The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 1

1 Advice 5T SS Classified ads 5T 3T 2T Editorials. 8A Letters 9A Lotteries 5T Movies 2M Obituaries. 7M People in 2A Sports 4S TV 2T end siring- TKE WEATHER V. 4 at I I 1 4 i 1 Mostly cloudy today, high around 60. Cloudy tonight, low in the lower 40s.

Partly sunny Thursday, high in the npper 60s. Sunrise: 6:24 a.m.; sunset 8:02 p.m. Details: 14T. v. 1 1 IS 3 A SFCTION Copyright nn, Des Moines Register and Tribune Company It Nov wines in the pink; the answer about veal I I Page IT yj THE NEWSPAPER IOWA DEPENDS UPON Des Moines, Iowa, Wednesday, April 22, 1987 Price 35 Drop in Iowa land prices slows to 1 Role by Army in contra aid is suspected fm ma feTBg.

aaLlli vmmn i iii.iiiMniriin.3L John Poindexter Testimony could be crucial Grand jury clears officer in gun death By ELIZABETH FLANSBURG Register Staff Writer Des Moines police officer David Lillard was justified when he shot to death a Des Moines man March 13, a Polk County grand jury decided Tuesday. After interviewing 10 witnesses over a two-day period and deliberating a short time, the grand jury cleared Lillard of any wrongdoing in the death of Larry Bentley. Polk County Attorney James Smith called for the grand jury probe after witnesses gave conflicting reports about what occurred the night Bent-ley was killed. Bentley, 37, was shot in his apartment at 1411 22nd St. Police said Lillard was called to the scene to break up a fight between Bentley, who was holding a shotgun, and several of his neighbors.

Four witnesses said Lillard told Bentley three times to put down the gun before Lillard fired, police said. Bentley's live-in girlfriend, Kathleen Tafta, who also was in the apartment, maintained that Bentley was not holding the shotgun, which was unloaded, when Lillard opened fire. She said Lillard didn't warn Bentley to put down the gun. A Des Moines police committee reviewing the shooting ruled last month that Lillard acted in self-defense. Smith said because the grand jury also has cleared Lillard, the investigation into the case is closed and no charges against Lillard will be filed.

In other court news Tuesday: Wilbur Millhouse, 44, of 2453 Maury St. pleaded guilty to six counts of third-degree sexual abuse in connection with incidents involving six teen-aged boys. Millhouse, a former employee of The Des Moines Register's circulation department, was arrested Monday after he failed to appear for trial. He pleaded guilty Tuesday before District Judge Richard Strick-ler and faces up to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced May 29. After deliberating for 20 minutes, a Polk County jury found a LILLARD Please turn to Page 5A High court Oils death for accomplices Parties to felony leading to killing can be executed By AARON EPSTEIN IM7 KiMrt-Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON, D.C.

Accomplices in a felony that results in murder may be executed even though they neither killed nor intended to kill the victim, a closely divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. Splitting 5-4, the justices concluded that the death penalty may be constitutionally imposed on such accomplices if they had played a major role in the felony and displayed a reckless indifference to human life. The decision is likely to increase the numbers of accomplices sent to the nation's death rows, according to several criminal law specialists. "The court has established a new category of defendants eligible for the death penalty," said Jack Boger of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund's capital punishment project. "But," he added, "the contours of that category remain to be defined." Escape from Prison Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a strong advocate of capital punishment when she was a legislator and judge in Arizona, wrote the majority opinion in the case of two brothers, Ricky and Raymond Tison, who helped their father and another inmate escape from an Arizona prison in 1978.

