St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 25

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH IIINOISF1IBAY 5 $32 FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1992 3A The Look Of Neglect BILL McCLELLAN ON MY OWN ji i I T7T7fPv5 nrs A Non-Lawyer Offers A Ruling In Estate Case Minority Jobs Get A Boost In Belleville Mayor OKs State Demands By Robert Goodrich Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Belleville Mayor Richard A. Brauer has agreed to a list of demands by the Illinois Department of Human Rights aimed at increasing minority workers in city jobs. A department official said that Belleville's affirmative-action plan, drawn up last year, was "a significant move forward" but that additional steps were needed. "The city will take the actions you requested in your letter pursuant to A An f-i SI i agency official calls approval by the City Council," Brauer said in a letter to the department last week.

The agency had charged the city with bias in hiring and with the affirmative-action plan "a significant move forward" but says more steps are needed. fy' a nil fa Scott C. DinePost-Dispatch Weeds growing in a vacant lot at Hamilton and Cote Brilliante avenues. Alderman Kenneth Jones demanded Thursday that the city clean up the untended vacant lots, which he has called hazards to public safety. Panel Urges Use Of New Prisons establishing a special police unit aimed at black motorists in the city's west end.

Last year Belleville hired its first black employees a firefighter and a sanitation worker in its 175-year history. For the summer, the city also has a black cemetery worker who held the same position last summer. Its goal is to increase the number of minority employees to 24. The city has about 300 employees in all. But Belleville's affirmative-action program still fell short of Human Rights Department requirements, according to Alexander Z.

Fiedotjew, an official with the agency. Fiedotjew wrote Brauer last month, saying the city must: Eliminate its residency requirement for job applicants. Appoint an affirmative-action officer. Revise its figures on percentage of minority population. Keep more records to measure its efforts to hire minority workers.

The City Council voted Monday to allow non-residents to apply for jobs, but Brauer wrote Fiedotjew that the city still would require non-resident workers to move into the city within six months. The council also voted to seek applicants for an affirmative-action officer. Previously it had planned to let the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council administer the program. Brauer has advised the Human Rights Department that he expected a person to be hired by mid-July. Fiedtojew's letter says the city's affirmative-action program should be revised to reflect minority labor forces available countywide.

The city's hiring goal was 7.7 percent, reflecting its minority population. But Fiedtojew said the percentage in the job categories countywide ranged from 13.8 to 30.5 percent. SPRINGFIELD, 111. (AP) Illinois might have to release inmates early unless the state uses new prisons built but never opened because of money problems, the head of a special prison panel said Thursday. The committee, in a preliminary report to Gov.

Jim Edgar, also recommended a temporary freeze on new laws requiring mandatory prison sentences. The Task Force on Crime and Corrections advised lawmakers to restore $21 million for prisons that Edgar proposed in his 1993 budget. The House has cut the money, which was intended to open six newly built but shuttered prisons with more than 1,800 beds. "Opening those prisons was a unanimous conclusion by the task force that needs to be done now," said Anton Valu-kas, task force chairman and a former minimum-security prison. The temporary freeze on new laws requiring incarceration would give the task force time to study the issue before it completes its report by year's end.

The Legislature has tried this session to limit the number of bills mandating prison terms. "What we should be doing is funding alternatives to incarceration for non-violent criminals, like boot camps and electronic bracelets," said Rep. Grace Mary Stern, D-Highland Park. "We're adding to prison overcrowding at a time when we're cutting prison guards and not opening prisons because we have no money," said Stern, a member of the House Judiciary II Committee. The Corrections Departments supports the report, spokesman Brian Fairchild said.

U.S. attorney in Chicago. Prisons could reach full capacity next April without the additional beds, according to the report. "Realistically, if these facilities are not opened, the prison system in Illinois will be so full in less than a year that we will have to let inmates out early to make room for the new inmates coming in," Valukas said in a letter to Edgar that accompanied the report. The task force recommended opening the Big Muddy Correctional Center, a 952-bed medium-security prison in Franklin County; work camps in Clayton, Du Quoin, Paris and Greene County, with a total of 650 beds; and a 200-bed work-release center in Chicago.

