8B
Friday. January 27,1995
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Ethics argued during Simpson trial
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — O.J. Simpson's defense is deceiving jurors with witnesses who include "heroin addicts, thieves, felons and a court-certified pathological liar," prosecutors asserted yesterday in imploring the judge for a delay and a chance to offer a new opening statement.
Fuming prosecutors Christopher Darden and Marcia Clark accused defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. of misconduct for releasing full witness list only at the last minute and for using some of the late witness additions in his suspended opening statement, which began Wednesday.
"Morally, it's a violation of the jurors' right to the truth," Clark said. "They've been lied to. They've been deceived. They've gotten half-truths from counsel. They have deliberately shown them items taken out of context."
Darden also tried to unmask two mysteries Cochran introduced in
court Wednesday.
At one point, Cochran told jurors that a close Simpson friend had admitted having an affair with Simpson's ex-wife. In her book about the Simpsons' relationship, Faye Resnick said Nicole Brown Simpson once had an affair with Marcus Allen, a Kansas City Chiefs football player who has known Simpson for years.
Darden said prosecutors had no idea whom Cochran was referring to but revealed he had traveled to Kansas City and was present "with three police detectives when Mr.
Allen told us he never had an affair with Nicole Brown."
"Counsel has dragged this information in front of the jury in an attempt to sully the reputation of a deceased victim," Darden said. "That's fine. That happens in court. But we have a right to that information."
Turning to a defense mystery envelope that surfaced in the preliminary hearing, Darden called it the "envelope that Mr. Cochran waved in front of the jury yesterday, the envelope which contains an unspecified knife, as I understand it."
Darden said that because prosecutors had seen only reports, not the envelope contents, "The jury should be informed that this was a low blow and a cheap shot."
Jurors, meanwhile, were in a legal limbo. They spent hours in a courthouse waiting room, unaware of the chaos in the courtroom.
Darden also angrily denounced the defense witnesses as a gang of "heroin addicts, thieves, felons and the
only person I have ever known to be a court-certified pathological liar."
"We are concerned that this witness is not the person she claims to be," he said.
He said one of the witnesses, Mary Anne Gerchas, who claims to have information exonerating Simpson, has written $10,000 in bad checks, defrauded a hotel chain of $23,000 in room expenses and may be using an assumed name.
Gerchas, Cochran asserted, saw four men fleeing Ms. Simpson's neighborhood the night of the killings. Gerchas tried to tell her story to authorities, but they ignored her, Cochran said.
The court day started under a cloud because a key prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney William Hodgman, had been rushed to the hospital late Wednesday complaining of chest pains and mental confusion.
He remained under observation yesterday, but District Attorney Gil Garcetti said doctors didn't think he
Debate on confirmation to Regents heats up
The Associated Press
TOPEKA—Gene Bicknell, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor and then endorsed the Democratic candidate, said after a hearing that the Senate vote on his confirmation to the Kansas Board of Regents could be close.
Former Democratic Gov. Joan Finney appointed Bicknell to the Board of Regents just weeks after he endorsed the Democratic candidate, Jim Slattery. Slattery later was defeated by Republican Gov. Bill Graves.
Bicknell testified Wednesday before the Senate Education Committee, which will make a recommendation to the Senate to confirm or not confirm. The committee also can make no recommendation
State Sen. Audrey Langworthy, R-
Prairie Village, asked Bicknell whether his appointment to the Regents was a "pay off" for his endorsement of Slattery.
"Senator, I'm not for sale," Bicknell said calmly. "I never discussed with Finney about who I would endorse in the race."
He also said the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had made a background check for the Regents appointment at the time he endorsed Slattery.
"I totally support the sitting governor at all times, regardless of who he is, because he's my governor," Bicknell said.
Then, referring to Graves, he said, "It's very difficult to support someone who attacks your character and misrepresents your business. I have learned how to forgive and forget."
The exchange Wednesday could
show there will be a Senate floor fight on Bicknell's confirmation. Some Republicans were extremely bitter about Bicknell's endorsement of Slattery after the primary.
