University Daily Kansan / Thursday, February 4, 1988
7
Witness alters testimony in trial of 2 ex-Klansmen
MOBILE, Ala. — A witness in the murder trial of two former Ku Klux Klansmen telephoned a defense lawyer and told him he had changed his testimony to favor the prosecution in order to escape a civil suit, the lawyer said yesterday.
The Associated Press
Former Klansman Thaddeus E. Betancourt testified Tuesday about events at a Klam meeting on March 18, 1981, two days before Michael Donald, a 19-year-old black, was beaten to death and his body left hanging lynch-style in a tree.
Betancourt said that the defendant, Bennie Jack Hays, 72, was upset over the mistrial of a black man accused of killing a white Birmingham policeman. Betancourt said Hays told his son, "Take this down, we ought to hang a nigger."
NationWorld
Jr. challenged Betancourt's truthfulness. He said Betancourt lied in earlier grand jury appearances when he said that nothing happened at the meeting.
Defense attorney D.E. Brutkiewicz
Defense lawyer Neil Hanley yesterday told Circuit Judge Michael Zoghby that Betancourt had phoned him Tuesday night and told him he had changed his testimony to escape a now-decided $7 million civil suit against the Klan.
"I certainly have no objection," District Attorney Chris Galapos said.
The judge then ordered deputies to find the witness and return him to court for questioning away from the jury.
In his opening statements Tuesday, Galanos charged that Hays ordered the killing and his son-in-law, defendant Frank Cox, 32, provided the hanging rope.
Test creates nuclear accident rumors
The Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria — The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is creating an elaborate system for alerting the world to any repeat of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, may have caused yesterday's rumors of another accident in the Soviet Union.
Sweden's national news agency reported yesterday that a Soviet nuclear accident had apparently occurred. But the Swedish Radiation Protection Agency could not confirm an accident had taken place.
led to the discovery of the 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Soviet Union.
Sweden was the first country to report higher radiation levels that
The warning network includes a telex link to the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, which uses a satellite network for monitoring weather.
Recently, the nuclear agency has sent "test telexes" through the meteorological office to make sure the warning system would work in an emergency. Somebody "not in the know" may have seen a reply and thought it referred to a real nuclear accident, a spokeswoman said.
AIDS rate stable in African village
The Associated Press
BOSTON — A low level of AIDS infection in a remote African village was unchanged over a decade, researchers found, suggesting that war and migration have played a major role in the continent's AIDS explosion.
The experts said their findings also provided hope that acquired immune deficiency syndrome is not necessarily destined to reach epidemic levels once it becomes established in an area.
The researchers theorized that social upheaval in recent years has broken traditional tribal values and increased sexual promiscuity, especially in cities, helping AIDS to spread.
Officials say AIDS has spread dramatically in Zaire's cities and in parts of other central African nations
The study, directed by Dr. Nzila Nizalamb of Mama Yemo Hospital in Kinshahe, Zaire, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Baby M to dad,but contract illegal
nated and agreed to accept $10,000 for having the child. When the girl was born, Whitehead-Gould changed her mind, refused the money and fled to Florida.
The Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. — Paying a woman to have a baby is illegal baby-selling, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday in the landmark Baby M case. But the toddler will live with her father, with visiting rights for her biological mother.
The court's 7-0 decision overruled all but the custody decision of a lower court judge in the dispute over a surrogate agreement.
Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould bore a daughter nearly two years ago for William Stern and his wife. Elizabeth She was artificially insemi-
Authorities found her after nearly ten days and returned the child to the Storm.
In its decision, the high court said the contract between Whitehead-Gould and the Sterns violated New Jersey adoption laws because of the payment to her.
factor being that one of the purchasers is the father," the court said.
But the justices found nothing illegal in allowing women to volunteer as surrogates, provided the agreement allows the mothers to change their minds about giving up parental rights.
"This is the sale of a child, or at the very least, the sale of a mother's right to her child, the only mitigating
The judges said Whitehead-Gould is entitled to see her daughter, and directed a lower-court judge to set guidelines within three months. They also voided the adoption of the baby by Elizabeth Stern.