Later, the brothers watched as their father, Gary Tison, and the other fugitive murdered four captives John Lyons, his wife, his 2-year-old son and his 15-year-old niece in an Arizona desert with repeated blasts from their shotguns. Gary Tison died of exposure in the desert. But under Arizona's felonymurder statute, which authorizes a murder conviction of anyone who participates in certain felonies resulting in a killing, Ricky and Raymond Tison were found guilty of COURT Please turn to Page 4A Fairness Doctrine protected by Senate 117 Carmen News Sarvtce WASHINGTON, D.C. The Senate, striking a blow at deregulation of broadcasting, voted Tuesday to make a law out of a doctrine that requires broadcasters to cover all sides of controversial-topics. At issue is the 38-year-old "Fairness Doctrine," which the Federal Communications Commission says has outlived its usefulness.

But in a 59-31 vote, the Senate disagreed. The bill now goes to the House, which is expected to follow the Senate's lead. Critics say broadcasters should be treated like newspaper owners, who aren't subject to such regulation. The name change comes at a time when the Iowa Legislature is considering a $5 million bonding proposal to build a new home economics building at ISU. Deacon contends the old name has hurt efforts to obtain money for the college.

The home economics college has about 1,660 students. About one-fourth of the faculty members are men. The new name is aimed mainly at legislators in an effort to give them a quick education about the college's current role, said Deacon. "And we want to reach the public, too," she added. Peg Anderson, a member of the Board of Regents from Bettendorf, said she believed the old name has hurt instead of helped recent home economics graduates.

Some have told her that the name connoted an old-fashioned image and hindered their job searches. Anderson said she expects the regents to approve the name change without much debate. exams favor agency charges The organization notes that while girls score lower on the standardized tests, they tend to earn better grades than boys do in high school and college. That leads FairTest to the conclusion that the tests don't predict college academic performance as they claim to do. John Weiss, FairTest's executive director, says test makers admit their exams discriminate against women but have done nothing to change them.

"That's a bit overstated," counters David Crockett, vice president for public affairs at the American College Testing Program in Iowa City. "We don't admit to that." Crockett says test makers acknowledge the difference between scores of boys and girls, but not that the tests are biased. "The tests are a valid measure of educational attainment," he says. "Females make better grades in high school than males. Does that mean high schools are biased against males?" Fred Moreno, the College Board's assistant director for public affairs, calls the FairTest report "superficial, using very simple equations." The College Board sponsors the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

"We do not discriminate against women," he says. "Male-Oriented" Though the report gives no specific examples of biased test questions, it suggests that the college entrance exams' strictly timed, multiple-choice format is discriminatory and that many questions are TESTS Please turn to Page SA Survey reports smallest decline since skid began By DON MUHM Register Farm EdHer Prime Iowa farmland lost another 1 percent of its value in the past six months, according to a private sur vey, but it was the smallest drop since the historic price skid began about five years ago. The April survey puts the value of prime farmland, capable of 135-bushel corn yields, at per acre across the state. "If Iowa farmland values aren't at the bottom, they're awfully close," said Eldon Boswell of Nevada, chairman of the survey, which is made every six months by the Iowa Chapter of the Realtors Land Institute. Boswell, a real estate broker and former farm credit official who is employed by Hertz Farm Management of Nevada, predicted, "Our next report (in September will show thar we've hit the bottom and things have turned around." The Realtors Land Institute survey says farmland values have increased in two regions of the state since a similar survey was conducted last fall.

The value of prime farmland has increased 2.1 percent in northwest Iowa and 1.8 percent in west-central Iowa in the past six months, the new survey says. Late last year, an Iowa State Uni-1 versity study put the average value of all grades of Iowa farmland at 1786. Ames land broker Duane Sandage said his company's office in Spencer recently has noted "a surprisingly strong market" for farmland, including higher prices for land and increases of 7 percent to 10 percent in cash rents. Part of the reason for this, he said, is the improved livestock economy, which provided good profits for pork producers in 1986 and decent margins for cattle operators in recent months. "But we're seeing good land mov- LAND Please turn to Page 5A Bride dies; groom killed after wedding EAST MEADOW, N.Y.

