The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 15

The Pittsburgh Press Wednesday, March 27, 1985 Section Stone quits council race, denies link to CTA Charges linked to the CTA inquiry were repeated with even greater emphasis yesterday in William-sport, where two CTA operatives are on trial. In his opening statement, U.S. Attorney James West said Stone's acceptance of a $6,734 check from CTA was "clearly a bribe" intended to ensure Stone's support of a city contract under which CTA would recover overpaid Social Security taxes. Stone, however, has not been indicted, and he has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He has said he returned the check.

He said it represented legal fees received for ser was leaked and the press has handled it as though there were' charges." The Democratic City Committee refused to endorse Stone at its convention on Feb. 24. He finished ninth in a field of 18 candidates for four council seats. Committee members did not make any public statements about their refusal to endorse Stone, but some said off the record that they were worried about his possible future involvement in the CTA scandal. They also cited the fact that Stone is regarded by many party activists as personally abrasive and unresponsive.

31. If asked, he will continue in other public functions, such as the Southwestern Pennsylvania Regional Planning Commission. "I am not ending my political career," Stone said, adding he would make decisions about future runs for political office "when the time comes." Asked if he were bitter about recent events, he said: "I'm not bitter at anyone. I'm terribly disappointed in the press and the news media. They handled this (CTA affair) as though there were charges (against Stone)." "I went to the grand jury.

I cooperated with the U.S. attorney. It Steel mill plan drawing support By Sherley Uhl The Pittsburgh Press City Council President Robert Rade Stone withdrew his candidacy (pr re-election today, but he denies the move is related to charges flowing from the Computer Technology Associates kickback scandal. has nothing to do with the CTA problem," Stone said this morning. "Three times the Democratic Party has endorsed my candidacy and three times I ran for office.

This time, as is their right, the party has chosen not to endorse me and I respect that process." Rape trial judge may face review Press Harrisburg Bureau HARRISBURG The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has questioned the competency of a judge who last week dismissed rape charges against an Allegheny County man because the 13-year-old al- leged victim was a half-hour late for the trial. Senior Judge J. Quint Salmon reinstated the charges, but Rep. Ralph Pratt, D-Lawrence County, said yesterday Salmon should not be allowed to preside at the trial or any other proceeding pending an investigation. "I have petitioned the Judicial Inquiry Review Board to take immediate action regarding the conduct, motive and capabilities of Judge Salmon," Pratt said.

Pratt's committee wields considerable influence over legislation dealing with Pennsylvania courts. Salmon, 77, is retired from the Beaver County bench but has been serving in senior judge status in Allegheny County to relieve a backlog of cases. Pratt called Salmon's action in dismissing rape charges against Geoffrey Adams, 28, of St. Clair Village, "outrageous." Pratt said Salmon's "further decision to reverse himself raises more questions and compounds the seriousness of the situation." Pratt said he has sent telegrams to top judicial officials raising "serious questions concerning the judge's competency and integrity." The telegrams went to Robert N.C. Nix, chief justice of the state Supreme Court; Michael O'Malley, president judge of Allegheny County courts; and the review board.

vices unrelated to the CTA contract. Stone said he did not want to run against the Democratic ticket, although some of his advisers had urged him to do so. He attributes the defeat to the Eressing schedule that came with eing council president, saying it "added 20 meetings per month to his duties, "at 7:30 in the morning and late at night." "While all of that is in the best interests of the citizens of the city of Pittsburgh, it does remove you from the everyday, grass-roots touch" with committee members, he said. He will serve out his term as council president, which ends Dec. Greater Pittsburgh International Airport Aug.

7. Defense attorneys said Aydin's friend, Suat Erdogan, 25, painted the victim as innocent of any wrongdoing, contending he and the victim dated the women only to practice English and felt no physical attraction toward them. Conrad said the defendants had the intent to kill the men when Ms. Richardson stopped her car on a dirt After he had been rejected, he filed his candidacy for a fourth term, but finished 11th when ballot positions were drawn. Stone's withdrawal changes the race for four seats on Pittsburgh's nine-member council.

Most importantly, it opens up the presidency to those contenders and incumbents who might be shooting for the mayor's office in the near future. If Mayor Richard Caliguiri were to run for governor next year, and win, the council president would replace him and assume an advantage in a special mayoral election that then would be held in 1987. Please see Stone, B5 bridges, Stout said. "We've got a plan and we need that steel to come from the mills that are being dismantled." Tri-State's plan has been gaining momentum ever since U.S. Steel closed its Duquesne Works in May and said it was razing the mill, including the Dorothy Six blast furnace.