"I think we have to look at the overall integrity of the individual," Langworthy said after the meeting. "My concern also is to look after the integrity of the Board of Regents."
"There's still some resentment, obviously," Bickell said as he left the Statehouse. "I think it's going to be a pretty close vote. I know there are a certain number of individuals who want to see me not confirmed."
During the hearing, Bicknell emphasized both his business and academic background. He has taught business courses at Pittsburg State University, Wichita State University, the university of Kansas and other universities in the nation.
Bicknell is chief executive officer of the Pittsburg-based National Pizza Co., the world's largest holder of Pizza Hut franchises. He also owns manufacturing plants and seafood and Mexican restaurants.
"I know exactly how to run a business," he said. "I think Regents institutions are a business."
Bicknell said he believed qualified admissions—requiring students to meet certain minimum standards beyond being high school graduates—should be considered for at least two or three of the six state universities.
Langworthy was unimpressed by Bicknell's statements.
"What I'm not hearing from you is any kind of commitment one way or another," she said. "As a Regent, I don't see a commitment to make hard choices."
The Associated Press
MIAMI — Fasten your seat belts,
put your trays in the upright position
and whatever you do, don't
flash your wallets after landing.
Tourists traveling to Miami for the Super Bowl are getting plenty of tips on how to avoid becoming another crime statistic in a city notorious for attacks in out-of-towners.
In waiting areas at Miami International Airport, visitors can watch a police video on safety tips, including warnings not to pull over on dark streets to look at maps. The airport also is loaded with pamphlets and special tourist police on the look-out for pickpockets.
Tourists can rent a high-tech car with an electronic mapping system and a panic button that will give police their location. Or they can use new roadside tourist phones to call for help. New highway signs with sunburst symbols will lead them to hotels, where they'll be given more safety tips.
"We are light-years ahead of any city in the United States on this," said Merrett R. Stierheim, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The safety campaign began after a series of attacks from October 1992 to September 1993, when nine foreign visitors were killed across the state.
It seems to be working. Miami and Dade County police report that tourist robberies are down 50 percent to 60 percent this year.
"Tourist crime has been drastically reduced," said Maj. Bill O'Brien of the Miami police. "No city in the United States, maybe in the world, has suffered such bad public relations. Every time we have a major event is an opportunity for us to show what our community is really like."
And who can blame them?
Miami's leaders want to turn the spotlight from crime to the city's bay-front skyline, spectacular weather, wide beaches, diverse population, winter festivals and sports, and access to the Florida Keys and the Everglades.
The attacks on tourists included: three Germans killed in the Miami area, including one stalked from the airport by teen-agers and a visiting Venezuelan diplomat and Canadian businessman fatally shot in robberies.
Also, Norwegian tourists were hijacked in a hotel courtesy van, and a German who complained of an unpleasant odor in his hotel room turned out to have a body stuffed under his bed. In northern Florida, a British tourist was killed at a highway rest stop during a robbery.
As a result, British tourism was down in Miami by more than 30 percent last year, and German tourism dropped by more than 50 percent, officials said. Domestic tourism was steady, but Dade County expects to lose 8 percent of its overall tourist base.
The decline has cost the state millions and led to a state tourism campaign to assure visitors Florida is still safe. The state takes in an estimated $31 billion a year in tourism.
Recent crimes have been more manageable.
Super Bowl mascot Hosty the Bear's costume was stolen last month but quickly recovered. National Football League merchandise was hijacked this week from a Pompano Beach trucking company. About 260 Super Bowl tickets—with a face value of $52,400—were stolen last week from a FedEx office.
THE NEWS in brief
BETHESDA, Md
People with AIDS lobby for continuance of vaccine tests
The vaccine, called Immunogen, is supposed to help bolster the immune system's response to HIV, the AIDS virus, and thus help HIV-infected people stay healthier longer.
