Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 1

ill PLAYOFFS A 's steal 2-0 lead over Jays Sports, IE A Dim Rbihved Wings start season tonight Section Thursday Metro October 5, 1989 For home delivery call 222-6500 20 cents Mostly cloudy. High 65, low 53 Friday: Partly cloudy. Details, Page 2A M4M Insanity defense clears man of life term in drug case Suspects' father has Silked feelings' Half-brothers charged with boy's death I "It's so bizarre and so far outside of responsible decision-making it's frightening," said Assistant County Prosecutor Jeffrey Butler, who tried the case in May. Prosecutors said Mason, then 19, made five sales of cocaine in 1987 to an undercover officer between Oct. 19 and Dec.

10 less than 50 grams twice, and more than 50 grams the next two times. The final deal, made in the parking lot of a restaurant at 8 Mile Road and Woodward in Detroit, was for a kilogram costing $23,500, prosecutors said. Butler said Mester "gave the man a license to sell drugs. As far as I can tell from the medical testimony and See DRUGS, Page 14A BY JOHN CASTINE Free Press Staff Writer A Detroit man facing life in prison with no parole in a cocaine delivery case has been found not guilty by reason of insanity by an Oakland County Circuit judge who ruled the man was overcome at the time by a sense of worthlessness after was shot and paralyzed. In a written ruling filed late Tuesday, Judge Fred Mester accepted the opinion of a defense pyschiatrist who testified that Ralph Mason, 21, began dealing drugs to regain "some semblance of self-respect" after his paralysis in December 1986.

The decision prompted anger and derision Wednesday from the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office. DAYMON J. HARTLEYDetrott Free Press by Cecil Angel Free Press Staff Writer John Atkins Sr. sat Wednesday in the Oak Park home he shared with his fiancee, and talked haltingly about the two teenagers charged with killing her 9-year-old child: his own sons. "I have mixed feelings," said Atkins, 43, an area manager at Chrysler Sterling Heights stamping plant.

"You want to support them," he said. But he added, "It's really John Atkins Jr. arraigned on murder charges, Page 15A. Trouble brews when stepfamilies form, The Way We Live. hard to support somebody who would do something like that especially after hearing they had planned to do something to me, too." On Wednesday, police said Atkins John Atkins 17, with attorney Earlene Baggett during his arraignment Wednesday in the death of Lawrence Yero Black.

oldest son, Jamar Johnson, 17, had Denise Evans, or his own father, planned to shoot the next person who Police said he drew his half-brother, walked into the Oak Park home John Atkins 16, into the plan, whether it was Lawrence Yero Black, the slain child; the child's mother, See SLAYING, Page 15A .1 Poll: Voters reject idea council head has to be black If. I 4 Detroit City Council poll September 17 Free Press poll Latest poll Who would you like to see as council president? 1 TfT J. 3 state areas are finalists in search for mike dump BY DAWSON BELL Free Press Lansing Staff LANSING The three finalists in a state lottery no one wants to win were announced Wednesday in Lansing. Top prize: all the low-level nuclear waste from seven states for 20 years. The three areas, one of which likely will be selected by 1991 as the home for a nuclear waste dump, are in Lenawee, St.

Clair and Ontonagon counties. Wednesday's announcement, by officials from the Michigan Low-Level Radioactive Waste Authority, came after a two-year computerized study virtually eliminated 99 percent of the state from consideration. Waste Authority Commissioner James Cleary said the study was thorough and that "there is no reason that I know of that makes me think this thing cannot be done safely." But Cleary also predicted intense and emotional opposition to the development of the nuclear dump site in Michigan. "You say 'radioactive waste' and it rings a bell with everybody." The $340,000 study by scientists at Michigan State University eliminated areas for proximity to water, sensitive underground water supplies and population, among other factors. Cleary said some potentially suitable areas were eliminated because they were too small and because he wanted to reduce the number under consideration to three.

But a leader from a citizens group opposed to the dump in Michigan said See NUCLEAR, Page 11A if fit BY CONSTANCE C. PRATER Free Press Staff Writer Detroit voters overwhelmingly reject the idea that the next City Council president must be black, according to a scientific poll. In fact, a recent controversy over the issue may have helped Councilwom-an Maryann Mahaffey, who is white, widen her lead over opponents in the Nov. 7 election. The Free PressWXYZ-TV poll, conducted by Market Opinion Research, showed nine of 10 voters disagreed with assertions by Councilman Clyde Cleveland and the Rev.

