelter them. Hathaway said that CDC could not adequately accommodate some 375 inmates, more than two thirds of whom were blacks, with some "murderers and rapist.s" Hathaway also said the community needed adequate psychiatric services because numerous inmates were mental cases in need of medical treatment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15140coll23/id/2797|title=Med Center cuts affect sheriff|author=Robert Moore|date=November 18, 1982|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 19, 2014}}</ref>Early in 1982, a 17-year-old bank robbery suspect, Jerry Anderson, leaped eight stories to his death while in custody at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport. Questions arose as to whether the youth was depressed or having a seizure. The sheriff's department investigation determined that young Anderson was suicidal. The suspect was in leg chains and under guard by a private security firm, rather than a sheriff's deputy. Hathaway said the department had too few deputies to guard individual prisoners and had to hire outside assistance in such cases.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15140coll23/id/1777|title=Suspect Dies; Police Jury Asks Probe|author=Don Waitt|date=January 28, 1982|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 19, 2014}}</ref>
On November 23, 1988, two inmates attacked the 26-year-old deputy, known only as "Mick", who was on guard at CDC in the section called "West Max" after he led a group of prisoners outside for their exercise routine. The men were taken to an area called the "bullpen", which was reinforced with razor wire to lessen the success of escape attempts. Under a dead-lock head-lock, the deputy barely escaped with his life, but security personnel came to his defense in time. The attack was touched off when the deputy told an inmate that he could not wear a blue bandana on his head, a symbol of [[gang]]s. The incident was one of numerous reported cases of violence in the CDC. Mick reported that his family safety was in jeopardy for a time because one of the inmates seized his paycheck which happened to be in his pocket. The check revealed the deputy's family address.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://solafidesolachristos.blogspot.com/2013_12_01_archive.html|title=Sola Fide: The Showdown in West Max|publisher=solafidesolachristos.blogspot.com|date=December 17, 2013|accessdate=June 23, 2014}}</ref>
In a court case, the State of Louisiana ruled that the Caddo Parish Commission was primarily responsible for the maintenance cost of the CDC prisoners, rather than the City of Shreveport or the sheriff's department.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/19951444658So2d786_11382.xml/CITY%20OF%20SHREVEPORT%20v.%20CADDO%20PARISH|title=''City of Shreveport v. Caddo Parish et al''|date=August 17, 1995|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>In 1995, the detention center ceased housing parish prisoners after the opening on Forum Drive in north Shreveport of a new 1,070-bed facility called Caddo Correctional Center, a structure that Hathaway had urged since he became sheriff. Still operational, this jail is designed to manage a large number of inmates with relatively few personnel. CCC is the largest facility of its kind in the tri-state area of Louisiana, Texas, and [[Arkansas]].<ref name=ejbrock>{{cite web|url=http://www.caddohistory.com/about_sheriffs_4.html|title=Progress, Growth, and Modernization|author=[[Eric John Brock]]|publisher=caddohistory.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>In 1999, Hathaway was sued by a CCC inmate, Charles Barr, who alleged that he slipped and fell on the wet floor of his cell, which caused a personal injury that required major medical treatment. Barr's "inmate [[grievance]]" was dismissed on the grounds that his injury was a result of [[diabetes]]. Hathaway prevailed in the ruling from the Second District Appeals Court by showing that the in-house grievance procedure is not subject to judicial review and that Barr did not seek redress through [[tort]] action as required in such circumstances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/1999846747So2d99_1649.xml/BARR%20v.%20HATHAWAY|title=Charles BARR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Don HATHAWAY, Sheriff, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, Defendant-Appellee|date=August 18, 1999|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
====Leadership roles====
