Several of the issues raised by the state should be decided by a state judge, not a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway in Orlando ruled Monday.

The state intervened in a lawsuit originally filed by five private plaintiffs against the chain's parent company, HBE Corp., in 1999. The black vacationers said they were singled out as security risks during Black College Reunion in Daytona Beach and made to wear orange wristbands to get into the hotel, while white guests were not.

Conway will hear the private plaintiffs' case and scheduled the trial for January.

Last year, Conway rejected a proposed settlement that would have given $8-million to the former guests of HBE's Daytona Beach hotel and four historically black colleges. HBE officials said they tried subsequently to reach an agreement with the plaintiffs but were unsuccessful.

The rejection did not affect a separate settlement HBE reached with the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of that agreement, the chain agreed to take steps to prevent discrimination at the hotels.

Missing Levy County boy found with man in Texas

WILLISTON -- Sexual assault charges were filed Tuesday against a 23-year-old man accused of taking a 12-year-old boy from his rural Levy County home.

The district attorney's office in Corpus Christi, Texas, filed charges of aggravated sexual assault on a child and three counts of indecency with a child against Charles Douglas "Chuck" Owens II, 23, said Lt. Rocky Vipond of the Corpus Christi Police Department.

The aggravated sexual assault charge carries a possible life sentence.

Owens is also wanted in Biloxi, Miss., as well as Levy County, where additional charges have been lodged. Vipond said Owens has agreed to waive extradition to Mississippi.

Owens and the boy were located Monday morning in a Corpus Christi motel, where they checked in about a week ago. They turned up missing from the boy's home near Williston on Oct. 14, and were believed to be involved in the beating and robbery of a beachfront rental business operator in Biloxi on Oct. 27.

Owens was a friend of the boy's stepfather for several years before moving in with the boy's family a month before he and the youth disappeared with a Jeep and $500.

Swim in campus lake fatal to freshman at Miami

CORAL GABLES -- A University of Miami freshman and fraternity pledge apparently drowned after jumping into a campus lake early Monday.

Chad Meredith, 18, of Indianapolis went swimming in Lake Osceola about 5:30 a.m., university officials said. He was with two Kappa Sigma brothers, Travis Montgomery and Timothy Williamson.

About 6 a.m., someone called police after Meredith failed to surface. His body was found by police divers. University spokeswoman Margot Winick said police were awaiting results of an autopsy.

Police and students said Meredith had an injured shoulder and did not know how to swim.

Owen DeLeon, Meredith's friend, said he and Meredith attended an outdoor concert by rapper Ludacris on a patio adjacent to the lake until 11 p.m. Sunday. No alcohol was served at the event, Winick said.

A student drowned in the lake in 1980, prompting campus officials to ban swimming there.

-- Staff, wire reports

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