2A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
The Inside Front
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2002
News
from campus, the state, the nation and the world
LAWRENCE
Local priest pleads guilty to molesting teen-age boy
LAWRENCE, Kan. — A Roman Catholic priest who served in several Johnson County parishes pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually abusing a teenage boy.
The Rev. Dennis E. Schmitz, 41, will be sentenced Oct. 18 in Douglas County District Court on the charge of lewd fondling of a child between the ages of 14 and 16.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to oppose probation for Schmitz at sentencing. However, the judge could still sentence him to prison.
Schmitz's admission of guilt means he will be removed from the priesthood, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas has said.
Schmitz was charged in Douglas County in June with taking indecent liberties with a child, a felony. The alleged abuse occurred between June 1998 and May 1999, when the boy was 15.
Schmitz faces the same charge with the same boy in Nemaha County. Now 18 and living in Johnson County, the victim has filed a lawsuit in Douglas County against Schmitz and the archdiocase seeking at least $75,000 for damages.
Schmitz's attorney, Stephen Mirakian, said that he was still talking with prosecutors in Nemaha County about how to handle that charge.
Schmitz served until July of last year
NATION
FBI continues terror probe many still not cleared
PHILADELPHIA—Ten months after armed FBI agents smashed his door and searched his basement for anthrax, Dr. Irshad Shaikh is still waiting for the government to clear his name.
The Chester public health commissioner and Johns Hopkins University faculty associate is one of hundreds of immigrants who were subjected to often harrowing investigations in the wake of Sept. 11.
Nearly a year later, most of those probes have yielded no evidence of links to terrorism. But the FBI still won't salve them, or even offer an explanation.
Other widely publicized probes include that of Al-Badr Al-Hazmi, a Saudi-born radiologist living in San Antonio. He was detained for 12 days
after authorities learned he shared the same last name as two hijackers and had been scheduled to fly Sept. 11.
After his release, Al-Hazmi returned to his job at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center. He said he bore no grudge against the government.
Egyptian student Abdallah Higazy was jailed for 30 days after an aviation radio was found in his hotel room near the World Trade Center. He was cleared in January after the device's owner, a pilot, came forward.
FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said the inquiry into Shaikh, who holds both U.S. and Pakistani citizenship, was still "apending matter."
"If the government still thinks these guys are terrorists, they have an odd way of showing it," said Shaikh's attor ney, Anthony List Sr.
They were among the lucky ones. At least 1,200 people were detained by authorities in the initial stages of the terror investigation. Almost all have been released.
trespasser still not found weapons depot secure
TOOLEL, Utah — An Army depot where nerve gas and other chemical weapons are stored sounded a terror alert yesterday after four soldiers reported seeing a possible intruder.
Col. Peter Cooper, commander of the Desertet Chemical Depot, said the person was spotted within the heavily guarded perimeter by the soldiers during two separate patrols and fled when the officers approached.
By late afternoon, officials were still searching the depot grounds for the person.
"At this time we cannot confirm an intruder," Cooper said. "Right now we are pretty sure we've cleared the depot. We're not sure if it was an employee who was not in the right area."
In Washington, a senior administration official speaking on condition of anonymity said there was no evidence that anything was stolen or that terrorism was involved.
The apparent trespasser, dressed in dark clothing, was within a fenced area between the stored chemicals and the outer perimeter, authorities said. Cooper said the security of the depot was never at risk.
"We're talking about the outer boundary... he never got close to the chemical storage area at all," Cooper said.
The depot, which is about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and covers
19,000 acres of mostly barren, wind-swept desert dominated by sage-brush, stores chemical weapons such as nerve gas and mustard gas. It has been destroying a stockpile of deadly chemical weapons since 1996.
Ambush kills four women returning home from work
DONNA, Texas — Four women were shot to death in their car in an ambush near the Mexican border early yesterday as they drove home from the nightclub where they worked.
A fifth woman in the car was wounded and was hospitalized in guarded condition, and a sixth was found uninjured, hiding nearby, sheriff's Capt. Roy Quintanilha said.