In 1990, Hathaway brought to Shreveport the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, first established by Daryl Gates, the chief of the [[Los Angeles]] Police Department from 1978 to 1992.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.caddosheriff.org/content.php?c=105|title=D.A.R.E.|publisher=caddosheriff.org|accessdate=June 14, 2014}}</ref>Hathaway started a "Senior Citizen Academy" in which older residents, many foster grandparents, completed a 14-hour curriculum that gave them an overview of the operations of the sheriff's office as well as practical safety tips.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-38780141.html|title=Sheriff's third senior citizen academy graduates 25|date=November 1998|publisher=highbeam.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>
From 1994 to 1996, Hathaway was president of the Northwest Law Enforcement Planning Agency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rrdnw.com/History1.htm|title=History of Northwest Law Enforcement Agency|publisher=rrdnw.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>In 2000, shortly after he left the sheriff's office, the Northwest agency honored Hathaway for his twenty years of leadership in the department. The award was presented by neighboring Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-62881034.html|title=Sheriff Hathaway receives high honor|date=September 1, 2000|publisher=highbeam.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>
From 1996 to 1997, Hathaway was the president of the National Sheriffs' Association,<ref name=walkeralley/> one of only six sheriffs in Louisiana since the creation of the organization in 1938 to have held that position, as of 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lsa.org/Docs/Newsletters/TheLouisianaSheriffJan2014.pdf|title=Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association Celebrates 75 Years with Dedication of New Headquarters|author=Laurne Labee Leher|date=January 2014|publisher=Louisiana Sheriffs' Association|accessdate=June 14, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sheriffs.org/content/past-presidents|title=Past Presidents of National Sheriff's Association|publisher=sheriffs.org|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>
====Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act====
In 1995, questions arose when the Caddo Sheriff's department under Hathaway denied a gun permit to a Shreveport liquor store clerk, Philip Russell Coleman. When Coleman was informed of the sheriff's department decision, he told the pawn shop owner where he intended to buy a weapon that he would go to see the deputies in an attempt to resolve the matter, which Coleman assumed was a "mistake." Before Coleman could get his weapon permit, however, he was shot to death in a holdup. He was forty-two. Hathaway said that there was apparently justification for initially denying Coleman's application but that when Coleman came to the office, his application was approved. National [[radio]] commentator [[Paul Harvey]] aired the Coleman story on one of his broadcasts. Many used the Coleman case to show the unintended consequences of the James [[Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act]] of 1993, which requires a waiting period for background checks for citizens seeking to purchase handguns.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hoboes.com/pub/Firearms/Books%20and%20News/Gun%20Control%20Kills/Dying%20for%20a%20Waiting%20Period/|title=Murdered Clerk Had Sought Handgun for Protection|author=Dunstan Prial|date=August 17, 1995|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
==Hathaway Collection==
The Donald Hathaway Collection, consisting mostly of photo albums and scrapbooks from the period 1970 to 2000, is available through Louisiana State University in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scripts.lsus.edu/libarchives/tags.php?tag=2686|title=Articles for tag: Hathaway, Donald|publisher=scripts.lsus.edu|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hathaway, Donald E.}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Sheriffs]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:United States Navy]]
[[Category:United Methodists]]
|name=Donald Edgar "Don" Hathaway, Sr.
|office=[[Sheriff]] of Caddo Parish, [[Louisiana]]
|term_start=June 1980
|term_end=July 1, 2000
|preceded=[[Harold M. Terry]]
|succeeded=[[Steve Prator]]
|office2=President of the National Sheriffs' Association
|term_start2=1996
|term_end2=1997
|preceded2=John J. Pierpont
|succeeded2=Fred W. Scoralick
|office3=Public Works Commissioner in [[Shreveport]], Louisiana
|term_start3=November 9, 1970
|term_end3=November 27, 1978
|succeeded3=Position abolished under new city charter
|office4=Secretary-Treasurer, Caddo Parish Police Jury since 1984 the Caddo Parish Commission)
|term_start4=May 1967
|term_end4=1970
|preceded4=Robert S. Cavett
|succeeded4=Joe Abramson
|birth_place=Shreveport, Louisiana
|birth_date=October 20, 1928
|death_place=
|death_date=
|death_cause=
|resting_place=
|religion=[[United Methodist]]
|occupation=Retired public official<br>
[[Insurance] agent
|spouse=Betty Lou Moore Hathaway
|children=Bridget Hathaway Bell<br>
Paige Hathaway Wolfe<br>
Don Hathaway, Jr.