(AP) A woman critically injured in a car crash that killed her husband on their wedding day died Tuesday night. Carol Zagorski Phillips, 24, died after doctors were unable to sustain her breathing. The accident involving Phillips occurred April 3 as a limousine carrying her wedding party turned into the driveway of a reception hall and collided with another car. Phillips' husband, Peter, 27, and his brother and best man, John, 29, died in the accident. Carol Phillips' right leg was amputated below the knee and she suffered injuries to her spleen and liver.

State Medical Examiner Thomas Bennett said the baby was born alive but died later of exposure. Debbie Fuller said she and her husband, Ron, did not know Lisa was pregnant, and they believe she would have told them about her pregnancy if she had not gone into labor earlier than she expected. "If only I had been here or Ron had been here," said Fuller. She described the death of the baby as a nightmare for the family, despite an outpouring of sympathy and support that has come from their friends and neighbors in Stanhope. Because of the criminal prosecution pending against Lisa, her stepmother declined to discuss specifically the baby's birth and death.

She said the family's primary goal is to keep Lisa from being prosecuted as an adult. Sitting in the family's home, Fuller said her stepdaughter a petite bru- BABY Please turn to Page 2A Immunity for Poindexter as probe widens yet again From Register Wire Services WASHINGTON, D.C. The Penta-i gon said Tuesday that it recently discovered that a secret Army unit disbanded in 1983 had set up a Swiss bank account that later may have been used illegally to finance arms for the Nicaraguan rebels. A senior Pentagon official said an internal investigation had produced information suggesting that Lt. Col.

Oliver North, the dismissed National Security Council aide, and Maj. Gen. Richard Secord, who retired from the Air Force in April 1983, were among those who had access to the unauthorized Army account. They are both under investigation on suspicion of providing military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, or contras, when Congress had made it illegal for U.S. government agencies to do so.

The Pentagon official said the evidence suggests that North and Secord may have persuaded members of the Army unit to let them use the account for covert aid purposes after the unit was disbanded. He did not say who those people might be. It is not known whether any federal funds were deposited in the account and later used to aid the contras, or whether the Army account was used as a conduit for non-government funds. The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Robert Sims, said in a statement read to reporters Tuesday afternoon that the Defense Department was looking into the matter. He did not go into details in his statement, but the briefing continued on a background basis with an official who refused to be identified by name.

In a related development in the continuing probe of the Iran-contra affair, a Senate investigative committee voted unanimously Tuesday to give limited immunity to Rear Adm. John Poindexter, as White House offi- IRAN Please turn to Page 4A Omahan declared dead gasps for air OMAHA, NEB. (AP) A paramedic following procedure declared an unconscious man dead, but the gasped for air minutes later and was in critical condition at an Omaha hospital, authorities said. Police found Paul Reher, 53, of Omaha in rough terrain near the Missouri River Monday night. A police officer called the rescue squad after he detected no pulse, authorities said.

Reher's body temperature had dropped because of hypothermia. Paramedic Ronald Wiley declared Reher dead, Fire Chief Horton Dahlquist said. No disciplinary action will be taken against Wiley. ISO cooking up By VERONICA FOWLER Of The Register's Ames Bureau AMES, IA. Since Iowa State Uni-! versity was founded in 1871, the Col- lege of Home Economics has always been called just that.

Some people now have the feeling that the tradi-i tion-bound name sounds old-fash-1 ioned and should be replaced with one having a high-tech ring. Backers of a proposal to rechristen the school as the College of Family and Consumer Sciences hope it will lead to a better understanding of what the college is about. Instead of teaching brides-to-be how to make the perfect brownie, the college focuses on community nutrition, food technology, family finance, marital therapy, hotel and restaurant management, clothing manufacturing and dietetics. "Our programs have deepened and broadened," said Ruth Deacon, dean of the college. But lawmakers and others "still raise the question, 'Why should we support this cooking and i "The biggest myth is that we're training people to be homemakers," added Mary Yearns, a faculty mem College entrance males, watchdog By TOM CARNEY Register Staff Writer Like their counterparts in other states, Iowa high school boys outperform the girls on college-entrance exams.

