The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 3

mm praft Nov. 11, 1983 3A REGISTER PHOTO BY MARRY BAUMERT Lavjyer fund DATEK Sobbing Tm Michael gets 50 years 3 v. i IV-'- are indications the government will drop the charge of being an accessory after the kidnapping. As to who planned the kidnapping, Nickerson told Stuart "my client is not a mastermind of anything." Nickerson asked Stuart for a sentence that would permit Michael to benefit from prison rehabilitation programs and re-enter society as a better person. He said it was important that Michael not come out of prison "just as crazy as he was before." He portrayed Michael as an alcoholic, troubled young man whose problems stem from a bad home life in early childhood and later alcoholism.

"There has been chaos in most of his life," Nickerson said. After years of a "tense, strained relationship with his dad" and an unpleasant experience in the Army, Michael waa still immature at age 20, Nickerson said. But he said Michael was "out there on his own" living a "nomadic, unstructured existence." Just prior to his arrest, Michael had been working as an exotic dancer using the name "Grizzly." "The way this whole kidnapping went down, he was trying to make some sort of crazy, bizarre statement about how his life had gotten out of control," Nickerson told the judge. "This guy's life had come to a dead end no job skills, an alcohol abuser, suicidal, engaged in fantasy." The kidnapping, Nickerson was Michael's "way of getting his piece of the American pie." Stuart said rehabilitation programs will be available, and Michael should do everything possible to benefit from them. Michael pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors that they would not oppose a sentence of less than life, which was the maximum possible sentence for By PAUL LEAVITT Raaltlar Staff Wrttar Rickie Ronald Michael, crying and saying he was sorry, was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison for kidnapping Chip Wittern.

But he is immediately eligible for parole and likely will serve less than 10 years. Michael, 23, pleaded guilty Sept. 30 to kidnapping Francis "Chip" Wittern at the family's rural West Des Moines home as the 17-year-old youth was driving to Valley High School. The boy's father, F.A. "Art" Wittern, president of Fawn Engineering, paid a $200,000 ransom to Michael, and Chip was released unharmed April 6 38 hours after he was abducted.

The money was recovered. Michael, wearing a powder-blue suit, spoke for about 30 seconds, but most of his statement was inaudible after he said, "I'm sorry." His lawyer, Don Nickerson, said Michael said he was happy no one was killed, never intended to kill anyone and would have killed himself before permitting harm to come to his captive. "He's still salvageable," Nickerson said, asking U.S. District Judge William Stuart for a lenient sentence for Michael. "He does deserve some consideration.

There's still some semblance of human being in his body." Lot of Trauma" Joseph Beck, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Michael, asked Stuart to impose a sentence of at least 50 years. "There was a lot of trauma, heartache and problems, probably of long duration, caused to the victims and their family, Beck argued. "I'm absolutely amazed that no one got killed." He said there is no indication that Michael can adapt himself to proper behavior, and Michael is "not only dangerous to others, but he's dangerous to himself." Although Michael doesn't have a history of violent crime, Stuart decided a long prison sentence was justified. The two primary factors in his decision, he said, were "punishment for this very serious crime" and "general deterrence an attempt to discourage others." "The main purpose of the criminal justice system is to reduce crime, and one of the best ways to do that is to try to do something to see that people who come before the court don't become repeaters," Stuart said.

Freed Any Time He sentenced Michael under a provision of federal law that permits the Parole Board to release him at any time. Under present federal guidelines, Michael will serve no more than 10 years. Nickerson said he thought Stuart's decision was fair. In his arguments before the judge, Nickerson said that "this whole kidnapping started out as a con scheme." He said Michael initially planned to extort $15,000 from Art Wittern by saying he had information about a kidnap plot and would thwart the plan for $15,000. But, Nickerson said, it "mushroomed into a kidnapping at the last moment." Michael's alleged accomplices Timmy Dean Scovel, 40, and his father, Lawrence "Bud" Scovel, 61, both of rural Cumming were not mentioned in court Thursday.

After Michael's sentencing, Nickerson declined to comment on what he knew of their alleged participation except to say, "I think they were overcharged. Overkill will get you every time." Timmy Scovel was acquitted Wednesday of four charges stemming from the kidnapping. The trial of Bud Scovel has been postponed, and there RICKIE MICHAEL I01VA Tama boy collapses while playing, dies TAMA, IA. (AP) Perry Skraastad, 10, collapsed while playing at his home Wednesday and died about an hour later at Marshalltown Area Community Hospital. An autopsy is planned.

