The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 13

The Palm Beach Post WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1988 SECTION OCAL EWS Stuck with bills, wife stands by missing spouse Blacks fire at airport Contracts delay Airport Contracts: A Reprise. Efforts to guarantee business contracts to minorities and women at the new Palm Beach international Airport terminal have caused a carload of controversy. The latest volley comes from some members of the county's black community. Tony Brown, i i Ji 7 (7 it Quinn 'not a sobbing woman says By JOE BROGAN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Pauline M. Quinn is a forgiving woman.

Her husband, John A. "Jack" Quinn III, walked out of their 13-year marriage and her life Saturday when he took $1.3 million in cash from his Riviera Beach security firm and to his whereabouts. Three airline tickets he bought Saturday to different locations, including New York, provided no leads because he didn't use them. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives said clerks for airlines and car rental agencies don't recall anyone answering his description taking a flight or renting a car. Sheriff's detectives got an arrest warrant for Quinn on grand theft charges Tuesday, and the FBI is expected to file for an arrest warrant today for interstate transportation of stolen property, spokesmen said.

Please see WIFE4B In an tearful interview Tuesday from her Loxahatchee Groves home, his wife refused to blame him for what authorities are calling one of the area's largest thefts of currency. "I have to tell people my husband is not a criminal," she said, sobbing. "It was the result of an absolute cracking. He was under such pressure. That's all I can say." She declined to elaborate on the type of pressure he was under, but investigators said Quinn was at least $50,000 in debt and the U.S.

Internal Revenue Service had garnished his wages for nonpayment of income taxes. Authorities said Tuesday they have no clues Jack' John A. Quinn III Delray man faces $2.3 million seizure coast Chamber of Commerce a minority business organization has been the most outspoken. Black businessmen and businesswomen are upset that the County Commission last week withheld approval of three airport contracts targeted for them because of complaints from Hispanics. Carolyn SUSMAN Brown, it should be noted, was a member of the advisory committee that recommended the Contract awards.

I This is beginning to sound a bit like deja vu. You see, the Hispanics in the person of unsuccessful contract bidder Lou Martinez previously had raised questions about the contracts. None had gone to a firm with Hispanic partners. Caught in the middle, commissioners ordered the postponement of the awards while County Attorney Gary Brandenburg reviews the whole process. That's known as tossing the hot potato.

1 The potato may be out of the commissioners' hands, but they are still being burned by it. V-v 'ft'1, Brown has written an editorial for the Suncoast Chamber's newsletter, in which he doesn't pull any punches. The delay in the awards, he says, "is totally unfounded and signals racism." He says the process had been approved previously by commissioners. They are, he writes, "promulgating the double standards which have long kept hlarlrc frnm oainincy a fair Federal officials: Nursery owner led cocaine ring By MARK BURNEKO Palm Beach Post Staff Writer DELRAY BEACH Federal officials today plan to seize $2.3 million worth of property from a suburban Delray Beach nursery owner believed to be the largest supplier of cocaine in south Palm Beach County. The $2 million Nursery at 9821 Happy Hollow Road and the $300,000 home of Deniz Fernandez at 14265 Smith Sundy Road have been a base for a multimillion-dollar cocaine distribution and cocaine "rock" manufacturing operation, federal officials said in a forfeiture warrant filed Friday in federal district court in Miami.

Fernandez, who authorities say also is named in a sealed federal indictment charging that he traded heavy equipment for cocaine, has not been seen since Friday, when he was released from the Palm Beach County jail on a charge of aggravated assault on a Delray Beach undercover police officer. He was released on $1,000 bond, according to Palm Beach Circuit Court records. Fernandez, 33, along with Roberto Rodriguez and Abraham Oliva, owns several Delray Beach properties, including a house at 1022 S.W. Ninth Ave. called "The Hole" by authorities.

It is reputed to be one of the most frequented crack cocaine houses in the area, police said. The probe of Fernandez has been conducted by a federal task force that includes the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, Palm Beach and Broward County sheriff's offices and Pompano Beach and Delray Beach police. County property records show that the three men also own houses at 1029 and 1039 Germantown Road, where sheriff's deputies have arrested dozens of crack buyers and sellers in recent years. The seizure of Fernandez's business and home today was a move to prevent him from selling them once his alleged drug organization is dismantled through arrests, said a federal investigator who spoke on condition of anonynity.

Under federal civil seizure laws, a defendant must prove that the property was not used in connection with an illegal activity. Fernandez will not be allowed to return to his home unless he arranges to pay rent to the federal government, or the government's seizure is overturned by the federal court. Roberto Hevia, a 36-year-old Hialeah man convicted in federal court in Miami last month on four drug trafficking charges, told federal investigators he saw as much Please see SEIZURE4B SHAUN STANLEYStaff Photographer Morris Pollack sits in a sheriff's patrol car after the accident that injured three people at Palm Beach International Airport. Two were struck by a car driven by Pollack, and a third was hurt when pulled out of the way. Car in reverse hurts two at airport Brakes failed, says driver, 79 Tony Brown share of tne economic pie." Says Brown, "The general sentiment from the black business community is that we would take with great disdain any decision by the County Commission to split the concession awards.

"If they do it this time, there will be some repercussions. We will do the best we can to make some people feel the burden." P.S.: Notye Brewington, minority affairs coordinator for the county's Department of Airports, had sent a memo to commissioners prior to their actions last week. Her report showed that Hispanics have been well represented overall in the awarding of airport contracts to minorities and women. Jet noise not as you like it Special Memo to Donald Trump: You know how upset you are with those jet planes that fly over your weekend retreat, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach? Well, you're not the only one suffering. Members of the Institute for Theatre Training from the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre got a taste of, well, jet lag this weekend.

