St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 33

B2 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH METRO WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2000 ILLINOIS postnet.corTVnewsTtfgj Law Order Man whose HARTFORD chase helped nab South Side 3 ni Rapist is feted Getting into the swing of things 'HO noit By Valerie Schremp nu i Of the Post-Dispatch sfruj Gene Frigo sat with his girl-11 friend at her home on Alma Ave-1'3'3 nue in St. Louis late one Friday night in early fall 1998, watching CNN. He heard a banging noise? looked outside and came face ttilsO face with a bearded maa yisv The intruder, who had forced window, cursed and bolted. When he jumped into a van, Frigo leapfl into his car.

The chase woundoM through the streets of South Coun-iot ty and south St Louis for at lease -3 IS minutes, at one point racingici down Loughborough Avenue at 85,17 mph. noc The man escaped, but the 1M cense number Frigo reported thatch night proved to be the undoing ofi-S one of the region's most-hunted' jn criminals the South Side Rapist Frigo was honored Tuesday-M afternoon at a meeting of the Sty a Louis County Board of Police Commissioners with a citizen's service citation and a check for i $6,600 from the Lemay Chamber Hp of Commerce. (. The board also recognized morei than a score of officers and two other citizens for their efforts in" other incidents. Frigo, 45, a South County resiM dent and project manager for Cas-jT co Corp.

in Sappington, said life- Tony Williamson, in resisting the city's efforts to condemn the mobile home because it had been vacant for more than a year. Williamson said he had spent about $1,200 to meet the city's requirements. ALTON "Pit" lot at school will be seniors only Student parking in Alton High School's "pit" lot will be restricted to seniors starting in the 2000-01 school year, Superintendent Michael Beaber confirmed at a school board meeting Tuesday night The superintendent was responding to a student who will be a junior in the fall and said he needed to drive to be on time for medical appointments and after school work. Beaber said the lot has been open in recent years to junior and senior drivers who obtain permits to park on a first come-first served basis. However, the volume of permit requests far exceeds the available spaces, Beaber said.

And police and fire departments are concerned about access the high school campus at times when incoming and outgoing traffic is heavy, he said. "So we decided it had to be restricted to seniors next year. If other students want to drive, they'll have to be creative about finding parking somewhere in the neighborhood," the superintendent said. CHARTER SCHOOLS E. St.

Louis, Belleville boards reject plans School boards in East St Louis and Belleville this week rejected plans for two charter schools, but organizers of the schools say they still hope to open this coming school year. The groups plan to file appeals to the Illinois Board of Education within a matter of days. If up to the board to determine how quickly to respond. Paul Seibert, a consultant to both schools, acknowledges that the process could drag on for months, eliminating the chance for a fall launch for the schools. "But ifs not out of the question yet," he said.

The East St Louis School Board on Tuesday rejected a proposal to open Tomorrow's Builders Charter School. Meanwhile, in Belleville, board members turned down the Syzygy Charter School. Each school would enroll about 100 students and focus on vocational education. The East St. Louis school would target high school dropouts.

Under Illinois law, groups seeking to open charter schools must apply to a local school board. If rejected, they can appeal to the state, which can take three months or more to make a decision. BELLEVILLE City loses appeal over eviction notice The 5th District Appellate Court at Mount Vernon has dismissed the city of Belleville's appeal of a judge's order prohibiting it from evicting a woman from a mobile home in an occupancy permit dispute. The ruling upholds a decision made in October by Associate Judge Patrick M. Young in circuit court in Belleville.

The woman, Kimberly Brown, admitted moving into the mobile home at 526 East Street without an occupancy permit, but said she did so only after a city housing inspector gave his approval. She joined her landlord, had no idea at tne time ot now val oH uable his information would be. I i iii'ii Two men get probation for dumping pollution in lake Two workers at Chemetco, a copper smelting plant in Hartford, each received one year of probation and a $2,500 fine Tuesday in U.S. District Court in East St Louis for their roles in a pollution dumping scheme that left up to five feet of contaminated soil at the bottom of Long Lake. George J.