"We don't know who was the tar get," he said. "We don't have a motive."
The women, employees at Garcia's Place, were apparently fired on after their sports car stopped to drop off one woman at the trailer where five of the women lived, he said. They had left the bar after it closed around midnight.
Investigators were interviewing witnesses but made no immediate arrests.
Quintaniliaha said the women were apparently shot with one or more semiautomatic pistols or assault rifles. One witness reported seeing a sport utility vehicle pulling away after the shooting.
Powder mailed to police identified as baking soda
BOSTON — Massachusetts state health officials said yesterday that powder mailed this week to Massachusetts police departments was baking soda.
Nine of the 13 envelopes contained the harmless cooking ingredient and all tested negative for anthrax, the Department of Public Health said. Tests on the other envelopes were planned.
Eleven of the letters were received Wednesday and two more were discovered yesterday. Each contained a note with the words "Black September," the name of a Palestinian group that killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches during the 1972 Munich Olympics in an incident that began 30 years ago yesterday.
"I believe somebody's playing on the fears of the public at this time of the year," Saugus police Lt. Stephen Sweezey said.
-The Associated Press
NEWS AFFILIATE
KUJH-TV News
Tune into KUJH-TV at 5:30,7,9 and 11 p.m. for more news.
News: Andrea Burnett and Tawnya Bach
Weather: Matt Jacobs
Sports: Liz Godfrey
On KJHK, 90.7 FM, listen to Piaa Burkart and Cara Milligan this morning at 7, 8 and 9. Then hear Kevin Macdonald at 5 p.m.
kansan.com
Don't have time to read today's paper? Head to kansan.com and listen to KTalk. Hear convergence manager Meredith Carr read summaries of today's top stories.
ON THE RECORD
A 19-year-old University of Kansas student told Lawrence police that someone damaged his Plymouth Neon between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m.
Wednesday in the 1500 block of Tennessee Street, according to Lawrence police reports. The damage was estimated at $300.
ON CAMPUS
KU Ki Alikido Club will meet from 10 a.m. to noon tomorrow at Room 207 in Robinson Center. Contact Jason Ziegler at 843-4732.
Spencer Museum of Art will have the exhibit Four Photographers from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow in the museum. Contact the museum at 864-4710.
- Spencer Museum of Art will have a Figure Drawing Demonstration by the Valley Lane Studio Figure Drawing
Group at 2 p.m. Sunday in the museum. Contact the museum at 864- 4710.
University Theatre will have a Fail Film Rally at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Herk Harvey Sound Stage, room 100 in Oldfather Studios, 1621 W.9th. Contact University Theatre at 749-1130.
Camera on KU
Aaron Showalter/Kansan
The KU Chess Club lets passersby join in games yesterday on Wescoe Beach. Brendan Cope, Leavenworth senior (left), Ben Sutherland, Wichita doctoral student, and Sebastian D'Amico, Topeka junior, tested their skills against chess club members. The club meets Thursdays at 7 p.m. in the Daisy Hill room at the Burge Union.
Et Cetera
The University Daily Kansans is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at the Kansan business office, 119 Stuaffer-Fint Hall, 1435 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 65045.
The University Daily Kanset (ISSN 0746-4962) is published daily during the school year except Saturday, Sunday, Friday break, spring break and exams. Bi-weekly during the summer session excluding holidays. Periodical postage is paid in Lawrence, KS 65044. Annual subscriptions by mail are $120. Stu
dent subscriptions of $2.33 are paid through the student activity fee.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The University Daily Kansas, 119 Stauffer-Fint Hall, 1425 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence KS 60045
The University DailyKansanprints campus events that are free and open to the public. When information is submitted, the event's sponsor, name and phone number must be on the form, which is available in the On Campus mailbox in the Kansean room11, On Campus
Staffer Fint Hall, items must be turned in two days in advance of the desired publication date. Forms can also be filled out online at www.kansan.com — these requests will appear online as well as the Kansan. On Campus is printed on a space available basis.
623 Vermont 749-5067