The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 25

The Palm Beach Post SECTION WHAT'S OPEN TODAY? Need a check cashed? Garbage stacking up? Learn what you can and can't do on New Year's Day. LISTINGS, 5B LOCAL 'PAGE1 6B -na 'i MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 1996 EWS pageN 6B Flag rises on county's newest city: Wellington Claudette Gi-raud (left) and Elizabeth Sy-ben sing America the Beautiful as Scouts from Pack 1 65 raise the flags of America and the new city of Wellington. E.A. KENNEDY III Staff Photogsapher trict, which has provided utility service to the area since the 1950s. But Wellington which instantly became the county's ninth-largest city, with about 28,000 residents had to exist as a village in 1995 to be eligible in 1996 for a stake in a state revenue sharing program, which researchers predict could bring the village about $6 million in tax money.

Hence the flag-raising Sunday, which drew about 100 residents. Some considered the ceremony a sign of unity among a community long divided by the issue of self-government. Yet most of those who celebrated with cake and punch Sunday were longtime supporters of incorporation, and no one has forgotten the devisive tone of the election last November, or the slim margin of victory: 138 votes. Officials now hope the future Wellington government will be more efficient and responsive to local needs. With upgrades needed in roads and drainage, the revenue sharing program for cities should make the burden easier for village residents, said Colin Baenziger, chief administrator of the ACME district.

"This is really the next logical step," Baenziger said. "(Before incorporation) everything was fractured and scattered and inefficient. You didn't know where to go to get anything done." In March, residents will elect a council and the city will begin absorbing its utility district. By SCOTT HIAASEN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WELLINGTON With the raising of a simple green-and-white flag, the community of Wellington officially became the county's 38th municipality Sunday afternoon. The New Year's Eve incorporation of the village was largely ceremonial; the business of self-governing will begin in earnest in March, when the residents of Wellington elect a five-member village council, and the village begins plans to absorb the ACME Improvement Dis 1-95 ACCIDENT RUINS NEW YEAR'S PLANS Homicide rate county's lowest in nine years But 1995 brought its own brand of brutal slayings, detectives say V- 1995 Homicides By agency: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office: 30 West Palm Beach: 30 Riviera Beach: 5 Delray Beach: 6 Lake Worth: 4 Boca Raton: 1 Boynton Beach: 1 Belle Glade: 1 "7 '7.

'A 7 By SCOTT HIAASEN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer On Jan. 3, 1995, a man named Cornell Braggs was kidnapped, forced into the back of a car and marched at gunpoint across a West Palm Beach field to his death. His captors, four men who thought Braggs was behind his girlfriend's death, took turns shooting him, police said. Then they wrapped his body in a carpet, set it on fire and dumped it in a canal near Lake Man-gonia. Thus began another year of murder in Palm Beach County.

Braggs was the first of the county's 78 homicide victims in 1995, according to the medical examiner's office a drop of 26 from the previous year, and the lowest annual total since 1986. decrease follows a national trend of falling homicide rates in big cities such as New York and Detroit. Much of the local decline can be found in the county's mid-size cities. Boynton Beach police handled only one homicide in 1995 down from six the year before and that was the bizarre case of an infant whose remains were found 26 years after the child was allegedly buried by Paul Corvin, who police say fathered the child with his daughter, said Lt. Chris Yannuzzi.

The year was also remarkably peaceful in Riviera Beach. In 1992, the city set a record with 21 homicides. Last year, there were only five. "It's incredible," said Riviera Beach Police Chief Jerry Poreba, who attributes the drop to community policing and a stronger presence on the street. "We've got to be doing something right." But other investigators are not as Photos by MARK MIRKOStaff Photographer A headlamp with a Jesus decal came off the Chevrolet Blazer, which flipped five times, seriously injuring two men.

encouraged by the recent decline in killings. Murder is a largely unpredictable crime, they say, and some of this year's more memorable cases reinforce an adage that many officers have come to believe: "People these days will kill you over anything," said Detective Sgt. Donna Wright of the Palm Beach County Sheriffs, Office. "It's a weird time we're living in," said Detective Sgt. Kim Myers of the West Palm Beach Police Department.

"They'll kill you for looking funny at them." 1995 brought plenty of the usual dangerous scenarios family squabbles and petty arguments ending in bloodshed, bar fights that turned to gunfights, and drug deals that turned to Please see H0MICIDES2B 3 in serious condition Palm Beach Post Staff Report DELRAY BEACH Two vehicles filled with nine people who had plans to celebrate New Year's Eve collided Sunday about 11:30 a.m., leaving three men in serious condition at Delray Community Hospital. Rosie Shen, 31, of Pembroke Pines, and her three passengers walked away unharmed from the two-car accident on northbound Interstate 95. All were wearing their seat belts. Shen lost control of her 1994 Honda Accord after trying to change into the fast lane, half-mile north of Atlantic Boulevard. She swerved several times before skidding into the slow lane, in front of a 1984 Chevrolet Blazer driven by Miguel Arzate, 25, of Delray Beach, police said.

