TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Woman sentenced in campaign coverup
The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. — A woman who obstructed a federal probe of illegal contributions to Sen. Robert Torricelli's 1996 campaign was sentenced yesterday to three years' probation, telling the judge Torricelli berated her after she began cooperating with investigators.
"One night Torricelli called me on the phone yelling at me, 'I had everything in control, what is he trying to do, let him shut up,' Audrey Yu said, apparently relating the senator's fury at her boss, businessman David Chang.
"I had tears in my eyes telling the prosecutors to catch Torricelli," Yu told the judge. "It will be so shameful if we still have senator like Torricelli representing our nation."
She did not say when she received the call.
Chang has admitted funneling $53,700 to the 1996 campaign of the New Jersey Democrat and was awaiting sentencing. Yu pleaded guilty last year to obstructing the Justice Department investigation into Chang's contributions by lying to a grand jury.
"Torricelli is still lying about his relationship with David Chang." Yu told U.S. District Judge Alfred M. Wolin.
Yu, 34, would not discuss her allegations outside court and her attorney, Alberto Rivas, also
declined to comment. Federal prosecutors handling the case would not comment.
Asked to respond to Yu's comments, Torricelli press secretary Debra DeShong said: "Audrey Yu is an admitted perjurer and now a convicted felon who conspired with David Chang to tell lies and undermine the judicial system. It would be extraordinary if anyone took anything she said seriously."
The senator has said he was unaware of illegal contributions. The three-year investigation of the senator's finances was closed in January without any criminal charges against Torricelli, but prosecutors gave their material to the Senate ethics committee.
Torricelli is running for a second term in November.
Also yesterday, Wolin sentenced Cha-Kuek "Charles" Koo, an executive with a South Korean conglomerate, to one year of probation and fined him $5,000 for making illegal donations to the 1996 Torricelli campaign.
Koo, 56, pleaded guilty in 2000 and cooperated with investigators. He admitted he recruited eight "straw" donors at Chang's behest in return for cash to reimburse the donors.
Torricelli, then a congressman, raised $9.2 million and defeated Rep. Richard A. Zimmer in the 1996 election.
Charges filed in slaying
The Associated Press
SOMERSET, Ky. — A candidate for sheriff was charged yesterday in the slaying of the incumbent, who was gunned down by a sniper at a weekend campaign stop.
The two men are accused of being involved in the slaying of Pulaski County Sheriff Sam Catron, 48. Prosecutors and state police did not immediately comment on the charges, or describe White's background.
Jeff Morris, 34, was being held on a charge of complicity to murder, jail authorities said. He was booked along with Kenneth White, 54, who was arrested on the same charge.
Catron was shot in the head shortly after he finished a campaign speech at a fish fry and political rally Saturday in Shopville, 70 miles south of Lexington. He was running for a fifth term and faced Morris and others in a May 28 primary.
The man charged with shooting the sheriff — Danny Shelley, 30 — was apprehended after wrecking a motorcycle registered to Morris. Shelley pleaded innocent to capital murder yesterday.
Jim McWhorter, the chief deputy sworn in as sheriff, has
said Morris was a deputy under Catron from 1996 to July 2001. McWhorter wouldn't comment on Morris' reason for leaving the sheriff's office, but he said he knew of no ill will between Catron and Morris.
Catron had been the sheriff of the sparsely populated south-central Kentucky county since 1985. He was known for personally piloting a helicopter to search for marijuana plots and patrolling the streets into the wee hours.
He usually wore a bulletproof vest because his father, then-Somerset Police Chief Harold Catron, was shot and wounded in 1957. The younger Catron was wearing the vest Saturday.
Coroner Alan Stringer said the bullet hit Catron in the head and killed him instantly. Hays said the shot came from "a considerable distance."
Under Kentucky law, shooting a police officer in the line of duty is a capital offense. Commonwealth's Attorney Eddy Montgomery said Catron was in uniform when he was shot, but it was questionable whether he was on duty.
District to eliminate busing programs
The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The fight over one of the nation's longest-running school busing programs ended yesterday when the U.S. Supreme Court turned away a plea from black parents to keep Charlotte's schools underfederal oversight.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system became in 1970 the first major urban district in the nation to use court-ordered busing to achieve racial balance. The high court upheld the plan in 1971.
The high court's refusal to hear the dispute this time marked the official end of the program that bused inner-city students to mostly white suburban schools and suburban students to the inner city.
Though they greeted the end of the legal saga with pleasure, Charlotte school officials said they were still trying to assure that all students got an equitable education.
A lower court ruled in September that the 109,000-student school system no longer practices discrimination and can go forward with a new student-assignment plan that does not use race as a factor.
"This is the final chapter in pupil assignment, not the end of the work we need to do in our schools," said school board Chairman Arthur Griffin, who is black and attended segregated schools while growing up in Charlotte.
Charlotte's plan was the result of a lawsuit by black parents who claimed the school district had not done enough to comply with the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that desegregated public schools.
