The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 17

T1 T'f "7 Sept. 26, 1984 THE DES MOINES REGISTER 3M Police seek aid Judges split on parent duties crease to $15,000 annually. The intermediate appellate court ruled Tuesday that the alimony payments should not continue beyond five years after the younger child graduates from high school. The court upheld the judge's order that Richard Thornton pay Judith Thornton $12,000 for lawyers fees, and the court added $3,500 to that for lawyers' fees for the appeal. The court left intact other provisions of the judge's order dealing with division of the couple's property.

Their house at 5216 Harwood Drive, valued at $137,500, goes to Judith Thornton. She assumes the $44,000 mortgage and has to pay $40,000 toward the $70,000 in debts run up by Richard Thornton. "Richard expended very substantial amounts during the marriage upon personal items primarily for himself," the appeals court said. "Richard made little effort to live within his earnings, and he did not share the financial condition of the family with Judith." Thornton, a partner in the Des Moines law firm of Davis, Hocken-berg, Wine, Brown and Koehn, also is "an outstanding lobbyist in the Iowa Legislature," the court said. In another decision Tuesday, the appeals court upheld the conviction of Charles V.

Dunham, 55, of Deep River, on a charge of failing to file a campaign finance disclosure report on time. Y'mnr'iiiiiiiaiiiriTr- 'J 1 4usSSmtJk Old Man Winter on his way Pamela Riley of Des Moines Urns her wind-blown hair and leather jacket against the chill Tuesday. A strong cold front that moved through the state brought mach colder temperatures and Iowa's first reports of snow this season, in the northwest corner of the state. Tbe earliest snow recorded in Iowa fell Sept. 6, 1929, in extreme northwest Iowa near Alton.

Campus freeze organizer wants voting booth action abductions 'Gacy-fype' spirited away from the public for two years. So what conclusion do you draw from that?" Martin, 14, disappeared Aug. 12 while delivering the Des Moines Sunday Register in a southside neighborhood. Gosch, who would be 14 now, has been gone since Sept. 5, 1982, when he was delivering the Sunday newspaper in West Des Moines.

Hawkins' comments to the Rotarians appeared to go beyond official statements that have come from the joint investigation by the FBI, the state Division of Criminal Investigation and Des Moines police. There has been broad public speculation about what might have happened to the youngsters. While acknowledging that a number of theories have been explored, investigators have declined to say publicly what those theories are, adding that they wouldn't speculate. Hawkins said that before answering questions he asked the Rotarians if there were reporters in the room. According to some who were at the meeting, no hands were raised.

"I always do that," Hawkins said. According to others at the meeting, Hawkins said agents gave polygraph tests to a "number of sickos" but "they just weren't getting anywhere." Noreen Gosch earlier this year contrasted the case of her son and that of the 1983 kidnapping of teen-ager F.A. "Chip" Wittern, who was found within hours. When confronted with the accusation, she said Hawkins told her, "Well, Mrs. Gosch, that Wittern boy is worth more money than your son." The FBI later said that "nothing that Mr.

Hawkins told Mr. and Mrs. Gosch could even remotely be interpreted" as saying that By PAUL LEAVITT Readier Stall Wrtear The six judges of the Iowa appeals court were sharply divided Tuesday over whether parents could be held negligent in entrusting an automobile to their minor child, a licensed driver with a number of traffic citations on his record. The lawsuit that caused the disagreement stemmed from a 1980 accident in which a car owned and driven by Timothy Holt, 16, struck Brent Cooper, who was riding a bicycle home from work in Polk County. Brent and his wife, Susan, sued Timothy and his parents, Carl and Darlene Holt.

A jury assessed Timothy $25,000 in damages for Brent and $1,000 for Susan. It also awarded each of the Coopers $100 from Carl Holt under a section of Iowa law that provides a custodial parent may be held liable for up to $1,000 in damages for a minor's unlawful acts. The Coopers also sought damages from the Holts for their alleged negligence in entrusting Timothy with an automobile in light of his violation-studded driving record. The record showed that Timothy Holt had rear-ended another car, received two speeding tickets and citations for permitting an unauthorized person to drive his car and for having an improper muffler, all within less than a year of receiving his license. Under Iowa law a parent can be held liable for the negligent operation of a motor vehicle by bis child if the parent has the ability to control the child and should know the need to do so, even if the parent is not the owner of the vehicle, the court said.

