St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 30

"END FI TfS DATE" "END OF CHANGES" oam SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1992 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 13C 4 More FBI Agents To Fight Area Gangs if By Tim Bryant Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The City's two top federal lawmen said Friday that four new FBI agents might be able to reduce the amount of violence caused by members of street gangs. James Nelson, head of the St. Louis FBI office, said the agents would be in their new assignments in a few weeks. Attorney General William P.

Barr announced Thursday in Washington that 300 G-men nationwide will be pulled off spy-catching duty and assigned to the fight against street gangs in 39 cities, including St. Louis. Nelson said gang members, frequently described as modern versions of 1930s-style gangsters, "quite often are Just street punks." While today's gangs share their predecessors' penchant for turf wars, the amount of violence associated with gangs today creates a situation of "almost anarchy," Nelson said. He and U.S. Attorney Stephen B.

Higglns said that FBI agents fighting street gangs would work closely with local police departments. Successful federal prosecutions for drug and gun crimes carry long prison sentences. Information turned up by federal agents could be used by local authorities investigating murders and assaults. Higgins said he was frightened by the easy availability of guns and the rise in "gratuitous" violence, such as the shooting this week of a Catholic nun. "Would an all-out federal assault on the Crips in St.

Louis stop that kind of violence? Probably not," Higgins said. "Would it if there is a concentrated effort to dry up the source of cheap handguns prevalent in these types of crimes? Perhaps yes." Nelson said St. Louis had not been plagued by the level of gang activity found in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere. "But I think we could get there," he said. A vL? i if? it 1v or- Lisa Marie Beste Missing Woman, 24, Vanishes In South County Detectives in St.

Louis County are investigating the suspicious disappearance of a 24-year-old woman who was last seen Tuesday morning. Foul play is suspected. The missing woman is identified as Lisa Marie Beste, of the 4300 block of Seibert Avenue in south St. Louis County. A friend told police he visited Beste Tuesday morning, at least an hour before hef 6-year-old son came home from kindergarten to find his mother gone.

She has not been seen since, said County Police Detective David G. Kneib. Beste's live-in boyfriend, Paul Risch, said he was puzzled because Beste's car was left behind. Its back seat was loaded with presents she had planned to return to Kmart, but her purse was gone, Risch said. Kneib said of the investigation: "That's what we're hanging our hat on, that it's not likely for her to leave her kid and leave her car." Ashcroft 's Father Stable, In Cardiac Unit 1 4 Thursday, said Bob Ferguson, the governor's spokesman.

John Ashcroft visited his father at the hospital Friday and later returned to Jefferson City, Ferguson said. The elder Ashcroft suffered a heart attack on Christmas Day and was discharged from a hospital in Springfield on Jan. 5. Ville Neighborhood Weman said a neighbor had noticed smoke and tried to reach White but was driven back by smoke and flames. A woman who lived in the house, Jer-ine Wells, 38, was on the first floor and disoriented.

The neighbor helped Wells outside; she was uninjured. The fire started on the second floor. The cause is under investigation. The house did not have a smoke Weman said. SPRINGFIELD, Mo.

(AP) The father of Gov. John Ashcroft was in stable condition in a hospital cardiac care unit after experiencing chest pains, the governor's office said Friday. The Rev. J. Robert Ashcroft, 80, of Springfield, was admitted to Cox Regional Medical Center-South on Man Killed In Fire A man was killed in a fire at his home in the Ville neighborhood south of Fairground Park about 10 p.m.

Friday, authorities reported. The victim Walter White, 64 was found by firefighters on the second floor of his two-story residence at 3967 Lincoln Avenue, said Battalion Chief Dave Weman. White was pronounced dead at Barnes Hospital. In AP No Bull Walter Gordon of Biddeford, Maine, trying to lasso a mechanical steer from atop a mechanical horse Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. Citizens Group Study Cites Vandalism At Clinton Nuclear Plant "Safeguard" measures are taken by officials at power plants to prevent or respond to the unauthorized possession or use of nuclear materials or to protect against sabotage.

