The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 181

The Pnsir" WABDS SERVING MARTIN COUNTY VOL. LXXVI NO. 79 WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA 2 120 PAGES 25 CENTS Copyright 9M Ttw Pott THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1984 11 worn Waterfield Manslaughter Conviction Angers Parents I i Waterfield Faces 15 Years, A3 By Jim Reeder StH WrIWr PUNTA GORDA Anger, frustration and disappointment welled up in Jean and Carl Elliott yesterday after Fred Water-field was convicted of manslaughter in the death of their daughter Lynn. "It was a total miscarriage of justice," Carl Elliott said. "I don't think Lynn has been vindicated.

I hope they can find some way to make him pay through another indictment or something." After David Gore was convicted in March of killing his daughter, Elliott said the death penalty Gore received was "exactly what he deserved." But this time the outcome was different. Waterfield was acquitted of kidnaping their daughter Lynn Elliott and her 14-year-old companion. "My reaction was anger, frustration and disappointment," Mrs. Elliott said. "I was astonished.

Really astonished. I feel he was the mastermind and just as guilty as Gore." Waterfield family members would say little to reporters yesterday except to express relief he won't face the death penalty. "I'm very happy with the verdict," Connie Waterfield Ma her said. 'T never stopped believing in my brother's innocence." Ironically, Mrs. Maher and her sister, Debra Hyatt, were subpoenaed by prosecutors to testify against their brother Mrs.

Hyatt told of seeing him with two females and another man in his truck about the time the two girls were being driven to Gore's house. Mrs. Maher said she moved the truck later that day. Mrs. Elliott said the verdict "scares' me were called to Punta Gorda by State Atty.

Bob Store as possible witnesses in Water-field's trial. Mrs. Byer attended most of the trial, though her husband was barred from the courtroom. The dead girl's grandparents arrived Tuesday for the trial's end. "If they didn't get him (Waterfield) today, I'm wondering how they'll get him for Barbara's murder," said Catherine Byer, the dead girl's grandmother.

Nancy Byer said Stone told her Water-field will be charged with her daughter's death after he is sentenced July 24 on the manslaughter charge. Defense attorney Michael Bloom said he doubts the state has enough evidence to indict Waterfield for Miss Byer's death. "If the state couldn't prove this case, they'd have to believe in the tooth fairy to envision a conviction on the other cases." for a lot of little girls." Miss Elliott's 15-year-old companion, who was sexually assaulted by Gore before she was rescued from the attic, broke into sobs when the verdict was read. "I don't think it was fair at all," she said. "They tried to defend those guys and it's not worth it." The girl's mother said she intends to move from Vero Beach now that the trials are over.

While the Elliotts and the 15-year-old's family have been directly involved in this trial, another set of parents and grandparents have been on the sidelines. Gore has identified Barbara Ann Byer, a 14-year-old runaway from Orlando, as one of two teenagers he and Waterfield picked up hitchhiking on 1-95 in May 1983. Gore led police to a grove where Miss Byer's skull was found in December. Her parents, Michael and Nancy Byer, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Connie Maher, defense counsel Bloom Fred Waterfield's sister happy at trial's eno Report: U.S. Can Weathei Oil Crunch -J) Rumors Pump Market Rumors that Iran had cut oil prices helped ignite a short-lived but explosive stock market rally yesterday.

Story, D12 Iraq Claims Hit Iraq said its warplanes attacked a 'big naval target' near Iran's main Persian Gulf oil terminal yesterday. Story, A19 John J. LoDinotTHE POST The moon covered more than half of the sun at 12:18 yesterday afternoon at the Science Museum Eclipse Darkens Skies, But Not Spirits By Bob Dart Cox News Strvlct WASHINGTON The Persian Gulf war between Iran and Iraq is not likely to affect prices or supplies at America's gas pumps this summer, the Reagan administration predicted yesterday. Instead, the world price of oil is expected to decline from $29 a barrel in 1983 to $26 a barrel in 1986, according to an Energy Outlook Report by the Energy Information Administration. Afterward, though, oil prices will begin a slow, steady rise.

The predicted price of a barrel of oil will reach $37 by 1990 and go up to $50 a barrel by 1995, the report said. Oil imports, which have declined in recent years, also are expected to rise during the coming decade, the report said. However, even in 1995, the United States will not be as dependent on foreign oil as it was from 1977 to 1979, the report said. "We are much better off as a nation to survive a reduction in oil imports" than the country was during the early 1970s, said J. Erich Evered, administrator of the Energy Information Administration.

