The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 1

tz KENTUCKY EDITION, 26 PAGES, COPYRIGHT 1991, THE COURIER-JOURNAL, LOUISVILLE, A GANNETT NEWSPAPER MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1991. 35 CENTS attle ases gia: in Geor 17 Mile No evidence links Ignatow with murder, jurors say By LESLIE SCANLON, Staff Writer COVINGTON, Ky. Jurors in the Brenda Schaefer murder trial said yesterday that they found the defendant, Melvin Henry Ignatow, not guilty because they thought the prosecution had presented no evidence linking Ignatow to the crime. Several jurors said they did not believe Mary Ann Shore-Inlow, Ignatow's former girlfriend, when she testified that Ignatow killed Schaefer during a "sex-therapy class" at Shore- Moscow fZy. RUSSIA rjNj Mile SITE OF il fighting! t1irkfy armenia 4 ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN RAN Inlow's former home in Louisville.

And jurors said that a tape recording of a conversation between Ignatow and Shore-Inlow recorded when she agreed to wear a concealed microphone for the FBI did not implicate Ignatow. In that conversation, "they didn't mention Brenda," said juror Lowell Jarvis. "They didn't mention a grave. They didn't mention a body." He added: "The reason he was found not guilty was there was not one shred of evidence that connected him to the crime. Nothing." Asked what he though hap By LESLIE SHEPHERD Associated Press MOSCOW Rebel soldiers firing cannon and heavy machine guns repeatedly tried to storm Georgia's parliament building yesterday in a battle with forces loyal to the republic's president, news reports from Tbilisi said.

Unconfirmed reports said 17 people were killed and 50 wounded in a resurgence of the political violence that wracked Georgia in September and October, and at times has verged on civil war. Opponents of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia have been demanding his ouster on grounds he has become dictatorial since his election in May. Georgia, fiercely independent, is the only one of the dozen former Soviet republics not to join the new Confederation of Independent States. But both sides in the fighting have said they are committed to independence, and the violence yesterday did not appear to be linked to the republic's stance. In Moscow, hard-liners took to the streets yesterday to demand a return to the old union.

At the same time, leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States tried to reassure their people and the world that the new alliance of former Soviet republics will be richer and safer than the defunct one. But citizens facing bare store shelves remained skeptical. There were conflicting reports Jurors said a key piece of prosecution evidence, a tape recording, did not Implicate Melvin Henry Ignatow. STAFF MAP about who started the fighting in Georgia. The Tass news agency blamed the rebel troops, but witnesses accused presidential guards of firing first.

The Russian Information Agency said rebel National Guardsmen who broke with Gamsakhurdia in August earlier yesterday twice tried to seize Government House, the huge terraced building that houses Georgia's parliament and Gamsakhur-dia's office. After a brief lull during which the sides tried to start negotiations, the rebels launched another attack late yesterday using machine guns and See BATTLE Back page, col. 4, this section I -L pened to Brenda Schaefer, Jarvis responded: "We don't know. We don't know if Mel did it or not. What we do know is there was no proof of it." Schaefer, 36, disappeared Sept.

24, 1988, and her body naked and bound with four ropes was found in January 1990, buried behind Shore-Inlow's former home on Poplar Level Road. Ignatow, who was engaged to marry Schaefer, has said that they enjoyed a pleasant evening together, and that he See EVIDENCE Back page, col. 4, this section ASSOCIATED PRESS Holding the flag of the former Soviet government, a Muscovite shouted yesterday during a demonstration against the lifting of price controls. Thousands of people gathered for the "March of the Hungry Queues" and walked to a television station, where they demanded air time for their cause. Poor reception Owner brought static to Murray radio, TV stations Bengals Patriots 29 7 Kermit Reeder, left, told police after his latest drunken-driving arrest that he'd had "40 or 50 beers" but didn't remember when he started, records show.

Cm. Cowboys Falcons 31 27 23 20 Jets Dolphins "Having a conversation with (Troy Cory) was like the Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice in Wonderland." Krit Stubblefield Prison may await 'old country drunk' after 19th conviction By MARK SCHAVER Staff Writer MURRAY, Ky. The call letters of WNBS radio and WNBS-TV in Murray stand for Nathan Beverly Stubblefield, an eccentric inventor who some believe invented radio. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the invention Stubblefield called "wireless telephony." But the stations may not be on the air to honor his achievement. WNBS radio, 1340 on the AM dial, has turned to static.

WNBS-TV, Channel 46 in Murray, is broadcasting a test pattern. The stations shut down Dec. 6 when Anthony Par-ham, the last of 20 employees to leave because of pay disputes with the owner, turned off the lights sind locked the doors. 'S "This is the worst thing that can happen to a station," Parham said. "The smart thing for him to do is not to come to town." Parham, operations manager and a four-year employee of the stations, said he shut them down because Cory did not pay three women he had hired to help him after the rest of the employees had quit or been fired.

Cory first surfaced in Calloway County in March, when he announced at a news conference that his real namevwas Keith Stubblefield and that he was the grandson of Natharf. B. Stubblefield, a melon farmer and sometime inventor who died of starvation in a shack outside Murray in 1928. Although there is evidence that See OWNER Back page, col. 1, this section j8 Tim Black, former news director for Channel 46.