Boud 55, of East Alton, and Gary Reed, 57, of Collinsville, each pleaded guilty of conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Water Act. Both will spend six months on home confinement. Two other workers await sentencing, as does the company. The company's former president, Denis Fe-ron, has been indicted but is believed to be out of the country. In 1986, officials said, Feron ordered the installation of a secret pipe that discharged toxic materials such as lead and cadmium.

MADISON COUNTY Car sinks in lake, killing driver Larry A. Clendenny, 62, of Cottage Hills, died Sunday when his car went into Holiday Shores Lake and sank in 15 feet of water. Clendenny's car ran a stop sign, hit a pole and drove off a public pier at about 4:30 p.m., investigators said. Two Madison County sheriffs deputies dove into the lake but couldn't get him out Police said Clendenny apparently had been disoriented by a medical condition. Man is found shot to death Authorities were investigating the shooting of Albert C.

Peters, 63, of St Louis, who was found dead about 4:50 p.m. Monday near Granite City. His body, shot in the head, was inside his blue 1993 Chevrolet pickup off of Rock Road, about a half-mile north of Chain of Rocks Road. Authorities asked that anyone with information on Peters' whereabouts after 8 a.m. Monday call sheriffs detectives at 618-692-0871.

WASHINGTON PARK Figure in Venezia case is released Robert S. Romanik, a former Washington Park police chief and private investigator who was sentenced to federal prison one year ago for obstruction of justice and bank fraud, has been released to a halfway house. Romanik, 51, pleaded guilty of lying to a grand jury investigating the video gambling empire of Thomas Venezia and of fraudulently obtaining bank loans for two area topless clubs. He spends nights at the Dismas House in St Louis and works days doing market research for a Belleville real estate company. He could eventually regain his private investigator's license, officials said.

ST. LOUIS Woman is sentenced in prostitution case April Wood, the only St. Louis area resident charged in the operation of a Minneapolis-based prostitution ring, was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to two years in prison. Wood, 32, of St Louis County, pleaded guilty in February of money laundering and conspiracy. Authorities said she hired teen-age prostitutes to work for her escort service.

She was among 15 people indicted. Most are members of a single family in Minneapolis. All but six pleaded guilty. On March 28, a federal jury in St Louis found the others guilty of conspiracy, money laundering and transporting women across state lines for prostitution. Rifle fire kills man, wounds another One man was killed and another wounded in a series of gunshots Tuesday in or near the 1100 block of Hodiamont Avenue in St.

Louis. David Clark, 30, was struck once in the abdomen with a rifle slug while standing outside the front door of his apartment on Hodiamont Police said he staggered inside and was pronounced dead there about 12:30 p.m. A half-block to the east, in the 6000 block of Bartmer Avenue, police found a man, 24, suffering a single gunshot to his arm. There were two rifle casings in the middle of Bartmer, about halfway between Clark's home and the wounded man. Investigators recovered no weapons and said they didn't know yet exactly what happened.

Five shots struck a building and one hit a parked car. WAYNE CROSSLINPOST-DiSPATCH Emily Vernon of Pevely takes her dog, Mickey, for a ride Tuesday at Mastodon State Park in Jefferson County. Emily, 1 1, is out of school this week for spring vacation. Law license of former legislator is suspended The Associated Press faked documents and discussed confidential legal information about the companies' owner, Marajen Stevick Chinigo. Hirschfeld could petition the Illinois Supreme Court for reinstatement after a year, but officials said only about 15 percent of suspended lawyers ever return to practice.

Asked whether criminal charges might follow, Champaign County State's Attorney John Piland said he has not seen any reports on the case but will review any information that authorities forward to his office. should have been doing anyway as president and chief executive officer from 1993 to 1997. Hirschfeld resigned in December 1997 as CEO of Professional Impressions Media Group, which operates The (Champaign) News-Gazette, and DWS which operates two of the city's radio stations. He also once was chairman of the Champaign County Republican Party and host of a conservative radio talk show. In addition to overtoiling, the state's 1999 petition against Hirschfeld says he CHAMPAIGN, 111.

