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The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 26

Location:
Des Moines, Iowa
Issue Date:
Page:
26
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

4MTHE DES MOINES REGISTER Tuesday, March 12, 1991 GARY FANDELThe Register Council again votes to cut mayor's pay Tht Register's lew Newt Soviet MARSH ALLTOWN, IA. The Marshalltown City Council Monday passed the second of three votes on an ordinance to cut the mayor's salary from 118.000 to $6,000. The ordinance, which is not favored by Mayor Stan Brown, was initiated after a city administrator was hired last fall to take over many of the daily duties that the mayor had handled. But council members said similar changes have been made in other Iowa cities. The council voted 6-3 after the second reading to pass the ordinance, Councilman Harold Gourley said.

The final vote will take place at the next City Council meeting, March 25. Portfolios to aid grads iff 72, 9. i 1 the first to complete the portfolio. "I think it's a good idea for preparing yon for your future goals," said Heinzel, of 4321 Ashby who plans to major in biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa next year. Heinzel said she is not sure if other students will react as favorably.

"I haven't heard a real enthusiastic response by my friends," she said, but added that they may change their minds when they have a chance to look through the portfolios. The idea of portfolios for high school students has been gaining attention from educators and business people across the country. The portfolios cost about $1 per student and are paid for by private donations to the alliance, Drees said. Continued from Page One sonnel at Valley National Bank, said carefully completed portfolios would make a favorable impression. "There are a lot of students that are going to be flooding the job market in the month of May.

We will have to pick and choose carefully who we want to hire," she said. "Anytime somebody can give us the impression that they're very well prepared, they're organized, they're going to have the advantage." Business people plan to present the program to seniors at Des Moines' high schools by the first week of April. They started at Hoover High School Monday. Hoover senior Julie Heinzel, 18, is Julie Heinzel, right, is one of the first Des Moines public sheets for students to fill in personal information about school students to complete her student portfolio. Em- activities and career interests, their school attendance repayment portfolios include school transcripts and work cord, work experience and references.

-vr. i Jl Witness: Phelps spoke about missing girl in interview Supervisors uphold firing of Polk's veterans director SpmM DiSMtch to Tht Register MADISON, NEB. David Phelps, accused of kidnapping a 9-year-old Nebraska girl, gave a taped television interview about the missing girl because he said he had something to get off his chest, court testimony disclosed Monday. The tape, parts of which were broadcast, is said to be the most incriminating evidence against Phelps, who was born in Perry, la. Investigators have been unable to find a trace of the girl, Jill Cutshall, since she vanished Aug.

13, 1987. KMTV cameraman Roger Prai testified at Phelps' trial in Madison County District Court that Phelps spoke about the i i missing girl before the interview got under way in a Norfolk, yr 7 motel room. The interview was done by Marcia Cady, a ments. David Domina, Phelps' lawyer, said Phelps had been intimidated into giving the interview. Phelps was brought to the motel room by Roy Stephens, investigator for Missing Youth Foundation in Omaha.

The television crew, summoned by Stephens, had been waiting. Earlier, Stephens had taken Phelps to the wildlife area to question him. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Stephens took a handgun from an assistant and fired a shot into the air. The assistant, Diane Robinette, testified Monday that before the shot was fired, Stephens had handed Phelps a shovel and said, "I want you to find Jill." Phelps responded, "I'd be glad to help you, but I don't know where she is," Robinette said. The three walked around the park with Phelps 10 feet in the lead.

"Every now and then, Roy would holler, 'Where's and David would keep walking," she said. Stephens reached for the gun, fired a shot in the air and said, "300-pound men don't like taking nature walks." She said Phelps appeared to be startled by the noise. Phelps agreed to talk, led Stephens to a nearby cemetery, then went to the Norfolk motel for the interview. Prai was the 15th witness to testify. The trial is expected to continue about three weeks and may include testimony from 60 to 70 witnesses.

reporter for the Omaha television station and former reporter at WOI-TV in Ames. Prai, testifying in the second week of the trial, said Phelps david said in the motel room, "I don't know how he got her in the phelps car," referring to his former roommate, Kermit Baumgart- ner. In the interview, which was played for the jury, Phelps said he and Baum-gartner left the girl's apartment house with the child on the morning she disappeared and drove her to a wildlife management area southeast of Norfolk. There, he said, he held the girl while Baumgartner molested her. He said he later drove away and left the two alone.