The panel also suggested the state spend $4 million to finish converting a closed high school in East St. Louis into a 560-bed, BRIEFS Help Sought For Children In E. St. Louis Human Skull May Help Find Child's Killer ILLINOIS LET ME DON my judicial robe and render a fair and impartial ruling on the lawsuit involving the estate of Marguerite Crain, in which some of her heirs are challenging her second and final will on the grounds that her lawyer, James L. Sullivan, exerted undue influence on her.

Rendering a ruling seems like the least I can do. Jury selection for that case began Monday, and opening arguments were delivered Tuesday afternoon. I then wrote a column that appeared in this space Wednesday morning. Some of the lawyers involved in the case were unhappy with that column. They said it was biased.

Judge Philip Sweeney then declared a mistrial on the grounds that the column was biased against lawyers in general and Sullivan in particular. Except for the lawyers, who get to charge their clients for two and a half extra days of court time, the mistrial is bad news for everybody. The taxpayers have wasted money on an aborted trial. The people who are inheriting Crain's $3.5 million will have to wait for a new trial. In an effort to spare us the expense of a new trial, let me figure out who should get Crain's money.

First, though, let's deal with Wednesday's column. Was it biased against lawyers in general, and lawyer James L. Sullivan in particular? I'll plead guilty. The column was about the difficulty in finding 12 jurors who wouldn't be prejudiced against a lawyer. In fact, the column quoted Morris Stokes, who rep- resents Sullivan.

V. "Just because a lawyer is named in a lawsuit to overturn a will, would you start with the presumption that there's some merit in the lawsuit?" Stokes asked the potential jurors during jury selection. This was, I pointed out, a good question. A lot of people don't trust lawyers. Furthermore, a lot of non-lawyers would harbor suspicions about a lawyer who gets an elderly client and, within a few years, owns the ancestral family home and all the rest of the client's real estate.

When the will gets rewritten to put all the client's money into a trust that the lawyer will control and upon the lawyer's death, the control goes to the lawyer's son a lot of non-lawyers might get downright skeptical. Lawyers might have no problem with any of this. They might have no problem with the fact that when Crain, who was near death, signed the legal papers giving Sullivan the rest of her real estate, she couldn't even spell her own name. Incidentally, I didn't mention that fact in Wednesday's column. Nor did I mention the allegation that Sullivan received hundreds of thousands of dollars of his client's estate before her death.

Instead, I just mused about the difficulty in finding a jury that would trust a lawyer who ended up with so much of his client's estate. To non-lawyers, it appears rather unseemly. But to lawyers, if an elderly client happens to like her new lawyer and wants him to end up with a good chunk of her estate, it all makes perfect sense. In fact, to the lawyers, it was unseemly for a columnist to suggest that such fondness for a lawyer seems odd. Because lawyers and non-lawyers see things so differently, it might be impossible for this case to get a fair hearing.

That's another reason I might as well settle the case now. Under the terms of the old will, Crain's cousins, her closest relatives, got all the money. Under the terms of the second will, most of the money goes into a trust to be controlled by Sullivan, and eventually, his son. The cousins are to receive semi-annual payments from the trust for 20 year, after which the trust would be dispersed to the beneficiaries. In addition, the Humane Society and Milton Solovic, Crain's neighbor, each receive $10,000.

The case is complicated by the stipulation in the second will that if any of the cousins contest the will, they are precluded from being beneficiaries of the trust. Let's throw that stipulation out right now. Doesn't seem fair. Before we distribute the money, let's consider the allegations. The cousins who are trying to overturn the new will contend that Sullivan is a swindler.

Stokes, in his opening argument, painted these cousins as greedy, uncaring relatives whose main interest in Crain was financial. Notice that nobody has accused Solovic of anything. Furthermore, he's the only party in the case who is not represented by a lawyer. I talked to him in the hall during a break. He was wearing a lapel pin that identified him as a member of the elite First Raiders Battalion, a Marine Corps outfit that saw heavy combat in the Pacific during World War II.

"I'm just a neighbor who helped Peggy out whenever I could," Solovic said. "I never expected to get a penny." Let's get to the McClellan ruling. Sullivan will return the ancestral home, the real estate and all his legal fees exceeding $10,000. Each of the cousins will get $10,000, as will the Humane Society. Solovic gets the rest.

the car by emergency workers. Leona Downey was in serious condition late Thursday at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville. The driver of the other car and two passengers in that vehicle also were injured. MISSING WOMAN Confused Wife Of Man Found In Illinois Located At Motel A woman who was reported missing from Cape Girardeau, was found unharmed Wednesday night at a motel in south St.