People inflicted with AIDS pleaded with the government yesterday to allow continuance of the most in-depth trials yet of a therapeutic AIDS vaccine created by polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk.
But there are questions about whether the vaccine really does this. The Food and Drug Administration sought advice yesterday from a panel of outside experts before deciding whether to allow Phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine to proceed in some 5,000 patients.
Patients are demanding that the studies go forward.
Michael Slattery, of the AIDS Research Alliance, entered one of the first small trials of the vaccine in 1988 and says his immune system has remained more aggressive than that expected of most patients over the same time period.
While other scientists are testing vaccines to both prevent HIV infection and to treat it, Salk's is the first therapeutic vaccine in development. He took a strain of HIV, stripped it out of its protective coating and then inactivated the whole virus. Two other therapeutic vaccines are being tested with only portions of the virus.
The killed virus is then added to a chemical that helps the immune cells recognize an invader, remember what it looks like and fight it off. The theory is that without this immune-memory boost, HIV can hide in the body and elude immune cells until it has grown strong enough to wipe out the immune system.
ATLANTA
Deadly plant sickens in southeast
At least two teens died last year after drinking a poisonous tea made from Jimson weed or eating its seeds, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday.
Teen-agers seeking a new high are turning to a deadly plant whose first recorded use was by settlers of Jamestown more than 300 years ago.
The toxic plant causes hallucinations as well as seizures, coma and death.
In Maitland, Fla., on Monday, concern over reports that the plant made nearly 100 teen-agers ill led the city to ban cultivation of the plant.
Jimson weed, also known as thorn apple or angel's trumpet, grows throughout North America and is particularly common in the central United States.
"It's incredibly common," said CDC epidemiologist
Carol Rubin, "And the health effects are horrible. No one that describes having tried it ever wants to try it again."
Dry mouth, confusion, agitation, combativeness and difficulty speaking and swallowing often accompany the hallucinations, which often are of insects crawling over the body.
Victims often tear off their clothes because they feel hot, said Tom Caraccio of Winthrop University Hospital's Long Island Regional Poison Control Center.
In 1993, the American Association of Poison Control Centers received 318 reports of Jimson weed poisoning. There is no antidote for Jimson weed poisoning. Patients usually are treated with activated charcoal to absorb the plant's ingredients, have their stomachs pumped or receive a drug, physostigmine, whose side effects often are as unpleasant as the plant's—a slowed heart rate and seizures.
The plant's spoisoning effects are unpredictable and can vary from plant to plant, year to year. Its immediate effect also can vary, leading people to ingest more, often with other drugs, according to Rubin. The effects can last for several days.
GROZNY, Russia Terror of war haunts Russian citizens
According to Russian news agencies, Russian aircraft mistook a Russian border guard near the village of Alkun in neighboring Ingushetia for a Chechen stronghold, struck it with missiles and wounded one soldier.
Russian artillery shells rained down on the southern fringe of the capital yesterday, trapping Russian mothers searching for their soldier sons and prompting some of Grozny's last residents to flee.
Russian troops also shelled and rocketed surrounding villages, igniting a huge fire in an oil storage terminal a few miles south of Grozny.
In Grozny, a massive blue-black cloud of smoke rolled into the clear winter sky yesterday as helicopter gunships and Kukhol-jet fighters patrolled overhead.
One of their air strikes proved to be on their own troops.
"It was a hell, just a hell," Maria Pavlova, 69, said as she trudged south along the main road out of Grozny after the night-long bombardment.
Officials in Ingushetia they sent in buses to evacuate the group of about 40 Russian mothers from an abandoned apartment building on Grozyn's southernmost edge. But as night fell there was no word of their fate.
Chechen officials said their fighters had pushed Russian troops out of some positions in the center of Grozny and retaken the railroad station. Their forces have the ammunition, strength and fortified positions to defend the capital for a long time.
"No one is going to give away the city," Chechen representative Movaladi Udugov told the Interfaq news agency. "The war in and around Chechnya is only starting to gain momentum."
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