Baumgartner, who is to be a witness, has denied any involvement. Questioned by police shortly after the interview, Phelps recanted the state- le'. TV Video i Whirlpool "Bonus Weeks!" Ends Soon. See Dealer For Details. By MARY CHALLENDER Rtelsttr SttH Writer Before a hearing for fired Polk County Veterans Affairs director Dan Mcllhon began Monday morning, lawyer James Brick questioned the likelihood of his client getting a fair shake when the lawyer opposing him was employed by the judge.

The Veterans Affairs Commission, the three-man citizens board that fired Mcllhon June 26, was represented by Mary Vavroch, a lawyer with the county attorney's office, Brick pointed out. But Mention's fate was being decided by the Polk County Board of Supervisors, and the supervisors are also represented by the county attorney's off ice. "If I get into a disagreement with her over a legal question, who decides who's right or wrong?" Brick asked. "The county attorney's office. I've found over the years it's difficult to prevail when the judge is my opponent." Voted 3-2 His dissatisfaction likely wasn't relieved five hours later when the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to back the commission's decision to fire Mcllhon, a Vietnam veteran who had been director of Veterans Affairs since 1987.

Supervisors Martha Willits, Jack Bishop and Ray Stephens voted to affirm the decision by the board-appointed commission. Supervisors John Mauro and Robert Kramme voted to overturn it. The board also ruled against Mention's claim that he should have remained on the county payroll until the time of his hearing under the veterans preference law. During the hearing, the commissioners gave the board more than half a dozen reasons for Mention's firing, ranging from leaving the office to play golf on Wednesday afternoons to failure to document where the department's budget was spent. Some of the complaints dated back to 1987.

"We discussed problems with him at just about every meeting," said commissioner Warren Hall. Verbal Warnings The commissioners testified they gave Mcllhon two verbal warnings in October 1989 and February 1990 before firing him because they wanted to give him another chance. But the October "warning" was prefaced by a motion by commissioner Albert Hutton to fire Mcllhon, Brick said, indicating commissioners "were out to get Dan." The golfing was done on compensatory time, he said. One of the incidents cited by commissioners even occurred when Mcllhon was home sick, Brick said. "Never Our Intention" Commissioner James Sanger agreed.

"It was never our intention to fire Mr. Mcllhon when we started," he said. "It's why we're not better prepared for this hearing. We thought we'd reprimand him and he'd straighten up." The commissioners criticized Mention's handling of many cases personally rather than through the department's social workers. Mcllhon occasionally gave benefits to veterans who weren't eligible, they said, a charge that made Mcllhon bristle.

Hutton denied that commission members decided to fire Mcllhon regardless of his performance. Mcllhon said he granted the exceptions to "give a poor person the benefit of doubt." One of the cases involved helping pay funeral costs for the adult child of a veteran, Brick said, while in another case Mcllhon authorized buying a plane ticket for the wife of a veteran flown to Houston for open heart surgery. i Board members capped the five-hour hearing by spending 45 minutes in executive session taking with them, over Brick's objections, a lawyer from the county attorney's office and board counsel Norman Jesse. But the conclave didn't end in harmony. In his dissenting vote, Mauro blasted the three commissioners for their part in Mention's troubles and said they should look to their own performance.

