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

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH ST. LOUISWEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1991 3A Tests Revealed Barbiturate In Developer's Body By Tim Poor witing the investigation of "what could be a homicide' Dierker ordered that the exhumation be kept secret from O'Donnell's family and friends. O'Donnell's body from Calvary Cemetery in St Louis. He ordered that the autopsy be completed by Feb.

25. Citing the investigation of "what could be a homicide," Dierker ordered that the exhumation be kept secret from O'Donnell's family and friends. A maid at the Quality Inn in Collins-ville had found O'Donnell's body on his bed in a room on the afternoon of Nov. 17. Without conducting an autopsy, the Madison County coroner's office concluded that he had died of a heart attack.

Court records show that the conclusion was based in part on information provided by Gary R. Fears, a business partner of O'Donnell's. Madison County Deputy Coroner Linda Allan reported that she and Roger Smith, another deputy coroner, had spoken with Fears at the Quality Inn a few hours after O'Donnell's body was found. drug paraphernalia when they searched O'Donnell's motel room and car after his death, records show. They did find a 9mm pistol in the trunk of his 1980 Mercedes in the parking lot of the motel.

The gun, wrapped in an old towel, had one bullet in the chamber and six in the magazine, a police report says. The motion filed by Joyce-Hayes stated that due to the blood tests, the Madison County coroner's office "now regards the death of Frank O'Donnell as suspicious, arising from other than natural causes, and possibly a suicide or homicide." It said an autopsy was necessary to determine the cause of death "and to provide a proper basis for the payment of insurance proceeds, the distribution of decedent's property, and any other legal proceedings affected by the manner of O'Donnell's death." Bankruptcy records show that O'Donnell had a $1 million term-life insurance policy with Intercontinental Life Insurance Co. of Elizabeth, J. Patrick Dever, a claims examiner with the company, told the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday that he could not determine who the beneficiary of the policy was because the company was investigating O'Donnell's death. Dever said company investigators "came down and took the whole file about a month ago." Probate records in St.

Clair County show that on March 5, O'Donnell had amended his will to name Donald Soffer executor of his estate. Soffer, a St. Louis developer, had been one of O'Donnell's many business partners. Records show that O'Donnell left his personal effects to his wife, Joyce. He turned over the balance of his estate, valued at $800,000, to be held in a family trust for five years.

He named Soffer trustee and gave him full control over the assets. Robert Goodrich of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed information for this story. and Daniel R. Browning Of the Post-Dispatch Staff 1991, SL Louis Post-Dispatch Authorities exhumed the body of Belleville real estate developer Frank E. O'Donnell Sr.

whose death first was attributed to a heart attack because tests on his blood found it contained a "potentially lethal" level of drugs, court records show. Meanwhile, a St. Louis lawyer who had been close to O'Donnell said Tuesday in federal court that an Illinois grand jury was investigating death. The lawyer, Anthony G. Tummin-ello, referred to the grand jury investigation while asking U.S.

District Judge William Beatty in East St. Louis to seal some files in a lawsuit involving O'Donnell. Beatty refused that request. Court records show that St. Louis Circuit Judge Robert H.

Dierker signed an order Jan. 16 to exhume "Mr. Fears stated that Mr. O'Donnell had been hospitalized, that he complained of chest pains and that he had been in failing health," Allan's report states. The report does not say what Fears was doing in the motel.

Fears declined to discuss the matter Tuesday. Fears is managing partner of the Colllnsville Holiday Inn, which is in Eastport Plaza, across Interstate 55 from the Quality Inn-He and O'Donnell had been involved in numerous development projects together. O'Donnell, 61, of 100 Powder Mill Road, filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition March 7 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in East St Louis. Records show that Fears was O'Donnell's largest individual creditor, holding $325,000 in secured debt and $313,531 In unsecured debt.

Before O'Donnell was buried on Nov. 20, the coroner's office took blood and urine samples from his body. The blood test results revealed on Jan. 3 that he had a "a potentially lethal concentration" of secobarbital, a barbiturate, in his body, according to the motion for exhumation filed by Dee Joyce-Hayes, first assistant to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney.