The Duquesne mill is a symbol of all the dying factories because it is a vital link in the Mon Valley's network of steel mills, Swissvale Mayor Charles Martoni said. "Without the unit that processes hot metal at Duquesne, you can't make structural materials at Homestead nor tubes at McKeesport." To make it easier for an authority to save abandoned mills like Du-quesne's, four state legislators said that tomorrow they will propose a bill liberalizing eminent domain laws. "The eminent domain laws would be a major tool to help hold a plant together," said state Rep. David Sweet, D-Canonsburg. He said he doesn't believe the authority could operate an abandoned plant, but it could prevent an owner from razing a mill if someone else could run it.

The other legislators joining Sweet are David Levdansky, D-Eliz-abeth Borough; Thomas Michlovic, D-North Braddock; and Michael Da-wida, D-Carrick. Meanwhile, Tri-State members are hoping that council acts quickly to join the authority. Council has been asked to vote on it at the next public meeting and then schedule a public hearing. Munhall and Homestead have voted to join the authority, and McKeesport held a public hearing on the issue Monday night. Of all the towns approached, only West Homestead has appeared reluctant to join men sat in the back seat of the car.

Ms. Pfender, of Beechview and formerly of Imperial, said she shot Aydin when he fondled her and then threatened her with a knife. Ms. Richardson, of Imperial, had testified that she was kissing Erdogan when the shooting occurred and didn't know what had happened. However, she admitted tying Er-dogan's hands and later looked for Please see Killing, B6 By Janet Williams The Pittsburgh Press City Council is prepared to support a coalition of steelworkers and clergy who want to create an authority to save the region's dying steel mills.

"I think council will go for this. In fact, I will strongly urge my colleagues to go for this," said Councilman Ben Woods last night, after members of the Tri-State Conference on Steel laid out its proposal to revitalize the Mon Valley. Also endorsing Tri-State's proposed Steel Valley Authority were Jack Wagner, Richard Givens and Sophie Masloff. In an interview on her KDKA radio show with Tri-State member Mike Stout, Michelle Madoff said she supported the plan. "Council's endorsement is very important because people in the Mon Valley feel abandoned.

This is a big step in the right direction," said Stout, a steelworker at U.S. Steel's Homestead Works and a grievance man for United Steel-workers Local 1397. Tri-State, which formed in the late 1970s to save Youngstown's steel mills, is approaching about 30 municipalities in the Monongahela and Turtle Creek valleys to join the Steel Valley Authority. The authority would be empowered to exercise the right of eminent domain to stop mill closings, act as a broker to sell an abandoned factory to a third party or take control of the plant, said the Rev. Garrett Dorsey, Tri-State chairman and co-pastor of St.

Stephen Church in Hazelwood. Eminent domain is the right to seize private property for the public good. The steel produced in the valley's mills could be used to rebuild the region's crumbling roads and liberations today. The defendants also are charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault and unlawful restraint involving Erdogan, who survived a bullet wound in the back and a near-miss fired next to his temple. Erdogan, who along with Aydin was among seven Turkish students studying English at Point Park College, said the women turned on them for no apparent reason as both John KaplanThe Pittsburgh Press The point Nadine Roth, wife of the Rev.

D. Douglas Roth, testified at a hearing yesterday that she couldn't 'know what happened to a missing copying machine because she was in jail when the Lutheran synod tried to recover the equipment. (See story, page B6) Jury continues deliberation in Point Park student's killing By Robert Baird The Pittsburgh Press Engin Aydin was "the cream of the crop" from his country, rising above thousands of others to win a government scholarship to study English in the United States, Deputy District Attorney Chris Conrad told a Common Pleas jury. Conrad asked the jurors whether Aydin, with his background, would risk all he attained by pulling a knife because a woman resisted his advances. Charmaine Pfender, 19, said Aydin was the aggressor and she acted in self-defense when she shot him.

Her friend, Sara Mae Richardson, 20, was an innocent bystander, her attorney said. The women are charged with criminal homicide in the killing of Aydin, 24, in a desolate area near road in a lovers' lane area. The versions are irreconcilable, the attorneys agreed in closing arguments. After about four hours of deliberation yesterday, the jury of eight men and four women had not reached a verdict on the charges against the women. Judge George Ross ordered the jurors sequestered in a Downtown hotel overnight.

They resumed de Phil Mustek Interstate driving offers a taste of southern discomfort bumA mr Sure 'nuff. Grits are advertised, the tobacco fields that stretch to the horizon do not need it. I light up another Pall Mall out of loyalty Me and that good ole Yankee boy Billy Joel sing, "I said I love you and that's forever," while, via billboard, Starvin' Marvin offers to provide a traveler's every need "18 miles ahead." For hours, cars stream by on my left. Usually, I own a heavy foot, but this car has cruise control, and I ask myself, "Did Steinbeck speed?" Probably not. If he had, around Fayetteville, N.C, he would've been sorry.