But it said Timothy's driving record wasn't so bad that his parents would know that his driving would likely result in injury if they failed to control him. "For that matter, we do not believe the evidence demonstrated that Carl or Darlene failed to exercise proper control over Timothy," the court said in upholding District Judge Ray Han-rahan's dismissal of that portion of the Coopers' lawsuit. But only two of the six judges, Bruce Snell and Allen Don-ielson, accepted that view of the issue. Two other judges Rosemary Sackett and Maynard Hayden said Timothy's parents didn't have the authority to control Timothy's driving: "Only the state has the authority to grant driving privileges or to see to their revocation. The State of Iowa was knowledgeable of Timmy's past driving record, but continued to allow him the privilege of operating his automobile," they said.

The other two judges Richard Schlegel and Leo Oxberger sided with the Holts, saying Timothy "had demonstrated such complete disrespect and disregard for the motor vehicle laws that his parents had a duty to take measures to protect the public from what was bound to follow, and what did, in fact, happen." In another case, lawyer-lobbyist F. Richard Thornton should not have to pay permanent alimony to his former wife, the appeals court ruled. The Thorntons' 20-year marriage ended in divorce last year. A Polk County judge ordered him to pay between $9,200 and $10,800 annual support for each of the two children until they graduate from high school. In addition, Thornton was ordered to pay $6,000 annual alimony to Judith Thornton until July 1989, the year the younger daughter graduates.

Then his alimony payments to Judith would in Doctor, hospital By GARY HEINLEIN Rfditw Stiff WrHar A lawsuit has been filed charging that surgical scissors accidentally were left in a Des Moines woman following the caesarean section delivery of her baby at Mercy Hospital Medical Center. The lawsuit in Polk County District Court against Mercy and obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Robert Sieman was filed by Janet L. and J. Michael Downey.

The suit also says an incomplete circumcision was performed on the couples' newborn son, Timothy, in the 1982 delivery. Sieman and the hospital have filed court documents denying the allegations. The Downeys say Janet suffered chronic infection and required a By MEREDITH WOODWARD RtorSr Stiff wYrtNr Nuclear-freeze advocate Sanford Gottlieb said he didn't expect Iowa college students to take to the streets against nuclear weapons as a result of his appearances this week, but he said he'd rather they make their protest in the voting booth anyway. Gottlieb, 58, executive director of the two-year-old United Campuses to Prevent Nuclear War, is touring 10 Iowa colleges under the sponsorship of the Stanley Foundation of Muscatine. The foundation aims to encourage discussion of international issues.

The United Campuses leader has spent about 25 years talking about, writing about and organizing movements for disarmament From 1960 to 1977 he was the executive director of SANE, a lobby against nuclear weapons. He is perhaps best known for helping coordinate the March on Washington against the Vietnam War on Sept. 27, 1965. Gottlieb regrets that today's college students aren't taking to peace issues like their 1960s counterparts. In the '60s, they were the vanguards," Got REGISTER PHOTO BY LARRY E.

NEIBERGALL tlieb said. "Today they're taking up the rear." Because of the economic insecurity their parents faced in the 1970s, he says, students seem more concerned about their pocketbooks than international issues. Gottlieb said he's aimed his efforts at college students because they are the most difficult group to organize. "I don't like the easy ones. I like a challenge," Gottlieb said.

But Gottlieb maintains that while today's students may be economically conservative, they are socially liberal and open to new ideas about nuclear arms. "If young people do anything, they want to see the results," he said. "Part of the failure of the peace movement was way too much concentration on street demonstrations and not enough on elections," he said. His organization, therefore, is geared toward promoting discussion of nuclear issues, and to influencing how people vote, he said. MONDAY NIGHT UNTIL EVERY ij yj in finding van used by rapists By TOM ALEX Regritw St Writer Des Moines police are asking for help in identifying a gray van used in the abduction and rape of a Des Moines woman by five men earlier this month.

