Nation/World
University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 14, 1989
7
Wright says he'll fight charges
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — With his position in jeopardy as the nation's highest elected Democrat, House Speaker Jim Wright yesterday mounted an emotional defense against serious ethics charges and declared that he would "fight to the last once of conviction and energy that I possess."
In a carefully scripted 30-minute counteroffensive delivered to reporters and television cameras, Wright sought to rebut point by point the charges being lodged against him by the House Ethics Committee, which was writing its final report after a 10-month, $1.5 million investigation of his finances.
Wright's supporters called the appearance persuasive, but other Democrats were agonizing about the prospect that their most visible official might become a political liability.
Flanked by members of his leadership team and Texas colleagues, Wright's voice choked with emotion as he defended his wife, Betty, against the charge that her $18,000-a-year salary from a Fort Worth business partner amounted to an improper gift.
The committee decisions essentially closed the $1.5 million investigation and sent the case into a new, more open and more political phase, which could lead to a disciplinary hearing.
During three weeks of deliberations, debate and votes, sources said the committee decided:
Democrats were somber. The report may force difficult political decisions on whether to uphold the party's most visible official in the face of certain Republican efforts to capitalize on the alleged ethical shortcomings of the man who stands behind Vice President Dan Quayle in line of succession to the White House. No speaker ever has been forced from office by ethics violations.
- that nearly $100,000 worth of benefits Wright and her wife, Betty, received from Fort Worth real estate developer George Mallick amounted to unreported "gifts." The benefits included Betty Wright's $18,000-a year salary from 1980 through 1984 and free use of a condominium and a 1979 Cadillac. House rules require that any gift of more than $100 be reported.
- that because of his extensive investments in real estate and oil and gas enterprises, Maddick had "a direct interest in legislation before Congress." - that on several occasions Wright sold bulk quantities of his book to organizations to which he had made speeches instead of accepting honoraria. Speaking fees are limited by the rules, whereas book royalties are not.
News Briefs
U. S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gessell said he hoped to have closing arguments Monday. Instructions to the jurors about their deliberations will follow.
Soon after North left the stand, attorney Brendan Sullivan said, "That concludes the defense," signaling that the 11-week-old trial was nearing an end.
NORTH CONCLUDES TESTIMONY: Oliver
CUMULATES TESTIMONY: Owen North突破 his defense day after six grueling courtroom stands, testifying he felt he had become the falter when he heard himself described at a White House news conference as "the only one who knew what was going on."
During four days of tough cross-examination, North denied prosecution contentions that he lied about his Iran-contra efforts and personally profited from some of them. He said he had explicit authorization from his superiors — and, he assumed, from President Reagan — for his actions and didn't take a dime that he wasn't entitled to.
INDIAN BUREAU CHEIF: President Bush has selected Eddie Brown, the first Indian to head a major state agency in Arizona, to oversee the operation of the trouble-plagued Bureau of Indian Affairs, the White House announced yesterday.
Brown, the former director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security and a member of the Pascua Yaqui tribe, will be nominated for the Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Interface.
Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan said Brown had a broad background in inter-governmental relations with Native Americans as well as his experience at the bureau, where he was a division chief in 1985.
BLOODY CLASH IN MIDDLE EAST: Israel troops stormed into a West Bank village before dawn yesterday in a search-and-arrest raid, triggering one of the bloodiest trials in the 16-month Palestinian uprising. At least five Arabs were reported killed and dozens were wounded.
Elsewhere, 16 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire in confrontations with soldiers, including five who were shot in Bethlehem riots to the extent that two civilians were also wounded last week in hospital offenses.
The violence came as Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir concluded a 10-day visit to the United States, where he proposed that elections be held in occupied territories as a step toward peace.
AFGHAN SUPPLY ROUTE CUT: The Afghan government in Kabul said yesterday that Muslim guerrillas cut the major supply route into Afghanistan from the Soviet Union and are preventing food convues from moving on the key eastern road from Pakistan.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Nabi Nami also said the insurgents' fight to take the strategic eastern city of al-Falahabad has been intensified. The attack has dwindled to sporadic gunfire, he said.
Satan worshiper digs up 13th body on Mexican ranch
The Associated Press
MATAMOROS, Mexico — One of the suspects in a cult of human sacrifice pointed out the grave of an 13th body yesterday and police him to dig it up, badgering him as he reciled from the heat and the stench.
"You'll do it with your hands if you have to." one officer told Sergio Martinez after the suspect was handed a pick and shovel.
Martinez, 22, had been taken back to a ranch near Matamores, where a dozen bodies were unearthied Tuesday. He and other suspects have told authorities that 14 bodies were buried on the ranch.
In a dramatic public confession Wednesday, some of the five suspects in custody said victims were put to death during rituals that were intended to provide a magical shield for members of a drug-smuggling ring.
Under the gaze of police, Martinez went to work digging up the new grave and quickly revealed the body of a man in his 30s. Martinez said the man had been buried about four months ago.
The suspect asked for a face mask but was told to keep working.
"You didn't need one when you buried him." an officer said
So far, the only victim identified has been Mark Kilroy, a 21-year-old University of Texas pre-medical student who was kidnapped on the streets of Matamoros last month during spring break.
The suspects have said that tm. killed at the demand of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, whom they called "Godfather." They said Constanzo, 26, and Sara Maria Aldrete, 24, called the "witch," human sacred sacrifices gave the cult members protection from harm.
Cameron County Sheriff's Lt. George Gavito said that Constanza, a Cuban who has contacts in Miami, will be on Tuesday in Brownsville, Texas.
Constanzo's family was known to live in a middle-class neighborhood in Miami from the late 1970s to 1984, authorities said.
Meanwhile, new details emerged about the cult leaders, who are said to have driven luxury cars and worn lavish clothes bought with drug profits.
Cameron County Sheriff's officials released photos of Constanze and Aldrete, describing them as extremely dangerous.
A search of Aldrete's home in Matamoros revealed an altar and blood-spitters but no bones or bodies, Gavito said.
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Five suspects have been arrested and four talked to reporters Wednesday, two of them saying that Conway committed most of the slayings.
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