The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 4

THE COURIER-JOURNAL, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1994 3 WresilerTSwler guilty of harassment; rape charges are dismissed Spalding's Logsdon shows value of research to nursing By BEN Z. HERSHBERG Staff Writer ik, "v- i STAFF PHOTO BY LARRY SPITZER Astronaut Mae Jemison autographed pictures after her speech In Louisville yesterday. Jemison challenges Louisvillians to explore universe around them "The King," was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury in November on one count of second-degree rape, three counts of second-degree sodomy and one count of harassing a witness. Lawler's attorneys claimed the alleged rape victim recanted her original statement incriminating him. Denison said yesterday that her reluctance to testify was a factor that brought about the plea agreement.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Lisa Schweickart refused to comment on the reasons for the agreement, saying only that it "served justice." Before announcing the agreement yesterday, lawyers for Lawler and the state haggled over the propriety of a search warrant used to seize the tapes Dec. 30 at the office of Louisville attorney Brian Darling, who formerly represented Lawler. Another former lawyer for Lawler, Tim McCall, testified that he had advised Lawler to record telephone conversations about his case but warned him against initiating them. William Massey, a Memphis lawyer representing Lawler, called the seizure "the most obtrusive, intrusive government action I can imagine." Frank Mascagni, a former assistant commonwealth's attorney who tried yesterday to submit a legal brief of behalf of defense lawyers, said it apparently marked the first time a search warrant had ever been served on a lawyer's office in Kentucky. Schweickart asked District Judge Virginia Whittinghill, rather than O'Bannon, for a search warrant.

O'Bannon did not rule on the warrant's legality, but he was clearly miffed by the state's tactics. When Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Kamenish told him prosecutors requested "a neutral magistrate" for the warrant, O'Bannon replied: "You didn't consider this court a neutral magistrate?" By MICHAEL JENNINGS Staff Writer Rape and sodomy charges against professional wrestler Jerry Lawler were dismissed yesterday under a plea agreement that leaves a misdemeanor conviction of harassing a witness on his record. Lawler, 43, of Memphis, was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in June and July and of harassing a witness in October, The alleged rape victim was a fan of wrestling matches at Louisville Gardens. 'Jefferson Circuit Judge Earl O'Bannon gave Lawler a suspended 12-month jail sentence, as called for in the agreement. To stay out of jail, Lawler must avoid contact with prosecution witnesses and commit no other offenses for two years.

"One of Lawler's attorneys, Tim Denison, said his client should be able to resume wrestling in World Wrestling Federation events. Lawler had dropped out of national events sponsored by the federation while the Jefferson County charges against him were pending, though he had continued wrestling regionally, Denison said. Prosecution and defense attorneys were tight-lipped about reasons for striking the agreement. But taped conversations and the alleged victim's reluctance to testify played a part in the outcome. Lawler said in an interview that he made mistakes in phone conversations recorded on three audiotapes that were seized at a lawyer's office under a disputed search warrant.

He made and received calls to young women who might be called as witnesses, and "that was the wrong thing to do," he said. The state's case against Lawler was complicated earlier this month when a male witness was himself charged with the first-degree rape of a 15-year-old girl. Lawler, known professionally as PK. MMMift im iii.i nM 1 ir the universe around us, we all yearn to take part in adventures I could because I realized that my life was my responsibility, to live up to my ambitions and my potential. It's my own life.

It's my journey." Despite her accomplishments, Jemison stressed that her journey is far from over a person who doesn't keep growing and learning, she said, will "die, deteriorate, rot or stagnate." She told the crowd yesterday at the 1994 Naval Ordnance Black History Luncheon that, against the advice of some of her friends, she recently resigned from NASA to start a company to bring technology to the developing world. And Jemison spoke her mind offering a blend of hope, challenge and self-assurance, her own recipe for survival in a fast-changing world. Among her points: Our priorities are set by where we put our money and energy. Americans spend money on planes, bombs, cars, furs and going to the movies, "but we're not willing to put money into strengthening our character and our minds." Financing education through a lottery sends a message to children "that their education is a crapshoot." Even parents who choose private schools for their children Elderly want CPR until told of odds on recovery -t it-; V'v tmtt have a stake in what happens to the public schools. "We cannot afford to abdicate our responsibility for public schools providing an acceptable education for every child," she said.

"If your child does not grow up to be an effective, contributing member of society, then my child does not have a good future no matter what kind of school I send him to." Television can be a powerful source of images, which can influence our ideas about what's acceptable in beauty, economics and career choices. Growing up, Jemison said she loved the adventure and exploration in science fiction movies but hated the way women and people of color were portrayed. "Whenever the monster or the aliens came, everybody would start running, right? And the woman would fall, and somebody would have to come save her. And if there was a yellow, black or brown person in the movie, they were killed in the first five or 10 minutes." When she became an astronaut, Jemison said, she set about to blast the images. She rode the Endeavour into the stars, "she did not fall down, and when the shuttle landed she walked off at the very end." Ohio River's edge to check on missing persons.

