Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 27

Chicago Tribune, Thursday, February 17, 2000 Section 2 3 House panel backs rape lawsuits Dog-eared library gets a budget-cutting look North Shore watch a woman from breast-feeding in a public place under a bill approved without dissent by the House Judiciary Committee. Internet taxes: a state sales tax on products sold over the Internet could be developed under a plan approved by the Senate Executive Committee. The proposal would authorize a state Department of Revenue panel to study the idea. Welfare recipients: The House Human Services Committee approved two proposals designed to help disabled citizens and noncustodial parents with medical costs. One proposal would provide disabled citizens who earn less than $20,000 with free state Medicaid coverage.

Disabled citizens who earn more than $20,000 could participate by paying 10 percent of what they make above that threshold. Another plan would allow noncustodial parents of children who participate in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to receive Medicaid grants for medical costs. School buses: School boards could let corporate sponsors place public, service announcements on school buses under a plan approved by the Senate Transportation Committee. ters as well as our brothers, sons and friends deserve the right to their day in court if they are brutally victimized or threatened," Ryan said. Public documents: Atty.

Gen. Jim Ryan appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to plead for a more user-friendly law governing the release of public documents. If the bill becomes law, people who ask to inspect a public document and are turned down would be able to go straight to the attorney general's office for help. The office would issue an informal opinion as to whether the document should be public and would try to mediate the situation with the local government. The person seeking the documents would then be able to use the informal finding in court if he or she wished to bring a private lawsuit against the agency in question.

In another measure aimed at opening up the operations of government to public inspection, the same committee approved a bill that would require posting legislative roll-call votes and debate transcripts on the Internet. Votes would be available within two days, while transcripts of all debates of a particular session would be available in January of the following year. Nursing mothers: it would be a civil rights violation to prohibit Measure also covers gay bashing victims By Christi Parsons and Ryan Keith Tribune Staff Writers SPRINGFIELD A plan to let victims of rape and gay bashings stie their attackers narrowly passed out of a House committee oft. Wednesday, but conservative family and business groups vowed to fight it proposed Gender Violence Apt has the support of Gov. George Ryan, whose Commission on' the Status of Women came up vhth the idea for the measure and brought emotional testimony before the House Judiciary Com-rrtittee.

Angelique Goitia, a Chicago resident and rape victim, testified for the bill. "There is no law that allows me to be compensated for my pain, to fight back for some of the control that was so brutally taken from me," Goitia said. Sympathetic lawmakers say the bill would help prevent and punish acts of violence and threats by allowing people to sue the perpetrators for damages in civil court. groups argue that the bjll would just expand the liability for employers. The bill explicitly states that a person could sue fpr damages against a corporate entity as well as an individual, group or institution.

Conservative family groups consider the bill an attempt to put the state's imprimatur on homosexuality. The bill offers one definition of the offense of "sex discrimination" as making a threat against someone based on "gender nonconformity." The bill heads to the full House for consideration, just a week after Ryan unveiled the proposal as a key recommendation of his women's commission. The proposal is patterned after the 1994 Federal Violence Against Women Act, which gives women the option of suing their attackers in federal court The Illinois proposal would allow victims to go after their attackers for civil damages in state court Critics say current laws offer adequate recourse for victims. Although O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder, he still lost a civil judgment that cost him millions, they said.

Victims of rape and domestic violence could sue as welL "They already have rights not only in criminal court but in civil court to sue," said Rep. John Turner (R-Atlanta). The 6-5 committee vote indicates the bill could face difficulties in the House, and Senate President James "Pate" Philip (R-Wood Dale) was skeptical about it Wednesday. Ryan pledged support when he unveiled the bill last week. "Our sisters, wives and daugh By Brian Cox and Janet Messenger Tribune Staff Writers Several times a week, Mary Daly enjoys visiting the sundrenched south branch of the Evanston library to read the newspaper and quietly browse the shelves.

This week, though, such a pleasure clashed with the city's drive to save money. A proposal by Aid. Arthur Newman (1st) to close the tiny branch at 949 Chicago Ave. has Daly and others steaming mad. "Closing the south branch is simply a bad idea," Daly said.

"It adds more to the area than it costs the city to keep it open." The city desperately is looking for ways to balance its budget by the end of February, according to Newman. That means every area is subject to cuts, including the library budget. Citing a study by the library, Newman said the south branch, which costs the city about $148,000 annually to operate, is both underfunded and underused. "Unfortunately, we're looking at close to a 10 percent property tax increase in this budget," Newman said. "If we want to try to lower that tax increase, we're obliged to look at all our services, and we've got to think about cutting the ones that arent performing up to par." The city should close the south branch and transfer $100,000 into the city's general fund, Newman said.

The remaining $48,000 saved by closing the south branch could then be used to enhance the main library, he said. The City Council likely will consider Newman's proposal next week. Evanston Library Director Neal Ney said the south branch opened in 1917 in an old brick storefront building. He said he understands the city's desire to save money and acknowledged that the south branch is poorly designed, underused and not accessible. Still, Ney argues that the city should consider moving the south branch to a better location on Main Street rather than close it "The branch libraries are one of the reasons I came to Evanston in the first place," Ney said.