|residence=Shreveport, Louisiana
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|alma_mater=St. John Berchmans Cathedral School<br>
[[Clifton Ellis Byrd]] High School<br>
[[Louisiana Tech University]]
|branch=[[United States Navy]]
|rank=Lieutenant}}
'''Donald Edgar Hathaway, Sr.''', known as '''Don Hathaway''' (born October 20, 1928),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/donald-hathaway/e361095078456|title=Donald Hathaway|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref> is a [[business]]man and retired [[politician]] from his native [[Shreveport]], [[Louisiana]]. From 1970 to 1978, Hathaway, a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]], was his city's last public works commissioner,<ref>In [[Shreveport]] and in other cities with the municipal commission form of government, the commissioner exercised legislative functions on the city council and an executive role as a municipal department head. This position should not be confused with that of county commissioner, most of whom were and still are elected by single-member districts. County commissioners are the "legislators" of a county (called parish in Louisiana), with the county judge normally in the role of the "executive" head of the county. In Louisiana, the executive of the parish may be known as the police jury president, the president of the parish, or a parish "administrator," depending on the structure of the parish government. City commissioners could not be chosen on a district basis, as their administrative duties affected the entire city. [[African American]]s were not then elected to city government in most parts of the South. Soon an outcry in the [[civil rights]] movement raised legal challenges to the city commission governments.</ref> an office abolished effective November 1978 with the implementation of a new city charter. From 1980 to 2000, he was the [[sheriff]] of Caddo Parish]] in the northwestern corner of his state.<ref name=pastsheriffs>Past sheriffs, Caddo Parish History, accessed June 14, 2014; no longer on-line.</ref>
==Background==
Hathaway attended the Alexander Grammar School in Shreveport through the seventh grade and then enrolled at St. John's College (later called St. John's Military High School), where he served as a lieutenant during his sophomore year.<ref name=politicalcard/> He graduated in 1946 from the public [[Clifton Ellis Byrd]] High School in Shreveport, at which he lettered in [[basketball]] and [[baseball]]. In 2000, he was inducted into the [[Clifton Ellis Byrd]] High School Hall of Fame, along with the songwriter Tillman Franks and [[B. L. "Buddy" Shaw]], a former Byrd principal and a former member of both houses of the state legislature.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.byrdhighalumni.org/hall_of_fame.htm|title=C. E. Byrd High School Hall of Fame Inductees: 2000|publisher=C. E. Byrd High School Alumni Association|accessdate=June 16, 2014}}</ref> Hathaway served in the [[United States Navy]] and later retired as a lieutenant.<ref name=politicalcard/>
Hathaway subsequently was the student body president<ref name=politicalcard/> of [[Louisiana Tech University]] in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], from which in 1951, he received a degree in [[business administration]].<ref name=walkeralley>{{cite web|url=http://walkeralley.catylist.com/jsp/agents/agent_overview.jsp?agentID=3395394|title=Donald E. Hathaway|publisher=walkeralley.catylist.com|accessdate=July 10, 2014}}</ref> Hathaway is a former member, officer, and president of the Louisiana Tech Alumni Association<ref>"Louisiana Tech Alumni Association office," ''The Shreveport Times,'' October 16, 1957.</ref> and was the original secretary-treasurer in 1962 of the Louisiana Tech Foundation and the second president, whose membership included later state circuit court Judge Charles Allen Marvin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.latech.edu/administration/policies-and-procedures/3101.php|title=Policy 3101 - Introduction, Foundation Programs and Operations, and Future|date=August 26, 2000|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=June 23, 2014}}</ref>
In 2012, Hathaway was part of the fundraising campaign for the renovation of the floor and the renaming of the Robert "Scotty" Robertson Memorial Gymnasium, an alternate practice facility for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and Lady Techsters basketball teams, named for the eight-time Hall of Famer, Coach Scotty Robertson.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.latech.edu/2012/10/18/tech-to-honor-legendary-coach-with-renaming-of-gymnasium-court/|title=Tech to honor legendary coach with renaming of gymnasium, court|author=T. Scott Boatright|date=October 18, 2012|publisher=latech.edu|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sportsnola.com/sports/local-sports-news/louisiana-tech-news/586476-tech-memorial-gym-renovation-under-way.html|title=Tech Memorial Gym Renovation Under Way|date=August 2, 2012|publisher=''The New Orleans Times-Picayune''|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
Hathaway was an active member and president of the Shreveport Jaycees. He is a former [[Chamber of Commerce]] director. He has been affiliated with the American Legion and the Forty and Eight veterans organizations as well as Kiwanis International. He is a long-term member of the Noel Memorial [[United Methodist]] Church in Shreveport.<ref name=politicalcard/>
