The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 15

The Pes Moines ReoistfrB Tuesday, October 29, 1991 3M Reversal on Urban Dreams The Johnny Gosch Case Dateline Inmate relates story of youth's abduction vzr it 1 Police on Monday distributed this composite of a man suspected of abducting a preschool-age girl Sunday in Des Moines. He was described as 6 feet tall, 200 pounds and in his 20s. Police continue search for girl seen abducted was sold to pornographers. "He was scared and didn't know what was going to happen to hint He cried a lot. He wanted to see his mom and dad," Bonacci said of the conversation he had with Gosch a day after the abduction.

The conversation took place at the Sioux City-area farm home owned by a man named "Charlie," he said. Ringleaders Sitting in a reception area of the correctional center, Bonacci said he met one of the ringleaders, a man named "Emilio," when he was a youngster playing in Carter Lake. Emilio was a heavy-set Latino who had several tattoos, including one of a two-headed dragon on his arm, he said. All the individuals who participated were identified to him only by first names, he added. Emilio, accompanied by a youngster, Mike, about 15, and Bonacci, met men named Sam and Tony in a Des Moines motel, Bonacci said.

In the motel room, Bonacci, who said he was unaware of what was to happen, saw the men looking over photographs of carrier boys. i "I looked at them and saw they were all carrying (news)paper bags, There were several different boys. "Sam was saying to Emilio you I could get $5,000 for this one, and some of them they were talking about $25,000 or $50,000." From the Stack One of the photos was separated from the stack. Bonacci claims he learned later that it was a picture of Johnny Gosch. Early the next day, all of them left for the abduction, he said.

After riding around for several minutes on the floor of the back of Emilio's car, Bonacci said, he was instructed to be ready for a victim and to hold the victim down in the back of the car and chloroform him. When the car stopped, a young boy was shoved in, and Bonacci said he placed the rag on his mouth. When unconscious, the boy was transferred to a station wagon driven by Sam, who Bonacci said was white, medium height and heavy. From the station wagon, the boy was placed in a van driven by Tony, a tall, blond man with a bad Initial OK given on city grant By PERRY BEEMAN Register Staff Writer After a dizzying week of maneu vering, the Des Moines City Council Monday tentatively approved a grant of $11,000 to the inner-city agency Urban Dreams, reversing its rejection of the request a week ago. In chambers packed with Urban Dreams supporters, the council vot ed unanimously to approve the grant and to call for a check into the agency's record-keeping, which the city staff has found satisfactory.

The council asked that the pri vately financed study be conducted by businessman Andrew Mooney's consulting firm. A final council vote on the grant is expected Nov. 4. A week ago, Councilman Thomas Vlassis led an effort to yank the social-service agency's city financing which the group has received for five years because of questions over whether it was performing well and whether records on its programs were adequate. Vlassis sparred for 14 hours with Urban Dreams Director Wayne Ford on a KUCB radio program.

On Monday, Vlassis supported Councilwoman Connie Cook's move to restore the grant as long as Mooney's check of the records turns up no serious problems. "It's a pretty good solution to what has become a somewhat divisive situation," Vlassis said. Vlassis said he wants Mooney to study the effectiveness of Urban Dreams programs and wants the city to apply the same standards to all agencies receiving 1992 Community Develop ment Block Grants. All other council members also supported the grant, even though several had said as recently as late last week that they weren't sure they would. After an "extremely challenging" week, Urban Dreams board Prest dent Justine Morton said she wel comed the chance to work with the city on inner-city problems among all races.

"There are serious problems in our community that transcend the financing debate, Morton said. Urban Dreams supporters in the audience included state Rep. Tom Baker, Larry Carter of the NAACP and school-board member Jacqueline Easley. Councilman George Flagg said the organization still needs to give him names, addresses and employment information for people who have been helped. "There has been an absolute failure of this agency to tell us of their successes, Flagg said.

Councilman Archie Brooks said because the city money only pays the agency's rent and utilities, he's not sure the city has the right to ana lyze the programs. Ron Carr, chairman of the citizens group that recommended the grant, said the problems should have come up before the Des Moines Action Board was asked to consider the allo cation. Statewide Conference Authorities say they don't believe Paul Bonacci's claim, but the mother of the missing boy says it may be true. By FRANK SANTIAGO Register Staff Writer Lincoln, Neb. An inmate at the Lincoln Correctional Center said here Monday that he helped abduct Johnny Gosch after the newspaper carrier's picture was selected hours before by his kidnappers in a Des Moines motel room.

Paul A. Bonacci, 24, said he wres tled the 12-year-old Gosch to the floor of a car, placed a rag soaked with chloroform on his mouth to knock him out, and then watched as Gosch was later taken to a farm house near Sioux City. Bonacci's story of the Sept. 5, 1982, abduction is impossible to veri fy. Many of the details he related have been repeated often in news accounts.

