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KRU
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
VOL.104,NO.4
TOPEKA, KS 66612
THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1994
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
(USPS 650-640)
Deliberating jury considers fate of Shanks
NEWS:864-4810
Attorneys discuss the thoroughness of police credibility of witnesses
By Manny Lopez
Kansan staff writer
The jury is out on the rape trial of former graduate assistant football coach Jeffrey Shanks.
After almost five hours of deliberation, a verdict had not been reached.
After three days of testimony, Douglas County District Court Judge Ralph M. King dismissed the jury of nine men and three women at 11:30 a.m.yesterday.
During closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Frank Diehl appealed to the jury to use common sense and common knowledge about date race.
"Use your experience as human beings," he said. "What possible reason do (the victims) have to say they were raped?"
Speaking in a slow deliberate tone, Diehl asked the jury to find Shanks guilty because the victims were not the people on trial and had more to lose than anyone.
"Only one person is on trial," he said. "That person is Jeffrey Shanks."
Mike Warner, Shanks lawyer, agreed Shanks was the only person on trial, but he questioned the credibility of the women and the investigation procedures of the KU police department.
"Shouldn't the police investigate in a more organized and complete fashion?" he asked the jury. "People deserve that."
Warner said that he thought the KU police did not do enough to prove Shanks was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Despite the fact that the investigation ended in March, the KU police department never interviewed any of the victim's roommates, mothers or witnesses at the bars. Warner said.
"No one questioned (victim No. 1) for her anger after the incident," Warner said. "The
people she talked to would lend sympathetic ears."
Warner also said the victims might have been ashamed of what they had done or felt guilty after the incident and then decided to pursue charges.
"Both women appeared credible in their minds," he said. "Testimony may have been convincing or compelling, but you don't know."
Holes in the women's' stories were too large for them to be credible witnesses, Warner said.
He said the second woman had denied in testimony that she had played Scrabble with the first woman while waiting for the preliminary hearing. He also said stories by Shanks former
roommate, Dean Walendzak, and the second woman were different. Walendzak said in court that she had not spoken to him upon leaving the apartment in Jayhawker Towers after the alleged rape took place. However, she testified that she sarcastically said goodbye to him, trying to express her disgust that he did not help her. After Warner's 25-minute closing argument time limit ended, Diehl gave one final statement.
"(The victims) are credible because they have nothing to gain or lose, especially with these people watching and the media present," he said.
Kansas alumni handling Lawrence emergencies
The jury will reconvene today at 9 a.m.
Brian Vandervliet / KANSAN
Emergency room physician Scott Robinson tightens a suture on the injured finger of J.D. Riddle, Waverly, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Robinson, who graduated from the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1983, is one of four physicians who operate in the emergency room.
Hospital looks to community for physicians
By David Wilson Kansan staff writer
J. D. Riddle sat upright on a bed in the emergency room of Lawrence Memorial Hospital yesterday afternoon, his torn and bloody thumb soaking in a bowl of saline and soapy water.
It had been a rough afternoon for Riddle, who had been doing construction work on a home near 23rd and Wakarausa streets when he sliced his thumb with an electric saw.
But help was on the wav.
Scott Robinson is one of four emergency room physicians hired in July after the hospital canceled its contract with Coastal Emergency Services, a company that provides hospitals across the nation with emergency room physicians. Three of the four physicians, including Robinson, are graduates of the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Although two of the physicians who worked for Coastal did live in Lawrence, other rotating-shift physicians lived in Topeka and Olathe, said Janice Early-Weas, spokesperson for Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
The purpose of the switch was to have emergency room physicians
with closer ties to Lawrence, Early. Weas said.
"The hospital wanted to have community-based physicians in the emergency room," she said.
Early-Weas said three of the new physicians lived in Lawrence and one lived in Baldwin.
Also, checking credentials is easier when a hospital directly employs physicians, she said.
"With a local group, we have a lot more control over that," she said.
Robinson said the response from patients so far had been positive.
Ken Martinez, chairman of the board of trustees for Lawrence Memorial Hospital, said the Coastal physicians were not as highly qualified as the new local physicians.
"We have made a difference in the way people respond," he said.
That could be seen yesterday as Robinson worked his way over to Riddle after having checked on an older woman who had been vomiting blood earlier that day.
"We're going to have to put a tube in your stomach," he gently told the woman, who was still surrounded by a crew of emergency medical technicians in blue shirts.
After a quick change of surgical gloves, Robinson was ready to begin stitching Riddle's thumb back together.
It wasn't Riddle's first visit to the emergency room. He said he had been shot in the elbow three years ago.
A beaver dam on the north end of the Baker Wetlands has created quite a legal tangle for Douglas County.
Supporters for beaver dam fight trafficway
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
Last night, the Douglas County Commission held an open meeting to discuss a motion by Baker University in Baldwin to separate itself from a little-known elected legal authority, the Wakarusa-Haskell-Eudora Drainage District.