After his term as sheriff, Hathaway began working in the commercial [[real estate]] business, affiliated with Walker-Alley & Associates in Shreveport.<ref name=walkeralley/> He was also in the [[insurance]] business in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mustardpages.com/Directory/Shreveport-LA/25/General-Insurance|title=Hathaway, Don|publisher=mustardpages.com|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
Hathaway is married to the former Betty Lou Moore (born January 1933), formerly of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] in Webster Parish.<ref name=politicalcard/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20070218/LIVING/702160353/Maggie-Martin-Krewe-Justinian-members-gather-Another-Day-Paradise-brunch|title=Krewe of Justinian members gather for 'Another Day in Paradise' brunch|author=Maggie Martin|date=February 17, 2007|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 14, 2014}}</ref> She is the daughter of Reece E. Moore (1905-1970) and the former Frances Willene Herring (1913-1989), who are interred at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Haughton in south Bossier Parish. The Hathaways have three children, Bridget H. Bell; Paige H. Wolfe (born March 1963), and Donald Hathaway, Jr.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=54063208|title=Frances Willene Herring Moore|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=June 17, 2014}}</ref> (born April 11, 1965), who is an [[attorney]] in the Shreveport firm of Sockrider, Bolin, Anglin, Batte, & Hathaway, a former Caddo Parish assistant district attorney, and a former U.S. assistant attorney.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linkedin.com/title/assistant+district+attorney/in-us-768-Shreveport,-Louisiana-Area/|title=Don E. Hathaway, Jr.|publisher=linkedin.com|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>The junior Hathaway is married to the former Camille Latour, the daughter of Thomas G. Latour, Sr. (1936-2012), who was a physician/psychiatrist and thoroughbred and[American Quarter Horse racer from Indian Bayou in Vermilion Parish in southwestern Louisiana. Don and Camille Hathaway have two sons, Donald Hathaway, III, and Thomas Hathaway.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stallionesearch.com/default.asp?section=6&story=10488|title=Louisiana Horseman Dr. Thomas G. Latour, Sr., Dies||date=February 13, 2012|publisher=stallionesearch.com|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
==Political life==
After working during the 1950s and early 1960s in insurance and investment banking, Hathaway joined the staff of the Caddo Parish Police Jury in 1962. He was named secretary-treasurer of the jury on May 10, 1967.<ref>Veta Samuels, ''History of Caddo Parish Police Jury - Caddo Parish Commission since 1840.''</ref>The police jury, the traditional governing body of the parish, was renamed in 1984 as the Caddo Parish Commission.<ref name=politicalcard>{{cite web|url=http://bossier.pastperfect-online.com/36091cgi/mweb.exe?request=record&id=4400185E-5047-4AF4-9A37-764013325364&type=301|title=Hathaway's campaign card|date=1970|publisher=bossier.pastperfect-online.com|accessdate=June 19, 2014}}</ref>
===Shreveport public works commissioner, 1970-1978===
Hathaway stepped down as police jury secretary-treasurer in 1970 to contest the office of Shreveport public works commissioner under the then commission form of city government. He replaced an interim commissioner on the city council who had taken office on January 1, 1969, following the resignation of the 34-year incumbent, [[H. Lane Mitchell]], who was caught up in a 1971 scandal involving four counts of theft in the office which he had already vacated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/19711060246So2d814_1915.xml/STATE%20v.%20MITCHELL|title=State v. Mitchell|date=May 3, 1971|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Hathaway was one of five citywide elected commissioners who acted in both executive and legislative roles in the governance of Shreveport municipal affairs for an eight-year period. He presided over the public works department as an executive and cast a single vote on the Shreveport City Council, when it in met in public session. His administration of the office coincided with that of [[Mayor]] [[Calhoun Allen]], who was technically the "commissioner of administration." Hathaway's council colleagues included fellow Democrat Public Utilities Commissioner William "Bill" Collins, and after Collins resigned in 1977, [[Billy Guin]], a [[Republican Party|Republican]] who served for the remaining year-and-a-half in that position, as well as Finance Commissioner [[George A. Burton]], the first Republican to hold Shreveport municipal office since [[Reconstruction]], and Public Safety Commissioner George Wendell D'Artois, Sr. (1925-1977), who was forced from office in the summer of 1976 in another corruption scandal.<ref name=copsgobad>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/10/brad-kozak/when-cops-go-bad-i-the-tale-of-george-dartois/|title=When Cops Go Bad I: The Tale of George D’Artois|author=Brad Kozak|date=October 19, 2011|publisher=thetruthaboutguns.com|accessdate=June 10, 2014}}</ref>
====D'Artois corruption case====