The Blazer hit the Accord, then flipped five times, ejecting its five passengers, none of whom was wearing a seat belt. One man flew between 100 and 200 feet and landed in a tree, rescuers said. The five men, all of Delray Beach, were driving to Lake Worth to buy food for a New Year's Eve celebration. The five were taken to Delray Community Hospital where three of the men Sotero Maldonado, 41, Baruch J. Rosales-Rueda, 42, and Antonio Martinez-Maldonado, 43, were in serious condition.

Arzate and Ignacio Valdez-Vargas, 45, were in fair condition. Shen and her passengers were on their way to Pleasure Island in Orlando for New Year's Eve. Shen was charged with improper lane change and Arzate was charged for not wearing a seat belt, according to the FHP. Man's mysterious death deals final blow to family 1 1 Driver Rosie Shen is comforted by Lorraine Noro-nha, who was in her car with her. Gambling ship stuck in port for big bash paralyzed, blotched with psoriasis and grossly overweight stopped breathing at his grandmother's home in Port Salerno, ending nine years of frustration and misery for Watson and his family.

It was also the beginning of an agonizing three-month inquiry to determine how and why Watson died. The answer seems obvious enough to his father. Six days before his death, Watson was hit in the head and arm with a shovel in a scuffle with two neighbors outside his Jupiter duplex. Watson and one neighbor went to the hospital. Watson was released that night with only stitches on his elbow in fact, he was charged with aggravated battery for starting the fight and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail but later he complained of headaches.

A few days later he looked blue, and his family took him to the hospital, where he refused treatment. The headaches got worse, the light hurt his eyes, and he suffered from chills. Three days later he was dead. "That was the catalyst," William Watson Sr. said of the Feb.

2 incident. "Whether it had a dramatic effect or a minor effect, who can tell?" The Treasure Coast medical examiner could find no effect at all. Dr. Fred Please see MYSTEJRY4B A mugging nine years ago might have cost William Watson his life. By SCOTT HIAASEN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer In his sister's mind, William Watson died twice.

The first came in January 1986, when Watson, then 29, ventured from his Jupiter home to West Palm Beach one night to buy drugs. While a friend waited in a car, Watson was mugged, hit over the head with a fence post and robbed of $100. His friend drove him to the hospital, but Watson refused to talk to police before lolling into a three-day coma. "He was never the same after that," said his sister, Marianne Sader. For years afterward, Watson was in and out of clinics and hospitals.

He was left with a dent in his head, and a metal plate was later installed. His right eyelid was sewn shut for two years to allow the nerves to heal. He couldn't work, and the injury left him ill-tempered and volatile. His short-term memory was so damaged that he couldn't remember the last time he ate, so he ate all the time, his father said. Watson's second death was true and final.

On Feb. 8, 1995, Vfiitson partially thew Flanders with its Las Vegas-style gaming tables and slot machines replaces the larger Club Royale, which sank off the coast of Port Canaveral in Hurricane Erin in August. The company began advertising before Christmas that it was home for the holidays and was ready to sail on Dec. 26. But U.S.

Coast Guard inspections delayed the voyage. The ship's operators had experienced delays even before it first launched Club Royale on July 1. On June 27, the ship ran aground near the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina and turned to the Port of Palm Beach for a temporary home. But on July 1, its first cruise was sold out with 450 passengers. About a month later, Club Royale sank 90 miles offshore in high seas generated by Hurricane Erin.

An 11-member crew including the ship's captain and vice president of Club Royale had left the Port of Palm Beach trying to outrun the hurricane. Eight were rescued. The cook's body was found later. Investigators have not found the wreckage, the captain and vice president. The New Year's Eve 'cruise to nowhere' does just that because of bad weather.

By JOUNICE L. NEALY and SCOTT HIAASEN Palm Beach Post Staff Writers RIVIERA BEACH Gina DeVito and her friends had been planning for weeks to spend New Year's Eve gambling and drinking aboard the Capt. Matthew Flinders, the new gambling ship at the city marina. But just an hour before the ship was scheduled to depart, they learned the boat wasn't leaving the dock. "(A sales agent) called today and said, 'Your tickets are DeVito said.

"We don't know where to go. We don't know what to do." The inaugural voyage of the ship was aborted about 3 p.m. Sunday, when cruise officials asked as many as 200 customers to settle for a two-hour "open house" with hors d'oeuvres and free drinks aboard the port-bound ship rather than the "cruise to nojwhere" that supposed to last until Photo by SANDY SKLAR Gina and Mark Shumilla get a free cruise pass after being told that the New Year's Eve cruise was canceled. 1:30 a.m. today, said Jean Walder, of Atlantic Gaming formerly Club Royale Inc.

Company Vice President Keith Woods said the decision to stay in port Sunday night was a "company decision" based on weather reports of 6- to 9-foot seas and high winds. He said the 143-foot vessel passed a hastily organized Coast Guard inspection that afternoon. tl The Canadian-registered Captf Mat t-.