KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Friday, October 29, 1982 Vol. 93, No. 50 USPS 650-640
Boan gets two life terms for Med Center deaths
By SALLY JOY OMUNDSON and VICKY WILT Staff Reporters
KANSAS CITY, Kan.-Convicted killer Bradley Bonn was sentenced yesterday in Wandotte County District Court to two consecutive life terms for the March 1981 shooting deaths of two people in the emergency room of the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Boan, 32 also was sentenced to two five-to-20 year terms, and one three-to-10 year term.
three counts of abuse against Jay Vader. After the sentencing, defense attorney Jay Vader said the case would be appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court.
WILLIAM MAHONEY, district court judge,
all five诉事 would be served consecutively
with his first.
He said Boan had threatened to return to the Med Center and kill more people.
Mahoney recommended that Bonn, who had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, be sent to Laredo State Hospital for supervision and treatment.
Vader said that Boan, who received the maximum sentence for his crimes, would have to serve 43 years before he would be eligible for parole.
Boan was convicted Oct. 6 of murdering Marc Beck, a second-year resident working in the emergency room, and Ruth Rybolt, a visitor.
HOAN ALSO WAS convicted of two counts of aggravated assault against Kansas City, Kan. police officers Guy King and Terry Mast, and one count of aggravated assault against Kjeld Grarp, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Turner in Kansas City, Kan.
The assaults against King and Mast carried
behavier sentences because assaults against law enforcement officers are class C felonies. The assault against Grarup was a class D felony.
BEFORE THE SENTENCING, Vader presented 18 separate arguments to Mahoney in a motion for either a new trial or a directed verdict, in which the judge would overrule the jury's guilty verdict and declare Boan not guilty by reason of insanity.
by request of authority.
Mahoney refused, saying he would not be the
13th juror with more power than any other jury
member.
Mahoney, who Vader criticized for giving the jury a narrow definition of the insanity plea, said the jury's ruling was well within Kansas law.
Jurors had been instructed to follow the MacNaughton Rule, a two-pronged test to determine whether a defendant was insane at the time of a crime.
THE JURY HAD to decide whether Boan knew what he was doing at the time of the crime and whether he knew that what he was doing was wrong.
Boan was aware of his actions, Mahoney said because he entered the emergency room with shotgun and extra shells in his pocket.
Mahoney said Boan also knew that what he was doing was wrong and illegal. The defense gave no evidence showing that Boan thought what he was doing was legal.
Vader also argued that the verdict was invalid because of denied requests for a change of venue.
A COURT SEQUESTERS a jury to keep them from hearing possibly biased news reports of the case. Mahoney said that he read news reports and found that the public was getting a better picture of the defense than the prosecution. It is quite acceptable not to sequester a jury, he said.
Vader said that a mistrial should have been declared when Nick Tomasic, Wyandotte County prosecuting attorney, accused psychiatrists brought in by Vader of being paid for their
testimony.
At the time Vader objected, and Mahoney questioned Tomascic had wrongly questioned the expert witness. Mahoney told jurors that people expected to be paid for their time and that receiving payment was no basis for thinking a person was testifying falsely.
Vader said after the sentencing that he was not surprised at Mahoney's sentence or denial for a new trial.
"I have never known a judge to overrule himself." Vader said.
THE COURT appointed Vader to represent Boan in the appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court after Vader told the court that Boan was indigent and would need a court-appointed lawyer.
Gas customers worried write KCC to complain
By KATE DUFFY Staff Reporter
The Kansas Corporation Commission office has been flooded with letters from Kansans worried about rapidly rising natural gas bills, a KCC spokesman said recently.
in one month alone, the commission received 400 letters, according to KCC spokesman Tom Taylor.
"We don't get anything like that, except in major issues." Taylor said. "And gas rates get higher."
The KCC is a state agency that regulates most utility companies operating in Kansas
utility companies operating in Kansas. Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Analvsis
MORE THAN 500,000 Kanans, including Lawrence residents, are served by utilities that purchase power and they will be paying an additional 82 cents per 1,000 cubic feet. The average
Commission approved a $136 million price increase for the Cities Service Gas Co. The increase, called a purchased gas adjustment, is allowed twice a year by the FERC and offsets higher prices that Cities Service is charged by producers.
household, which uses 120,000 cubic feet a year,
will pay $88 a year more for gas.
The Kansas Public Service Co., which supplies gas to Lawrence, buys its gas from Cities Service. KPS will be seeking approval from the Lawrence City Commission for a rate increase of 1.85 percent on top of Cities Service's "pass-through" increase.
TAYLOR SAID many of the letters the KCC received were from elderly citizens concerned about how they will pay their heating bills this winter.
"they are very personal and hand-written letters," Taylor said. "They express a sincere concern that they can't afford the gas rates this summer." They also admit they can't help the cars they can. They just can't cut back any more."
Staff members at Lawrence social service agencies also are worried about the upcoming winter. Some of their clients are still paying off last winter's bills and face the winter with dread.
"Most everybody who comes in here starts talking about how to keep warm this winter," said Bessie Nichols, office manager at Penn House, 1035 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., if the gas company carries them through the winter, they know there's no way to catch up in the summer. Something has to give. Either Social Security has to go up, or the utilities must come down.
Buddy Mangine/KANSAN
See GAS page 5
Weather
Today will be mostly sunny with a high in
the afternoon, and southwesterly winds
at 5 to 15 mph.
It will be mostly sunny tomorrow, with birds in the top-to-upper 60s.