Under pressure from the business community, the city council unanimously announced in the spring of 1976 that it would investigate Commissioner D'Artois regarding a series of corruption cases in the public safety department. When public opinion swung against the council members for "investigating themselves," Mayor Allen called for the probe to be turned over to the office of state Attorney General [[William J. Guste]]. Allen and D'Artois were previously allies on the council,<ref>"L. Calhoun Allen's Victory handshake with George W. D'Artois," ''The Shreveport Times,'' August 17, 1974.</ref> but Hathaway had often opposed them both. When Allen called for D'Artois to step down from office voluntarily while the state probe proceeded, Hathaway said that he thought that it made little difference whether D'Artois remained in office while the investigation was underway because he believed that Guste's staff would conduct a thorough, fair investigation. Guste's investigators soon indicated the probe would go beyond the public safety department, with Mayor Allen and Utilities Commissioner Collins as well.<ref name=bkeith/> D'Artois did not step down voluntarily but was forced to resign on August 6, 1976, when he was arrested for conspiracy to murder his former advertising specialist, [[Jim Leslie (Louisiana)|Jim Leslie]] of Shreveport. He died of complications of heart surgery ten months later in June 1977<ref name=facesofthepast/> in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]]. Many unanswered questions remained,<ref name=bkeith>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NvpN1t9TMrgC&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=George+Wendell+D'Artois&source=bl&ots=FLoGsv9uIL&sig=M4vFHkw4ijLolZvKDlHRFDjmACg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=w0-XU5b6FuqH8AHr-YCoCQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=George%20Wendell%20D'Artois&f=false|title=The Commissioner: A True Story of Deceit, Dishonor, and Death|author=[[Bill Keith (Louisiana politician)|Bill Keith]]|publisher=Pelican Publishing Company|location=Gretna, Jefferson Parish, [[Louisiana]]|year=2009|pages=101, 106|isbn=9781-58980-655-9|accessdate=June 16, 2014}}</ref> such as what role if any D'Artois had in the assassination of Jim Leslie.<ref name=copsgobad/>
====Challenge to commission form of government====
The [[interest group]], Blacks United for Lasting Leadership, Inc., an [[African-American]] [[civil rights]] organization in Shreveport, filed a [[class action]] lawsuit against the City of Shreveport to force an end to the commission form of government. In 1974, blacks constituted 32 percent of the Shreveport population, but no African American had served on the city council, which since 1910 had consisted of five commissioners, including the mayor. By the time of the 2010 Census forty years later, Shreveport was some 55 percent black in population, and whites were unable again to win the mayor's office.<ref>2010 General profile of housing and population characteristics for Shreveport from the U.S. Census.</ref> BULL alleged that the inherent at-large feature of the commission government operated unconstitutionally to dilute the votes of blacks. The United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana agreed and declared the commissi government unconstitutional under the [[14th Amendment]] to the[[ United States Constitution]]. The decision was affirmed in March 1978 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] in [[New Orleans]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://openjurist.org/571/f2d/248/blacks-united-for-lasting-leadership-inc-v-city-of-shreveport|title=Blacks United for Lasting Leadership, Inc., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, vs. the City of Shreveport, Defendants-Appellants|date=March 29, 1978|publisher=openjurist.org|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Shreveport hence switched to the [[mayor-council]] form of government with the fast-approaching 1978 elections, when Commissioner Don Hathaway ran a strong but losing race for mayor to then automobile dealer, [[William T. "Bill" Hanna]], who made issue that he was an "outsider" to the troubles that had befallen City Hall, since Government Plaza. <ref>[[James C. Gardner]], ''Jim Gardner and Shreveport,'' Vol. II, (Shreveport: [[Sarah Hudson-Pierce]]'s Ritz Publications, 2006), pp. 224–225.</ref> Utilities Commissioner Billy Guin was another unsuccessful candidate for mayor in the September 16 nonpartisan blanket primary.<ref>''The Shreveport Times'', September 17, 1978</ref><ref>''[[Shreveport Journal]],'' September 18, 1978.</ref>
Days after his defeat for mayor, Hathaway on November 21, 1978, Hathaway joined Mayor-elect Hanna, outgoing Mayor Allen, and outgoing Commissioner Guin for the dedication of a new Exhibition Hall on the riverfront, a structure later named in Allen's honor,<ref name=facesofthepast>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=M5AwFlQTMywC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=Don+Hathaway+of+Shreveport&source=bl&ots=4Yocs9HljP&sig=jG8nD7l-LuFkUFugjJ_O5Mv3SDQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OEKiU7nmI-OU8QH5jIHgDg&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBjgy#v=onepage&q=Don%20Hathaway%20of%20Shreveport&f=false|title=Shreveport: Faces of the Past|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Company|location=[[Charleston]], [[South Carolina]]|author=[[Eric Brock]]|date=2001|pages=43-44|isbn=0-7385-1416-0|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>now known as StageWorks of Louisiana.