They were performing a short work, Tom Stoppard's Doggs Troupe Hamlet, a zany compilation of Shakespeare's writings. Polonius and Ophelia were emoting in the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach, just across the Intracoastal Waterway from Trump's home. Suddenly, an airplane flew over, with deafening results. The action stopped. Polonius, played by Brandon Meyer, ad-libbed some gestures and kept his mouth shut until the plane had passed.

Later, when asked whether he was disturbed by the interruption, he laughed. "The script says, 'jet flies Music by Muzak an airport balm? Prescription to Avoid Testy Travelers: Music by Muzak piped into the new airport terminal. County Commissioners are expected to continue to use this pre-programmed musical cocoon, as they have at the existing airport terminal in West Palm Beach. But lest they forget its benefits, purveyor William Seton of Harmony Music in Lake Worth recounted its worth. Seton says Muzak is "scientifically programmed to avoid depressing minor modes and to emphasize major modes, which tend to be uplifting." And you thought you were happy because of that trip to Hawaii.

By RON KOZLOWSKI Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH A 79-! year-old man drove about 200 feet in reverse at Palm Beach International Airport Tuesday, flipping a Boca Raton woman over the trunk of his Buick and onto its roof before she fell to the grass in front of the Continental Airlines terminal. Morris Pollack of 399 Sheffield St. in West Palm Beach said he threw his 1981 LeSabre into reverse because his brakes had failed. Violet Barton, 78, of Covington Drive was in critical condition at Good Samaritan Hospital Tuesday night with head injuries. Her neice, Susan Warren, 29, also was hit but suffered minor injuries, Sheriff's Office spokesman Bob Ferrell said.

Pollack said he had picked up his niece and was driving away from the terminal when he discovered that his brakes would not work. Witnesses said the car lurched backward and sped back at the terminal, slamming into Barton and stopping against a support post. Barton and Warren were the only people hit by the car, but another woman was hurt when she was pulled out of the way, Ferrell said. "I was going very fast back," Pollack said, sitting in the passenger seat of a sheriff's deputy's car. "I couldn't stop it.

(My niece) yelled stop I don't know what she said, I was so concerned trying to stop it." Tim Wood, an airport employee, watched the faded green car speed back toward the busy loading zone. "It was sick. That's what it was," Wood said. "(Barton) didn't have time to get out of the way. When everyone started screaming, she was the last one to look." Imogene Willis of Palm Beach said she had just checked her luggage when she heard screams from people who saw the car racing in Please see CAR2B WM V- JOHN J.

LOPINOTStaff Photographer Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue workers aid Violet Barton of West Palm, who was injured when she was hit by Pollack's car. Hinton coasts to fifth term in Jupiter vote Election '88 Gearl Gore, who received 578 votes. In the South Ward, Robert R. Chapman will begin his third term on the council. Chapman, 59, was unopposed.

Less than 20 percent of the town's 11,384 registered voters turned out. "The people showed that they wanted Please see HINTON4B cast in Tuesday's mayoral election. Her opponent, Daniel C. Brach, an insurance damage repair specialist, got 472 votes, or 21 percent. McCarthy got 1,609 votes, 74 percent of the ballots cast in the North Ward race, and will take over the seat vacated by Edwin Pedersen.

McCarthy, a consulting engineer, beat former Councilman H. By SHARI LAIACONA Palm Beach Post Staff Writer JUPITER Eight-year Mayor Mary Hinton will hold onto her seat for a fifth term, while political newcomer Thomas McCarthy will replace a retiring 24-year council veteran. Hinton, the owner of a day-care center, got 1,747 votes 79 percent of the ballots Incumbent winner Mayor Daniel Brach 472 Mary D. Hinton 1,747 North Ward H. Gore 578 Thomas McCarthy 1 ,609 Landmark designation gives Theft an addiction for burglar admitting a thousand heists Gucci that pen ned-in feeling Inside Local News TOO SECURE? The delay of fire-rescue aides by airport security screening in an emergency call brings a change in procedure.

STORY, 3B AUTHORITY NEARS DEAD END By a 5-0 vote, the County Commission ended any speculation the Expressway Authority would be revived, reaffirming its request to legislators to eliminate the controversial board. STORY, 3B -A By NICK MADIGAN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer PALM BEACH Over the objections of the structure's owners, the Palm Beach Town Council on-Tuesday designated the Gucci Building a historic landmark and prepared to do battle in court to preserve the designation. If successful, the council's move made before a standing-room-only crowd in Town Hall means that Gucci America Inc. will not be able to expand or make alterations to the building at 256 Worth Street gets Greek name 2B Tennis machine reprieve 2B inside or out. David Faust, an attorney representing Gucci's parent company, said the corporation "wholeheartedly objects to the proposed designation and will fight it in every way possible." Council member Hermine Wiener said she regretted the possibili-ty of a lawsuit and that the two Please see GUCCI4B By ANGELA BRADBERY and RON KOZLOWSKI Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Timothy Wayne Thompson's passions were skateboarding and surfing.

His favorite vacation spots: Hawaii, California, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia. His source of income: burglary. For Thompson, breaking into houses was a drug, he said Tuesday from jail. "It was like I was addicted to burglaries," he said during a phone interview. "I never tasted any alcohol, smoked a cigarette or done any kind of drugs." Please see HEISTS4B IN BRIEF 2B STREETWISE 3B OBITUARIES 5B AREA DEATHS SB, 6B David Faust: Gucci objects to the designation and plans to fight it..