Police and deputy coroners found no evidence of prescription drugs or ItyCT nrr .111 r'-l; ,4 cirrnrn Trial Begins In Baby's Death Woman Accused Of Poisoning Son By Marcia Koenig Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The Jefferson County prosecuting attorney says he intends to prove that Patricia Stallings fatally poisoned her 5-month-old son with anti-freeze while he was in foster care. Stallings, 25, is on trial in Jefferson County Circuit Court, accused of first-degree murder. If convicted of that charge, she faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. The prosecution has decided against seeking the death penalty. "Ryan Stallings, In the middle of 1989, was a living, breathing little boy," said prosecutor George McElroy.

But 1 urn wprw, 'V i ij i I. I rs yw 'jr. wnen Kyan was months old, in July of that year, McElroy said, doctors determined that Ryan was suffering from poisoning from ethylene glycol the main ingredient in anti-freeze. But Stallings' defense attorney, Eric Rathbone, told the jury on Tuesday that Ryan could have died of "natural causes compounded by medical malpractice." He added that if Ryan was poisoned, at least three other relatives had the opportunity to do it. Stallings i rr- Kill Robert LaRouchePost-Dispatch De-lcingTime Mary Ann Kane (left) and Barbara Buchanan scraping ice from their car window downtown during a freezing rain Tuesday.

Alderman Robert's Brother To Run As An Independent Lasater wood Court Ruling Bars Mark Roberts From Filing As Democrat By Tim O'Neil Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The brother of a retiring St. Louis alderman filed Tuesday as an independent candidate after a judge barred the city Election Board from reopening the ward's Democratic contest. Mark Roberts filed Tuesday afternoon as an independent by submitting to the Election Board a petition signed by more than 600 people. He needs 78 valid signatures to become a candidate. "I am satisfied with being an independent candidate," Roberts said.

Ryan was the first son of Patricia and David Stallings, of the Hillsboro area. Doctors testified on Tuesday that they also had detected elevated levels of acetone in Ryan's body. Acetone is contained in fingernail polish remover but also can occur naturally during illness, the doctors said. State authorities put Ryan in foster care when he was released from the hospital. Ryan's parents were allowed to visit him each Thursday at the office of the Division of Family Services in Hillsboro.

In one of those visits, in August 1989, prosecutors say, Patricia Stallings was left alone with Ryan for a time and fed him a bottle. A few days later, Ryan's foster parents became alarmed by his inability to eat and his heavy breathing and sought medical treatment, his foster mother, Joanne Massengale, testified. Doctors at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital diagnosed his condition again as poisoning from ethylene glycol. Doctors from Cardinal Glennon testified that the level of ethylene glycol in Ryan's body was much higher the second time they saw him. "The baby was much farther gone this time," McElroy said in his opening statements.

"The doctors put the baby on dialysis to wash the poison away, but the damage had been done. The baby never recovered." McElroy said that the chemical must have been "deliberately fed" to a baby that age. One pediatrician, Dr. Robert Lynch, testified that the alarms on Ryan's monitors had sounded while Patricia Stallings was bent over her son during the second hospital stay. When Lynch went to Ryan's bedside, he said, he smelled a strong odor of acetone.

Patricia Stallings was in jail charged with assaulting Ryan when the baby died several days later. A social worker at Cardinal Glennon testified that when she called to tell Stallings that Ryan had died, Stallings replied: "I don't care about that. Put David on the phone. I want to get out of this hell hole." Under Rathbone's questioning, the social worker acknowledged that Stallings could have been suffering from the stress of incarceration. Rathbone said last year that Ryan might have been suffering from a rare genetic disorder that affects the Stallings' second son, David Jr.