===Caddo Parish sheriff, 1980-2000===
====Duties as sheriff====
Hathaway soon rebounded politically upon his election on December 9, 1979 as the Caddo Parish sheriff and ''ex officio'' tax collector. The one-term incumbent, [[Harold M. Terry|Harold Monroe Terry]], did not seek reelection, and Hathaway defeated his fellow Democrat Jim Adger, an agri-businessman, in a runoff contest, 55.6 to 44.4 percent. The election corresponded with the narrow victory of Republican [[Davd C. Treen]] as governor.<ref>''The Shreveport Times'', December 10, 1974, p. 1.</ref>Hathaway was reelected thereafter with little opposition thereafter through his retirement in July 2000. In his last election in October 1995, Hathway polled nearly two thirds of the ballots cast against two opponents, a fellow Democrat, Jerry Henderson, and Donnie Ray O'Briant, a Republican.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 21, 1995.</ref> The sheriff in Caddo Parish frequently serves multiple terms; Hathaway's predecessor, Harold Terry , was an the exception. Terry served only one term from 1976 to 1980, the shortest tenure of any Caddo Parish sheriff in the 20th century.<ref name=pastsheriffs/>
Under Hathaway, the sheriff's department increased over two decades from 150 to 600 deputies; the budget, from $8 million to $32 million annually. He introduced programs to assist deputies enrolled in higher education programs. He altered recruiting and hiring to incorporate background checks and [[polygraph]]s.<ref name=ejbrock/> Homer C. Bryant, Jr. (1924-1999), a Shreveport native and [[Purple Heart]] recipient during [[World War II]], was Hathaway's major in charge of criminal investigations; a polygraph examiner, he was particularly known for his expertise and dedication to law enforcement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=27311821|title=Homer C. Bryant, Jr.|publisher=''The Shreveport Times'' via Findagrave.com|date=July 11, 1999|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Hathaway standardized compensation and introduced incentive pay. Hathaway brought all divisions of the office into three functional components: (1) Administration, (2) Detention, and (3) Operations. He computerized the tax division, record keeping, and collections departments. He doubled the number of deputies on patrol. He created or expanded already existing special teams for hazardous materials, special response, search and rescue, and helicopter monitoring. He established substations at strategic locations.<ref name=ejbrock/>
In 1982, Caddo sheriff's deputies responded to a call of an abandoned 36-hour-old infant boy weighing seven pounds, wrapped only in a towel, and in excellent condition. He was found in a carport at a house on Red Oak Lane along with an attached note asking that good parents be found. The child was taken to LSU Medical Center pediatric services for transition to proper authorities. Hathaway said, "We probably have to assume the baby was not hospital-delivered, if only because hospitals [then] usually keep newborns longer than thirty-six hours. On the other hand, if the baby were home-delivered and without the help of a doctor, there would be no record of birth." Chief deputy David Milton Almond (1937-2003)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=96144305|title=D. Milton Almond|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=184&issue_id=12004|title=International Association of Chiefs of Police Deaths|publisher=''Police Chief Magazine''|location=Alexandria, [[Virginia]]|date=January 2004|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref> said that the abandonment was only the second such case that he had witnessed in his then seventeen years in law enforcement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15140coll23/id/1749|title=Newborn Boy Found in Carport|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Ray Waddle and Mike Silva (photo)|date=February 24, 1982|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref>
In 1987, Hathaway announced that his deputies engaging in [[undercover]] drug purchases had obtained thirty [[warrant]]s and made at least seventeen arres]s. All suspects were booked with distributing such substances as [[amphetamine]]s, [[marijuana]], [[cocaine]], and [[valium]]. One suspect was charged with the distribution of a false representation of a controlled dangerous substance.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/11469462/|title=Undercover drug buys net arrests|date=October 9, 1987|publisher=''The Galveston Daily News''|location=Galveston, [[Texas]]|page=8|accessdate=June 21, 2014}}</ref>
In 1983, Hathaway had introduced the canine corps for use in [[narcotics]] detection.<ref name=pastsheriffs/> In 1998, Caddo deputies with the help of drug-sniffing dogs uncovered two bags at the Greyhound bus station in Shreveport containing $310,000 and $20,000 in narcotics. A man from Pensacola, [[Florida]], caught by random search with $4,000 in his possession, confessed to owning the two unclaimed bags. Hathaway said the $314,000 was "by far the largest amount of money we've picked up in this type of investigation." Sixty percent of the funds went to sheriff' department coffers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.drugs.busts/Z2evt1RVAMM|title=Suspected Florida Drug Dealer Caught on a Greyhound|date=August 28, 1998|publisher=[[Associated Press]]|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref>
=====Public relations=====