The reason: the district wants to remove a beaver dam that stretches across a waterway running along the north end of the wetlands. Baker officials estimate 15 to 20 beavers live there.
The motion also would clear Baker in a lawsuit filed by the district earlier this month after Baker declined to allow the removal.
After yesterday's meeting, the county has 10 days to decide whether to exempt the Baker Wetlands from that authority, thus keeping the beaver dam intact. But the district said removing the wetlands from its jurisdiction would reduce its ability to control flooding in the Wakarusa River area.
At the hearing last night, Vince Monslow, Baker's lawyer, said the wetlands could be damaged by the district's actions. The possibility of the dam's removal completely draining the wetlands should be enough for the county to release it from the district.
he said.
"I don't know how the wetlands could be damaged more than if the wetlands were drained." Monslow said.
But John Bennett, lawyer for the district, said the wetlands wouldn't be effected by removing the dam. Instead of heavy equipment, workers would be sent in with chain saws and hacksaws. Plus, the motion would deprive the district of vital control of the Wakarusa River, he said.
"We are not trying to drain the wetlands," Bennett said. "The wetlands are a benefit to the district because they retain water and don't allow too much water to drain through the district."
Chuck Haines, professor of biology at Haskell Indian Nations University, said the wetlands were important to Haskell for educational purposes.
Marie Gray, Lawrence resident, said removing the beaver dam and draining the wetlands was a way for the county to make building the South Lawrence Trafficway easier. Haskell students and environmental groups have said the trafficway, which may run through the wetlands, would destroy them.
During the public portion of the hearing.
But Louie McEhanay, county commissioner, said the beaver dam issue was separate and not under the jurisdiction of county government.
Bye bye beavers?
The Baker Wetlands are owned by Baker University in Baldawn. Baker petitioned the Douglas County Commission to be removed from the Wakarua-Haskell-Eudora Drainage district, which wants to remove beaver dams it says are obstructing the natural flow of water from the wetland.
Source: Kansan staff research Dave Campbell / KANSAI
Two seniors and three talented underclassmen make up the Kansas football team's secondary, the backbone of the Jayhawk defense.
Backfield in Motion
Page1B
No class hits sour note for music history students
Instructor never assigned to course
By Colleen McCain Kansan staff writer
Predmore, a Lawrence junior, had no reason to believe her Music History 138 class was different than any of her other classes. But when she arrived at 11:30 a.m. Monday for Masterworks of Music, Predmore and the other students were told that a major administrative blunder had occurred.
Tish Predmore had no reason to doubt the timetable of classes.
Although the class had appeared in the timetable, graduate teaching assistant Beth Fleming told class members that no instructor was available to teach the course.
"We were told that the staff member in charge of scheduling had gone on sabbatical," Predmore said. "The new person was told to drop the class from the timetable, but somehow it slipped through the cracks."
The Fall 1994 timetable of classes listed "staff" as the instructor for the class, but an instructor never materialized.
Fleming told students Monday that the department of music history would try to find an instructor for the class, but students who returned to the class yesterday were greeted with more bad news.
Daniel Politoske, head of the music history department, told students that they would have to drop the class.
"The worst scenario has developed," Politoska told the class. "We have had a really big administrative goof-up, and I cannot find anyone to teach the course. I'm very, very sorry, though."
Politksos told students they would have to go through the formal drop process, even though the class no longer existed. He declined to comment on the blunder outside of class yesterday.
Three other sections of Music History 136 are offered this semester, but assistant registrar Brenda Selman said that each of these sections was full.
"This is a very rare occurrence," Selman said. "I haven't heard of a situation like this one before."
Cornelius, a Kansas City, Kan. senior,
said the goo-up was typical of KU.
Peggy Cornelius, a student in the class, said that almost every one of the 101 desks in 4051 Wescoe had been full on Monday.
Selman said it was the department's responsibility to notify the students in the class when such a problem arose.
Because the class was canceled, Selman said that she did not know how many students initially enrolled in the class.
"I've come to expect problems like this, but I really think that the students should be guaranteed spots in the class next semester," Cornelius said.
Erin Welty, Westwood Hills senior, said
"It should be their responsibility to help us, but they're not doing anything," Welty said.
Welty, an art education major, said the class was required for her degree.
the music history department's response to the problem had been insufficient.
"This is a college nightmare, and it's truly not fair." Wely said. "It's a hassle that never should have happened, and 'sorry' just doesn't cut it."
This was not the first time Tom McCall, Lenexa senior, has had difficulties enrolling in the class. McCall said he enrolled in the class last fall, only to find out on the first day of class that his section had been cancelled.
"Maybe you could see that happening once," he said. "But the fact that they messed up twice is ridiculous."
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McCall said he would try and take the class again next semester, but would keep a back-up class in mind.