"I've never dealt with anything like it before, and I hope I never deal with anything like it again." Although the stations' owner, Troy Cory, promises to come to "It's been a very strange Uua'tjon- Murray on Jan. 2 to reopen them, from the beginning to wonder if they can be revived. Witiylles' backing, legislators ACQUITTAL BRINGS ANGER: Jewish leaders were stunned yesterday by the acquittal of a Muslim immigrant accused of killing extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane. page a 2. toifnfbik yet another bottle bill although she is awaiting a presentence report before making a decision on whether he could get probation.

Mildred Hilton, victims' advocate for the Louisville Metro chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said that in Reeder's case there should be little question. "I think he should get a long, long sentence out of this as long as they could give them," she said. "This man is a menace to society. It's just a miracle that he hasn't critically injured or killed somebody by now." However, despite his convictions and the fact that he hasn't had a legal driver's license since 1970, Reeder has stayed on the road. Police in Kentucky and Indiana have arrested him under at least three aliases and with at least four bogus Social Security numbers, but when caught driving drunk he has often been See PRISON Back page, col.

1, this section By TODD MURPHY Staff Writer Kermit Reeder, the self-described "old country drunk" who amassed 18 drunken-driving convictions between 1978 and 1991 without ever getting prison time, now has his 19th. But this time, after two decades of amended charges, misdemeanor convictions and generally short jail stays, Reeder could get a prison sentence. Reeder, 54, pleaded guilty to drunken-driving early this month after being indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury in November. He was arrested Sept. 27, seven days after his release from jail and from a work-release program for a previous drunken-driving conviction.

Reeder, a Russell County native, will be sentenced Jan. 8 on the latest charges, which include two felonies. Assistant Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Laura New said she will recommend two years in prison for Reeder, By ANIF.WKgVYCH MR The MA Brereton ITIOIWINIS Rep. Herbie Deskins, D-Pikeville, chairman of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee, said that a bottle bill will be considered during the General Assembly's regular session next year. "I think it's a real possibility that we might get a bottle bill this session," he said.

Bottle bills were introduced during every session of the legislature from 1974 to 1980 and four times since. Opposition from bottlers, retailers and container manufacturers helped defeat those efforts. The most recent bill was introduced earlier this year, as an amendment to solid-waste legislation considered during a special legislative session. Rep. Joe Barrows, D-Versailles, proposed requiring deposits on all beverage containers, as well as all plastic containers.

A fight over the bill was avoided by a compromise that established a task force to study container-deposit legislation. The task force disbanded See BACKERS Back page, col. 1, this section Jones has bill an idea whose timf bas come and gone eight times in the past 18 years its best chance yet of becoming law in Kentucky, supporters say. Opponents of legislation that would require a deposit on all or some beverage containers are not conceding defeat. Nor are they convinced that Jones' entry into the debate changes the political equation.

EDDM1E: when the federal government built Lake Barkley, the Old Eddyville was washed away. Today, visit New Eddyville, two miles from the site of the original, page i. BUSINESS CLASSIFIED ADS. COMICS DEATHS 5-8 3, 6 4, 5 4 Body left on Beirut road might be Higgins' FEATURES LOTTERY RESULTS. PEOPLE A 2 A 2 6 1-5 2 RACING RESULTS.

SPORTS TV sources have said they believe Higgins died of torture in December 1988 after an escape attempt. Higgins, of Danville, grew up in Okolona and graduated from Southern High School in 1963. His sister, Mary Fisher of Okolona, said yesterday's news was bittersweet because she still hopes he is alive. If the body is Higgins', she said, "it will mean that I can go on and be satisfied that he is laid to rest and be without doubt." Information for this story was also gathered by staff writer Joseph Gerth. Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon Officials said yesterday a body dumped along a road could be the remains of Lt.

Col. William Higgins, an American hostage. The coroner general examined the body, but the findings won't be released until the report is submitted to the government today, a senior official at American University Hospital said. The body was found late Saturday after an anonymous call led officers to a blanket enshrouding the remains lying on a street, police said. The victim was fair and had a crew cut.

The facial features appear to be those of a Westerner, and there are black marks around the neck. A morgue attendant, who would not give his name, said he believes the corpse was dug up after about a year in the ground. He said the body was that of a man about feet tall. In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman and the White House said there was no confirmation that the body was Higgins' or even that of an American. Higgins commanded a 76-member U.N.

group monitoring the Lebanon-Is- rael border. Captured Feb. 17, 1988, he was the last American taken hostage after Westerners became the target of Shiite Muslim kidnappers in 1984. His abductors, the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, released a videotape July 31, 1989, showing a hanged man they said was Higgins. The group said he was killed in retaliation for Israel's abduction of a Shiite Muslim cleric.

The FBI has said it appeared the man was Higgins, but U.S. sources said the agency's analysis of the tape indicated death was not caused by hanging. U. N. RAINDREAR KENTUCKY Rain today, possibly mixing with snow tonight.

Highs, 50s. Lows, 30s. Clearing Christmas Eve with highs in the 40s. DETAILS, PAGE 2 HIGGINS: Captors say he was hanged. Terry Waite denies knowing of hostage deal.

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