The future of the director of Southern University’s famed Human Jukebox remained up in the air Monday as he awaits the outcome of an internal investigation prompted by a recent lawsuit accusing him of requesting a kickback in order for the band to appear at an event for public school children.
University spokeswoman Janene Tate said Monday that nothing has changed, that Nathan Haymer remains the band director.
Members of the band, popularly known as the Human Jukebox, crowded into Southern’s Board of Supervisors meeting Friday morning, pleading the case for their band director to keep his job.
Haymer aroused their concerns the night before when spoke at a band banquet. There, according to those in attendance, the director, who took over the band in 2014, indicated that he had been asked to resign in lieu of potentially being fired and that he couldn’t hand out awards because they were in his office and he’d been locked out of the room.
Later Friday, the university released 270 pages of emails between Haymer and several New Orleans Mardi Gras krewes which included a few questionable requests by the band director. The emails were released pursuant to a public records request by WBRZ-TV and subsequently released to The Advocate.
Nathan Haymer has, with the exception of two terse posts on Facebook, said nothing publicly since he spoke Thursday night.
His brother and attorney, Niles Haymer, however, took the opposite tack.
On Saturday morning, Niles Haymer went on tear, posting multiple times
on his personal Facebook page in defense of his brother and then announced he wasn’t speaking again. Reached Monday, Niles Haymer said he’s agreed to stop commenting publicly until his brother’s situation at Southern is resolved.
Starting at 6:51 a.m. Saturday, Niles Haymer had complained about “intentional biased reporting by the local media” that “is slanderous at best.” He argued his brother collected honorariums from having the band perform at events and parades, likening them tips and gratuities; he said they were not kickbacks, which he equated with a bribe. He posted copies of the prices charged by the band at Florida A&M University, another historically black college with a famous marching band; he noted that FAMU includes a specific line item charge for staff expenses, the same reason his brother was being paid extra.
“Mr. Nathan B. Haymer paid his staff with the funds, which was split four ways,” Niles Haymor wrote at one point. “In the contract it was written as an honorarium. This is the same practice that has been used in the past for the last two decades at SU and at other bands.”
Later on, the attorney addressed the lawsuit, filed in January, that sparked his brother’s job troubles.
“The civil suit is about a breach of contract allegation between the plaintiff and SU,” Niles Haymer wrote. “There was an allegation about a text message from three years ago that has been denied. SU cleared the Band Director over two years ago.
Tate said she would look into Niles Haymer’s assertions but did not have an answer on Monday. She said any outside income generated by the band is supposed to be handled by either the Southern University Foundation or the university's Alumni Federation, and that money is funneled back into band's university budget.
In the lawsuit against Nathan Haymer and Southern, Maranda White, the owner of Baton Rouge-based Octagon Media, alleges the band director reneged on band appearances after she refused to fulfill a "kickback" request, which she later brought to the attention of Southern officials.
According to the lawsuit, in 2015 White reached an agreement with Haymer for the Human Jukebox and the Dancing Dolls to be the main attraction at an event for various public schools.
But 10 days before the event in November, Haymer requested via text message that a check be written to him that would be hidden from the business, according to the lawsuit.