According to a Floyd County police report, Daniel Pamplin called police after he discovered the body wedged in the tree about 8:45 a.m. Saturday while he was walking along the riverbank searching for aluminum cans. Davis-Balmer said water would have covered the tree when the river was high. Davis-Balmer said the man white, 40 to 45 years old, with dark hair and mustache was fully clothed, wearing a multicolored shirt, blue pants and loafers. The body had decomposed some, but the cold water helped to preserve it.

Police were able to get fingerprints. Until the last few years, relatively few women had heart bypass surgery, and little research on the effects of the operation included women. But a third of the people now getting bypass surgery are women, and Cynthia Logsdon, an assistant professor of nursing at Spalding University, wants to find out what's happening to them when they're convalescing. Such research is becoming a crucial part of nursing, Logsdon said. There is a premium on the most efficient and effective care of patients today and on training families for home care because patients are being released from hospitals more quickly now, she said.

Logsdon's commitment to nursing research and her efforts to integrate research into the graduate program at Spalding won her one of the Louisville school's Leadership in Nursing awards last week. Logsdon won for conducting groundbreaking research, teaching courses on research techniques and encouraging students to conduct their own research. The study of female heart-bypass patients at Jewish Hospital will examine a phenomenon nurse Sherill Cronin says she has observed. "Males tend to take more of a conva-1 lescent period," said Cronin, who! works at Jewish Hospital and collaborates with Logsdon on the project. "Females get involved in managing the household too quickly." The study will include surveys' of women's expectations for care before they go home and surveys of their experiences and feelings after they're home for several weeks.

And it could lead to new ways of caring for patients. Logsdon's fascination with scientific research in nursing attracted the attention of her mentor at the Indiana University School of Nursing, where she got her doctorate in 1990. Angela McBride, who is now dean of the IU nursing school, said she saw Logsdon become increasingly excited about research as she worked with her at IU. "She just sparkles when she is engaged in something of a scholarly nature," McBride said. While working on her doctoral dissertation, Logsdon explored the gap between expectations and reali ty in the care of new mothers, and she found some serious problems where that gap is too wide.

A third of the new mothers she surveyed in 1989 got scores on mental-health screening tests that fell into the clinically depressed range six weeks after childbirth. She surveyed about 100 first-time mothers before and after their deliveries. "What I find most often," Logsdon said, "is that women have expectations for their husband's behavior after childbirth but don't Say it. Either they can't say, 'This is what I need to or they do say it and it doesn't fit in with what their husbands think they can do." Logsdon, 41, hasn't yet developed new ways of caring for mothers based on her research, but that's the ultimate goal. Other researchers must duplicate her findings before the results can be applied to patient care, Logsdon said.

Carefully planned and rigorously conducted research is crucial to nursing, said Logsdon, who is originally from Carrollton, and now lives in Louisville. "We need to make pn how we practice and why we do what we do based on research findings," she said, "not just because that's what we've always done, or that's what a doctor's orders EZJ STAHF PHOIO BY BLN HERSHBLFKJ Cynthia Logsdon was a winner of one of Spalding College's Leadership in Nursing awards. By LESLIE SCANLON Staff Writer Mae C. Jemison medical doctor, astronaut, former Peace Corps worker, entrepreneur remembers lying on her back on soft summer nights on the south side of Chicago, staring at the stars. She was a 6- or 7-year-old black girl whose mind was ablaze with dreams and questions.

"I would try to imagine, with all my young intensity, being up near the stars, among them," she told an audience in Louisville yesterday. "And I would wonder who lived there, what the stars were made of." In that day and age, in the early 1960s, all the astronauts Jemison had ever heard of were white men. So what made her believe she could fly into space a dream that came true in September 1992 on the space shuttle Endeavour, when Jemison, then 36, became the first woman of color to rocket into space. "I could, because I was a child who was raised by parents who allowed me to maintain my faith in myself, faith that all children have," Jemison told her audience, which included more than 300 high school students. "I knew that as human beings, we all desire to learn about the wonderment of Officer faces charges of fondling male prisoners A Louisville police officer has been indicted on charges that before taking two men to jail, he pulled them out of his cruiser in alleys and fondled their genitals while the men were handcuffed.

Officer Michael Show was arraigned Tuesday on two charges of sex abuse. His bond was set at $500, which he posted immediately. Sgt. Carl Yates said the Louisville Police Department has launched an internal-affairs investigation. Show already had had his police powers suspended in January because of an earlier charge of sexual misconduct.