The disorder produces a chemical similar in molecular form to ethylene glycol. Rathbone questioned a witness, Dr. Anthony Scalzo, about that genetic disorder but has yet to inform the jury that the Stallingses have a second son who suffers from it. Scalzo, the director of the Poison Control Center at Cardinal Glennon, testified that ethylene glycol could not be traced to that genetic disorder. Scalzo said the hospital had two laboratories run tests to be certain the poison in Ryan's body was ethylene glycol.

Stallings gave birth to David Jr. while in jail. He was placed in foster care. When authorities learned of the disorder, they released Stallings on a recognizance bond pending trial. David remains in foster care.

Old Warson Denies Link In Policy By Charlene Prost Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The president of Old Warson Country Club says the nomination of Frederick S. Wood as the club's first black member is unrelated to a controversy last summer when the club withdrew as a host for a golf tournament rather than expedite the inclusion of minority members. The president Donald E. Lasater, said Tuesday that there had been "no hurry-up involved" to give Wood's nomination special treatment because of the controversy. "His nomination has been treated I like anyone else's, in due course," Lasater said.

1 Lasater said that many of the club's members had objected to hosting a Professional Golfers Association se-' niors tournament last summer for rea-; sons that had nothing to do with the minority membership issue. I great number of the club mem- bers did not want the golf tournament because they felt there simply was not eoough room at that course or enough parking," Lasater said. He made the comments in a telephone interview from Florida, where he is on vacation. 62, a retired executive vice president of General Dynamics, con- firmed Monday that he had been ap- proved for membership by the club's I board. He is awaiting final approval Mark Roberts had wanted to file as a Democrat for 20th Ward alderman, the seat held by his brother, Alderman Steven C.

Roberts. The Election Board reopened filing this week after Steven Roberts withdrew from the race on Thursday. But the three Democrats who had filed before the Jan. 4 deadline for partisan candidates asked the St. Louis Circuit Court to bar the new round of filing.

Circuit Judge Edward M. But Edward Dowd Roberts' lawyer, said he would file a motion today asking the Missouri Court of Appeals to block Peek's ruling. The 20th Ward's three Democratic candidates are Tyus, Cleo Willis Sr. and Michelle M. Furlow.

Furlow filed suit Monday to block the additional filing. Tyus filed a similar suit Tuesday. The Post-Dispatch incorrectly reported Tuesday that Tyus had filed her suit Monday. '-mm- JM M. Roberts by the membership, and his name has been posted during a waiting period.

As is the case with many private clubs, potential members are nominated by club members and sometimes must wait for months until membership vacancies occur. Then the club's directors and members vote on filling the vacancies. Wood said Monday that he wanted to join Old Warson because he likes to play golf. "I actually don't think it's any big deal," he said. "It's an event whose time has come." Lasater, the retired chairman of Mercantile Bancorporation, said he was pleased about Wood's nomination and would welcome him to the club.

As for more black members, Lasater said: "I am sure there will be others, but that will depend on who the members nominate." Old Warson was scheduled to be the site for the Southwestern Bell Classic, a PGA seniors golf tournament, in June and again in 1991. The PGA also had an option to hold the tournament at Old Warson in 1993. But before signing a contract, the PGA insisted that the club abide by its new anti-discrimination policy. The PGA has shifted several other tournaments since then because of the refusal of all-white clubs in other cities to follow the new policy. Peek ruled in their favor on Tuesday, saying the board's "customary practice" of reopening filing was not enough to withstand a legal challenge.

The board has reopened filing four times in the past 10 years because of deaths or resignations. A judge prohibited it in an aldermanic race in 1981, but the practice stood without challenge the other three times. Sharon Tyus, a lawyer and one of the Democratic candidates, argued at the hearing that the Election Board "cannot just make up these provisions." The Jan. 4 deadline was for candidates in the March 5 primary. Independent candidates for the April 2 general election had until Tuesday to file.

Steven Roberts has been 20th Ward alderman since 1979. He withdrew on the last day to drop out of the primary. In other city contests, two other candidates submitted petitions this week for the April 2 election. Alderman Kenneth Jones, Ind-22nd Ward, filed Monday for re-election to a second four-year term. James A.

