The Paris News from Paris, Texas • Page 1

World Watch Mental wards overcrowded AUSTIN (AP) Dangerous mental patients at Austin State Hospital are being housed on wards with non-violent patients because the maximum security unit at Rusk State Hospital has been full for six months, the Austin American-Statesman reported today. As an alternative to Rusk, Austin State Hospital officials have tried various methods to keep violent mental patients quiet. One large patient who throws furniture is given Oreo cookies several times a day to keep him calm, the newspaper said. A mental health worker who cares for the patient who is given cookies said the man "is always on the verge of exploding. He's like a gorilla." Dr.

John White, superintendent of Rusk State Hospital, said his 305-bed maximum security unit had 296 patients Wednesday. "At least 250 are in the criminal justice system," he said. FmHA official kills self ELK POINT, S.D. (AP) A Farmers Home Administration supervisor who killed his family and himself was frustrated because his efforts to go by the book had failed to help farmers in financial trouble, friends and clients say. Bruce Litchfield, 38, shot his wife and two children with a pistol Wednesday, then went to his office and shot himself in the head, Sheriff Eugene "Bud" LITCHFIELD said Union County Rasmussen.

Litchfield died about two hours later at a Sioux City hospital. It was the second such shooting in the troubled farm belt in a month. On Dec. 9, a Lone Tree, Iowa, farmer with $600,000 in debts killed his wife, another farmer and a bank president before committing suicide. Ross Heupel, an aide to Rep.

Tom Daschle, said Litchfield had spoken to him several times about new FmHA rules detailing steps to be taken with troubled loans. examines investment AUSTIN (AP) might have to "reexamine" its investment in Texas if it cannot win a major rate hike, company officials say. "Unless we improve earnings in Texas, all the things we are anxious to do in Texas have to be reconsidered," Al Partoll, executive vice president, said Wednesday. Partoll reeled off Texas "commitment" during a Public Utility Commission meeting on the company's $114.5 million rate hike request. $2.5 billion Texas investment now includes 15,000 employees and $100 million a year in taxes, he said.

Commission Chairwoman Peggy Rosson said shareholders should have "serious concerns over management which seems to threaten to abandon one of the most lucrative and fast- growing" states. Islamic nations favor Libya FEZ, Morocco (AP) A senior U.S. diplomat gave a conference of Islamic foreign ministers a written message from President Reagan, explaining why he imposed economic sanctions against Libya and asking for their support, conference sources said. Meanwhile, Libyan Foreign Minister Ali Abdussalam Treiki held individual meetings Wednesday with fellow conference delegates in an effort to solidify the support they expressed in a unanimous resolution the previous day. The unanimous Islamic support for the resolution backing Libya included Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States that is major recipient of American aid, and Egypt, a close friend of Washington and a long-standing enemy of the Khadafy regime.

Treiki dismissed the U.S. sanctions as meaningless, KHADAFY since there is little commerce between the two countries. In Washington, a State Department official said the United States' ambassador to Morocco, Thomas Nassif. went to Fez to meet Moroccan King Hassan at the monarch's request. Anti-terrorist policy revalued REAGAN ROME (AP) The Leonar- Ido da Vinci airport massacre has prompted Italy to reweigh its anti-terrorism policy, which crippled the homegrown Red Brigades but has I proved unable to halt violence (linked to Middle East politics.

In the 1970s, convicted Red members were stiff prison terms, in- 'eluding life, for terror acts CRAM linked to the far-left group. But prosecutors in recent terrorism cases involving Arab suspects have cited extenuating circumstances in seeking less than maximum sentences. Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi condemned terrorism, but defended armed struggle by the Palestine Liberation Organization. Index Weather Ambulance 4A Calendar 3A Classified 4B Comics 10A Deaths 4A Dr. Gott 8A Fire Calls 4A Hospitals 4A Markets 8A Opinion Sports IB Texas history 9A Women's News 7A Phone 785-8744 Classified 78S-5S38 Mostly clear tonight, Friday Details, Pg.