Because the surrogacy contract was invalid, the court said, the case
had become merely a custody dispute
The court said it had scrutinized both households and had found it would be in Baby M's best interest to grow up with the Sterns.
Neither side in the Baby M case plans to appeal the 95-page decision, although a court battle is expected over the extent of visitation.
The state Supreme Court opinion, written by Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz, said contracts like the Sterns' agreement with Whitehead-Gould conflict with public policy goals.
Alabama school hostage Men jailed in holding
The Associated Press
Assistant Police Chief Ken Swindle said that the counts were for the 8 children and four teachers taken hostage when the two armed men,
Police said the men, James L. Harvey and John Rhodes Jr., both 42, unemployed and largely strangers to each other, each were charged with 84 counts of kidnapping in the daylong siege at West End Christian School.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Staff members at a private school prayed yesterday for two jobless men, one lured from an unemployment line, jailed on $8.4 million bail each for a schoolhouse siege in which 80 youngsters were taken captive.
wearing ski masks, burst into the schoolhouse Tuesday morning.
Harvey, who police said lured Rhodes from an unemployment line and masterminded the takeover, was transferred to a state mental ward yesterday for a psychiatric examination, while Rhodes remained in jail.
The siege ended Tuesday night when Harvey, apparently fooled by a phony pardon from Gov. Guy Hunt, was wrested down by police as he walked out of the building. Hunt believed the fake pardon in a videotape and on a piece of paper amounted to "a last resort kind of thing" to save the hostage children, said spokesman Terry Abbott.
Fourth-graders 'bored' as hostages
Swindle said yesterday at a news
The Associated Press
The boys were among 26 children held hostage for the entire 12 hours that a gunman, identified as James L. Harvey, kept police at bay with a rifle and two pistols. Harvey, 42, a jobless Tuscaloosa county youth surrendered Tuesday evening without anyone being barred
was the rifle. That guy pointed it toward me once, when I was coming back from the bathroom. I wasn't scared, though, because I knew he wasn't going to hurt me," said Jeremy, a red-haired 9-year-old, yesterday.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Jeremy Rhone and Clint Stough, a pair of fidgety fourth-graders, said the 12 hours they spent as hostages at the West End Christian School were more boring than scary.
Jeremy and Clint said they were impressed when their teacher, Mrs. Blanton, hit Harvey with a Bible studybook as he barged in Tuesday morning along with another man, who gave up three hours later.
"The thing I remember most
"Most of the girls cried at one time or another," Jeremy said. "But only one boy cried, and he was sick."
conference that Harvey and Rhodes were both jobless and did not know each other before Tuesday. He said Harvey picked up Rhodes from an
News Roundup
CHARGES DROPPED: Prosecutors in Chicago yesterday dropped battery and disorderly conduct charges against Gary Dotson, the convicted rapist who was sent back to prison days after being released in a "last chance" deal from the governor. The charges were dropped because the alleged victims said they didn't want to proceed with the case, said Lisa Howard, spokeswoman for the Cook County States attorney's office.
WEST BANK VIOLEENCE: Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem shot and wounded six Palestinians while Arabs with slingshots, stones and marbles
NURSES STRIKE: Nurses in England struck at scores of government hospitals yesterday, forcing many facilities to postpone non-urgent admissions and surgery. It was the first nation-wide walkout of the National Health Service in 40 years. General secretary Trevor Clay said most strikers were students or assistants. No major hospital disruptions were reported.
IRANIAN ATTACKS: Iran yesterday riddled a Norwegian tanker with gunfire in the Persian
Gulf, then attacked it again as the ship's captain frantically radioed for help, shipping executives said. An Iranian spokesman also claimed its naval units intercepted 12 cargo ships in the gulf and said its anti-aircraft gunners shot down an Iraqi helicopter gunship.
injured five Israelis in battles yesterday in the West Bank, witnesses and officials said.
WHEN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VISIT NIVERSAL STUDIOS TOUR
PILOTS COMPENSTATED: Nearly 100 Pan American pilots barred from becoming flight engineers because of their age will share $17.2 million under a settlement of a discrimination suit against the airline, federal officials in San Francisco said yesterday.
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