St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 3

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH ST. LOUISFRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1990 3A Defector: Hearing Today On Deporting Of Romanian BILL McCLELLAN By Philip Dine Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Since Alexandrescu's story was told last week, the VP Fair has "got a bum rap because people think we just ignored him," Glaub said. "But our hands are tied because it is a government problem," When VP Fair organizers learned of the defection, they called Matt Weiller of the Washington-based United States Information Agency, who arranged the East Europeans' trip to St. Louis, Glaub said.

Weiller told the fair's organizers to stay out of the matter, Glaub said. Weiller said Thursday that the USIA didn't want to encourage its guests to seek asylum but didn't want to oppose those seeking freedom. Asked about the discrepancy in the views held by Alexandrescu and the Romanian Embassy about events in Romania, Weiller said the situation was unstable. "The jury is still very much out on how much things have changed," he said. The outcome of Alexandrescu's case may depend on how the situation in Romania evolves in coming months, Weiller said.

The VP Fair doesn't plan to invite East Europeans next year, but that decision is unrelated to this year's incident, Glaub said. The invitation was a onetime event sparked by the changes in Eastern Europe, he said. Alexandrescu was one of 14 young Eastern Europeans invited to the VP Fair in July as part of a "Celebration of Freedom." The others returned home; Alexandrescu defected. He still lives with the family that was his host during the fair, and he works in a printing shop in St. Louis.

He and his attorney, Lilian Fernandez, said that the government had asked them a couple of days ago to come as soon as possible for the interview that begins the lengthy asylum process. That interview had been expected to take place in mid-September. They attributed the government's rush to the wide public interest in Alexandrescu's case. Chester Moyer, who heads the St. Louis office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said he was not allowed to discuss an asylum case.

VP Fair official Allyn Glaub, who headed the East Europeans' involvement in the fair, said this week he would be glad to testify on Alexandrescu's behalf. "He seemed well-adjusted, very happy, got along with the rest of the kids," Glaub said. "While he was here, he conducted himself above reproach. He had good morals. He arrived at paces on time, he behaved himself, he was wen-dressed, poised." time, I'm a little embarrassed by this.

I wish I could thank all these people." But the Romanian government angrily rejects Alexandrescu's claim that nothing has changed in Romania, calling it an insult to those who died in the revolt in December. Cornel Dragomirescu, spokesman for the Romanian Embassy in Washington, admitted to some problems in his struggling country but said Romanians are free. He said Alexandrescu wants to stay here because "he probably likes it more in the United States. I understand that. We do not have much luxury.

We are just a beginner in democracy; that is a fact. But to say that nothing has changed after the revolution is not fair, not fair for the people who died in the revolution." Alexandrescu called those remarks "an opinion of a guy who's working for the embassy. His interest is to show to all the world that it's a democracy." Alexandrescu, 22, says he was beaten and arrested several times over the spring and summer for his articles in a student newspaper. His reports said the shooting of Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaucescu on Dec. 25 resulted not from a true revolution but from a long-planned coup by other Communists.

After widesDread Dublicitv in the last week over the case of the Romanian guest to the VP Fir whn defected and wants oolitical asylum here, the government has moved up his immi gration hearing to toaay. The Romanian, Dorian Alexandrescu, says that's a good sign in his effort to avoid being deported to Romania, where he fears Communist officials will persecute him. Meanwhile, VP hair oi-ficials. who originally dis tanced themselves from now praise him as a "nice Aiexanarescu young man" and are volunteering to speaK on his behalf at the immigration ana naturaliza tion Service hearings. Anri in recent davs.

oeoDle from CaDe Girar deau, and Southern Illinois have called offering Alexandrescu clothing, money, friendship and a place to live. "In Romania, it never could happen, some thing like this," Alexandrescu said Thursday. "It a very pleasant sensation. At me same Pressure Cooker: Violence Rises Betrayal, Guilt Split 'Friends' ROBERT H. FEIGENBAUM walked Into the courtroom Thursday morning looking like a million bucks, but probably feeling like a dirty penny.

His story already had been laid out for the crowd. Feigenbaum, a former state legislator, former Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, was arrested earlier this year in a hotel room with a prostitute and a small quantity of cocaine. Rather than face the music, Feigenbaum agreed to entrap at least one old friend. He told the authorities that his old pal, state Rep.