"I think we'd have a much more vibrant south branch if we moved it to a better location." Package bomb kills man, injures another Investigators are seeking motive, suspects ltd I I tV I I iff irr' JL I 1 I HVLlLi -it it Jy -pf -J I I nf-m i Movies, shopping and history: Glenview village trustees this week entered a preliminary agreement to sell 30 acres at The Glen to DDR OliverMc-Millan for developing a retail and entertainment center. Development plans call for building a town square directly across from Hangar One, the centerpiece of the former Glenview Naval Air Station site. Included in the plans are movie theaters and a naval aviation museum. The Glenview Hangar One Foundation spearheaded the effort to save the 1929 structure and to have it entered in the National Register of Historic Places. DDR's 18-month exclusive negotiating agreement is the first step to entering a purchase agreement, according to village officials.

The agreement is designed to give the village, which serves as master developer of the Glen, time to work with DDR in refining the project which officials say potentially could expand to 45 acres. Rating the rankings: Evanston Township High School officials this week began considering whether to do away with its class ranking system. Some academics worry that class rankings create stress -and dissuade students from taking courses that don't offer honors or advanced placement credit which help inflate grade point averages above 4.0. A report prepared for the board showed that of the 49 state colleges and universities attended by Evanston High stu- dents, 30 of them considered class rank an important way to compare competitiveness of applicants in the admissions process, as did all Ivy League colleges. Historically black colleges and universities, however, tend not to focus on class rank but rather on grades, test scores, letters of recommendation and involvement in activities.

New Trier High School uses decile instead of Individual rankings of each class. Board members asked for additional recommendations on how the school could best present its students to college admissions officers. Since then, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission has begun investigating Hynes, according to pleadings filed in the Supreme Court But the question of jurisdiction is unanswered. Hynes' conduct occurred before he became a judge but was not brought to light until after he took the bench. Lawyers for Hynes and the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts contend that the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission should investigate.

Lawyers for the Cook County Bar Association, which filed the petition seeking Hynes' removal, and the Illinois Freeman Judicial Council, an organization of judges, say the Judicial Inquiry Board should investigate." Should the attorney commission seek to impose discipline on Hynes, additional thorny questions would arise. Freeman noted, for example, that if the commission sought to suspend Hynes' law license, it is not clear how a suspension would be enforced. Citing a legal brief that the Judicial Council prepared as part of the petition for rehearing. Freeman noted, "Once the suspen-sion is imposed, the judge involved would appear to be ineligible for office. Will orders signed by that judge be rendered ineffective? What about pending trials or sentencing proceedings? this could create a situation fraught with confusion." Calling the Judicial Council's argument reasonable, Freeman said that requiring the Judicial Inquiry Board to investigate Hynes appears to be in accord with the American Bar Association's disciplinary rules.

"They kept to themselves," said neighbor Power Green. Thomas Ochoa, 41, who lives on the block, said he met police in front of the white frame house and watched as an officer pulled back the building's steel gated door and kicked in its front door. The officer stayed in the home a few minutes before he exited, coughing from the smoke, and told fellow officers there was a body inside. Police found the unexploded bomb on the floor of the room where the blast occurred. The bomb and arson squad disarmed it.

"We got very lucky last night," said the investigator, who worked to neutralize the remaining bomb. "We said our Our Fathers and Hail Marys, and luckily everyone went home safe last night" Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and from the U.S. Postal Inspector's Office were aiding in the investigation, collecting debris from the blast to analyze in hopes of learning its origins, authorities said. Police remained unsure of a motive for the bombs, who sent them or how they were delivered. An investigator said he did not believe the pipe bombs were being made at the scene because there were no other bomb-making materials present in the apartment or its garage.

Toney had worked as a custodian at Olive-Harvey College, 10001 S. Woodlawn since 1986, said City Colleges spokeswoman Yvonne D'Avila. He was known as a hard-working and friendly member of the custodial staff who often made suggestions about improvements the college could make. Many of By Terry Wilson and Noah Isackson Tribune Staff Writers Chicago police and federal agents had no motive but recovered a key piece of evidence Wednesday and have a witness in the bombing death of a City Colleges janitor at his South Side apartment Police believe Marcus Toney, 37, was killed as he opened a package that contained two bombs at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday.