4A 117th Year No. 197 Thursday, Jan. 9, 1986 18 Pages In 2 Sections 25 cents Jury finds Rogers guilty By SHERRIE LANGSTON News Staff Writer McKINNEY It took a Collin County jury less than hour to return a guilty verdict Thursday in the capital murder case against Patrick Fitzgerald Rogers, accused of the Sept. 21,1985, shooting death of Paris police officer David Roberts. Rogers' conviction leaves him facing either life in prison or death by injection.

The case went to the jury shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday. The state is expected to call some 20 witnesses in the punishment phase of the trial, which was to begin Thursday afternoon. Rogers showed no emotion when the verdict was announced, sitting, as he has throughout the trial, with his chin resting in his hand. The defendant's parents also showed little emotion.

His mother was hugged LATIUCIA MILLER re-election Latricia Miller candidate for treasurer Latricia Miller, currently Lamar County Treasurer, filed Wednesday afternoon for re-election. Mrs. Miller has been County Treasurer the past seven years, and is a native of Lamar County, having lived here 40 years. She graduated from West Lamar High School, and attended Paris Junior College and Texas University. She is a member of the Texas County Treasurer's Association and was president the past two years of the Northeast Texas County Treasurer Association.

She is married to Gerald Miller, and has three children. "I enjoy my job," said Mrs. Miller. "I like the challenge, and every year I see I've learned more than I knew the last year. I enjoy working in the courthouse because it's an exciting place to work.

I enjoy meeting new people all the time and seeing friends." "We've computerized the office, and we've been working on that all year," she said. "We're going to try to make that a better system. "I'm always trying to plan ways to invest county money more wisely," she said. "I'm very conscientious about keeping all possible county money invested at the highest interest." New drug may may prevent common cold BOSTON (AP) The next best thing to a cure for the common cold a way to prevent this wintertime misery has been successfully tested in two major studies, and a drug company promises the drug will be affordable. Researchers said in a report published today that their work provides "convincing evidence" that a nose spray made from the hormone interferon can keep people from catching the common cold.

In the experiments, people used the sprays only when children and other relatives brought colds into their homes. The approach was not foolproof. But overall, they suffered 40 percent fewer colds than usual. Nevertheless, the outcome was far better than any other medical ap- See COLDS, Pg. 9A by her sister as the verdict was read.

In his closing arguments Thursday morning, defense attorney David Holmes told the jury his client was not aware of events that day due to the effects of the drug PCP. But Assitant Lamar County Attorney Kerye Ashmore refuted that argument, calling Rogers' insanity defense "a cop-out." On Wednesday, two psychiatrists presented differing opinions on Rogers' state of mind on Sept. 21. Dr. Gary Byrd of Louisiana, a defense witness who examined Rogers on Dec.

23, told the jury that Rogers was not a sociopath, but a man deranged by PCP. a veterinary tranqulizer. But Dr. James P. Gngson of Dallas, who interviewed Rogers on Oct.

23, said the Oklahoma City man is a sociopath of the highest degree. On Thursday, Ashmore told jurors that Byrd described "what insanity is not." Holmes, however, argued before jurors that there is a fine line between recognition and cognition. "That is the line the state is trying to step over," he said. "A sociopath does not walk up to a police car and start shooting it out. That's absurd.

That would be suicide." Lamar County Attorney Tom Wells, however, called it a clear case of capital murder. The question of sanity, he said, arose because there was "nothing else they could do." Grigson, testifying for the prosecution, said sociopathy is not a mental or emotional disease, only a method used to describe certain behavioral characteristics. A sociopath, according to Grigson, does not have a conscience and is motivated by self-gratification with disregard for property, and often life, in the pursuit for pleasures. A lower level sociopath may begin with minor rules infractions and petty crimes, Grigson said, and stop at this point. But, a sociopath who has reached the violent stage, the highest level, he said, will continue to engage in violence.

"If a police officer were standing there with a shotgun, (the sociopath) might not rob the store. But if the officer's back was turned, the sociopath would probably stab him in the back," Grigson said. Comparing a nonsociopath who was forced to kill for protection to a sociopath who killed to achieve a goal, Grigson said the nonsociopath "might have nightmares or throw up afterward. A sociopath would step over the body and eat a hamburger." A sociopath will kill "anyone who See ROGERS TRAIL, Pg. 4A Recluse freezes in unheated home within feet of more than $188,000 WASHINGTON, Pa.