Tonight's low will be 35.
The underpass between Lindley and Learned halls provided a solitary pedestrian with a brief respite from yesterday's wet and windy weather.
Lawrence woman sentenced
By CAROL LICHTI
Staff Reporter
"It isn't enough." Penny Hatchell, 22, the victim's daughter, said after the sentencing.
A Douglas County district court judge yesterday sentenced an 18-year-old Lawrence woman to five to 20 years in the Kansas Correctional Institution for Women in Lansing for the June 9 murder of a Lawrence man.
Lisa Dawn Bigwell, Route 4, was sentenced by Judge James Paddock to the maximum term for aiding and abetting voluntary manslaughter in the death of her grandante, Donald Hatchell, Route 4, Route 8.
"I know she was more involved than just aiding and abetting. They should have pushed for first degree murder or even second degree — that still has a life sentence."
PENNY HATCHELL, from Meade, Neb., said justice would not be served unless Bigenwalt was given a life sentence.
Penny Hatchell, her brother Mark and other family members were in Lawrence yesterday for the sentencing. Penny has been in Lawrence since she amended the amended charge against Bigenwalt
See SENTENCE page 5
State panel reviews layoff alternatives
By STEVE CUSICK Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
A special committee of state employees yesterday began considering furloughs and possible changes in the state retirement plan as alternative to the usual number of workers, the chair of the committee said.
rattrick Hurley, state secretary of administration and chairman of the committee, said the group began discussing a list of 16 alternatives compiled by his office from a survey of budget-tightening measures taken in other states.
Almost all states are facing budget reductions because of the lingering recession, and they too are reviewing alternatives to employee layoffs, he said.
The report will include recommendations for avoiding lavishes, he said.
The committee, which was named by Gov. John Carlin last month to investigate alternatives to layoffs, will meet two more times before he signs a letter of thanks to Carlin in mid-November, Hurley said.
SOME STATES have resorted to the use of furloughs to avoid layoffs, Hurley said. Michigan officials, for example, have adopted a furlough policy and an employee works to days but is paid for nine.
Michigan faces more severe budget reductions than Kansas, he said, and such a program is unlikely to work.
Many states also have looked at decreasing the penalties for early retirement as an alternative
"To have people retire earlier and reduce the work force will reduce the chance of layoffs," he
THE COMMITTEE also studied several
See LAYOFF page 5
Gordon Nordquist, president and general manager of the Parsons Sun, inspects a recent issue of the paper shortly after its press run.
Solid editorial tradition endures at Parsons Sun
Staff Reporter
By DOUG CUNNINGHAM Staff Reporter
Editorialists that read as if the writer's pen were on fire are a trademark of the Parsons Sun.
I don't think editorials persuade people today as they used to. Most people today are a little bit reluctant to make a decision. But I really do believe that accuracy and truth following — a high reader interest," said Gordon Dugas, president and general manager of the Sun.
But the influence of editorials upon readers has been waning in past years, the president and general manager of the Sun said recently.
"If in an editorial you make a decision — make it clear-cut, a clean break — people are going to follow. The headlines of this article have taken them in the wrong direction. That what's keeps me awake nights."
One recent day at the Sun building — which formerly housed a car dealership — plumbers were repairing a water line, and dust was spreading throughout the newsroom, which looks out onto the street through an old showroom window.
Roger Meyer, managing editor, covered up his keyboard of the Sun's new video display system with a coat to protect it from the dust and directed his reporters to do likewise.
Nordquist, wearing a vest, tie and white shirt, came into the newroom from his office out front, got a vacuum cleaner out of the closet and started to push it across the carpet as the dusty floor scratched.
Roger Tucker, composition superintendent, came in from the next room, where he had been placing wax-backed advertisements onto blue panels on the wall and kick off the vent where the dust was coming from.
suddenly seine
The runner interrupted in the normal Sun
rules passed Reporters went back to writing
their stories, and Miller went back to editing
them, deciding what play they would receive in
that afternoon's newspaper and writing headlines
for them.
Tucker returned to the composing room and continued his work of laying out the advertisements for the combined Saturday-Sunday issue for the paper, which would go to press in about 14 weeks.
The newsroom and production staff would take a two-hour break about 4 p.m. — as was customary for a Friday — before coming back to work a second shift.
Nordquist took over as president of the paper last May, after the Harris Group of newspapers and broadcast stations bought the Sun from Clyde M. Reed Jr.
One can easily understand after talking with Reed, now a lecture at the University of New York at Buffalo.
"The newspaper is a natural vehicle for leadership in a community of that size." Reed said last week in Lawrence. "So I think the editors are obliged by reason of that fact to speak out.
"I can always be wrong. But who's going to decide that? The people?"
"I've never been afraid of being wrong, and I've been defeated many times."
Reed's father became involved with the Sun in 1914 when he bought a controlling interest in the paper. Back then, according to the Kansas State Historical Society, leading industries of the town were flour and brewing factory, stone quarries, car and bridge building shops and machine shops.
"I was born," Reed said.
"That was also the year I was born."
The Sun began as a weekly paper. The first issue appeared June 21, 1871. Milton Reynolds and Leslie Perry were the publishers. Daily newspapers were the 4, 88, under the leadership of H. L. Lusk.
Reed returned to the Sun as a news editor after his graduation from the University in 1937. He started as general manager on the paper in 1942 and took over as publisher after his father's death.
**beth**
The elder Read, who was governor before
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