Dr. Dennis Mallory, who along with Dr. Greg Hoekstra answered the emergency call to the home, said the boy was playing with his father, George Skraastad, and other children about 4 p.m. when he became ill and collapsed. The doctors as well as the Tama Ambulance crew attempted to revive the boy before he was taken to the Marshalltown hospital, where he died in the emergency room at 5:25 p.m.

Face-biter jailed for parole violation Tha Ragtttar't low News Service LAKE PARK, IA. Robert Worrick, 22, of Lake Park, who was charged with resisting arrest and willful injury as the result of an Oct. 29 incident in which a policeman was bitten on the face, was jailed again here Thursday for parole violations. Worrick had been released from jail last week without bond at the request of his parole officer, Sandra Federspiel of Sioux City. But Thursday, Federspiel signed an arrest warrant filed in district court in Spirit Lake that said Worrick had violated parole because of the Oct.

29 incident. No other charges were listed in the arrest warrant. Federspiel could not be reached for comment. Manslaughter charge in crash near Rutland Tlw RnHtH1! Iowa Ntwt Sarvtca DAKOTA CITY, IA. Bruce Carlson, 18, of Rutland Thursday was charged with involuntary manslaugh ter in connection with a fatal traffic accident Monday south of Rutland.

Killed was Mark Kinsey, 14, a passenger in a car driven by Carlson. Carlson lost control of the car and it rolled into a ditch, pinning Kinsey. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Carlson is being held at the Humboldt County jail here. He also is charged with drunken driving.

Kidnapping charge for Burlington teen Tht RtttalWt Iowa Newt Sarvlca KEOKUK, IA. Murfrey Lee Schilb, 18, of Burlington has been charged with kidnapping in the alleged abduction Wednesday night of a Burlington woman. Police said when the woman got into her car, parked near a Burlington discount store, a man armed with a knife was hiding in the back seat. The man forced the woman to drive into the country, where he sexually assaulted her twice, took $100 and her car. The woman called authorities from a home near New London.

Schilb was arrested in Keokuk about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. He is charged with first-degree kidnapping, two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, first-degree robbery and first degree theft. He was being held at the jail in Keokuk in lieu of $215,000 bond. Fahey is selected for district bench FORT MADISON, IA.

(AP) R. David Fahey Jr. of Fort Madison has been selected to the district bench in District 8B, which includes Henry, Louisa, Des Moines and Lee counties. Fahey, 33, has served as a district associate and juvenile court judge in the area since 1981. His appointment was announced Thursday by Gov.

Terry Branstad. His initial term will expire Dec. 31, 1984, and his annual salary will be $50,700. It's c-c-c-cold! JoAnn Newhard, 35, of Zearing, watches for cars near a bridge construction site east of Brandon as chill winds whip the impromptu rain gear she had fashioned out of plastic normally used to cover freshly-poured concrete. Newhard is an employee of one of the contractors building the Interstate link pays $25,080 io G.H.

woman By GENE RAFFENSPERGER Raahtar Staff Wrttar The fund that was set up to protect Iowans from alleged wrongful acts by their lawyers has paid out the largest claim in its history to a Cedar Rapids woman, officials say. The $25,000 paid to Vivian Hayes of Cedar Rapids is the maximum amount allowed to one person under the rules of the Client Security and Attorney Disciplinary Commission, a seven-member agency established by the Iowa Supreme Court in 1973. Hayes filed a complaint with the commission alleging mai ceaar RaDids attorney Robert Gross withheld $33,000 of funds due her as the result of a divorce action. Tom Riley, also a Cedar Rapids attorney, said the $25,000 paid to Hayes is not enough because Hayes' loss is $33,000. Riley filed a civil lawsuit in September asking $33,000 from Gross, plus punitive damages.

Riley added that he has urged Linn County Attorney Denver Dillard to file criminal charges against Gross. Dillard said Thursday he cannot comment on the matter at this time. Riley said Gross has left Cedar Rapids and is believed to be living in Reno, and driving a taxi. Gross could not be reached for comment. No telephone number for him was listed in Reno.

John Courtney, assistant adminis trator for the Supreme Court's disciplinary system, said the fund is supported by assessments against in dividual lawyers, ranging from $25 to $50 a year. He said under current rules once a lawyer has paid a total of $200 no further assessment is made. Riley said he thinks most lawyers in the state would be willing to raise the assessment in order to allow larger payments. To be eligible for payment from tne fund, said Courtney, an individual must have been the victim of mishandled funds by his or her lawyer and the individual must have exhausted all attempts to get the money back from the lawyer. The seven-member commission examines all claims and decides on the amount of payment.