Garrison 39, submitted petitions Tuesday to run as the Socialist Workers' candidate for aldermanic president The socialists had wanted to run David Rosenfeld, 28, but Rosenfeld said he learned later that the city requires candidates for that office to be at least 30 years old. Alliance Slate For School Board Backs 2 Of 3 Tax Issues Candidate William J. Macke said he was withholding judgment on the three proposals because he wanted more information. "In my personal opinion, it might be a bit steep" for the board to propose all three at once, he said. The School Board voted 7-5 last week to place the three measures on the ballot at the same time as a way to hold down election costs and cash in on a large voter turnout expected for the School Board race.

The five-member anti-busing faction on the School Board voted last week against the tax proposals. Douglas K. Rush, acting School Board president and a supporter of the tax proposals, said the stance taken by the Alliance candidates appeared to be "political posturing." Rush suggested that the candidates believed they could win votes in south St. Lois from residents who tradition are needed for the rollback waiver and 5-cent levy. Purdy said the Alliance candidates were supporting the bond issue "because we don't have a choice.

We have some reservations about that additional $31 million. We're not saying it isn't necessary, but we don't know that it is." The Rev. Earl Nance who sits on the School Board, said he didn't expect the position taken by the Alliance to harm passage of the total tax package. "The same people who will vote for the Alliance candidates are the same people who will vote for the three proposals," Nance said. He said he hoped the Alliance candidates would eventually support all the proposals.

Jo Mannies of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed information for this story. answer for how the money would be spent. "We would like to see more specificity in terms of how much of that money would actually go to salary increases," he said. "There have been nothing but vague statements made about that" The Alliance candidates are opposed by four candidates who oppose court-ordered desegregation and who are backed by a group called Friends Advocates of Neighborhood Schools of St. Louis.

Filing for election to the School Board ended Tuesday with no other candidate entering the race. Four seats are being contested. The Friends candidates are split on the tax proposals. Candidate Gordon Schweitzer said he was backing the rollback waiver, while candidates Ruth Stone and Carol A. Wilson said they were leaning against all three propoalp.

ally have voted against tax increases. "What I suspect is they are probably being told here is a nice, wishy-washy statement that you can say to try to ingratiate yourself with all people and do minimum damage to your campaign," Rush said. He said he knew of no candidate who had requested financial data from the district to help develop his or her campaign position. Said Purdy: "Nobody is telling us to do anything. We are independent candidates who are viewing this in terms of what we think is the correct way to proceed." The rollback waiver and the 5-cent increase in the tax rate would increase the district's operating tax levy to $3.75 the maximum that can be assessed with the approval of only a simple majority.

Both measures need a simple majority. If approved by voters, the rollback waiver and 5-cent tax would generate about $12.6 million for the district to reduce class sizes, raise teachers' pay, and maintain and improve facilities and programs, school officials said. About $1.2 million of the $12.6 million would come from the 5-cent increase in the operating tax levy. The $131 bond issue would set up a tax of 52-cents for each $100 of assessed valuation for a debt retirement fund. If it is approved and if the Missouri Supreme Court upholds last April's election in which voters approved a $100 million bond issue for city schools, only $31 million in new bonds would be issued.

A four-sevenths (57.1 percent) majority is needed for passage of the bond issue. The $31 milion was added to the second bond issue because of new estimates for construction costs, school officials said. Simple majorities By Ann Scales Cobbs Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Four candidates for the St Louis School Board offered on Tuesday par-: tial support for a package of tax proposals that will be on the same ballot with them on April 2. The candidates running with the -support of the Alliance for Quality Education said they would support, with reservations, a $131 million bond Issue to renovate city schools. They also are backing a proposal to waive a 47-cent property tax rollback for each $100 of assessed valuation.

But the Alliance slate said it would oppose increasing the operating tax levy by 5 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation. R. William Purdy, an Alliance can- didate, said slate members opposed the 5-cent increase in the tax levy as "a matter of principle" because the fchool Board had provided no clear.