The 34-year-old woman said she was taken from her home Sept 13 and was tortured and raped repeatedly. She later was released at an east-side grocery store. Authorities say a citizen has offered a $500 reward for arrest and conviction of one or more of the suspects. Police say they are looking for a gray van with patched spots on the right side over a wheel well. The van has dirty carpeting, possibly blue, and a small closet or refrigerator on the left side.

Tbe vehicle had no license plates. The men were described as white, with four of them possibly in their 20s and one of them in his 30s. One of the rapists identified himself to the victim as a meter reader for Des Moines Water Works and gave his name as Kevin Black. Police say they haven't determined if he gave hie own name or gave a false name. He is described as being in his 30s, about 5 feet 10 inches tall, with brown hair.

Another member of the group, who used the name Dave, had a full beard, mustache and dark hair. A third member of the group had a mustache. Another man is said to have had blond hair and blue eyes and the fifth suspect was described only as clean shaven. The man who called himself Black went to the victim's home during the week of Sept. 3, posing as an employee of the water works.

Police say be did not actually work for the utility. The same man apparently called the woman several times a day for two weeks before going to her house, officials said. On Sept. 13, as the woman was getting out of her car at home, she heard the phone ringing. She ran into the house to answer the phone, leaving the door to the house open.

Investigators said she recognized the man's voice as Black's. He asked her if she was "ready for a party." As the woman asked, "What party?" four men came in the door. She was abducted at knife point and was taken to the van, where she was assaulted. ISEA asks candidates to Valley High meeting The Iowa State Education Association has invited area legislative candidates to a public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at Valley High School in West Des Moines.

An ISEA tax nronos- al to raise more monev for teacher salaries and other school needs will be the topic. SUNDAY 12 TO 5. SI ASUAL FOOTWEAR FOR HER FBI agent fears of boys may be By FRANK SANTIAGO RtaHtar SMI Writer An FBI special agent told Cedar Rapids Rotarians recently that investigators fear a mass killer like John Wayne Gacy may be involved in the baffling disappearances of two Des Moines newspaper carriers. But, Herb Hawkins, special agent in charge in Iowa and Nebraska, Jk VL said Tuesday that in herb a questioning ses-hawkins sion following his speech, he said that a Gacy copy cat was only one possibility. "You have to understand the entire question," Hawkins said from his Omaha office.

"The question was asked if it's conceivable that an individual would take children such as Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin and hold them in captivity for two years like in the Gosch case. "My response was that it certainly was possible in this type of investigation. Nothing is outside the realm of possibilities, which is common sense." Hawkins said that he then spoke of Gacy and he said "that one of the fears, of course, is that we have a John Wayne Gacy type of situation." Gacy, who was convicted in March 1980 of the sex-related Chicago area slayings of 33 young men and boys, is under a sentence of death in Illinois. He once served 18 months in prison after being convicted in Waterloo of the sodomy of a teen-age boy. "The other fears are, I said, that we have an individual who would have the propensity to be a closet pedophile, or that there is someone who has no arrest record and there is little to go on," Hawkins said.

One Rotarian, however, who was among the 300 club members at Stouf-fers Five Seasons Hotelaid the FBI agent told the group, "We may have a pedophile on our hands, but what we really think we have, and what we're really concerned about, is that we have another John Wayne Gacy." The club member, who requested anonymity, added, "He left an impression with me that they were thinking the boys were dead. He said he didn't see how somebody could keep them sued on delivery second operation about a week after the Oct. 19, 1982, delivery to remove the surgical scissors left in her body. The Downeys also contend that Timothy will have to "undergo additional surgical circumcision." The Downeys are seeking an unspecified amount of money to cover Janet's pain and suffering, hospital expenses and "disability and incapacitation with respect to her daily personal and motherly duties." Mercy public relations director William Maurer declined to comment on the suit. Sieman also declined comment.

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