Indeed, Bonacci, who is due to be released this week after serving time for a 1990 conviction of three counts of sexually assaulting a child, has not been interviewed by authorities. Police, who have been unable to find a trace of the missing youngster, say they are skeptical of his story. Credit Union Scandal Bonacci surfaced in the wake of the recent collapse of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union in Omaha. He contended that he was sexually abused by a prominent Omaha resident and that he saw other sex acts. A local grand jury indicted him on three perjury charges arising from the credit union scandal.

Bonacci also has been diagnosed as having multiple personalities. But Noreen Gosch, mother of the missing West Des Moines newspaper carrier, and her private investigator, Roy Stephens of Omaha, believe the story is compelling and may be true. "He knows so many things about Johnny that have never been told," she said. Birthmark on Chest Among the details described by Bonacci, said Stephens, is a scar Gosch had on one leg above the ankle, and the shape of a birthmark "Like South America," Bonacci described on Gosch's chest. Stephens said he is attempting to confirm Bonacci's story by following its trail, which begins in Omaha, moves to Des Moines, then briefly to Council Bluffs, to the Sioux City area, and finally, four years later to Colorado, where Bonacci claims he saw a different, almost unrecognizable Gosch.

Bonacci contends that the abduction was planned in Des Moines, that it was carried off by a team of men primarily for money, and that Gosch account of the incident, and officers reported it as a kidnapping. But was it? "We are limited only by our imaginations," said Police Sgt. Raymond Rexroat. "If it was an abduction, where is the mother or the father? We just don't know. We don't know the identity of the victim." Despite the lack of information, police continued their investigation Monday.

They talked with neighbors living within several blocks of the apartment building. Lawrence told officers the man and the girl didn't belong in the apartment building. She told officers she'd never seen them before. The man was described as black, in his 20s, about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. A composite of his face was made later in the day and was distributed to area news agencies.

The girl was described as having blond hair and wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and no shoes. By TOM ALEX Register Staff Writer Des Moines police were trying to locate a preschool-age girl Monday without knowing her identity or her predicament. The manager of an apartment building on the west side of downtown Des Moines told police Sunday she saw a man carrying a struggling young girl under his arm. The girl, a handkerchief stuffed in her mouth, was fighting and trying to get away. Deloris Lawrence, who lives in the building she manages at 615 15th told police she tried to stop the man from taking the child by grabbing for a foot as the man tried to leave.

The man told Lawrence it wasn't any of her business. As he turned, he kicked the apartment manager, sending her backward. He disappeared with the child under his arm, running east, investigators said. Police don't doubt Lawrence's Lotto winner gets two The Register's Iowa News Service big thrills in one day OWA Man gets 50-yeaf term for burglary, shooting Burlington, la. (AP) An Illinois man was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison In the shooting of a Burlington police officer during a discount store burglary.

"Let's get this over with," Fonso Wires, 27, said in Des Moines County District Court before being sentenced. Wires was sentenced to 25 years each for burglary and attempted murder. A Henry County jury found Wires guilty Oct. 1 1 of wounding police officer Tom Walz as Walz responded to a burglar alarm. Wires will be sentenced Nov.

12 for a June 11 escape he made while in custody for the shooting. He faces up to 10 years in prison on that conviction. Des Moines County Attorney Patrick Jackson said federal prosecutors also will levy charges against Wires for stealing and possessing the gun he used in the shooting. Police still investigating alcohol-poisoning death The Register's Iowa News Service Fort Dodge, la. The investiga tion is continuing in the death of Amber Leah Young, who died of al cohol poisoning, said Webster Coun ty Attorney James Koll.

Koll declined to release any details of, the death, and would only say that officials expect to complete the investigation later this week. Young, 20, an employee of Yester day Lounge, was found at the tav ern early Saturday. An autopsy re vealed a blood-alcohol level at 0.53 One dead, five injured in collision near Le Mars Le Mars, la. (AP) A collision north of Le Mars on U.S. Highway 75 killed an Orange City woman and in jured five other people.

The Iowa State Patrol said Jo Ann Fretz, 62, died Sunday when a car she was driving was struck by one that crossed the center line. The patrol said charges are pending against the driver of the other car, Bruce Moss, 28, of Omaha, Neb. Moss and a passenger in his car were injured, as were three passen gers in the Fretz car. Man sentenced to life in prison in wife's death Keokuk, la. (AP) Michael Ewart was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday in the stabbing death of his 19-year-old estranged wife.

District Judge William Dowell handed down the mandatory life sentence after rejecting a request by defense attorney Alfredo Parrish for a new trial. A Lee County jury convicted Ewart Sept. 26 of first-degree murder. Witnesses said Ewart attacked Melissa Ewart in a Keokuk grocery sjore parking lot Feb. 25 after they met to exchange custody of their baby daughter.