Courtney said the $25,000 payment to Hayes is the commission largest to date. Riley said Hayes' complaint about Gross stemmed from a divorce action between Hayes and her husband, Leonard J. Hayes, in 1980. Riley said he represented the husband and Gross represented Vivian Hayes. Riley said the couple reached an agreement that the husband would pay Vivian Hayes $40,000 as part of the property settlement.

Riley said Gross was to put the money in a deposit account and make payments to Vivian Hayes. Riley said a total of $7,000 was paid to Vivian Hayes, and then Gross stopped making payments. Records in the Iowa Supreme Court show that the court ordered Gross' law license suspended Nov. 24, 1982. The record does not show that Gross ever reapplied for the license.

In its order a year ago, the Supreme Court said it was suspending Gross' license because he ignored district court orders directing certain distribution of funds and he commingled personal funds with trust funds received in behalf of his clients. Riley said that action by the Supreme Court was a separate matter from the complaint filed by Hayes. Middletown man dies in Illinois crash Spaclal Dlipatdi to Tha Raglitar PERRY, ILL. Russell Wagler, 28, of Middletown, was killed Wednesday in a pickup truck accident near here. Authorities said Wagler was a passenger in a truck driven by Donald Neff, 21.

The accident occurred on Illinois Highway 107 north of Perry about 2:15 a.m. the front-runner in the race, former Vice President Walter Mondale. He said if the Democrats put Mondale at the head of the ticket, the race would be "a rerun of the 1980 election." "We frighten the public on the economy," Hollings said, noting Democratic defeats in 1968, 1972 and 1980 that he said were caused by voter concerns that the Democrats couldn't manage the nation's economy. "I don't think Mondale can do it He can't carry the Sunbelt or the West," Hollings said. "Glenn's been orbiting the globe for 25 years," Hollings continued in an interview.

"I've been orbiting government for 25 years. I wouldn't get in his capsule. He shouldn't get in mine." Hollings said "my campaign and agenda is sacrifice. and he would do that with an across-the-board freeze in federal spending. Interest rates then would drop and "business will have confidence" and borrow money, expand and create more jobs.

between Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. Attorney in hostage case eyes 'Viet stress' defense 2 more votes for Soorholtz in canvassing By DEWEY KNUDSON Ragittar Staff Wrttar Republican John Soorholtz gained two votes in official canvassing of Tuesday's balloting, giving him a 33-vote victory in a special election for the Senate. Soorholtz, a 57-year-old farmer from Melbourne, edged Representative Tom Swartz Marshall-town) 6,525 to 6,492 in a contest for the District 36 Senate seat. Swartz has until 5 p.m. Monday to ask for a recount of the ballots in Marshall and Jasper counties, which are included in the district.

The county auditors said Thursday Swartz has not yet notified them whether he intends to do so. Swartz could not be reached for comment Thursday. Thursday's canvassing showed that Soorholtz won Marshall County by a margin of 4,337 to 4,241, while Swartz ran ahead in Jasper County, 2,251 to 2,188, Soorholtz's total in Marshall County was two votes more than unoffjcial results available election night The; winner of the race will replace former Senator Mick Lura, a Mar-shalltpwn Republican, who resigned earlier this year to take a full-time job in state government. The election was for the remaining year in Lura's term, and the seat will be up for election next November. The job pays $13,700 a year.

November 1979 of conduct regardless of life after he took a policeman and four others hostage. He was released under supervision in November 1982, but was jailed again after stealing a motor vehicle in La Crosse, Wis. On Jan. 19, he had been taken to the Waupun, maximum-security facility to serve four years. On June 27, he was transferred to a minimum security facility in Oregon, where he and Bell escaped Sept.

11. Bell and Specht also allegedly robbed and tied up a Bagley, couple and took their car. The car was spotted Sept. 18 near Monona by an Iowa State Patrol trooper, who gave chase. The escapees eventually turned up a dead-end street in Monona, and the Ihdes were taken hostage as they were coming off their porch.

Martin doesn't expect the case to come to trial for at least six months. He plans to file for a change of venue to move the trial out of Clayton County because of publicity about the case. lona loses two millionaires to recession ELKADER, IA. (AP) The attorney for a prison escapee who held two people hostage in their Monona home in September says he hopes to build an insanity defense based on post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from combat in Vietnam. Linzy Martin of Strawberry Point, the court' appointed attorney for Leonard Specht, has asked for a special psychiatric evaluation of his client to determine if a delayed reaction to Vietnam combat experience could have triggered Specht's violent behavior in September.