Louis County. She was believed to have been visiting St. Louis with her husband, who was found Tuesday in a rural area near Waterloo, 111. St. Louis County Police said Clarisse Chism, 71, had been recognized by an employee of the Holiday Inn at Interstate 55 and South Lindbergh Boulevard.

The employee called police, who found the woman at the motel about 1 1:30 p.m. Clarisse Chism appeared to be confused but showed no signs of physical injury, police said. She was taken to St. Anthony's Medical Center for an examination. Police said Clarisse Chism could not immediately tell them how she became separated from her husband, Harold Chism, a retired dentist who was found about 1 a.m.

Tuesday driving his Lincoln Continental in rural Monroe County in Southern Illinois, Cape Girardeau police said. Harold Chism also was reported to be confused. PRAIRIE DU ROCHER Fort de Chartres Prepares For 23rd Annual Rendezvous The 23rd Annual Rendezvous at Fort de Chartres State Historic Site Saturday and Sunday will feature the midwest's largest gathering of 1700s-era soldiers, settlers, traders and campers. People from across the country will come to the site near Prairie Du Rocher to re-enact the settlement of the Illinois territory in the mid-1700s. The activities, from 10 a.m.

to 5 p.m. both days, are free and open to the public, and many feature public participation. Included will be flintlock muzzle-loading competitions, tomahawk and knife throwing, military drills and shooting. There will be fencing demonstrations, blanket traders, dancing groups, folk music, food vendors, and artisan and craft demonstrations. MADISON Man Is Given 15-Year Term For Killing His Girlfriend Larry W.

Catterson of Madison got the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison Thursday after entering a plea to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in the beating of his girlfriend in their apartment last year. Catterson, 33, entered a special plea in which he did not admit guilt jn the death of Molly Tyler, 32, but that agreed the evidence was sufficient to convict him in a trial. Catterson was sentenced immediately by Circuit Judge Charles V. Romani Jr. of Madison County under an agreement between assistant public defender Tyler Bate-man and Assistant State's Attorney Susan Jensen.

Catterson had been indicted on a charge of first-degree murder. ALTON Alderman Is First Candidate To Declare In Mayoral Race Alderman Bob Towse of Alton says he is a candidate for mayor and that if elected he will lead with a vision that the current administration lacks. Towse, 58, is serving his third term as alderman in the Fifth Ward. He is the first to announce his candidacy for mayor in next April's election. He is the associate director of the Rural Affairs Council in the state lieutenant governor's office and is retired from McDonnell-Douglas Corp.

Mayor Edward Voumard Jr. is expected to announce later that he will seek a second term. Voumard could not be reached for comment on Towse's candidacy. FREEBURG Crash On Rain-Slick Road Kills Girl, 18, From Marissa A young woman has been killed in a two-car accident in Freeburg. Deana Downey, 18, of Marissa, was killed when the car in which she was riding skidded into the wrong lane on a wet road, and was struck broadside by another car about 3:30 p.m.

Wednesday, police said. The driver of the car Leona Downey, 41, of Marissa, Deana Downey's mother was injured and had to be removed from By Bill Bryan Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The recovery of a human skull has authorities optimistic that they may have the first solid clue in one of St. Louis' most baffling unsolved murders the decapitation of an unknown girl nine years ago. "Obviously, we're very interested in this skull," said Dr. Mary Case, the St.

Louis County medical examiner. Her office has custody of the skull, which was obtained by a Charlack police lieutenant on May 14 from a man he had stopped to question on St. Charles Rock Road, near the Interstate 1-170. "The skull is definitely that of a child, but at this time we don't know the sex or race," Case said. "DNA testing will be able to tell us if the skull belongs to the body of the murder victim." If the skull and body are matched, Homicide Sgt.