According to commission reports cited by Public Citizen, the tampering and vandalism incidents at Clinton included: Tampering with a fire protection valve in August 1990. The mispositioning of five valves In March 1988, which resulted in a transfer of "condensate waste" from a storage tank into the radioactive waste system. A spokeswoman for Illinois Power Cindy Shelley, accused Public Citizen of "fearmongering using numbers like this to try to incite the public." Illinois Power by vandalism, drug abuse, possession of firearms and other "safeguard events." The group found that 361 such events were reported to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1988 through 1990, with the number of incidents rising gradually in each of those years. The Clinton plant had the seventh-highest total of reported "safeguard events" a dozen among 74 plants.

The highest number of incidents (22) was at the Turkey Point plant in Florida. The study found that the Callaway nuclear power plant in Missouri reported two such incidents both of which involved alleged drug use by security employees. By Robert L. Koenig Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON The Clinton power station in central Illinois led the nation's commercial nuclear plants in the number of incidents of tampering and vandalism from 1988 through 1990, a study made public Friday says. A spokeswoman for Illinois Power Co.

called those four incidents "very minor" and asserted that the plant had "an impeccable security record." The study was done by Public Citizen, a consumer interest group. The group said security at many of the nation's commercial nuclear power plants was being jeopardized operates the Clinton plant, near Decatur, 111. In Missouri, the Callaway plant is operated by Union Electric which is based in St. Louis. According to the report, the two incidents reported at the plant were: A security officer was fired after he tested positive for marijuana use in July 1988.

Another security officer was barred from Callaway's "protected area" after he tested positive for drug use in July 1988. Mike Geary, a UE spokesman at the Callaway plant, said Friday that those events were isolated and minor. "We have an outstanding record in that area," Cleary said. Man Gets 30 Years For Murder In 1990 POLICECOURTS BRIEFS Harry Gines, 33, of East St. Louis was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison for the stabbing death of Calvin Shipp, 33, also of East St.

Louis. Gines was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder on Nov. 26. The sentence was handed down by Associate Judge James Radcliffe in circuit court in Belleville. Shipp was stabbed on Christmas Eve 1990 while the two men were visiting a woman at her home In Morton.

She was dating Gines and is the mother of Shlpp's 10-year-old daughter. Shipp died of infection six days later at St. Mary's Hospital in East St. Louis. Two physicians, including the pathologist who did the autopsy on Shipp, testified at the trial in November that the wound should not have been fatal.

The defense attorney, Jeffrey Ham-mel, contended that Shipp had died of malpractice rather than violence. Gines claimed Shipp had been wounded inadvertently when he walked into the knife. But another doctor, Mark Shapiro of St. Louis University Hospital, testified that the stab wound had been fatal. He said the infection had been secondary.

routine drug test on Thursday. Police officers in the narcotics and vice divisions are tested more frequently than other officers. There have been 27 St. Louis police officers who have tested positive for drugs since 1986, officials say. Of those, all but six resigned.

The others were fired by the department. Policeman Suspended; Failed Drug Test W. Stover, 41, was struck on a westbound lane of 1-270 near the Dunn Road exit ramp just east of West Florissant Road. The box, filled with personal papers, had fallen out of a pickup truck driven by Stover's wife. Stover, who was driving a car behind the pickup, pulled over and walked onto the interstate toward the box.

He was bending over to pick it up when he was struck. Police said he was wearing dark clothing, and the two drivers did not see him. St. Louis: A 21 -year-old man was struck and killed as he was crossing Interstate 70 at Branch Street early Friday. Phillip Craig, of the 1300 block of Wright Street, was crossing in the eastbound reversible lanes of 1-70 when he was struck by a pickup truck driven by David L.

Often, 62, of the 300 block of Derhake Road in Florissant. Craig, who lived nearby and might have been taking a shortcut home, was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after he was struck at 5:45 a.m. Otten, who was on his way to work, told police he had not seen Craig until the last moment; police said Craig had been crossing the highway at the crest of a hill. No charges will be filed in the accident. St.

