Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 20

2C Reno Gazette-Journal Tuesday, October 8, 1985 3is State Pardons Board gives a break to 72-year-old cowboy Board restores voting privileges to Vegas developer, hairdresser By Brendan RileyAP CARSON CITY An aging, cancer-ridden cowboy sentenced to a life term in April 1984 for kill- ing a Lyon County ranch owner during a gunfight was told by the -v state Pardons Board Monday he i could seek a Darole in Nnvemhpr CARSON CITY (AP) Civil rights were restored Monday to a controversial southern Nevada developer and to a Las Vegas hairdresser once married to singer Connie Francis. The Nevada Pardons Board restored the rights, mainly voting privileges, of Leonard Rosen, 69, founder of Preferred Equities Corp. Rosen lost the rights when he was placed on three years' probation in 1978 for not filing a federal income tax statement on a $5.6 million Florida land sale. Rosen also has applied for a presidential pardon through the office of U.S. Sen.

Paul Laxalt, according to his lawyer, Jim Bilbray. The board also restored the rights of hairdresser Isadore Marion, 52, who was married to singer Francis in 1971. Marion getting illegal, illicit funds," said Supreme Court Justice John Mowbray, who with other high court members also serves on the Pardons Board. Marion said his money comes from legitimate sources. Marion was convicted of trying to use force to collect a $25,000 debt for a friend.

He was to be paid $5,000 for collecting the money. was convicted in 1973 of conspiracy to extort money and served five years' probation. In ruling in Marion's favor, the Pardons Board, chaired by Gov. Richard Bryan, overruled a state Parole and Probation Department recommendation that rights not be restored because of uncertainty about the source of Marion's income. "They are suggesting you are f.r However, board members also said Rogers, who has served 20 years in prison, could apply again within one year and should get an updated psychiatric evaluation in the meantime.

Rogers, 49, said he has served more time than most Nevada inmates convicted of similar crimes and wants out so he can return to his family in Texas. "I'm not a threat to society," he added. "There's not a darn thing wrong with me." However, board members expressed concern over two felony convictions against Rogers while in prison, including one for escape after being denied relief by the Pardons Board in Rogers was assigned to wash a prison car outside prison walls shortly after the 1981 hearing. He fled in the vehicle and was recaptured later apparently headed back toward the prison. The board voted unanimously to allow Robert Elliott, 72, to go before the state Parole Board and request a release now instead of having to serve the usual five years before making a bid for freedom.

Elliott's wife, Catherine, 82, "confined to a wheelchair and nearly blind, broke into tears after the Pardons Board vote. Elliott said he wanted out because of his own health problems and so he could care for his wife. Elliott's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Steve Wassner, said Elliott had been a cowboy most of his life and "lives by another code." He said his client shot Keith Carrigan after Carrigan fired first during a drunken row. "He was going to shoot again and I threw three slugs into the cab" of Carrigan's truck, added Elliott, who pleaded guilty to sec ond-degree murder in the case. After the January 1984 shooting, Elliott moved the truck from the victim's ranch, where the cowboy lived, to a road near Wabuska and set fire to the vehicle with the victim's body inside.

Wassner said Elliott then hiked ing to show the victim had fired a shot. In other action, the Pardons Board rejected a bid by Walter Rogers to ease his no-parole life sentence for a 1965 Reno-area murder to life with possibility of parole. into hills nearby and was found five days later, dazed and suffering from dehydration and frostbite. Wassner also said Elliott argued the shooting was in self-defense, but pleaded guilty after investigators could not find any bullet cas .1 legally be built on the small lots. Several commissioners are con- 3 seek to open massage parlor for gays in North Las Vegas sd mobileJbpme.j)wners will CJJHjU laTitsMo build ce BieTT rei le home insgnatpd moy By Myram BordersGazette-journai Massage law From page 1C ician, had been issued permiOTor build homes at Glen Meadows on lots smaller than the required minimum.

However, the county stopped issuing permits until it could determine whether "stick frame" homes as well as mobile homes can NORTH LAS VEGAS Three A -compromise could be offered today, permitting Emery to continue his home-building project but stopping future developers from converting mobile home lots to stick frame houses. "If that is what they want, that is what they will get. We will have men massaging men," said Stein. He said the gay massage parlor would comply with all the existing laws. Stein said North Las Vegas might someday have billboards proclaiming it the capital of the gay massage parlor.

But Deputy North Las Vegas City Attorney Terrance Marren vows to vigorously enforce the city's massage parlor ordinance. "We are neutral on the point of whether it is illicit homosexual or heterosexual activity," said Marren. "Any sexual activity in a North Las Vegas massage parlor is illegal." Councilwoman Mary Kincaid said attempts to get a license for a gay massage parlor license by a group represented by Stein appears to be a legal maneuver by the attorney to weaken the city's restrictive massage parlor ordinance. "We are not going to roll over States ante up From page 1C lands of Nevada. "The concern we have is that if gaming becomes regulated entirely under the federal government, it might be more lenient for some than others," Rumbolz explained.

"You might have Indian land with a casino right next to the MGM-Grand, and they would be regulated differently. It could result in attracting undesirable people from the state regulatory point of view or in unfair competition." Two U.S. Senate bills and one bill in the House of Representatives offer different solutions to regulating gaming on federal land. Currently, the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs regulates all gaming on federal land.