Melissa Ewart was stabbed 15 times. Former Thompson man given special sentence Tjie Register's Iowa News Service Cedar Rapids, la. A former Thompson man, who was described as staying crime-free only when in prison, was sentenced Monday to a term nearly double the maximum under federal guidelines. Jose Lara-Banda, 31, a Mexican national, was sentenced on his guilty plea to a charge of entering the United States in February after he was deported on a felony charge in March 1990. U.S.

District Judge David Hansen imposed a four-year sentence, saying tjie record demonstrates that the only thing that keeps Lara-Banda from committing crimes is incarceration. Maximum sentence of federal guidelines would have been two years and three months. Changes in law will affect foreign college students The Register's Iowa News Service Iowa City, la. Foreign students at the University of Iowa and the state's other post-secondary schools will see a change in the process used to renew immigration papers. Beginning Monday, students who hold F-l visas and whose immigration documents have expired will be treated differently than they have been in the past.

Previously, the students have been given a grace period of up to 18 months to complete their education. 1 In Iowa City, about 2,000 students will be affected by the change, said Maggie Brooke, immigration adviser with the of I's Office of International Education and Services. The revision of F-l visas was prompted by the Immigration Act of 1990. Brooke says those students who hold F-l visas that have expired are now in violation of their immigration status. jiufc.i- Windowless Room All in the group but Sam then -drove to Council Bluffs for a stop at a tavern, and then on to the farmhouse near Sioux City.

Bonacci said Gosch remained at the farmhouse at least a week. He said Gosch was kept in a locked, windowless room. "He was asking what was going to happen and he told me he wanted to see his mom. He told me his nanie was Johnny Gosch." Bonacci said he left Gosch and didn't see him again until March 1986 in Colorado Springs. He said Gosch was almost unrecognizable, that his blond hair was black and he was wearing braces.

Gosch was being held against his will by captors whom Bonacci said he didn't know. i Mason City, la. Robert Peterson Jr. was dozing at his Mason City home Saturday night when he watched Kirby Puckett knock one out of the park to win Game 6 of the World Series for the Twins. It was pretty exciting, but he managed to drift back to sleep.

But the Saturday night excitement wasn't over with the homer. Peterson, 39, later learned he had won $400,000 in the Iowa lotto jackpot drawing. Peterson and his wife, Sherry, 41, were in Des Moines Monday to pick up the first of 20 annual checks for 1 5,000. While $400,000 isn't enough to retire on, "I don't have to worry about a raise," Peterson said. Peterson is a welder.

Sherry Peterson runs a computer at a Mason City area hospital. They have four children, for whom they are hoping to provide a nicer-than-average Christmas. Peterson also said he plans to pay of his car with the first check. i II A' ti It i Students support rights of those with AIDS virus Q(Ii Beggar's Night Wednesday, October 30th and small districts across Iowa took part in the survey, said conference coordinator Kent Newman. The group includes students who routinely make the dean's list as well as those who are at risk of failing or dropping out, he said.

Eleven percent of students surveyed said they know someone who has AIDS or who has died from the disease. In the poll, which was prepared by a committee of youths, students also answered questions about drug and alcohol use, birth control, smoking, environmental issues and jobs. They listed drugs and alcohol as the greatest concerns for Iowa young people, followed by gang activities and AIDS. More than 90 percent of participants said schools should be able to hand out information on birth control, but only about a third believe schools should supply condoms and other contraceptives. The youths were split on the question of whether parents should be notified of the results of pregnancy tests of underage children.

Forty-six percent said they support parental notification; 54 percent said they do not. They were equally divided on what Iowa should do to deal with its budget deficit. Forty-nine percent said the government should raise taxes; 47 percent said it should cut financing for state-sponsored programs. If programs must be cut, the students said, tourism dollars should be slashed first. Only 4 percent of the participants said human services should be cut; only 3 percent favored cuts in education.

Youths say drugs and alcohol are their greatest concerns, followed by gang activities and AIDS. By CYNTHIA HUBERT Register Staff Writer Students who have tested positive for exposure to AIDS should be allowed to stay in school, youths participating in a statewide conference in Des Moines believe. While supporting the rights of students who have contracted the AIDS virus to remain in class, the youths also advocate criminal prosecution of people who deliberately put others at risk for getting the disease. Ninety percent of about 250 students polled at the 1991 Governor's Youth Conference in Des Moines said they think students who have been exposed to the virus should be allowed to continue attending public schools. Ten percent said they should be excluded.

Although AIDS is transmitted primarily through blood and sexual contact, school districts across the country have had to grapple with fears that students who have contracted the virus could expose others. Most Iowa students apparently do not have such worries, but they think the law should come down hard on people who knowingly expose others to AIDS. Asked whether a person who deliberately puts someone at risk for infection should be prosecuted for "endangerment of life," 82 percent said yes. About 250 students from large BY VALL MAIL 1 10a.m.-9p.m. Sunday 1-235 AT VALLEY WEST DRIVE (35th STREET) WEST DES MOINES At-ifif ifn a.jt tf tut.