Another person in the apartment was injured in the blast that shook the South Chicago neighborhood. The second pipe bomb did not explode and was found on the floor of the apartment in the 8600 block of South Muskegon Avenue. RDlice disarmed the device, which was made of galvanized steel pipe about 10-inches long and 2-inches Wide, an investigator said. Investigators also hope the survivor, a 31-year-old man who lives riearby, will be able to aid the investigation. He suffered minor burns to his hands in the blast ahd was listed in good condition Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

He is espe-cled to be released Thursday. "I've worked here 14 years, and this is the first time I can ever remember something like this," sid Calumet Area Violent Crimes Detective Jerry McGovern. "This is middle America. This is the Bungalow Belt." bombing also startled neighborhood residents who came cut Wednesday to observe investigators coming and going from the house, equally curious about the 10ud explosion that woke many of them as they were about its victims, whom they described as rel-alively recent arrivals. DOWNERS GROVE Top court won't reconsider refusal to oust Cook judge An investigator from the Bureau of Wednesday inspects damage from 37, at residence in the 8600 block those suggestions were offered to the college's president, Lawrence Cox, who remembered Toney as a man who "was always trying to improve himself." "He had ambition," Cox said.

Toney had been taking classes at Kennedy-King College where he had been studying heating, venti- lation and air conditioning, Cox Metropolitan briefing COOK COUNTY Tax bills with corrected addresses mailed Man accused of soliciting child in Internet pornography sting Tribune photo by Carl Wagner Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on a bomb that killed Marcus Toney, of South Muskegon Avenue. said. Once he had completed the course, Toney would have been eligible to serve as an engineer's helper and, with further study, an engineer, Cox said. He had SQ much Cox id th emDiovee saW or me emPlovee- Tribune staff writer Raoul Mowatt contributed to this report been updated with the county. Allen said the treasurer's office had processed 70,000 name and address changes, but didn't get to a "handful" of changes filed in December and January.

Allen said the tax payments were still due by March 1. "We don't have the legal authority to change the date," he said. of consumer fraud rant in an Addison assault and battery, authorities said. Perez was arrested Wednesday through the work of a task force consisting of the Police Department the Chicago Department of Consumer Services and the state Department of Professional Regulation, authorities said. The Department of Consumer Services received complaints from people who allegedly paid Perez $400 to prepare immigration documents, authorities said.

Some of them now face deportation, officials said. Dissenter urges role in selection of prober By Maurice Possley Tribune Staff Writer For the second time in a month, the Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday turned aside a petition seeking to remove a Cook County judge from the bench because he failed to disclose on his judicial application an Appellate Court's misconduct findings. The order denying a request to reconsider its earlier decision was filed without explanation by the Supreme Court. But Justice Charles Freeman, who until recently was the chief justice, issued a dissenting opinion calling for the court to consider the petition to at least settle which disciplinary agency should investigate Associate Circuit Judge JolurJ. "Jack" Hynes.

The case, Freeman wrote, could be a vehicle to decide whether the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which regulates attorneys, or the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, which investigates judges, should be responsible. When Hynes, then an assistant Cook County state's attorney, applied in December 1998 to be an associate judge, he did not disclose that two murder convictions he had won had been reversed in 1991 by the Illinois Appellate Court. The court ruled that Hynes had discriminated against African-Americans during jury selection. Nor did Hynes subsequently amend his application to reflect a separate Appellate Court finding that reversed another murder conviction. In that case, the court also found that Hynes had discriminated during jury selection.

That ruling was issued last Sept. 30, two weeks before Cook County circuit judges elected Hynes to the bench. Last November, the Tribune detailed those appellate rulings and Hynes' failure to disclose them. After 10,000 property tax bills ended up at wrong addresses around Cook County, duplicate bills with the corrected addresses were in the mail as of Tuesday and Wednesday. Jim Allen, a spokesman for Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, said the bills went to the wrong addresses because name and address information had not HUMBOLDT PARK Man facing 20 counts A Humboldt Park man was charged Wednesday with ,20 counts of consumer fraud for allegedly posing as everything from an acupuncturist to an eye doctor out of his basement office, authorities said.

Antonio Perez, of the 2000 block of North Central Park Avenue, was also charged with practicing optometry without a license, a misdemeanor, said police spokesman Edward Alonzo. While he was being charged, police discovered Perez also was wjanted on an outstanding war charges of indecent solicitation of a child and disseminating child pornography, for a photograph that he allegedly sent, authorities said. The number of child-solicitation cases via the Internet that prosecutors have brought has risen to 30 last year, said Mark Cavins, chief of the sex crimes division of the Cook County state's attorney's office. held for mental exams while the case progresses. Police said the boy was playing with a gun when it went off Monday in a bathroom at Ellington School, 224 N.

Central Ave. A bullet went through a wall to the classroom next door and hit Eric Owens, 11, in the right buttock, police said. Owens was treated at Mt Sinai Hospital Medical Center and released. When 32-year-old Daniel Harris allegedly propositioned "Kris-tiha" over the Internet, prosecutors said, he thought he was writing to a 14-year-old girl. But he actually was writing to a Chicago police officer, prosecutors said.

Harris was being held Wednesday on $200,000 bond. He was arrested Tuesday at his Downers Grove home on WEST SIDE Boy in school shooting An 11-year-old boy charged in the accidental shooting of an elementary school classmate must remain in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center while he undergoes psychological tests this week, a judge ruled Wednesday. iThe boy will have another court hearing Friday, where his lawyer might try to persuade Judge Gerald Viniecki to release the youth.