"I certainly don't believe in my mind you gentlemen are doing the job you should be doing and I want you to know that," Mauro said. "That Mr. Mcllhon has to be in this situation is because of your incompetence and I want you to know that too." MIRWOLDEmimSM CLEAN TOP IT" 1 Whirlpool fiN iimiii L. 4 flf 30 DAY-MONEY BACK GUARANTEE ON THIS RANGE Expert: Slaying victim shot at very close range Appliance TV Video ill DISHWASHER I. 1 LECTRIC WGE SELFCLEMNGMH V'COMIHMMAS.

smnmmHHOHW? MODEL mSB III TEXTURED STEEL DOORS GALLON STORAGE IN THE DOOR SPUT CLASS SHELVES 1 20 CU. FT. MODEL ET20DK NOW mm WK nnl ww am APPLIANCES ST. SAME AS INDOOR SILVERWARE BASKET 6 CYCLE POTS i PAHS CYCLE MODEL DU9000 OUR BEST SELLER WASHER SUPER CAPACITY CLEAN TOUCH CONSOLE 9 CYCLE EXTRA RIUSE MODEL LA9500 SAVE NOW mm 'mm i yft mum wxm whirlpool pl5yyHj! Vftiitpool Whirlpool Other Great Whirlpool Savings At 'Appliance 'TV Video See These WHIRLPOOL LARGE CAPACITY WASHER By PATRICK BEACH Kilter Stir! Writer Janet Noe's head was no more than three inches from the muzzle of the gun that killed her, a state ballistics expert testified Monday. Robert Harvey, an Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation expert, told Polk County jurors that the Smith Wesson .38 Special was fired from such close range that unburned gunpowder from the shot left marks on her skin.

The testimony came as the trial of 25-year-old Steven Long, accused of shooting Noe, his girlfriend, last July 26, resumed following an unexpected halt last week when defense attorney John Wellman and Assistant Polk County Attorney James Ramey argued over whether the jurors should be allowed to hear testimony that Harvey eventually gave Monday. During a deposition early in the case, a pathologist said the shooting probably occurred about two to four feet from Noe's head, but his opinion could change if further tests were conducted. After the trial had begun, Harvey conducted tests indicating the shooting had occurred at very close range. Judge George Bergeson granted Wellman a continuance to review the new evidence. In his opening remarks last week, Wellman argued that Long shot Noe, 26, accidentally and that the accused man held her in his arms and sobbed hysterically after the shooting.

In later testimony Monday, Wellman and Ramey sparred over whether Noe, who had been treated for injuries including a broken nose, was suffering from battered women's syndrome or paranoia from cocaine and amphetamine abuse. Dr. Michael Taylor, a psychiatrist called by the defense, said Noe had cocaine, amphetamine and metham-phetamine in her body when she died. In January 1990 she went to Broad- lawns Medical Center, where she told medical workers that she believed worms were inside the cocaine she had snorted and that she could feel the worms crawling under her skin. Under further questioning by Wellman, Taylor recounted a police report in which Noe allegedly admitted to having attempted to kill Long by running him over with a car.

In cross-examination from Ramey, Taylor said a woman who was beaten over a two-year period could exhibit behavior similar to that of a woman suffering from drug-induced paranoia. The prosecution rested its case Monday morning. Wellman said he expects the defense to conclude today. Grinnell College fee rising $1,460 next year Tim Rtfttttr'i fowl Ntwi Strvlcl GRINNELL, IA. A $1,460 rise in the Grinnell College comprehensive fee was authorized by the Board of Trustees at its February meeting.

The college announced that the fee, which includes tuition, room, board and other charges, will rise from $16,150 this year to $17,610 next year. Bettendorf museum opens exhibit for tots Tht Register's lewa Ntws Strvlct BETTENDORF, IA. Young chil-, dren will have an exhibit all their own when "TotSpot" opens at the Children's Museum here Saturday. The exhibit, designed for children 3 or younger, will include special activi-ties, toys and workshops. WHIRLPOOL LARGE CAPACITY DRYER HEAVYDUTY 5 CYCLE 2 SPEEDS CYCLE HEAVY DUTY COOL DOWN CARE MODEL LAS500 COOL DOWN CARE MODEL LA5S00 ft model LE5720 rs --S NOW NOW MODEL LES720 WHIRLPOOL SUPER CAPACITY WASHER 2 SPEED 5 CYCLE 3 WASHIRIMSE COMBINATION MAGIC CLEAN FILTER MODEL LAS558 NOW PELLA HWY.163E.

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