Even an escalation of the Persian Gulf war would not severely affect the United States oil market, he said. Of the 8 million barrels of daily exports from the Persian Gulf, only 23,000 to 25,000 barrels about 3 percent is destined for the United States. In addition, the United States has an emergency strategic reserve of 400 million barrels of oil, equivalent to 80 days of imports from all countries and more than two years of gulf imports at current levels. The Energy Information Administration, a semi-autonomous branch of the U.S. Department of Energy, was generally optimistic about the energy future in its annual report.

"Total U.S. energy use has declined in each year since 1979," Evered said. "Even in 1983, there was a small decline in energy use despite lower oil prices and a year-to-year increase in economic activity." The administration report, which totaled more than 500 pages in two volumes, summarized the 1983 energy situation and predicted what will happen through 1995. Among its findings: Petroleum is expected to re- main the major fuel used in the United States through 1995. Oil consumption will rise from 15.2 million barrels a day in 1983 to more than 17 million barrels a day in 1995.

However, the importance of petroleum as an energy source will decline in relative terms. Petroleum accounted for 43 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 1983. By 1995, this share will fall to 41 percent. Domestic petroleum production will remain at about the current level through the 1980s, then decline slightly in the 1990s.

Thus, oil imports will rise. Nuclear power is expected to be the most rapidly growing source of energy for the next 10 years as plants under construction are completed and put on line. With 80 nuclear plants in operation, nuclear power provided 13 percent of the nation's electricity in 1983. Another 43 nuclear plants are being built. Nuclear power will provide 19 percent of U.S.

electricity in 1995. Automobile fuel efficiency is projected to continue to improve throughout the coming decade as gas guzzlers are retired from the road and new, higher mileage cars are added. The automobile fleet average miles-per-gallon is forecast to improve from 16.5 mpg in 1983 to nearly 28 mpg in 1995. The report does not predict a sudden rise in the price of natural gas when domestic production is decontrolled in 1985 as a provision of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978. The natural gas price is expected to be kept down through competition from oil.

Poll SUH tnd Wirt Rtportt Animals bedded down, automatic lights switched on and thousands of people peered through cardboard and expensive lenses yesterday as the moon crawled across the face of the sun in the nation's last major solar eclipse this century. The eclipse brought 200 people to the Science Museum of Palm Beach County and about 130 people to the Singing Pines Museum in Boca Raton to view the phenomenon. While Sharon Taber of West Palm Beach was holding her 4-year-old son Shane to take a close look through the Science Museum's telescope, the museum was busy answering telephone inquiries from callers who wanted to observe the eclipse without damaging their eyes. Museum Director Ed Sobey said one woman asked if it would be safe to look through her camera if she coated the lens with molasses. A Palm Beach woman wanted to know if it would be all right to look at the eclipse if she kept her eyes closed.

Several callers, Sobey said, asked if it would be advisable to outfit their dogs with sunglasses. The eclipse would have been visible over most of the nation but it was obscured by clouds along the East Coast. The eclipse was at its fullest over a 4-mile-wide strip from just north of New Orleans to just south of Richmond, Va. It reached its peak in Atlanta at 12:23 p.m., triggering automatic street lights as it immersed the area in a semi-twilight that lasted less than a minute. The temperature also dropped 2 or 3 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The celestial event brought a festive spirit to cities across the eclipse area as groups and businesses organized parties, luncheons and festivals featuring such dishes as "moon beans." Telescopes at the University of New Orleans marked the beginning of the eclipse at 10:41 a.m. Soon after, residents of Sunshine, reported a darkening of the sky, and cows that had been grazing over a 10-acre field gathered together and went to sleep. In Wiggins, downtown merchants emptied their shops to watch as one resident used a mirror to reflect the sun's image onto the side of a vacant building. In Baton Rouge, about 50 state employees gathered. outside the Capitol, but the Legislature, apparently unimpressed, continued its business inside.

Many colleges and universities in the Southeast set up telescopes to project the image of the eclipse for public viewing. "Very impressive," said Gary Ransford, an associate professor of physics at the University of New Orleans who watched at the campus observatory. 1 The day dawned cool and clear from Louisiana through Georgia, but rain and cloud cover blocked views of the eclipse over parts of North Carolina and Virginia. Sharon and Shane Taber view eclipse $10.5 Million Malpractice Award Overturned Execution Halted A federal appeals court grants a reprieve for Alvin Bernard Ford less than 12 hours before his scheduled execution for the murder of a policeman. Story, A5 Jl vj A A2 Scattered Rain treatment of Courtney.

