University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, August 25, 1987
11
State/Local
Officials discuss prison conditions
The Associated Press
TOPEKA - Department of Corrections and U.S. Justice Department officials met for two hours yesterday to discuss possible problems with conditions at the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing.
The private meeting centered on the findings of a Justice Department report released to state officials in June, according to a statement released by Corrections Secretary Richard Mills.
Corrections officials have declined to make the report public, but the Kansas City Times has reported that
the report alleges that conditions at Kansas' maximum security prison may violate inmates' civil rights
Among the allegations is that health care at the 116-year-old institution is inadequate, the Times has said. Larry Cowger, special assistant to Mills, would not comment on the report.
Mills and several corrections officials met with John Petersen, Gov. Mike Hayden's legal counsel; Ben Burgess, U.S. Attorney for Kansas; and two Justice Department attorneys, said Cowger, who attended the meeting.
"The meeting today was the first step towards addressing the concerns raised by the Justice Department," Mills said in his statement. "We had an opportunity to respond to their concerns and to provide some updated information concerning conditions at the penitentiary."
mills said in his statement that "further discussion" will take place, and Cowger said additional meetings in the department officials may be scheduled.
Kathy Peterson, Hayden's press secretary, said the federal officials wanted undated information because
the report stemmed from a tour of the penitentiary in April 1986.
"That was the only thing resolved because of the meeting," Peterson said.
According to published reports, a consultant hired by the state after the report was completed said in a study that the penitentiary's medical care was inadequate and its medical staff needed to be doubled.
Peterson said the state could face a federal lawsuit, but added that Justice Department officials had not yet threatened to file one.
Jury chosen in Emporia insurance fraud case
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — A federal jury of five men and three women was picked yesterday to hear an insurance company's claim it should not have to pay the children of Lorna Anderson Eldridge under a life insurance policy she took out on her first husband before he was killed in 1983.
Attorneys for New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. and lawyers for four children of Lorna Eldridge and the late Martin K. Anderson will deliver opening statements to the jury Tuesday morning, then begin calling witnesses.
The witness list, read to the jury Monday, sounded like a who's who
from the highly publicized Lorna Anderson and the Rev. Thomas Bird case in Emporia, which was the subject of a television miniseries aired earlier this year.
Bird is among scheduled witnesses, along with other principals in the case and law enforcement officers who investigated it.
Judge Dale E. Saffall of Kansas City, Kan., who is hearing the insurance case in federal district court against him, said the trial to continue into next week.
This is a civil case, with New England Mutual suing Lorna Eldridge, alleging fraud and deceit on her part. The company contends
she purchased the insurance policy because she planned to murder her husband or cause him to be murdered.
New England Mutual is asking the court to declare the insurance policy void so it does not have to pay $120,000 in death benefits provided under its provisions. The policy also was to pay an additional $150,000 if Anderson died by "accidental bodily injury."
Anderson was murdered in a field south of Manhattan in November 1983. His wife, who has since remarried, was charged last May with first-degree murder in his death. A trial is pending.
Lorna Eldridge is serving a $5\frac{1}{2}$ to 18-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in August 1985 to two counts of criminal solicitation to murder her husband. However, prosecutors have said neither of the plots resulted in Anderson's death.
Bird was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1983 death of his wife, Sandra, and of criminal solitication to commit first-degree murder in an unsuccessful plot against Anderson. He is serving a life prison term.
Lorna Eldridge waived her claim to the benefits of the insurance policy last November, but asked that the couple be paid to the couple's four children.
Charges against hospital employees dropped
The Associated Press
TOPEKA - Three of four criminal charges filed against two former employees of Winfield State Hospital and Training Center have been dropped, Attorney General Robert T. Stephan announced vetted day.
The two former employees, Bobby Folkner, 33, and Robert Vardy, 40, both of Arkansas City, had faced
charges connected with the alleged mistreatment of patients at Kansas' largest hospital for the mentally retarded. Stephan said in a statement that he dropped the charges because his pre-trial investigation found insufficient evidence to continue prosecution.
A single count each of mistreatment of a confined person and battery against Vardy were dropped. A single count of battery against Folkner was dropped, and he still faces a second count of battery. The charges are misdemeanors.
Stephan also sent a letter to Winston Barton, state secretary of social and rehabilitation services, saying the hospital should improve its abuse-reporting procedures.
Specifically, Stephan suggested that reports of abuse be filed with SRS officials in Topeka and not through hospital supervisors. He also said employees and others who think they have witnessed patient abuse should be required to fill out detailed forms.
Topeka group plans Capitol waste rally
The Associated Press
TOPE:A — A group opposed to the state's membership in a regional compact for the disposal of radioactive waste has scheduled a rally on the Capitol grounds for the first day of a special session of the Legislature.
The Kansas Coalition on Nuclear Waste is having the rally Monday to urge lawmakers to debate Kansas' participation in the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compound, said Lauren Menhusen of Jewell, the group's president.
Gov. Mike Hayden has called the special session to have lawmakers consider a comprehensive highway program, and he has said he wants legislative leaders to limit the debate to highways to avoid a protracted session. Hayden plans to appear at the rally, which begins at 9 a.m. on the north steps
of the Capitol.
Menhusen said. "We're encouraging people to call their legislators and ask that it be discussed during the special session."
In 1982, Kansas joined the compact, which also includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Under federal law, a host state for a regional dump must be selected by the beginning of next year. The compact has already chosen a developer, U.S. Ecology, of Louisville, Ky., to build a site.
The compact has sparked opposition in Kansas, where officials and some residents have said they think the state has a good chance of becoming the host state for a fump.
During the 1887 Legislature, attempts to pull the state out of the compact failed in the Senate, and a withdrawal measure did not get out of a House committee.
On the Record
Drive, Lawrence police reported.
Four cars parked in a lot south of Jayhawker Towers were damaged or burglarized Sunday, KU police reported. One car had $300 damage, and a car stereo, valued at $175, was taken. Two other cars had $200 and $25 damage. A car stereo, valued at $95, was taken from the fourth car.
A car stereo, two stereo equalizers and a radar detector, valued together at $780, were taken Sunday from a car in the 2500 block of Redbud Lane, Lawrence police reported.
Drive Lawrence car stereo speakers and power booster, valued together at $360, were taken Saturday or Sunday from a car parked in the 2200 block of West 26th Street, Lawrence police reported.
A 15-speed bicycle, valued at $500,
was taken Saturday or Sunday from
an apartment in the 1900 block of
42th Street, Lawrence police
reported.
A car stereo and equalizer, valued together at $400, were taken Sunday from a car in the 2100 block of Kasold
A KU student's car stereo, valued at $210, was taken Sunday from a car parked in the 1300 block of West 24th Street, Lawrence police reported.
A stereo, valued at $100, was taken Saturday from an apartment on West 14th Street, Lawrence police reported.
- Two KU students' purses, wallets and other miscellaneous items, valued together at more than $100, were taken Sunday from a car parked in the 1300 block of Kentucky Street, Lawrence police reported.
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