Dewey Crump, whom he hadn't seen since 1988, was a drug user or at least used to be and had, on occasion, supplied Feigenbaum with drugs. With the blessing of the feds, Feigenbaum made a number of trips to Jefferson City with a tape recorder. He acted like a woman-chasing, cocaine-snorting, favor-hustling jerk. In other words, he acted like a normal public official, as far as Crump was concerned. They renewed their friendship.

Proseuctors say the tape recordings indicate that, sure enough, Crump supplied Feigenbaum with some illegal drugs. Eventually, the feds dropped the net on Crump. The trial began Thursday morning, and the first witness was Feigenbaum. He was dressed very nicely, but he acted nervous, self-conscious. He did not look like one of the best and brightest of the baby-boom generation, which is what Esquire -Magazine labeled him in 1984.

He was one of 272 boomers cited for Courage, Originality, Ingenuity, Vision and Selfless Service. Back then, of course, he was a hip, young politician. Thursday, as he stepped into the witness stand, he looked like just another low-life who was willing to trade his freedom for that of a friend. Although it might not be courageous or original to make a deal with the government, it's usually prudent. Strangely enough, in this particular instance, it makes very little sense.

Feigenbaum was caught with a small amount of cocaine. He had never been in trouble. His chances of going to prison would have been very slim. So he would have had two embarrassing days. The day after his arrest would have been a tough one.

The newspaper and the television stations would have picked up on the story. Former legislator arrested for drugs. We'd have been in court, too, on the day of sentencing. By then, of course, Feigenbaum would have followed his lawyer's inevitable advice and would have graduated from a chemical dependency program. "I had a problem.

I've confronted it. I look forward to getting on with my life," he would have announced after the judge gave him probation. That would have been the end of it. Instead, we had Thursday's spectacle. Feigenbaum testified that he got a good deal from the government.

Rather than charging him with felony possession of cocaine, the government agreed to charge him with misdemeanor possession of marijuana. His part of the bargain, of course, came in two parts. He had to be willing to trap an old friend, and then he had. to testify. The first part seemed easy enough.

The second part was a bit more difficult for him. He looked uncomfortable. Neutral observers were feeling uncomfortable, as well. It was hard to decided whom to root for. Esquire Magazine to the contrary, Feigenbaum did not seem like a great guy.

Nor, however, did Crump. That's putting it mildly. At least in the early part of the trial, he came across as a psychedelic Peter Pan. 'Twenty years ago, a lot of us baby boomers were casual drug users. A lot of us thought that going to a party was the ultimate human experience.

But eventually, the rest of us grew up. Crump didn't. So when Feigenbaum, using his knowledge of the mindset of Missouri legislators, suggested to Crump that he knew a couple of young women who wanted drugs, Crump got some, according to Feigenbaum's testimony. Admittedly, we don't expect too much from our legislators, but still, they're supposed to live within the laws. Especially when we're talking about the laws that they have written.

Not incidentally, Crump supported the governor's program that would mandate harsh penalties for casual users. That's the program that was spearheaded by Chuck Miller, the governor's drue czar, who eventually re signed in diserace when an old friend revealed that Miller was a former cas ual drug user. Friendship obviously means some thing different in Jefferson City than it does in the rest of the state. the heat Thursday at Busch Stadium. that five people had been admitted to area hospitals with heat-related illnesses in the preceding 24 hours.

One person was treated and released She also said that a woman who died Wednesday had not been classified as a heat-related death. The woman, Jeri Politte, was painting outside on a ladder and apparently became dizzy and fell, breaking her neck, Sharma said. Many others were felled by the heat as the day wore on. Elderly people had a particularly tough time in the heat. "We've probably had 10 or 15 more people come in here than we usually get," said Betty Howard, director of the St.

Louis Area Agency on Aging's center on the Near South Side. Schools across the area continued closing early to allow students to escape the worst of the heat wave. Most of them also planned to With Heat Larry WilliamsPost-Dispatch close early today. Students at the Captain Elementary School in Clayton will be moved today to other Clayton schools. A parent said that the upstairs air conditioning at the school wasn't working on Tuesday and broke down completely on Wednesday, causing some classes to be held outside.

Classes will be dismissed today at 1:45 p.m. Dreifuss offered a few tips for coping with the extreme heat. He said: "Stay indoors or out of direct sunlight. If you are perspiring, the cooling mechanism in your body is working. Drink plenty of fluids to replace what you've lost through sweating.