In that case, a Hardin County man alleged that Show picked him up in his cruiser and requested sexual favors. The man filed a warrant in Hardin District Court, and Show was arrested by state troopers. A story about the Hardin County case prompted Jeremy Wade to complain to the Jefferson County commonwealth's attorney's office that he had been abused by Show after being arrested on Oct. 19, 1990, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Schroering. According to the indictment, Show pulled Wade over in a traffic stop and found Wade's license was suspended, he had no insurance and his registration decal was stolen.

Wade tried to run but was caught by officers. Wade was eventually also charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, possession of marijuana, assault and escape. On the way to jail, the indictment says, Show took Wade to an alley between Clay, Shelby, Washington and Franklin streets, pulled Wade out of the car and fondled and squeezed Wade's genitals for several minutes, the indictment says. Show also fondled Michael Hagan when Show picked Hagan up on Feb. 20, 1991, for alleged public drunkenness, the indictment says.

Show released Hagan behind the Wayside Mission without charging him, the indictment says. Neither Show nor his alleged victims could be reached for comment. REGIONAL ROUNDUP COMPILED FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS DISPATCHES 5 plead innocent En prostitution case PRINCETON, Ky. Five people have pleaded innocent to charges that they operated a Western Kentucky child prostitution ring in the 1970s, allegations that women now in their 20s made to authorities last year. John Wayne McGregor 45, and his wife, Cathy, 37, and William B.

McGregor 33, and Murle Travis Gray, 43, all of Princeton, failed to make bond and were returned to jail after Tuesday's hearing in Caldwell Circuit Court. Eddie Nesbitt of Marion was freed after posting a $40,000 bond. John Wayne McGregor is charged with two counts of rape, four counts of sodomy and nine counts of promoting prostitution. Cathy McGregor is charged with two counts of sodomy. William McGregor, Gray and Nesbitt are charged with one count each of rape.

Up to 11 people were named in sealed indictments returned by a grand jury in January. Pre-trial conferences are set for March 1. 2 escapees steal logging truck PRESTONSBURG, Ky. Two men who walked away from a minimum-security Eastern Kentucky prison stole a logging truck shortly after their escape, an official said yesterday. Lt.

Lloyd Powers of the Floyd County Sheriffs Office said a "confidential source" reportedly saw the men take the boom-truck Sunday morning in the Ligon community. That is several miles from the Otter Creek Correctional Center at Wheelwright, from which three men escaped late Saturday. Still at large were Larry Rigdon, 22, of Grayson County, and James Cox, 19, of Fayette County, both of whom were in for burglary and other charges. Michael Ackerson, 39, of Lawrence County, Ohio, was recaptured Tuesday. Powers said the stolen truck is a flat-bed Chevrolet with an orange boom and the Kentucky license plate 2CD-291.

Associated Press BOSTON Elderly people overwhelmingly say they would prefer not to have cardiopulmonary resuscitation for cardiac ar-, rest after they learn how slim their chances of survival are, a study concludes. Researchers found that many people who initially favor cardio-pulmonary resuscitation change their minds after they understand the odds of getting better. "Most seniors are good gam- biers," said Dr. Donald Murphy. not the life-sustaining machinery that intimidates them.

They just don't want to be on it for any length of time if the prognosis is poor." CPR is used to shock the heart '1 i iit ill 1-f idlL back to life. Murphy and colleagues surveyed 371 patients over a year at a geriatrics clinic in Denver. Initially, 41 percent said they would like to have the procedure if their hearts stopped while they were being treated for an acute illness. But when told that their chances of surviving were 10 percent to 17 percent, just 22 percent still wanted the treatment. Asked what treatment they would want if they had a chronic illness in which they were expected to live less than a year, 11 percent initially chose CPR.

But after learning that their chances of surviving long enough to be discharged were between zero and 5 percent, half said they would decline CPR. if STA( PHOTO BY STEvVAHI BOWMAN fI 4 Body is found on The Southern Indiana Bureau Officials in Floyd County, are trying to identify a man whose body was found snagged in a tree along the Ohio River shoreline just southwest of New Albany. The body, which was found Saturday off Old River Road, apparently had been in the river for at least four months, Floyd County Coroner Becky Davis-Balmer said. She said an autopsy didn't reveal any trauma or evidence of foul play, so she suspects the man drowned. However, the cause of death was not determined, she said.

She said she has called police departments as far away as Pittsburgh LIGHT DUTY: Felix Williams cleaned a light fixture after replacing a bulb Tuesday at the entrance to Pleasant Green Baptist Church in Lexington. Williams Is chairman of the board of trustees at the church, which was established more than 200 years ago at Its location on West Maxwell Street..