Louis County: A Bel Nor woman, 64, was fatally injured Friday in North County when she drove in front of a dump truck on Highway 367, poiice said. Marion May Davis, of the 10500 block of Toelle Lane, died about 9:15 a.m. when the truck hit her car from behind in the southbound lane of the highway. Davis had just pulled onto the highway from Parker Road, where she had stopped for a flashing red light. Police say Davis could have mistakenly thought the truck also had a red light, but the highway's traffic signal there is a flashing yellow light.

The truck driver was not cited. SEX CRIMES Breckenridge Hills: Two peo ple charged this week in a prostitu tion case had made pornographic movies at home, St. Louis County police said Friday. David Lee, 45, of the 3300 block of Delta Drive in Breckenridge Hills, faces a felony charge of promoting prostitution. Martha Husentia, 51, of the 11000 block of Oak Forest, is charged with prostitution.

The two were arrested after a county officer contacted them in March and asked to be included in a pornographic movie. Lee is a cab driver; Husentia works In a clothing store, police said. Florissant: An employee at Jane's Place, a bar at 21 82 North Waterford Drive, was arrested and accused of exposing herself as she danced behind and on top of the bar, Florissant police said Friday. Mary L. Clark, 34, of Florissant, was given a municipal court summons and released on $300 bond.

The charge conduct prohibited at a liquor establishment Is a misdemeanor. She was arrested Dec. 20 when an undercover Florissant police officer went to the bar after the department got complaints. "The following incidents were among those that were reported to police departments in the St. Louis metropolitan area or tnat involved action in one ot tne area courts: COURT ACTION Meacham Park: Ronald Tinch.

22, of Meacham Park has been sen tenced in St. Louis County Circuit Court to 12 years in prison for the shooting of Christopher' Hill, 23, of Crestwood over a $20 crack cocaine deal. Tinch was convicted by a jury in Novemoer or assault ana armed criminal action. Hill was shot in the back of the head in Meacham Park on Sept. 9, 1990, in a quarrel over a drug buy, said prosecutor Mike avion, hhi is paralyzed rrom the neck down.

RAPES St. Louis County: A man already serving a life sentence for his role in a double homicide in St. Louis was sentenced Friday to an additional life term for a rape in Brentwood on Dec. 19, 1990, a week before the murders. Dwayne Miller, 21, of the 3800 block of Lee Avenue in St.

Louis, pleaded guilty of rape and two counts of sodomy. Judge Melvyn W. Wiesman sentenced Miller to life in prison on each count, concurrent to the life sentence in the city. Last year, Miller was sentenced to life for the murders of Adron Churn, 35, and Billy J. Will-lams, 28.

Cahokia: Sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 20 for two men from Cahokia who invaded a home in Cahokia on July 8 and robbed and raped a 33-year-old woman and her 12-year-old daughter at knifepoint. Charles Timothy Morris, 21, pleaded guilty Friday of home Invasion, armed robbery, attempted residential burglary and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual as-: sault. A co-defendant Craig J. Hatfield, 19 pleaded guilty Thursday of home invasion, armed robbery and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault.

Each could be sentenced to up to 90 years in prison. ASSAULTS St. Louis County: Tomella Hooks, 31, of Bel-Ridge, the man ager of a Shoney's restaurant in north St. Louis County, was charged by a grand jury Friday with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor. Hooks was accused of putting bleach into an employee's iced tea to discourage workers from drinking or eating while on duty.

The employee Shirley Perotti, 38, of Bellefontaine Neighbors suffered burns on her esophagus after drinking the tea and was hospitalized overnight. The grand jury accused Hooks of reckless conduct in issuing the charge. Police had sought a charge of second-degree assault, a felony. TRAFFIC FATALITIES Ferguson: A North County man who had walked onto Interstate 270 to retrieve a box was struck by two automobiles and killed about 6 p.m. Friday.

