Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 24

B2 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2003 The Arizona Republic Immigrant deaths inspire playwright IK5 "SI i EJ. Montini Republic columnist y- 11 Rose Tring, sense of place editor, 602.444.NEWS (6397) or rose.tringarizonarepublic.com 1 Retired teacher gets achievement award i Ym mm part of the social studies program for national board certification. He was trained by the National Geographic Society in 1993 to be a NGS teacher consultant. As such, he helped create the Arizona Geographic Alliance. In addition, he was selected as a "teacher ambassador" to Ukraine in 1998.

Ostapuk will receive a plaque during the NCGE annual meeting Oct. 8-11 in Salt Lake City. If you know a person who has done something terrific, we want to know about it. Send a note to The Arizona Republic, Local People Section, 200 E. Van Buren Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Or send e-mail to localpeoplearizonarepublic. Recalling tragedies that we'd rather forget My personal list of the dead and forgotten begins in 1986 with the name of Phoenix Police Officer Robert Fike. It was just before dawn on a chilly January morning when I arrived at the scene. Pieces of yellow crime scene tape hung in sagging strips from building to tree to dumpster in the rear parking lot of the Circle on 11th Street and Indian School Road. Police investigators had left by then.

Only the gawkers remained, me among them. A man who lived nearby and had found Officer Fike's body lying next to his idling patrol car showed the rest of us were the dead man's head had come to rest. (The thief who had surprised Fike and shot him would later plead guilty to murder.) There was a dark, shiny stain on the asphalt, as if a car with an oil leak had parked there. But it was not oil. As we stood staring at the ground, an elderly man and woman approached.

The man carried a small shovel filled with soil. When he got to where the rest of us stood, the man spread dirt from his shovel over the blood until it was covered. He pat By Daniel Gonzalez The Arizona Republic Jose Casas isn't a gang-banger, but he could easily pass for one. The imposing swagger, the shaved head, the beefy arms plastered with tattoos. But underneath the hard shell of this self-proclaimed papi chulo (handsome daddy) is the soul of a street poet who does his fighting with words.

Casas, 34, who has a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, has written seven plays. His most recent work is simply called 14. The number is symbolic of the 14 migrants who died of heat exposure in May 2001, the worst case of undocumented immigrants dying in the desert in recent state history. Casas, a native of Los Angeles, was getting a master's degree in playwriting at Arizona State University when he heard about the deaths on television. The images of the bodies stuck with him.

Forty years earlier his own father had risked his life crossing near San Diego. "I think it took him like three or four times before he crossed," said Casas, who also has a master's degree in theater from California State University-Los Angeles and a bachelor's degree in dramatic arts from the University of California-Santa Barbara. Casas knew he wanted to write something about the deaths. But it wasn't until last January, as Casas was getting close to completing his degree, that the idea of writing a play came to him. Instead of attempting to recreate the tragedy, Casas uses the deaths as a backdrop to probe relations between Anglos and Mexican-Americans along the border in a way reminiscent of the work of James Baldwin, who wrote about social injustice and prejudice in the South.

The play is told through a series of characters and vignettes, some of which are based on street interviews Casas conducted as the result of a scholarship he won from the ChicanaChicano studies department at ASU. In one vignette, based on an interview Casas conducted in down- The National Council for Geographic Education recently awarded Michael Osta-puk, retired middle school teacher from the Cartwright Elementary School District, its annual Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award. Ostapuk is an organizational consultant with the Arizona Education Association. He taught geography at Es-trella Middle School and was an adjunct faculty member at Glendale Community College in the mid-1970s. He was the Cartwright district's social studies co-coordinator starting in the early 1990s, and he helped align curricula with Arizona's new social studies standards.

Ostapuk also helped pilot ACTS OF Great friends, neighbors A few weeks ago, I suddenly awoke to excruciating stomach pains. They hurt so badly that I could hardly walk or breathe. Fortunately, my wonderful neighbor Sara Walter was home and graciously took me to the emergency room at 2 a.m. Not only did she pray for and comfort me, she also spent 11 hours in the ER with me as the doctors and nurses ran test after test. Upon discharge from the hospital, the KINDNESS pains came back a few hours later, but even worse.

Another wonderful friend, Jamie Waldron, took me back to the ER and stayed with me for six hours! Thankfully, the doctors found the problem and I feel 150 percent better. Friends like Sara and Jamie are truly a blessing, and I thank God for them every day. I hope that I will be able to reciprocate the love and kindness that they gave me in my time of need. Kimberiy Barton Phoenix As we pause today to remember past victims of violence, we can't help but be distracted by the fact that new ones are being created. ted the brown patch with the shovel, turned and shuffled away, leaving the rest of us standing there, silent and ashamed.