But a group that monitors the exams says biased tests not differences in ability are to blame for the score gap. Since 1977-78, average composite scores for boys on the ACT have ranged as much as 1.4 points higher than those for girls, according to the Iowa Department of Education. The average boys' score in 1986 was 21.3; for girls, the average was 20. Scores range from 1 to 36. Similarly, male students have done better than females on the SAT.

Iowa boys, on the average, scored 21 points higher on the portion of the exam covering language skills, and 66 points higher on the math section, than girls in 1985-86. Each section is scored on a scale from 200 to 800. 61 Points Lower A similar gap between the sexes exists nationally on the college entrance exams, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, or FairTest, a Massachusetts-based non-profit group that last week issued a report titled, "Sex Bias in College Admissions Tests: Why Women Lose Out." The report says girls nationally averaged a combined 61 points lower than boys on the SAT in 1986 50 points lower on the math section and 11 points lower on the verbal portion. What's more, the gap has been widening since 1972, particularly on the verbal section, where girls used to excel. FairTest public education director Robert Schaeffer says the gap results from built-in test biases that result in women receiving fewer scholarship dollars, fewer opportunities for admission into college programs of their choice, and in the long run lower-level jobs, lower incomes and fewer leadership opportunities.

FairTest contends the bias explains, for example, why over the last three years only 36 percent of the semifinalists across the country in the National Merit Scholarship competition have been girls. Among 239 Iowans named semifinalists in 1985-86, only 36 percent were girls. Nigerian, 9, carries $1 million in heroin NEW YORK, N.Y. (AP) A 9-year-old boy from Nigeria carried more than $1 million in heroin into Kennedy International Airport, officials said Tuesday. The boy, whose name was not released, was not charged, and Customs agents were trying to arrange a flight home for him.

But agents arrested a man who came to pick him up, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Pi-leggi in Brooklyn. A Customs inspector noticed that the boy "was all by himself and he was carrying this steamer trunk" when he entered the country Thursday night, she said. Inside a false wall was three pounds of heroin. a new name for Home ic Accused teen mom had wanted to keep her baby ber who heads the committee that recommended the new name.

The Board of Regents will be asked Thursday to consider the name change. Deacon said the response to the change has been generally favorable, although she has received letters from alumni who like the old name just fine. "They feel the college has had a long tradition and that this could change the general view of that tradition of quality," she said. Some students also don't like "College of Family and Consumer Sciences." "It sounds like another major or something," said Pat Keese of Dy-sart, whose major is hotel and restaurant management. "And most of my friends, too, when I tell them about it, they sort of turn up their noses." Keese, who will be job hunting later this year, said having "The College of Home Economics" on his resume doesn't bother him a bit.

"I'm sure some others though, some of the more macho-oriented guys, might have a problem with it." By ANNE CAROTHERS-KAY Register Staff Writer STANHOPE, IA. A Stanhope teen-ager who is charged in connection with the death of her newborn baby girl wanted to keep the child, her stepmother said Tuesday. Lisa Fuller, 17, a sophomore at South Hamilton High School in Jewell, went into labor earlier than she anticipated and had her baby alone at her parents' home here, said her stepmother, Debbie Fuller. "I just think Lisa was afraid to tell us," Fuller said. "She wanted to tell us.

She just didn't know how or when. I think she thought maybe we would take the baby away from her She wanted to keep the baby." Lisa Fuller appeared Tuesday before Hamilton County Juvenile Court Referee Glenn Kumpula for a closed-door hearing on a request from Hamilton County Attorney Bridget Chambers that Fuller be prosecuted as an adult on a charge of felony child endangerment. Fuller's 4 -pound baby was found March 25 in a garbage bag in a ditch along a county road near Stanhope..