(AP) An 89-year-old recluse who froze to death in his unheated home within feet of more than $188,000 in cash willed more than a half-million dollars to a church he seldom attended, officials say. "I can't understand why a person of his means would choose to live like that," Washington County Coroner Farrell Jackson said Wednesday. Joseph Heer had been dead for "at least a couple of days" when his body was found Dec. 31 in the icy house, said police Lt. Ted Zets.

At Heer's request, gas service to the three-story brick house had been cut off two years ago. An electric space heater in the room where his body was found was unplugged. "I can tell you it was so cold in that house I couldn't stand it," Jackson said. "I went in with just my suitcoat on and I had to come Back out and get my topcoat." Heer, who died of hypothermia, was found fully clothed in bed in the sitting room, Jackson said. Neighbors called police when they noticed the storm front door of his home was locked but the interior door was open, Zets said.

There was only one electric light bulb in the house and no television or radio, Jackson said. Heer, who lived alone and whose only relatives are nieces and nephews, willed his estate to the Immaculate Conception Church of Washington, Jackson said. Jackson and police found money stashed in an unlocked safe, a steel box under the bed and a steel box bolted to a table in the sitting room. "It was in bags and envelopes. Some of the bills were very old and some were brand new.

There was $1,000 in 50s in an envelope, $1,000 of 20s in another, other envelopes with $1,000 in each," the coroner said. "Some were Social Security envelopes where he had just cashed the check, stuck the money in the envelope and put it away." The money, which was taken to Jackson's office to be counted, totaled See MAN FREEZES, Pg. 4A Elderly can defer taxes on homestead By simply filing a sworn affidavit with the Lamar County Appraisal District, homeowners age 65 and over in Lamar County can defer payment of property their homesteads. If an elderly taxpayer has already been sued to collect delinquent taxes on his homestead, he can still take advantage of the "over-65 tax deferral" by filing an affidavit with the court in which the suit is pending. Rodney Anderson, chief appraiser of the Lamar County Appraisal District, explained that once an over-65 taxpayer properly files the tax deferral affidavit, state law prevents taxing units from initiating or pursuing delinquent tax suits on the homestead for as long as the applicant owns and lives at that property.

Anderson said that elderly homeowners can obtain forms for the deferral affidavit at the Lamar UNHEATED HOUSE Joseph Heer froze to death in this unheated house. Just a few feet away from Heer was more than $188,000 in cash. The dome of the Washington County Courthouse in Washington, is in the background. (AP Laserphoto) Nine offices in Fannin Co. up for election BONHAM Nine Fannin County offices will be up for grabs in this year's local election, beginning with the Democratic Primary May 3.

Fannin County offices and present office holders involved in this year's electoral process are: county judge, William C. Terry; district clerk, Eva Lindsey; county clerk, Margaret Gilbert; county treasurer. Mrs. Paul (Florence) Keahey; Precinct 2 commissioner, Lloyd Flanagan; Precinct 4 commissioner. Choice Wilson; Precinct 1 justice of the peace.

Don Jones; Precinct 2 justice of the peace, John Whaley; and Precinct 3 justice of the peace, Charles Richardson. Filing for the Democratic Primary began Saturday, Jan. 4. and will continue through Feb. 3.

As of Thursday morning, only two nonincumbents had filed for the May primary election. Jimmy Doyle, a school principal from Honey Grove, will be seeking the See FANMN COUNTY. Pg. 4A County Appraisal District Office. The homeowner should complete the form and have his signature witnessed by a notary public or other official authorized to take oaths, he added.

Anderson stressed that the tax deferral only postpones tax payments; it does not dismiss them. "Elderly homeowners should understand that the taxes, penalties and interest will continue to add up," he explained. "Once the homeowner no longer qualifies for the deferral that is, if he no longer owns or resides at that homestead all those deferred amounts must be paid. At that time taxing units may sue to collect the delinquent taxes, penalties and interest, and foreclose on the property." More information is available by contacting the Lamar County Appraisal District at 1523 Lamar Avenue, or call 785-7822..