"Far from being below the standard of care for a pediatrician, (Eddleman's efforts) were in fact heroic and Herculean." Owens said. Eddleman deserved praise, not scorn, Owens said. At most, the girl's parents deserved $2.3 million, Owens said. The Nightingales now live in Fort Pierce and could not be reached for comment. They lived in West Palm Beach in January 1978 when Courtney contracted an intestinal infection.

The Nightingales charged the infection led to dehydration, followed by high fever and seizures. Turn to AWARD, A2 By Ron Bishop Staff Wrlftr Circuit Judge William Owens yesterday threw out a $10.5 million verdict awarded to a brain-damaged young girl and her parents in March and ordered a new trial because he said the jury was swayed by sympathy and not the facts. Hayward Gay, an attorney representing pediatricians C. Jennings Derrick and Robert Eddleman, said he was "very, very pleased" by Owen's rejection of the verdict the second largest medical malpractice award in state history. However, attorneys for the girl, Court ney Nightingale, and her parents George and Nellamar vowed to appeal Owens' ruling.

The $10.5 million award was "shockingly excessive on its face," Owens wrote in a seven-page order released yesterday. He said the verdict was the result of jurors' sympathy for Courtney, who is now 7, but has the mental and emotional age of a 1-year-old and is confined to a wheelchair. Jurors, are routinely instructed to set aside their feelings in determining liability and damages. Owens suggested that the six-member panel had been overwhelmed by too much emotional -testimony combined with Courtney's presence in the courtroom. But attorney Greg Barnhart, who represented the Nightingales, said emotional outbursts were unavoidable and that sympathy during trials is a two-way street.

"The jury was instructed at least three times to disregard their sympathies," he said. "But the fact of the matter was there was sympathy for Dr. Derrick, too. They (the defendants) packed the courtroom with his supporters. It went both ways." Owens also said jurors were wrong to find Eddleman guilty of negligence in his Judge Upholds Spanton Transfer Trade Deficit Soars Again The U.S.

foreign trade deficit soars to $12.19 billion in April a fourth straight monthly record as one specialist says the imbalance for all of 1984 could climb as high as $130 billion, nearly twice the current yearly record. Still, recent trade agreements with Japan may reduce friction between the two countries. Stories, A10 InsideToday Business D12 Classified Ads C9-22 Comics B18 Contact CI Editorials A20 Steve Hummer Dl Legislature A14 Bob AAichals on TV B19 Obituaries C9 Stocks D13-19 Theaters C8 Ron Wiggins Bl TVljListings By Bud Newman Cox Ntwt Strvki WASHINGTON A federal administrative law judge yesterday said Defense Contract Audit Agency Deputy Director James Brown's 1982 order that prematurely transferred DCAA auditor George Spanton from West Palm Beach to California was not an illegal act of retaliation, as Spanton and a government prosecutor had charged. In a ruling that technically serves as a recommended decision to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, Judge Edward Reidy said the board's special counsel, K.

William O'Connor, had failed to prove that Brown had retaliatory intent whV.n he ordered Spanton transferred. exposing fraud and waste at the Pratt WhitneyFlorida plant near West Palm Beach, where he had been the chief DCAA auditor until his retirement last Dec. 31. "I have to say I'm disappointed," Spanton said in a telephone interview. "I'm not surprised.

I realize it was a very difficult path to take (challenging the DCAA). Now I'll have to hang in and see what happens." Brownreached at his office in the Washington suburbs, was ecstatic. "I'm delighted, I'm telling you," he said, adding that he "expected" the judge to rule in his favor. "I felt the truth would prevail I tried to do everything that I felt was necessary in order to nuu a proper decision Turn to SPANTON, A14 "My conclusion here is that (O'Connor) has failed to show by the preponderant evidence that Brown has committed a prohibited per-sonel practice," Reidy said in his 24-page ruling. O'Connor's office announced it will appeal Reidy's decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board.

If O'Connor loses there, he cannot appeal further, but if Brown loses before the board, he can appeal to federal court. The judge's finding is at least a temporary victory for Brown, who said he was "elated" at the decision. It also was a blow to Span-ton, a Pentagon whistleblower who has waged a two-year struggle throve that he was illegally hounded by DCAA officials for 1 George Sparfon charged transfer illegal.