Jim Hol-ley that elevating Mahaffey to the council presidency would threaten black political gains in the city. "As long as they're good, what difference does it make what color they are?" asked Pecolia Mustatha, one of 500 registered voters who participated in the random telephone poll. The 39-year-old black accountant said if people voted against Mahaffey because she is white, "We're doing the See POLL, Page 14A Maryann ff -Mahaffey 39 Nicholas I 17 Hoedpjf 15 Clyde Q1 12 Cleveland Undecided rj X)HN HOPPERAssociated Press K. 1 0 Has the recent controversy over electing a black council president made you more or less likely to vote for Maryann Mahaffey? CALM RESTORED IN PANAMA Above, Soldiers stand guard outside the Ministry of Defense on Wednesday in Panama City as workers repair bullet holes in the building after Tuesday's failed attempt to overthrow the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.

Right, Noriega gestures on the steps of his headquarters Wednesday. Noriega survived the coup and is said to be consolidating control after the insurrection in which six people were killed. Story, Page 5A. Less likely -4 Ik. "keWojr Undecided 7 7 More -J I'toly 26 Indifference 60 Two challengers set to overtake City Council incumbents.

Page 15A. Incorrect ballots invalidate thousands of votes. Page 3A. Jsl DAVID WALTERSKnlght-RWder Tribune GREAT PUMPKIN Pentagon picks city group to run high-tech training Three-foot, 6-inch Marc Van Houtte, 4, is overshadowed by the 4-foot, 4-inch, 414-pound pumpkin grown by his father at his by William J. Mitchell Free Press Washington Staff WASHINGTON After more than two decades as a civil rights leader, inner-city organizer and rabble rousing priest, the Rev.

William Cunningham is adding another hat: defense contractor. T2VZ Nayy Cap- DnU Mikhail Classified Index IOC Death Notices IOC Editorials 12A Entertainment M. Feature Page 7" Greater Detroit Horoscope 8E Names Faces 10E Obituaries 9C. Television 5d Volume 159, Number 147 1989, Detroit Free Press i For CLASSIFIED advertising call WANT-ADS. Michigan Lotto 2,7, 10, 29, 34, 41 Zinger 33220 Wednesday 570 and 3012 Ohio Lotto 7, 8, 15, 30, 35, 41 Kicker 503043 Wednesday 286 and 7586 vegetable farm near Romeo.

The center intends to train workers able to produce sophisticated weapons. i vt JOHN A. STANO Detroit Free Press said Wednesday that the Defense Department has selected Cunningham's from among 150 candidates for a $15-million errant tn patah- Czechs live with leader wrapped in a mystery program will begin with an enrollment of 175 students who will combine classroom and shop-floor education in a curriculum that could stretch over two, four or six years, depending on the level desired. Classroom instruction will be provided by the engineering departments of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. Mitchell said the center represents the Pentagon's first step in a new effort See CUNNINGHAM Page 14A '89 CAR Sales Sup Business, Page 4C Glasnost, the policy of openness pioneered by Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, indeed has made the newspapers here more lively.

But when it comes to the private lives of the country's public officials, that's still nobody's business. And most people don't like that a bit. See CZECHOSLOVAKIA, Page 1 5A But almost nobody can tell you with any certainty whether their country's ranking political leader, Communist Party General Secretary Milos Jakes pretty much the Mikhail Gorbachev of these parts is married. Welcome to Czechoslovakia, where the literacy level is 99 percent, but where inquiring readers might as well go jump in a lake. BY RODDY RAY Free Press Europe Correspondent PRAGUE, Ciechoslovakia Some people here can tell you things about the Kennedy family, many know trivia about the Gorbachevs and the Rea gans, and a few even have heard that Barbara Bush recently was spooked by a rat in the White House swimming pool.

William lish a national Cunningham high-tech training facility. The Commerce Department added $3.75 million to renovate a former Ford Motor Co. engine plant on Oak-man Boulevard to house what will be called the Center for Advanced Technologies. Expected to open in two years, the.