Joe Burgoon said police will "backtrack the origin of the skull and hopefully get her identified." He said discoveries of human skulls particularly those of children are rare and have piqued police curiosity. Burgoon has been the primary investigator on the "Jane Doe" case for the last several years. "It's too early to get too excited, but I'm encouraged," he said. "It's the best lead we've got thus far." The DNA tests could take several weeks to complete, Case said. Meanwhile, authorities plan to have archaeologists examine the skull to determine its age.

The owner of the skull says it is 1,100 years old. The skull came to light May 14, when Char-lack Lt. Tony Umbertino saw a man in a storage rental shed on St. Charles Rock Road and questioned him to see if he belonged there. The man was later identified as Danny L.

Davis, 33, of Pagedale. "As I was talking to him, I noticed a couple of animal skulls in the shed," Umbertino said. "I asked him about the skulls, and he told me he was a 'skull freak' and had a human skull as well," Umbertino said. "He had it right there inside a Tide Bleach box. It was wrapped with electrical tape." Umbertino confiscated the skull and turned it over to Case's office.

Davis said he bought the skull for $35 in 1977 or 1978 at a souvenir-gift shop in St. Louis County. By Roy Malone Of the Post-Dispatch Staff Rep. Jerry Costello said Thursday that he had asked Health Secretary Louis Sullivan for the federal government to take action to protect children in East St. Louis from lead pollution and other health hazards.

Costello, D-Belleville, had a meeting with Sullivan in Washington Thursday and described the health problems in East St. Louis as a "crisis situation." East St. Louis ranked first among 27 Illinois cities for health problems, according to a study by the Illinois Department of Public Health in 1990. "In addition to the lead problem in East St. Louis, I asked the secretary to examine other health problems in the city, including the infant mortality rate, the tremendous drug problems and access to medical care," Costello said.

But the main focus should be the lead contamination, Costello said. "The majority of children in East St. Louis are exposed to lead, which Secretary Sullivan himself has identified as one of the greatest threats to health." The Illinois study indicated that more than 60 percent of children under age 6 in East St. Louis are at risk of lead poisoning serious enough to cause learning disabilities. Costello had previously asked the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency to identify hazardous waste sites in East St. Louis for cleanup. He said the city lacked the resources to conduct studies that would persuade the federal government to clean up the lead. President George Bush's administration should provide those resources, he said. Costello asked Sullivan to send a regional director of his department to East St.

Louis to brief government and health officials on ways to improve health care in the city. Brian Lott, a spokesman for Costello, said Sullivan was attentive to the problems of East St. Louis. One way the federal government could help is to direct some grant money from the Centers for Disease Control for studies in the city, Lott said. A cleanup of lead contamination in Granite City is planned by the EPA.

Lott said that since this project was started, residents of East St. Louis have requested similar help, saying the lead in their city posed a greater risk to health. Residents of the impoverished Rush City area of East St. Louis have for years complained about the hazards of accidental emissions from nearby chemical plants at Sauget. The residents have had to go to hospitals numerous times over the last decade and have complained that the noxious fumes affected their health.

But no study has ever been done. An examination of health problems in Rush City "probably could and should be part of any comprehensive study," Lott said. DEATHS Recent deaths in the Metro East area: day. Officer in East St. Louis.

Saturday, Kassly Colonial. Alton Carlyle Ada M. Dowdy, 78, died Wednesday, funeral Satur- Deane DuComb, 72, died Wednesday, funeral Satur- Germontown day, Elias-Smith. day, Frerker. Catherine W.

Albers, 95, died Wednesday, funeral Elsie K. Cooper, 75, died Wednesday, funeral Satur- today, Moss, day, Gent. Centrevllle Belleville Alversa Collins, 67, died Monday, funeral Saturday, Hartford Blanch K. Obnut, 74, died Tuesday, funeral today, Officer in East St. Louis.

Minnie P. Hillman, 87, died Wednesday, funeral Renner. East St. Louis Saturday, Marks in Wood River. Laurence B.

Hanneken, 73, died Thursday, funeral Willie M. Ramsey, 84, died Wednesday, funeral Monday, Renner. Monday, Officer. Wood Rlvr Helen Roehl, 75, died Tuesday, funeral today, Olive M. Brueogemann, 92, died Thursday, funeral Renner.

Folrvlew Heights Saturday, Marks. Willie M. Labon, 64, died Wednesday, funeral Mon- Harold W. Durham, 59, died Wednesday, funeral.