The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 22

OBITUARIES 5 ClASSiFED ASS Pages 6-11 FRIDAY. NOVEMBER tl, 1994 The Indianapolis Star EPS hmrd camdlidlates saying little 77ie luckiest guy he knows looks at him in the mirror John Shaughnessy Stephen Hyatt says on list to fill seat. J. Hyatt an eight-year board veteran and last year's board president, and Neil Pickett the only one of three candidates backed by Mayor Stephen Goldsmith to lose last spring. Hyatt, in fact, claims someone else put his name on the list.

The secretary for the IPS board closed the list Nov. 4, the day after board members had announced the process for filling the seat. "I'm told that (my name) is on there," Hyatt, an attorney, said Ex-board President someone else put him By Rebecca Buckman STAR STAFF WRITER The field of candidates to replace David B. Girton Sr. on the Indianapolis Public Schools board contains several familiar names, including longtime parent activists and six people who ran unsuc cessfully for the board last May.

But while most of the 22 candidates have eagerly touted their experience to the press, the public and sitting board members, two potential front-runners have been hesitant to talk about their Interest in the position. Those candidates are Stephen PERILS OF FirtEFIGimriG tl 'OSST Vr rv- 'v. a I ft. eryone on the list wants to; be seriously considered. But she said Thursday she plans to call Hyatt to verify his Interest In the The board will hold an executive session Nov.

19 to discuss candidates and probably draw; up a list of three finalists. It will have to vote publicly oVi a replacement, and Jones said board members haven't ruled put the possibility of publicly inter-See PS Page 2 Woman gets 30 years for killing her mother Long sentence comes despite other daughter's testimony that siblings suffered from abuse, i By Janet E. Williams STAR STAFF WRITER 4 Murder victim Rachel Stimer was a dedicated member of her church and a top-flight admihis1 trator at her job liked arid respected by those who knew But she was a different person at home, where she emotionally and physically abused her daughters, the younger of the two women testified Thursday in Marlon Superior Court. Stimer's character was the central issue as Judge John R. Barney Jr.

sentenced her oldest daughter, Melissa Benton, to 30 years in prison for killing her. Benton, 21, pleaded guilty last month to a charge of voluntary manslaughter in Stimer's death on Jan. 25. She admitted striking her mother on the head and then repeatedly stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Stimer was 139 when she died.

Benton's sister. Jennifer, testified that her mother's death followed years of abuse by a woitjan who was one person in public and another at home. Jennifer Benton. 19, said family problems began when Stimerdi-vorced their father, John Benton, when they were young. Wheni he remarried and moved to Florida, the girls lost all contact with him.

Their mother also remarried. But Jennifer said her stepfather molested her. He was prosecuted for child molestation and sentenced to four years' probation Jennifer said the abuse was worse than what was reflected in the police report, and that her mother knew of it. She also said Melissa was molested by the stepfather, an allegation never reported to police or prosecutors. The tensions at home got worse when Melissa became pregnant while unmarried, Jennifer said.

Her mother refused to allow Melissa to get prenatal care, and when the baby was born with severe birth defects, she became abusive toward the child, the witness said. Melissa and her mother often fought over how to care for Jthe baby. In fact, the killing came on the day the family got more information about the severity of ihe baby's birth defects, Jennifer said. Sobbing, she then asked the court for leniency for her sisteri whom she described as her ojily family. "I Just want my sister to come home.

The worst thing Is what she'll have to live with, remembering every day what she did to my mother," she said as she wiped away tears. Barney got a different picture of Stimer from Bruce Breeden, one of her co-workers at Logo-7 a See 30 YEARS Page 2 earlier this week. "That's very flattering. I'm extremely flattered that someone would do that. That's Just very nice." Asked If he would like to return to the board particularly after seeming almost delighted to retire from his stressful post in July Hyatt said: "I really don't have anything that I want to discuss about it.

It was a nice thing for somebody to say." Board President E. Lou Jones, however, says she's assuming ev- 1 Star Staff Photos Patrick Schneider thing," Merz said. David Perry, who left Blooming-ton five years ago to work with McCloskey. nodded in agreement. At age 45 with a wife and a 3-year-old child.

Perry acknowledged that he was filled with conflicts. Some of it is personal, some professional, some philosophical. "Part of the elective process is getting thrown out. You accept See STAFFERS Page 2 refills Holiday Most offices I I CI Vj IK-' Colleagues of Perry Township firefighter Dale Meredith (above) helped him remove his air tank Thursday after he fell through a floor during a fire at Brookwood Apartments and landed on top of firefighter Valerie High. Meredith injured his leg in the fall and was treated at St.

Francis Hospital in Beech Grove. High, two other firefighters and a resident also were treated at St. Francis after suffering minor injuries during the early morning blaze. The three-story apartment complex on the Far Southside, at 605 Turtle Creek Drive North, sustained $325,000 in damage. Indianapolis and Decatur Township firefighters assisted Perry Township in bringing the two-alarm fire under control.

Twenty families forced from their apartments because of the fire are being housed in other units at the complex. Stan Gibson, a spokesman for the Perry Township Fire Department, said the fire started in the basement and spread upward. The cause is still under investigation. J.David Cook's life wasn't supposed to end this way. Not here at this Northslde Indianapolis comer.

Not Just four houses from his home. And not like this. The 50-year-old Cook had just finished running a 10-kilometer race at Butler University when he started walking toward his house a few streets away. But he never made It home that day. Instead, he lost consciousness, falling face-forward at the corner of 52nd Street and Graceland Avenue.

