Willie Gary signs on as Julian White’s co-counsel

Attorney Willie E. Gary has joined the legal team of Julian E. White, FAMU’s former director of bands. Gary, whose law firm is based in Stuart, will serve as a co-counsel along with Tallahassee attorney Chuck Hobbs.

In 2008, Gary served as one of FAMU’s spring commencement speakers and received a President’s Award from President James H. Ammons.

White is seeking reinstatement to his tenured professorship and the directorship of the band program. Ammons explained to the USA Today that he terminated White because “I did not feel there was competence involving reporting allegations of hazing within the Department of Music and the Marching 100.”

Ammons fired White days after the death of FAMU drum major Robert D. Champion. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department suspects that Champion was hazed before he died.

The university recently made the decision to dismiss four students “in connection to the Robert Champion incident.”