A white Mercedes blows by, chased seconds later by a gray Mercedes. Down the road, an angry Carolina trooper leaps from the gray car, and I recall the sign aways back, "Patrolling in unmarked cars." I smile for 15 miles. When all else fails, you watch the cars. One, proudly boasting a sign "Bound for Glory," sits, broken-down, on the berm. In South Carolina, as the red maples spring up just beyond the Little Pee Dee River, the personality of this ceaseless ribbon of concrete emerges.

Watching paint dry is thrilling by comparison. Time is not kept by watch, but by mileage signs: Savannah 96, Jacksonville 157. But there are worthwhile moments. On an access road leading back to the interstate, a towheaded boy walks leisurely with his dog. The boy is whistling.

Haven't heard that in years. Later, at a truck stop, an ageless black man, bent and gnarled, is greeted by a clerk in his 60s as "sir." The land greens up just inside the Georgia line, and a thin streak of blue emerges on the horizon as the radio announces, "62 in Augusta tomorrow and sunny." Oh, yeah. And there it is, a shimmering ball of the palest gold. It's tough to applaud and drive at the same time. I manage.

Cross the Great Pee Dee River 20 miles later. It's about as wide as this page. Somewhere thereabouts, loneliness becomes briefly acute, and in a gas station, I ask a family, "Where you folks bound for? A wrinkled old woman in her 80s chuckles, "Miami. Coin' to swim in the ocean." Dinner in a Brunswick, Holiday Inn. New experience.

First time I ever had to cut trout with a knife. Day three is easy. I pass another aunt. No way, I think. But there is a huge billboard offering the pride of the Mississippi at Aunt Catfish's.

I grin all the way to Bradenton. i LONG INTERSTATE-95 SOUTH There are thousands of us, XJA skittering south from the nation's capital in search of the sun; a A ih respite from the bone-deep cold of winter. I'm working, of course. A poor man's Steinbeck in pursuit of a very thin slice of deep-fried Americana. The idea is to take a look at the landscape and the folks who litter it, then to wind up in Bradenton, and place a literary finger against the Pirate wrist in search of a pulse.

Doing both requires a couple of endless days driving this unbroken macadam carpet. For me, it begins when I get off the Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C. Tailgating madness at 70 mph. A four-lane Parkway East for the crazed. I quickly give up using my turn signals.

Clearly they are considered 'I hereabouts as a sign of cowardice. The 55-mph speed limit signs seem to be smirking. Bored, I concentrate on trying to locate a suitable oldies station on the radio and counting the Stuckey's restaurant signs. "There's about 12,472 of 'em between here and Miami, more or less," a Virginian sighs in a restroom. Later, I decide he probably missed a couple of hundred.

The essence of 1-95 is speed. Some fool juices it up to 80, shivers with the excitement of outwitting the state troopers, and, in an instant, a convoy of like-minded potential suicide victims lines up behind him. I take a breather around Fredericksburg, and follow signs to Chancellorsville, where a bit of the fate of the Civil War was determined. A well-dressed old man meticulously pulls weeds from a historical marker. "I come around every week," he drawls.

I don't ask why. I know. WASH-FM replaces a fading 3WS, and I hug the right lane at 65 as though it were a teddy bear. Counting the number of Stuckey's palls, and I switch to counting aunts. Aunt Sarah's Pancake Houses outnumber Aunt Martha's by the narrowest of margins.

What next? Aunt Elsie's Milk Shake House? At a huge towel outlet down the highway, a woman with a harsh New York accent says to a clerk, "20 pounds of the tea towels, please." I blink. "Can't pass up a bargain, right?" she simpers. As evening falls, the lowering sun throws the eerie purple glow of dusk on the roadway, and tedium is suddenly lifted as old 1-95 turns avaricious in the form of the Richmond-Petersburg Toll Road. Every quarter-mile or so, toll booths spring up like spring dandelions. A quarter a pop, to be thrown into a yawning white hopper.

If only the free throws in high school had been so easy. I am a nifty 6-for-6 before stopping for the night in that little slice of home called Holiday Inn. I crumple the second pack of Pall Malls and drink a final cup of coffee from the mug I got from O'Brien Garry the day I personally invented morning radio with a hangover. Almost asleep, I decide that if George Washington had ever driven through Virginia on 1-95, he'd have surrendered to the British. Wilbur and Orville, where are you when I need you? Day two promises to be better.

Virginia, as seen from the interstate, is drab and brown, flashes of distant mountains filtered by scrawny pines and oily swamps. It is a South that even Lee would've rejected. In North Carolina, the real South begins to take hold. Rural elements that were stealthy in Virginia are now bold. Accents are thicker and richer, voices more aggressive.

Lunch in Rocky Mount with former Steeler Jimmy Clack is mindful of the book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People, but he is young and resilient. "You'll begin to see 'grits' advertised on the truck-stop billboards," Clack laughs as I get back on the road..