Thursday, December 10, 1992
NATION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5
Milwaukee judge releases convicted killer, 'Bambi'
The Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — Convicted killer Lawrence "Bambi" Bembenek's long fight to prove she was an innocent victim of a conspiracy ended yesterday when a judge reduced her life prison sentence to 20 years and she was released.
The former police officer and Playboy Club waitress struck a deal with prosecutors in which she pleaded no contest to a reduced charge in the 1981 slaying of her then-husband's ex-wife.
In exchange for the deal, Bembeken gave up her right to appeal her new conviction. Earlier this week, defense lawyer Sheldon Zenger filed a motion for a new trial citing new evidence.
Bemenken was released on parole several hours after a hearing in which he pleaded not guilty.
do on a 20-year sentence."
"She is going home," Zenner said. "She has done all the time she could
Bembenek, 34, gained folk-hero status with claims she was framed by police and later gained international attention with a prison escape that ended when she was captured in Canada.
Bembenek was convicted of first-degree murder in 1982 for the death of her husband's ex-wife. That verdict was reversed yesterday and she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder.
During the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Robert Donohoo said his office maintained that Bembeken was guilty but acknowledged that it would be difficult to obtain a second conviction if she were granted a new trial. He noted that some witnesses have died and people's memories have faded.
"I believe this is a just resolution of this matter," he said. "I'm glad it's over."
Donohoo had urged the maximum penalty of 20 years. Zenner asked for a sentence of time already served.
"Any sentence less than the maximum 20 years would unduly deprecate the serious nature of this despicable crime and lend unwarranted credence to these conspiracies of innocence," Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Skwierawski told a packed courtroom.
Zenner's motion for a new trial contended the gun prosecutors said was the murder weapon did not kill the victim, that witnesses lied or embellished their stories and that a convicted killer, Frederick Horenberger, repeatedly told others he killed Christine Schutz. 31.
Schultz was the former wife of Bembenek's husband at the time, police officer Elfred Schultz. Prosecutors said financial strains caused by alimony payments were Bembenek's motive in the slaying.
Searchers recover miners' bodies
The Associated Press
NORTON, Va. — Rescue workers last night recovered the bodies of seven of the eight miners who have been missing since a mine explosion Monday. The miners were found more than a mile underground.
The search for the eighth miner was called off because methane gas levels became dangerously high, rescuers said.
Families awaited news of their relatives for more than 60 hours. They spent much of the time huddled in two school buses parked at the foot of a mountain below Southmountain Coal Co.'s No.3 mine.
With sleet falling and several ambulances driven up the mountain, state police boarded the buses and broke the news to the families at about 9:15 p.m.
It was the worst mining disaster in Virginia since 1957, when 37 miners died in an explosion in Tazewell County.
A ninth miner crawled out after the explosion early Monday and
remained hospitalized yesterday with second-degree burns to his face and hands.
The cause of the explosion has not been determined. Methane or airborne coal dust are potential causes of mine explosions.
Bill Tattersall, assistant U.S. labor secretary for mine safety and health, said it appeared that the seven miners whose bodies were recovered died where they had been working.
Tattersall said that he could not comment on the prospects of going back into the mine to search for the eighth miner. He refused to answer other questions.
The miner who escaped, Robert Fleming, 21, said that he was about 400 feet inside the shaft. He said that he heard nothing and saw no flames before being knocked off his feet by air accompanied by dust, searing heat and pressure.
"a burst of air and dust picked me up and blew me against a rb" of coal and down to the floor. Fleming told the Roanoke Times & World-News from
his bed at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville. "I thought my eardrums would pop." .
A union safety official yesterday said that one of the missing men — the foreman at the blast site — had been fired from another mine after he failed to test for explosive methane gas.
Norman Vanover was dismissed from the Clinchfield Coal Co.'s McClure No. 2 mine after an incident six months ago where methane gas ignited but did not explode, said Ronnie Robbins, who works at that mine and is chairman of the United Mine Workers union safety committee there.
"I'm not implying that this is what happened over there, but it did make him more nervous."
At Southmountain No. 3, inspectors had suspended underground rescue efforts Tuesday when crews encountered smoke and explosive levels of methane and had to turn back 300 feet from where they believed the miners were working.
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