Doctors determined later that the lawyer had suffered from a condition called "sudden cardiac death." But Cook's life wasn't supposed to end this way. And the fact that it didn't. Cook says. Is a story of miracles. 1 shouldn't be here" Five months have passed since that June morning when Cook nearly died.

Now he's starting to piece together the routines of his life again. He recently returned to half-days of work at his law office. He's also giving talks again to gain support for Gleaners Food Bank, which provides food for low-income people. And he walks four miles a day half the distance he ran daily before he collapsed that day. "I shouldn't be here," Cook says.

"I'm one of the luckiest I persons to be alive." Seconds after Cook fell, peo-; pie found him, including a fa- ther and his 20-year-old daughter, Jim and Chris Weaver. Before the race, the Weavers had parked their car near Cook's home. As they headed back to their car, Jim told his daughter how one of his friends had recently died of a heart attack. He also said how someone at the funeral had mentioned the importance of knowing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In what ended up being a life-saving coincidence, Chris, a former lifeguard, gave her father some tips on how to do CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

"David was motionless," Weaver recalls. "His eyes were glazed, like he was in total shock. I began giving mouth-to-; mouth and Chris ran to get the rescue vehicles that were there for the race." A new lease on life When emergency workers arrived from the race's first aid station, they took over Cook's care. They also tried to find some Identification. Finally, they radioed in the race number he was wearing and learned he lived Just four houses away.

A policeman brought Cook's wife of 27 years. Ann, to the corner. By I then, an ambulance had arrived and the emergency medical technicians were using a i defibrillator to try to shock his heart into motion. "My wife asked them to take me to St. Vincent." Cook says.

"As they were loading me up in the ambulance, she over- heard one of them say, 'I'm not sure it will make a "At St. Vincent, I went into cardiac arrest four times. They did an emergency procedure to open up one of my arteries. I was in a coma for four days. They didn't think I was going to make It.

But after that, I started becoming responsive." His rehabilitation continues, buoyed by the fact that he didn't suffer brain damage and the effect on his heart was minimal. "I'm as good as new and maybe better because that artery has been opened up," Cook says. "It made all the difference that people started on me right away, giving me good emergency help. It usually doesn't work out that way. 4 "I've been given a new lease on life.

I feel I have to tell people to learn CPR. I have to become an advocate for that as well as feeding the hungry. I don't have to look very far to see how fortunate I am." Hoosiers' staffers bemoan bosses' losses Congressional employees clean out D.C. offices, ponder their futures and take some parting shots. "Part of the elective process is getting thrown out You accept that I think to myself that I may never again work on the Hill, and adding to the stress is that things will be bleak at my house if I don't get a new job in the next three or four months." David Perry aide to Rep.

Frank McCloskey When a member of Congress loses an election, the careers and lives of his or her employees are taken down, too. As many as 75 to 100 congressional employees of Hoosier lawmakers lost Jobs when Election Night ended. Some of them worked directly for representatives; others worked with the various committee staffs as part of the political largesse of the majority party. With Republicans gaining the majority In Congress, it means Democratic staffers must' soon leave so their desks may be filled by staffers from the other party. "If these new Republicans hated it in Washington so much, why did they want to come here? As for me, I guess I can go work at a McDonald's," said Melissa Merz, press secretary for McCloskey.

Merz, still fatigued from more than a month spent In Evansvllle working in McCloskey 's campaign headquarters, didn't bother to conceal her disappointment at her boss's loss to John Hostettler. "The voters get what they ask for. Now It's up to Hostettler and his party to put up or shut up. They'll find out it is a lot easier to criticize than to actually do some By George Stuteville STAR WASHINGTON BUREAU Washington The trash cart in front of Rep. Jill Long's office overflowed Thursday as staff members raked through files and shelves, easing their loads before leaving the office as casualties of her re-election loss.

In the next building, staff members of defeated Rep. Frank Mc-Closkey hunkered behind a closed door, listlessly answering the telephone, going through the motions of work between snatches of conversation that sometimes sounded bitter, sometimes angry, sometimes loaded with anxiety about their futures. Court says By Barb Albert STAR STAFF WRITER Customers may sue pharmacists pharmacists must monitor closings will be closed today in observance of who means they call the doctor when they have a concern." said Anthony Debonis an East Chicago attorney who represented a couple who sued Hook-SupeRx Inc. The opinion, written by Justice Frank Sullivan reversed the ruling of the Indiana Court of Appeals and upheld the Marshall Circuit Court ruling in a lawsuit filed by Patrick D. McLaughlin of South Bend.

McLaughlin sued Hook and two phar Veterans Day. Federal: Closed. State: Closed. City-county: Open. County courts: Open.

Mail: No regular delivery. Trash pickup: Regular pickups. License branches: Closed. Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library: Open. Banks: Most are closed.

Schools: Open. Stores: Open. Lottery offices: the drug firm breached its duty of care by failing to stop filling the prescriptions because the pharmacists knew, or should have known, that McLaughlin was consuming paln-kllling drugs so frequently that it threatened his health. Before the trial, Hook asked the Judge to dismiss the case on the grounds that it did not have any such duty to question a doctor's prescriptions. Even if it did.

Hook said, McLaughlin's attempted suicide negated any claim he may have. See PHARMACISTS Pagej? 4 ft 1 dispense dangerous drugs at a rate faster than the drugs should reasonably be consumed, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In a 4-1 decision, the high court says pharmacists have a duty to cease refilling prescriptions for dangerous drugs when they suspect the drugs are being misused or overused. "Itdoesn't mean they play doctor. It macists.

Kathy O'Dell and Craig Merrick, in 1990 for negligence. He claimed.