If your skin gets warm and you stop perspiring, or if you feel lightheaded or dizzy, it could be a true medical emergency. "You could suffer from heatstroke and die." Donald E. Franklin of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed information for this "This is an extremely high-priority case," said Capt. Robert Bauman, commander of the crimes against persons division. "We can sure use the public's help on this, and anyone who may know something should call us" at 444-5385, he said.

The girl, a pupil at Hamilton School, 5819 Westminster Place in the city's West End, was dropped off in the South Side on Wednesday about three blocks from the home. "I called the school today to ask what happened, and the secretary hung up on me twice," the mother said. "I finally got through to the principal, and he was sarcastic." The mother said she discovered last week that the school had the wrong information about where she lived and made an effort to have it corrected. "But somewhere along the line, the correction never got through to the right people," she said. Neither the principal of the girl's school, nor the assistant superintendent of elementary education, who would have been told of the incident, nor the executive director of safety and security for the schools could be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

"This busing is for the birds," said the victim's grandmother. Meanwhile, neighbors of the victims said they were worried that a rapist was at large. "It's terrible," said Virginia Hurston, 38. "I think it's somebody in the neighborhood, and I hope he gets caught." Martha Donovan, 31, said, "I've got two daughters, and this worries me a lot." The victim's mother, her eyes reddened from crying, pointed to her daughter, who was lying quietly in an easy chair nearby. "That's not the same little girl," said the woman.

"Usually, she's talking non-stop. The doctor said she may be blocking out part of what happened to her. "I'm kind of glad that maybe she is." Bv Patricia Corriaan and John Curley Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Trinie-dieit heat scorched the area for the second day in a row, putting people in the hospital, closing schools and igniting a sharp increase in stabbings and snootmgs. "Violence is up at night," said Rodney Drei- fuss, chief of the St. Louis Emergency Medical Service.

"Stabbings, shootings ana ngnts are way up, because people are going outside and erroneously drinking alcohol to try to stay cool. We also have a lot of kids having accidents in the streets. Dreifuss said Thursday afternoon that his department normally received 175 to 185 calls on a weekday in September, we re up to ciose to 250 calls a day. Since Monday, we've transported 15 people with heatstroke to the hospital, and we've treated three times that many." Statistics on recent violent crimes in si. Louis were not immediately available, but Detective Sgt.

Mike Guzy, a veteran St. Louis police officer, said he generally agreed with the theory mat crime goes up in summer months. "Summer is our busiest season," Guzy said. "There are more DeoDle out, and tempers may be a little shorter in hot weather." The tetrmerature Deaked at 101 degrees at 2:45 p.m. matching Thursday's high.

Fore casters said cooler air wouia move into me area today, pulling high temperatures down to the low 90s, but not low enough to cancel the area's heat warning. Harry Woolford, a meteorologist at Weath-erData a private forecasting firm based in Wichita, said that thunderstorms might move into the St. Louis area about noon today. "A front is trvine to make its way across the state," Woolford said. "It definitely will affect the northern half of the state and mayDe tne m.

Louis area, too. Even with thunderstorms, the temperature will stay above normal. Saturday should be partly cloudy, with a high of 91, and then we 11 be heating DacK up again. The good news, Woolford said, is that the humidity hasn't been all that bad. "It's been fairly dry," he said.

"The numiaity nas stayea around the 30 percent mark, and the heat index has stayed right around the temperature." Forecasters say a miaaie-aimuspuei mu pressure ridge developed in the final week of August over the Midwest, ushering in temperatures up to 20 degrees above normal. The ridge continues to stretch over Alabama, Arkansas, eastern Colorado, Southern Illinois, southern Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, southern Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee. "It's been around for 10 days, and it looks Aldermen OK One Sales-Tax Hike For Vote ByTimO'Neil Of the Post-Dispatch Staff A divided St. Louis Board of Aldermen satisfied itself Thursday with seeking one of the two sales-tax increases that Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr.

proposed last week. Aldermen voted 15-7 to ask city voters on Nov. 6 to approve a half-cent sales tax that can only be used for capital improvements. They adjourned without voting on an accompanying call to revive a temporary three-eights-cent levy that expired in March. "The aldermen are more comfortable this way," said Aldermanic President Thomas A.