It was my first week on the job. Between that day and today, Fike's name has come up in news reports, but not often. More people have been murdered in Phoenix since Fike's death than died in the World Trade Center attacks. But because their deaths have come one at a time, and keep coming, we don't memorialize them. Friends and family are left IRVIN Report could spawn criminal charges i Lindsey JacobsenThe Arizona Republic Jose Casas' play 14 opens Friday at Phoenix's Viad Center.

town Scottsdale, a jewelry store owner is convinced she's not prejudiced, but whose words would seem to indicate otherwise. There are also unfavorable Latino characters, like the Mexican-American government official who bashes immigrants for not learning English and the Hollywood actor who changes his Spanish name so casting directors won't know he's Mexican-American. "I wanted to show that it's not black and white, or in this case brown and white. There are different shades," Casas said. If you go WHAT: Performance of the new play, 14, written by Jose Casas and directed by Christina Marin.

WHEN: 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. performance, this Friday; and 8 p.m. Oct. 4.

WHERE: Theatre-in-the-Park, Viad Center, 1850 N. Central Phoenix. WHY: Friday's performance will benefit ASU's ChicanaChicano studies department. COST: $15; $25 for benefit performance. RESERVATIONS: Call Vera Galaviz at (480) 965-5091.

Rick Romley, who passed the investigation on to Charlton last year, has said he's curious about McDonald's new findings. But Barnett Lotstein, special assistant to Romley, said Wednesday responsibility for any new investigation now rests with Charlton. Legislative leaders and officials at the state Attorney General's Office also said they would fight Irvin's legal claim that the state should pay his judgment and legal fees. The state has already paid about $4.5 million to defend Irvin, but it cut him off after his trial. Irvin's legal brief said the state is liable because he was acting within the scope and duties of his office when he investigated the Southern Union takeover bid.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Robert Myers said the state fulfilled its duty to Irvin "100 percent." Calls to Irvin and his representatives were not returned. Officials at the Corporation Commission said an assistant packed up and cleared out Irvin's office Wednesday. said Reed made no statements to police about motives. Ramandeep Singh, 20, whose father owns the convenience store, said his family cannot understand Sonny Singh's murder because he never had conflicts with anyone. He said generosity has been a tradition with his family, which immigrated from India more than 20 years ago.

"Our family came here with nothing. We worked the fields," said Ramandeep Singh, a Glendale Community College student. "That is why we understand when people are short on money. We have respect for everybody." Reach the reporter at jim.walsharizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-7984. Lottery information is available on the Web, www.arizonalottery.com, or by dialing (480) 829-PICK.

Possible replacements Jack Jewett, a member of the state Board of Regents; Tempe Mayor Neil Giuliano; and Phoenix City Councilwoman Peggy Bilsten said Wednesday that they are not interested in replacing Jim Irvin on the Arizona Corporation Commission. Gov. Janet Napolitano is required to replace Irvin, a Republican, with someone of the same party affiliation in the post. Others being mentioned as possible replacements: Political consultant Roberta Voss. The former state legislator lost to Irvin in a GOP primary for Corporation Commission.

She said she's interested. Mesa Justice of the Peace Tom Freestone. The conservative Republican is a long shot, but he said he's interested. Department of Administration Director Betsey Bayless. She couldn't be reached for comment.

From Page Bl chiefly connected with Southwest Gas. The company eventually accepted a less lucrative offer by a company named Oneok. Southern Union sued, and the jury hit Irvin last year with punitive damages. The biggest potential for new charges comes from former Irvin aide Jack Rose, a co-defendant in the trial who stood to make millions as a consultant if the pair had steered the takeover bid to Oneok. Rose never testified at trial, taking Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

The House granted Rose immunity from prosecution. McDonald confirmed that Rose had also been granted immunity by U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton and had testified before a secret grand jury. Because Charlton did not press charges against Irvin, McDonald said he could not get the transcripts of Rose's testimony or any other parts of Charlton's investigation because of grand jury secrecy laws. to do so on their own.

Today, however, we'll be asked to join them. At 8 a.m. at the state Capitol, Gov. Janet Napolitano will attend a flag-raising ceremony in honor of murder victims and their families. She will declare it a day of remembrance.

"It means a lot to someone like me and my family," said Dan Levey, who advises Napolitano on victims' issues. "It's an honor for those of us who work with Parents of Murdered Children to have the governor participate in the ceremony. And to have a day of remembrance for loved ones." I first met Levey in 1996 in the parking lot of a grade school at 13th Avenue and Osborn Road. The previous Sunday his brother Howard had been shot and killed in that same parking lot as he sat in his car waiting for friends to arrive for a basketball game. Beads of shattered automobile glass still sparkled on the pavement.

