HOUSTON (AP) - As part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit filed by a college NAACP chapter seeking voting rights, the Waller County district attorney apologized for his ''threatening'' behavior toward Prairie View A&M students.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal approved the settlement Tuesday night, and it was filed Wednesday in federal court in Houston.
''I want the PVAMU community to know that I apologize, and I welcome them as participants in the democratic institutions in Waller County,''
District Attorney Oliver Kitzman said.
He said he never intended to be threatening but later realized that students perceived his actions that way, given the ''historical context in which they occurred.''
In November, Kitzman advised the county's election administrator, Lela Loewe, that Prairie View students were not automatically eligible to vote in county elections because of state-mandated residency standards.
The district attorney, who is white, was accused of having racial and political motives in challenging the large voting bloc that the mostly black 5,000-student Prairie View campus represents.
It triggered a protest march, complaints to state and federal officials and a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Loewe's office ignored Kitzman's letter, which was rebutted by the Texas governor, secretary of state and attorney general.
Jonah Goldman, an attorney representing the students, said the settlement ''goes a long way to addressing our clients' concerns.''
Students wanted Kitzman barred from interfering with student voter registration and election participation.
As part of the settlement, Kitzman will create an internship in his office for a Prairie View student and will meet monthly with a liaison named by the school's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter. He also said he would meet with students during the next two weeks.
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