In 1983, Sheriff Hathaway was part of a contingent of six hundred supporters of [[Governor]] [[Edwin Edwards]] who joined Edwards in a celebratory tour of [[France]] and [[Belgium]]. The tab of $10,000 per person was used to retire Edwards's 1983 campaign debt of $4.2 million.<ref>"Marion Edwards, brother of ex-Louisiana governor, dies at 84," ''The Alexandria Town Talk,'' January 13, 2013.</ref> Edwards had just scored the third of his four nonconsecutive term as governor by unseating the Republican [[David C. Treen]]. On a train in [[Paris]], Hathaway was presented a drawing on a menu of an oak tree by the Louisiana artist [[George Rodrigue]] before Rodrigue became famous with his blue dog symbol. In 2004, Rodrigue came to Shreveport with incoming Governor [[Kathleen Blanco]] and made an appearance at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, where he autographed Hathaway's menu from more than twenty years earlier.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgerodrigue.com/january11-2-2004.htm|title=Blue Dog Artist Visits Shreveport With Portrait of Governor Blanco|publisher=KTAL-TV|author=Justin Herndon|date=January 11, 2004|accessdate=June 21, 2014}}</ref>
In 1984, in a celebration of Freddie Spencer's victory the previous year in the Grand Prix [[motorcycle]] racing World Championship, Hathaway made Spencer an "honorary deputy" as the Shreveort native returned home for "Freddie Spencer Day," declared by Mayor [[John Brennan Hussey]].<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MvO5RoR1buMC&pg=PA24&lpg=PA24&dq=Don+Hathaway,+former+sheriff+of+Caddo+Parish,+LA&source=bl&ots=Pfp00uIVlU&sig=c1rZdrejZCqJ2Eh63VVmGqTCvIk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=p9KkU9qCJcukqAaJhIJ4&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCTgU#v=onepage&q=Don%20Hathaway%2C%20former%20sheriff%20of%20Caddo%20Parish%2C%20LA&f=false|title=Freddie Goes Home a Hero|publisher=''Cycle World]]''|date=January–May 1984|accessdate=June 20, 2014}}</ref>
====Housing inmates====
As sheriff, Hathaway found himself frequently at odds with his two former employers as police jury treasurer and as public works commissioner, the Caddo Parish Commission and the City of Shreveport, in regard to the financial cost of housing inmates at the Caddo Correctional Institute, a penal farm at Spring Ridge near Keithville in southern Caddo Parish known for a high rate of unrest and inmate escape. On May 17, 1992, deputy Darren Wayne Hill claimed serious brain injuries sustained during a riot at CCI, now know as CCC for Caddo Correctional Center. Hill hence filed suit against Hathaway on the grounds that the sheriff was negligent in maintaining order at the facility. However, Hill never won a judgment through the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second District in Shreveport because of procedural errors in his claim. Hill had sought financial relief through the Sheriff's Pension and Relief Fund as well as damages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/1999908741So2d167_1784.xml/HILL%20v.%20HATHAWAY|title=Darren Wayne HILL, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Donald HATHAWAY, Sheriff of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, Defendant-appellee|date=June 16, 1999|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
Originally, Sheriff Hathaway was responsible only for the jail within the courthouse in Shreveport. On April 6, 1982, however, the sheriff's department assumed full control of the penal farm from the former police jury, the predecessor of the Caddo Parish Commission. Hathaway renamed the facility the Caddo Detention Center. In time, Hathaway was overrun with the increasing number of inmates and the associated rising costs to shelter them. Hathaway said that CDC could not adequately accommodate some 375 inmates, more than two thirds of whom were blacks, with some "murderers and rapist.s" Hathaway also said the community needed adequate psychiatric services because numerous inmates were mental cases in need of medical treatment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15140coll23/id/2797|title=Med Center cuts affect sheriff|author=Robert Moore|date=November 18, 1982|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 19, 2014}}</ref>Early in 1982, a 17-year-old bank robbery suspect, Jerry Anderson, leaped eight stories to his death while in custody at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport. Questions arose as to whether the youth was depressed or having a seizure. The sheriff's department investigation determined that young Anderson was suicidal. The suspect was in leg chains and under guard by a private security firm, rather than a sheriff's deputy. Hathaway said the department had too few deputies to guard individual prisoners and had to hire outside assistance in such cases.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15140coll23/id/1777|title=Suspect Dies; Police Jury Asks Probe|author=Don Waitt|date=January 28, 1982|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 19, 2014}}</ref>
On November 23, 1988, two inmates attacked the 26-year-old deputy, known only as "Mick", who was on guard at CDC in the section called "West Max" after he led a group of prisoners outside for their exercise routine. The men were taken to an area called the "bullpen", which was reinforced with razor wire to lessen the success of escape attempts. Under a dead-lock head-lock, the deputy barely escaped with his life, but security personnel came to his defense in time. The attack was touched off when the deputy told an inmate that he could not wear a blue bandana on his head, a symbol of [[gang]]s. The incident was one of numerous reported cases of violence in the CDC. Mick reported that his family safety was in jeopardy for a time because one of the inmates seized his paycheck which happened to be in his pocket. The check revealed the deputy's family address.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://solafidesolachristos.blogspot.com/2013_12_01_archive.html|title=Sola Fide: The Showdown in West Max|publisher=solafidesolachristos.blogspot.com|date=December 17, 2013|accessdate=June 23, 2014}}</ref>