Howard's family was in some ways more fortunate than most relatives of murder victims. His killing would make the news. A suspect eventually was caught and sent to prison. "The proclamation that the governor will read talks about how there is a murder in Arizona every 22 hours and 43 minutes," Levey said. "The victims of these crimes and their survivors, I believe, are paying the most terrible price there is for living in a free society.

And to that degree, if we can take a day to reflect on the impact of violence in our society, I believe it would be a good thing. It's true that when something like this happens to someone you love, everything changes. There is your life before it happened and your life afterward. You become a member of a club that you hope nobody else will ever be forced to join. But they will." Over the years I've spoken with many of that club's new members.

The nephew of Phoenix Police Officer Kenneth Collings, killed a few years after Fike. The mother of Angela Brosso, whose 1992 murder has never been solved. The mother and husband of Susan Lynn Dina, killed by a. stray bullet as she sunbathed at a Mesa pool. It goes on.

I'll think about them today. And maybe if Levey and the governor get their message across, you'll take a moment to think about victims as well. But only a moment. We have troubles of our own, after all. Besides, today's news falls on yesterday's like snow, covering it.

There is fresh information about Iraq and the United Nations to consider. And the California recall. And an Arizona corporation commissioner who resigned rather than be impeached. And there is news about 33-year-old Sukhvire Singh, a convenience store clerk who was known to his friends as Sonny. He was murdered Tuesday night in Tempe.

Reach Montini at ed.montiniarizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8978. STABBING Motive unknown in Sikh clerk's slaying But McDonald said that his sense, from talking to Rose, was that the impeachment investigation was probing deeper than any previous law enforcement investigation. McDonald added that the evidence against Irvin still might not meet the standard required by prosecutors. Charlton was out of town Cheira both were wearing turbans when they were shot. "We have no indications it was a hate crime and no indication of robbery," Masters said, adding that the cash register was undisturbed.

Larry James, 47, who lives a few blocks from the convenience store, stumbled upon Singh's body when he entered the store to buy a can of beer at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. "He was lying face down in a pool of blood," James said. "It didn't look like it was a robbery because the cash register was closed." Moments before entering the store, James said he saw Reed walk out the back door, holding what appeared to be a knife. James said he thought that was strange because he -knew Third-place pool: (3 numbers) Wednesday's drawing: 02112128 34 If 10 or fewer players select five winning numbers, each gets $50,000.

Wednesday, but through a spokeswoman he said he would have to see McDonald's report before talking about reopening an investigation. "I have a great deal of respect for Mel McDonald Charlton said. "Until the report is made public, there is very little else I can say." Maricopa County Attorney Singh never allowed Reed to use the back door, but he never expected anybody would kill Singh. "He didn't speak English too well, but he always had a smile, always," James said. Masters said police found a knife on Wednesday morning outside a nearby store.

"He considered everyone family, no matter race, color or creed," said Charles Douglas, 34, a nearby resident. "It's sad to see someone like this taken away." Sgt. Mike Goulet, a Mesa police spokesman, said a tipster called after recognizing Reed's description from a newspaper article. Mesa police found Reed on Main Street, between Alma School and Extension roads. Masters said Reed was arrested by Tempe police on suspicion of first-degree murder.

He all THE PHOENIX COYOTES PICK 3 Wednesday's numbers: 749 Play one game for $1 to win up to $500. Play 2 games for $1 to win up to $250 on each game. From Page Bl bir, was shot to death four days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Frank Roque, Balbir's admitted killer, is pursuing an insanity defense during his trial in a Mesa courtroom.

"It's very, very painful and very sad," said Sodhi, who had met Singh and spoke with his uncle Wednesday. "People feel like it's a hate crime. Most people think, why Sikhs?" Sodhi said, referring to his brother's murder and the attempted murder in north Phoenix this summer of Sikh truck driver Avtar Singh Cheira. Tempe police Sgt. Dan Masters said the motive for Singh's murder remains unclear.

Singh was not wearing a turban, he said. Balbir Singh Sodhi and THE PICK Wednesday's drawing: 1419 2325 26 33 Bonus Ball: 34 Jackpot: $1.4 million Lottery results POWERBALL Wednesday's drawing: 1719 20 28 47 Powerball: 37 Power Play: 04 Jackpot: $50.9 million FANTASY 5 Tuesday's results: 02 09 12 21 33 Winner: (5 numbers) Second-place pool: (4 numbers).