White parents sued to end busing in 1997, arguing that it harmed white students while failing to help the majority of black students. U.S. District Judge Robert Potter agreed, ruling that the school system had achieved the goals of racial balance.
On appeal, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that finding, meaning busing would continue. But the full, 11-member court agreed to take a second look. In September, the appeals court ruled 7-4 against continued race-based busing.
The court did not comment in turning away the appeal from black parents, who argued that vestiges of segregation remained.
In their appeal, the black parents argued that the schools have become resegregated, with black students concentrated in a few schools. The district built schools in largely white neighborhoods - making it hard to integrate them and ignored the condition of schools in black neighborhoods, the appeal said.
The Associated Press
CHICAGO—Illinois' death penalty needs major revision, but no change can guarantee that an innocent person would never again be executed, a state panel concluded yesterday after a two-year study of the system.
The panel, formed by Gov. George Ryan after he imposed a moratorium on executions two years ago, stopped short of recommending abolishing capital punishment, noting that panelists were asked only to recommend fixes to the current system. But a narrow majority of the commission would favor ending the death penalty.
"The message from this report is clear. Repair or repeal. Fix the capital punishment system or abolish it," said Thomas Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney and co-chairman of the panel.
The 14-member panel's report contains 85 recommendations, ranging from videotaping all interrogations of suspects to curb coerced confessions to establishing a statewide commission that would review local prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty.
The report recommends cutting the list of 20 circumstances that warrant the death penalty to five — murdering multiple victims, killing a police officer or firefighter, killing an officer or inmate in a correctional institution, murdering to obstruct justice or torturing the victim.
The panel also recommended banning the death penalty for mentally retarded defendants and defendants convicted solely on the evidence of a single eyewitness, informer or accomplice. And the report recommends creating a statewide DNA database and independent forensics lab.
The governor said he would study the report and would discuss it with panel members before taking any action.
"Many states and national leaders will look to see the recommendations that Illinois comes up with as a model for what else needs to be done in other states," said Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., which researches capital punishment but takes no position on it.
Summit House Apartments
Now taking applications for Fall 2002
Now taking applica for Fall 200z
• 1 BR & 1 BR Loft
Apartment Available
• Water and trash paid
• Walking distance to Campus
• Laundry facilities on site
• Private off street parking
• 24 hr. Emergency maintenance
Call (785) 841-1429 for details
Mon-Fri 9 am - 6 pm
Sat 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday 1 p.m - 4 pm
1105 Louisiana EHO
Now Pre-Leasing for Fall 2002!
- Fully applianced kitchen w/microwave
- Laundry facilities
- Private off street parking
- Central Heat and Air
- Walk-in closets
- Central Heat and Air
· Walk-in closets
· Garages
· Fireplaces
· Washer/Dryer hookups
· Walk to K.U.
· On-site Manager
· 24 hour emergency maintenance
14th & Mass.
(785) 841-1212
Hours:
9-5 M-F
10-4 Sat.
1-4 Sun.
EHO
Now Leasing for Fall 2,3 & 4 Bedroom Apartments & Town homes
2 BR / 2 Bath $700-$725
2 BR / 1 Bath $595-$650
3 BR / 1.5 Bath $820
3 BR / 2 Bath $880
4 BR / 2 Bath $980
840-9467
Blue Mesa Management, Inc.
5200 W. 15th Street
Suite 101
DON'S AUTO CENTER
"For all your repair needs"
* Import and Domestic Repair & Maintenance
* Machine Shop Service
* Computer Diagnostics
841-4833
920 F. 11th Street
951 Arkansas (785)749-2415
TANGLEWOOD APARTMENTS
(dishwashers* , disposal, stove, refrigerator, microwave)
Now leasing for August 2002! Completely furnished and unfurnished Studios, land 2 Bedroom apartment homes.
- Laundry facilities on site
- Fully equipped kitchens (dishwasers)* disposal,
- Telephone and cable outlets in each bedroom
- Ample off-street parking for tenants
- On-site manager
- Central Air
- Within walking distance to KU campus
- Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00
Saturday 10:00-4:00
Sunday 1:00-4:00
- 24emergency maintenance
Equal Housing Opportunity *Available in select units
Shower shoes are for the dorms.
Kick back & relax
3BR, 2 full bath w/hot tub, &
htd carpet flrs. Furnished. Pd
heat & water, pool, fitness rm.
$200/mo. Call Stone 333-1212
KANSAN
10c V
classifieds
Orchard Corners Apartments
Enjoy the comfort of a small community Now Leasing!
We offer:
- 2 BR - 2 Bath w/Study
- 4 BR - 2 Bath w/Study
- Furnished & unfurnished apartments
- Private patio or balcony
- Sparkling pool
- On KU bus route
- 4 BR - 2 Bath
- Private patio or balcony
- Small pets welcome
- On-site laundry
- Friendly on-site manager
- Friendly on-site manager
- Dorms units available
Models open daily
749-4226
15th & Kasold
Mon. - Fri. 9:00-5:00
Sat. 10:00-4:00
Sun. 1:00-4:00