Specht and Mark Bell are charged with holding Lester and Laura Ihde hostage Sept. 18-19 at the Ihdes' home in Monona. Specht, who is being held in the Clayton County Jail at Elkader, and Bell, who has not been extradited from the Grant County, jail, each face several charges, including kidnapping, burglary, sexual abuse, terrorism and going armed with intent. Specht has pleaded innocent to all charges. Martin said that if Specht is diagnosed as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, the information will be the basis of his insanity defense.

While interviewing Specht, Martin learned Specht had served in combat in Vietnam and had made application to the Veterans Administration in Wisconsin for disability as a result of the stress disorder. "He has passed a simple test that indicates he may be suffering from this disorder," Martin said. "That's what alerted me to using this as a potential defense." Since Specht has never been diagnosed as suffering from the disability, he has not received treatment or counseling, Martin said. Specht's records indicate he served two tours of duty in Vietnam, from January to December in 1970 and September 1971 to August 1972. Released honorably from a combat engineer division of the Army, Specht bad received National Defense Service, Army Commendation, Vietnam Campaign, Vietnam Service and Good Conduct medals.

"He has had a stormy past since returning home," Martin said. Specht's prior criminal record shows he was found guilty in School chief to retire COGGON, IA. Robert Timmons, superintendent of the North Linn School District for 10 years; Wednesday announced his retirement. Hollings: Still competing here despite campaign-office closing By FRANK SANTIAGO Raatttar Staff Wrttar It looks like it's getting a wee bit tougher to make a million dollars in Iowa these days. The Internal Revenue Service says it got 18 income tax returns from Iowans reporting incomes of $1 million or more during 1981, the most recent year available.

That's two fewer than the 20 who showed up on the 1980 tax returns. Why the decrease? The IRS doesn't say in a recent bulletin on federal income tax returns. One IRS spokesman in Des Moines says the decrease is too small to indicate much of anything. But it could mean, he adds, that some of the well-heeled were cooling it as the recession gained steam in 1981. Many of the fortunes, he noted, result from capital gains, such as the sale of land or stock.

And since 1981 was a rotten year for both, the rich may have eased away from the marketplace. But even if the number slipped a bit, million-dollar incomes aren't an endangered species in the Hawkeye State. Actually, 1981 was a good year for making big bucks. In 1979, there were a mere 13 $l-million-plus income earners. Neatly assembled in table form in an inch-thick booklet, the 1981 IRS figures show Iowa barely makes a ripple in the pool of this country's million-dollar incomes.

There were 5,286 $l-million-plus returns filed in the nation during the year, with New York contributing the most 898. California was next with 843. But among its neighbors, Iowa isn't exactly a depressed area. Nebraska could scare up only 15, while Sotjtth Dakota reported none. Illinois, however, 7.

harbored 263, Minnesota 58 and Missouri 72. If 1981 was a typical year, a taxpayer's chances in Iowa are one in 65,448 that he or she would declare earning $1 million or more. Of the 1.1 million peopli; who filed federal income tax returns in Iowa during the year, 234,926 the largest single group reported incomes of less than $5,000. The next largest group was the $5,000 to $10,000 income earners. There were 222,135 of them.

As the income scale rises, the size of the groupings, naturally, shrinks. There were 835 returns declaring income of $200,000 to $500,000 and only 90 from $500,000 to $1 million. The IRS says the 18 "millionaires" paid $31,655,000 in income taxes during the year (compared with the $101,606,000 paid by the 234,926 who earned less than These rich taxpayers declared 58 exemptions. There were 75,472 returns that got $15.5 million in credits for child care. And like taxpayers everywhere, Iowans went after the itemized deductions.

They declared deductions amounting to $2.7 billion on income said to be $20.7 billion. The IRS didn't say how much of the deductions it allowed or what percentage it suspected was too high to believe. Iowans were also telling Uncle Sam in '81 that they were trying to conserve energy. There were $44,228,000 in "energy credits" and much of it (more than $33 million) went for insulation and some of it for caulking (almost By DAVID YEPSEN Raatatar Staff Wrltar U.S. Senator Ernest Hollings said Thursday he is still competing for votes in the 1984 Iowa Democratic caucuses even though he has closed his Iowa campaign office.

The South Carolina Democrat, in Iowa for a fundraiser and to deliver a speech to the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association, said he closed his Iowa office because "I got beyond my financial means. This in no way means I'm not making an effort here. I'll still be making an effort." Hollings, who shows up near the bottom of most public opinion polls, said those numbers doji't mean anything. He noted that he has defeated Ohio Senator John Glenn in several straw poll contests around the country. i Hollings took a swipe at Glenn and 1 ERNEST HOLLINGS.