Villa, who decided against calling the second vote. "We've tried multiple-tax campaigns in the past and lost. We think it's a clearer focus to put our eggs in one basket." Adopting the half-cent levy by a simple majority of voters would raise the total sales tax in St. Louis to 6.225 cents on each $1 in sales, up from 5.725 cents. The city now gets one cent of that total, with the rest going to the state and the Bi-State bus system.

Schoemehl rushed the aldermen into special session August 31 to meet a deadline for the November ballot But aldermen quickly developed a strong preference for the half-cent levy because of its brick-and-mortar nature. It would raise about $17.5 million annually for major repairs to parks, streets and other public works, and for smaller jobs of special interest to each of the 28 wards. The 15-7 vote to put on the ballot was the bare minimum necessary, but support for a detailed spending plan swelled to 19-3. "I'm against charging the tax, but if it passes I want a role in how it's spent," said Alderman Robert J. Ruggeri, D-24th Ward, who voted against the tax and for the spending bill.

Schoemehl and the aldermen worked out the spending wish list Wednesday. Most popu- Parents Seek Public's Help In Hunt For Girl's Rapist Cardinals fans going topless to beat like it will be in the area for the next week or 10 days," said James Wagner, senior forecaster at the Climate Analysis Center in Washington. R.A. McAleenan, a spokesman for Union Electric, said that consumer usage was high because of the hot weather but had not set a record. "The last peak demand was set during the second week of July," he said.

"We're seeing nothing unusual as it relates to consumer use right now." The heat warning has been in effect for 13 days and is expected to last through the weekend, said City Health Commissioner Dian Sharma. "We need some relief," she said. "I'm still concerned about people following the proper guidelines checking on family and friends and on elderly people who may need help in the heat." On Thursday morning, Sharma reported Thomas A. Villa "A clearer focus" lar is the $3 million that would be spent each year to improve the city's eight largest parks. "This is fair and equitable for everybody," said Alderman Daniel J.

McGuire, D-28th Ward. The formula also proposes $2.5 million annually for bridges and major streets, $750,000 on 13 city recreation centers, $500,000 on the aged and unreliable warning-siren system and $500,000 for "large-scale development." It also would finance plans to build 250 new jail cells at the Workhouse, 7600 Hall Street, and to repair the Civil Courthouse downtown. "We just don't have the wherewithal to multiply the loaves and fishes and take care of all of society's ills," Villa said. But the half-cent tax has its strong critics as well. "To know why people vote against sales taxes, all you have to do is go to the grocery store and look at the price of pork chops," said Alderman Kenneth Jones, Ind-22nd Ward.

Jones and Alderman Terry Kennedy, D-18th Ward, warned of a renewal of the strong opposition on the North Side that narrowly defeated both bids last year to extend the three-eights-cent levy. "This is difficult for me, because many of these improvements are attractive, but our people are saying, 'How can we trust that the money will go where it's supposed to? Kennedy said. "It's an intelligent question." By Bill Bryan Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The parents of a 7-old girl are appealing to the puoiic tor neip in nnaing tne man who lured their daughter into a garage in south St. Louis on weanesaay on tne promise of giving her a kitten and then raped her at knifepoint. Police believe the man may have also raped a 5-year-old girl in the same neighborhood earlier this summer.

i ne -year-oiu gin moiu- cisotrh nf er said: "It's so scary. He's hit Keicn twice now, and he threatened suspect to kill my daughter. Next time, he may kill somebody's daughter." The girl was raped by a young man who intercepted her as she was walking home after getting off a school bus. Her parents say the rape might have been prevented if she had been dropped off in front of her home instead of three blocks away. The rape took place about 4:45 p.m.

in a vacant garage in the 3800 block of McDonald Avenue, several blocks from where she was first accosted. Police say there are similarities between that attack and the rape of a 5-year-old girl that happened two blocks away, in the 3600 block of McDonald Avenue, on July 10. "The descriptions of the suspects are very similar, and because of the proximity of the incidents, it could be the same man," said Sgt Willie Smith, supervisor of the sex crimes-child abuse section. The 7-year-old girl's father said he discovered what happened when his daughter "came running in here, and said she thought she had been raped. She had on only her T-shirt and she was all covered with blood." Detectives said they were working on several leads..