Ferguson police said Clyde Last year, more than 50,000 trees were collected saving more than 7,000 cubic yards of landfill RECRUITMENT FAIR Urban League To Help Fill Jobs At Six Flags The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis will sponsor a recruit-" ment fair Jan. 18 to fill more than 100 summer jobs at Six Flags over Mid-America. The event, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., will be at the league's office, 3701 Grandel Square.

The fair will be open to teen-agers at least 1 6 years old who want to apply for the full-time positions. There are no income guidelines or residency requirements. Daily transportation to Six Flags will be available at a cost for those hired. Applicants should wear proper dress for interviews. Those teen-agers hired will be eligible to compete for college scholarships at the end of the theme park's season.

Additional information is available by calling 289-0300. ARTS AWARD National Group Honors Sheldon Concert liail The Sheldon Concert Hall has won this year's Dawson Achievement Award, given annually by the national Association of Performing Arts Presenters to recognize innovative and successful performing arts projects. A group of residents and arts patrons bought the historic, 732- seat concert hall, 3648 Washington Avenue, last summer after the for mer owners threatened to close it. The group, called the Sheldon Arts Foundation, has a $3.5 million fund-raising campaign under way. HEALTH CARE Members Of Congress To Head Forums Here Public forums on problems in the nation's health care system will be held Tuesday in Collinsville and south St.

Louis County by area members of Congress. House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-St. Louis County, and Rep. Richard J.

Durbin, D- Springfield, 111., will attend the Col- linsville session at 3 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 1022 Van-dalia Street. Collinsville is in Dur-bln's new district. Gephardt and Rep. Joan Kelly Horn, D-Ladue, will take part in a session at 7 p.m.

at Lindbergh High School, 4900 South Lindbergh Bou- levard. The two gatherings are among 200 meetings scheduled na- tionwide Tuesday to help congres- slonal Democrats learn how the public wants to deal with health care costs and the high number of uninsured people. MISSOURI UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON Ailment Slows Work Of Former UMSL Chief Marguerite Ross Barnett, former chancellor of the University of Missouri at St. Louis, is reducing her workload as president of the University of Houston because of a neuroendocrinological disorder. The Houston 1 noHi i rtti an- nouncedthis Barnett week that Barnett had received permission from the board of regents to cut her normal duties in half during the spring semester.

Her other duties will be assumed by the university's senior vice pres ident and provost, James Pickering. Barnett is the first woman and the first black to head the Universi ty of Houston. She was chancellor of the UMSL campus for four years before accepting the presidency of Houston's main campus in 1990. KANSAS CITY Carnival Ride Accident Laid To Repairs, Parts Design and operating flaws caused a carnival ride accident that injured seven children at the Missouri State Fair last summer, a federal agency says. A preliminary report issued Thursday by the Consumer Products Safety Commission said a combination of worn parts and improper installation had caused parts of the ride to fall apart.

The accident, which occurred Aug. 20 in Sedalia, flung riders from the spinning ride called the Gravitron. The accident happened when one of several vertical panels that form the cylindrical Gravitron machine broke loose at the bottom, the agency said. Centrifugal force keeps riders pinned against walls. AP RECYCLING Christmas Tree Project Extended Until Jan.

19 The Post-Dispatch Christmas tree recycling program has been extended to Jan. 19. Trees may be taken to Forest Park and IS other St. Louis-area parks that are participating in the program. Mulch from the trees may be hauled away free while the supplies lasts.

The mulch may be used as ground cover, on walkways or paths. Businesses, tree lots and trash haulers are not eligible to participate. The Post-Dispatch has sponsored the program for two years. i it) A St. Louis police officer in the department's narcotics division was suspended Friday after testing positive for cocaine, officials say.

The officer, Frederick Searcy, 34, has been with the department since 1987. He is the son of retired St. Louis Police Lt. Frederick Searcy. Officer Searcy failed a random and 'w M.

tn4 Sam LeonePost-Dispatch Lunch Time Tania Henderson, 7, taking advantage of Friday's sunshine to feed some geese in Forest Park. Tania is the daughter of Dolvis and Yevette Henderson of Webster Groves..