In a court case, the State of Louisiana ruled that the Caddo Parish Commission was primarily responsible for the maintenance cost of the CDC prisoners, rather than the City of Shreveport or the sheriff's department.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/19951444658So2d786_11382.xml/CITY%20OF%20SHREVEPORT%20v.%20CADDO%20PARISH|title=''City of Shreveport v. Caddo Parish et al''|date=August 17, 1995|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>In 1995, the detention center ceased housing parish prisoners after the opening on Forum Drive in north Shreveport of a new 1,070-bed facility called Caddo Correctional Center, a structure that Hathaway had urged since he became sheriff. Still operational, this jail is designed to manage a large number of inmates with relatively few personnel. CCC is the largest facility of its kind in the tri-state area of Louisiana, Texas, and [[Arkansas]].<ref name=ejbrock>{{cite web|url=http://www.caddohistory.com/about_sheriffs_4.html|title=Progress, Growth, and Modernization|author=[[Eric John Brock]]|publisher=caddohistory.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>In 1999, Hathaway was sued by a CCC inmate, Charles Barr, who alleged that he slipped and fell on the wet floor of his cell, which caused a personal injury that required major medical treatment. Barr's "inmate [[grievance]]" was dismissed on the grounds that his injury was a result of [[diabetes]]. Hathaway prevailed in the ruling from the Second District Appeals Court by showing that the in-house grievance procedure is not subject to judicial review and that Barr did not seek redress through [[tort]] action as required in such circumstances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/1999846747So2d99_1649.xml/BARR%20v.%20HATHAWAY|title=Charles BARR, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Don HATHAWAY, Sheriff, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, Defendant-Appellee|date=August 18, 1999|publisher=leagle.com|accessdate=December 28, 2020}}</ref>
====Leadership roles====
In 1990, Hathaway brought to Shreveport the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, first established by Daryl Gates, the chief of the [[Los Angeles]] Police Department from 1978 to 1992.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.caddosheriff.org/content.php?c=105|title=D.A.R.E.|publisher=caddosheriff.org|accessdate=June 14, 2014}}</ref>Hathaway started a "Senior Citizen Academy" in which older residents, many foster grandparents, completed a 14-hour curriculum that gave them an overview of the operations of the sheriff's office as well as practical safety tips.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-38780141.html|title=Sheriff's third senior citizen academy graduates 25|date=November 1998|publisher=highbeam.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>
From 1994 to 1996, Hathaway was president of the Northwest Law Enforcement Planning Agency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rrdnw.com/History1.htm|title=History of Northwest Law Enforcement Agency|publisher=rrdnw.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>In 2000, shortly after he left the sheriff's office, the Northwest agency honored Hathaway for his twenty years of leadership in the department. The award was presented by neighboring Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-62881034.html|title=Sheriff Hathaway receives high honor|date=September 1, 2000|publisher=highbeam.com|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>
From 1996 to 1997, Hathaway was the president of the National Sheriffs' Association,<ref name=walkeralley/> one of only six sheriffs in Louisiana since the creation of the organization in 1938 to have held that position, as of 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lsa.org/Docs/Newsletters/TheLouisianaSheriffJan2014.pdf|title=Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association Celebrates 75 Years with Dedication of New Headquarters|author=Laurne Labee Leher|date=January 2014|publisher=Louisiana Sheriffs' Association|accessdate=June 14, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sheriffs.org/content/past-presidents|title=Past Presidents of National Sheriff's Association|publisher=sheriffs.org|accessdate=June 15, 2014}}</ref>
====Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act====
In 1995, questions arose when the Caddo Sheriff's department under Hathaway denied a gun permit to a Shreveport liquor store clerk, Philip Russell Coleman. When Coleman was informed of the sheriff's department decision, he told the pawn shop owner where he intended to buy a weapon that he would go to see the deputies in an attempt to resolve the matter, which Coleman assumed was a "mistake." Before Coleman could get his weapon permit, however, he was shot to death in a holdup. He was forty-two. Hathaway said that there was apparently justification for initially denying Coleman's application but that when Coleman came to the office, his application was approved. National [[radio]] commentator [[Paul Harvey]] aired the Coleman story on one of his broadcasts. Many used the Coleman case to show the unintended consequences of the James [[Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act]] of 1993, which requires a waiting period for background checks for citizens seeking to purchase handguns.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hoboes.com/pub/Firearms/Books%20and%20News/Gun%20Control%20Kills/Dying%20for%20a%20Waiting%20Period/|title=Murdered Clerk Had Sought Handgun for Protection|author=Dunstan Prial|date=August 17, 1995|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=June 18, 2014}}</ref>
==Hathaway Collection==
The Donald Hathaway Collection, consisting mostly of photo albums and scrapbooks from the period 1970 to 2000, is available through Louisiana State University in Shreveport.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scripts.lsus.edu/libarchives/tags.php?tag=2686|title=Articles for tag: Hathaway, Donald|publisher=scripts.lsus.edu|accessdate=June 22, 2014}}</ref>
==References==
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