A former Illinois legislator has agreed to a one-year suspension of his law license after admitting to fraudulent billing and other misconduct that cheated a media group from Champaign out of about $1.8 million. John Hirschfeld, 63, who served in the Illinois House in the 1970s, was charged by a state discipline commission with billing the newspaper and radio companies about $200 an hour for legal work he Dennis Rabbitt and traced him to Imperial. While the Frigo incident did not lead directly to a charge againstn Rabbitt, it did spur detectives to put him on a long list of suspects.1! in a series of rapes in Missouri and Illinois spanning more than a dec-nj ade. When saliva swabs were takilll en from them, DNA testing naileda Rabbitt XI He disappeared by the time the test results were done but eventually was traced to Albuquerque, N.M., was arrested and pleaded guilty in a variety of jurisdictions that sentenced him to multiple life terms in prison. mo "I was so intent on finding outnat who that was, who had broke intgrgja the house," Frigo said Wednesday glad they caught him.

rmnn glad for who it was, I guess, and3fy everyone's a little safer now." irm The police board also gave9rft awards to several county officerSjon for helping to prevent a robbery at a Denny's Restaurant on DunnR 13 Road in October. Those awards, went to Lt John Tiernan; Sgt Mf-3rjj chael Busalaki; Sgt Nick Wild; Of ficers Bill Biesiada, Robert. Lunatto, John Jackman, Richard; O'Brien, Brian Shanika, Garyjj Wuest and Jody Gitt; Probationary Officers Edward Burkett and Dan? iel Smythe; Riverview Officers James Kuehlein, Nicholas Allredj and Jeremy Ihler, and taine Neighbors Cpl. William bold. ldn St Louis County police Officervi Robert Thompson received a com'7 mendation for performing CPR onn a man who had suffered a heart tack.

Capt. Jack Webb, Detective" Timothy Burke and Sgt. Tom Kle- kamp received Purple Heart awards for injuries suffered on duty. Officer Adam Kavanaugh got a meritorious service citation 0 for helping a kidnapping victim, held by a convicted murderer. Citizen Service Citations went td5 i Symphony president bows out of running for New York job for my family if we stay in St.

Louis instead of moving again this soon." The news that Roth was under consideration for the New York job was made public by Post-Dispatch columnist Jerry Berger on April 2. Some Symphony subscribers ex By Sarah Bryan Miller Post-Dispatch Classical Music Critic Don Roth, president of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the top job at the New York Philharmonic. Roth, who came to St. Louis from Portland, in May 1998, was reportedly one of two finalists for the New York position, considered one of the five most prestigious orchestra leadership spots in this country.

"I withdrew my name late last week," Roth said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I've got great work to do here, and I love this orchestra. And I think it's best supportive people have been." The post at the New York Philharmonic became vacant last October when executive director Deborah Borda departed to join the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The other finalist for the job is reported to be Zarin Mehta, brother of conductor Zubin Mehta. Zarin Mehta has run the Ravinia Festival, in Chicago's northern suburbs, since 1990.

He was out of the country and unavailable for comment on Tuesday; a Ravinia official said he had no knowledge of Mehta's candidacy. rjT postnet.comlinks Visit the home pages Lp' for the New York Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Roth "I love this orchestra civilians David Meier and Kennetlw Vogt for chasing and catching a robbery suspect outside a sports pressed disappointment that the orchestra president would look for another job so soon after coming to St Louis, but Roth said he was "amazed by how bar. COMMUNITIES FEEL FREE TO BORROW OUR TOOLS Are you ready to connect with your community? CREATE A NEWSLETTER Whether your organization already has a Web site or you'd like to create one for free, postnet.com invites you to be a part of our online community.

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