"We think Nevada can regulate it better, if for no other reason than we have 54 years' experience doing it," Rumbolz said. have the toughest massage parlor ordinance in the state," said City Manager Michael Dyal. "Why does everyone pick on us?" The North Las Vegas City Council approved an ordinance outlawing all massage parlors last summer when Techtow opened the Roman spa. Techtow challenged the ordinance in the courts and the law was thrown out as unconstitutional. The Council then adopted an ordinance prohibiting opposite-sex massage, restricted operating hours to daytime and required that all massage room doors have windows.

Techtow challenged the new ordinance in court and lost. The current North Las Vegas ordinance, primarily aimed at curtailing prostitution, makes it illegal for a member of one sex to men seeking to open a gay massage parlor in North Las Vegas will file a business license application this month, according to Las Vegas attorney Stephen Stein. Stein represents David Cliff of Las Vegas and two San Francisco men David Siler and Bob Telfer. The trio plans to operate a gay massage parlor on the former site of Paul Techtow's Roman Massage and Spa. North Las Vegas officials have vowed to make it tough.

Restrictive ordinances currently on the books outlaw sexual activity in massage parlors or the advertisement of any sexually oriented business. said a gay massage parlor would have problems promoting its business because of another ordinance which prohibits the advertising of sexually oriented businesses. Marren said he did not know whether use of the word "gay" constituted sexual advertising but he said any advertisement offering "sexual gratification directly or indirecty" was banned by North Las Vegas ordinance. On a similar front, officials of the Pacifica Resort near the Las Vegas Strip recently announced the name of the hotel is being changed to the Polynesian Hotel in order to divorce itself from gay clientele. Herb Weisshart, vice president of operations and hotel development, said the name change was designed to convince the public the resort no longer caters to homosexuals.

The resort, currently open without a casino in operation, was called the Pacifica in July. 'We have already proven we massage a client of another sex. and play dead, said Kincaid. She Cable TV panel to give recommendations mittee's final recommendations. By Jim NicklesGazette-Journal issues, including: Those in turn will be used by the consultant, 3-H Cable Communications Consultants, in drafting the city's proposal to Group W.

The consultant's report is not expected to go to the City Council for final approval until December or January, Acting City Manager Julie Betz said. Group provides cable television service to Reno, Sparks and parts of Washoe County. Its Reno franchise expires in 1987, but the company has asked for early negotiations on renewal. The company has been under fire from critics for allegedly not meeting community needs and having an outdated system. The charges have been denied by Group officials.

Gilbert said the three subcommittees examined a number of Ways of upgrading public access, educational and government-oriented programming. Policy options on extending underground lines to areas that now have no cable service. New local TV channels which might go on the air in the next five years and need to be put on the cable system. Nationwide services and channels now available by satellite but not currently offered by Group W. A recommendation on the channel capacity of the future cable system.

Gilbert said the public hearings are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 15 at O'Brien Middle School; 7 p.m. Oct. 23 in the council chambers at City Hall, and 7 p.m.

Oct. 29 at Pine Middle School. A cable television advisory committee, appointed by the Reno City Council to help shape the city's future cable TV service, is drawing up its final list of rec-' ommendations. The committee will meet at 3 p.m. today at City Hall to hear reports from three key subcom- mittees and to work out the proce-t dure for three public hearings scheduled for later this month.

The committee is working with a council-hired consultant to determine what the city should ask for when it renegotiates a franchise agreement next year with Group Cable Inc. Chairman Larry Gilbert said the subcommittee reports and the testimony at the public hearings will be incorporated in the com GET IN OH OUR () UVJo ONE DAY ONLY! i And you get up to ten Irv Y-t I Ptees of remounting $2,000 raised to help parents of ill child year's worth of house payments and space rental. That's almost $11,000," Ward said. "We figured if we could take in a year's payment, they can limp along with one income a lot easier for a while. Their biggest problem is Sarah's health.

They're worried about their baby surviving and I don't think they should have to also worry aboutf iaKn-4Jbeir house." Ward said if more "thin fel.OQOis By Lenita PowersGazette-Journal Almost $2,000 has been raised to help the Reno parents of a critically ill toddler keep their home, David Ward, president of the Sarah Doan House Payment Fund, said Monday. Approximately $1,970 has been donated to the fund that was started in July for Joe and Linda Doan and their daughter, Sarah, who suffers from Vater's Syn-' drome, a disease that affects the kidneys, esophagus and other body organs. Doan, a craps dealer at Har-rah's, and his wife, a dealer at the have medical cover-' age through their work that has paid for the eight major operations their daughter has had to undergo so far, Ward said, Sarah is now in the intensive care unit at Washoe Medical Cen-' ter, but her mother misses work during their frequent trips to Mof-fitt Hospital in San Francisco. "They're working-class people," Ward said of the Doans. "Linda has not been able to work much because of her need to be with her daughter in San Francisco.

In addition to the cost of commuting back and forth, how many families could afford to spend months in San Francisco?" Ward said when the fund was established with First Interstate Bank's Kietzke-Roberts branch, the Doans were three months behind on the $546 monthly payment for their mobile home, which is located in a park that charges $350 a month rent. Ward, an account executive for KOLO-TV, set up the iund along with KOLO-TV's Tony Thomas and Patti Werner, also of KOLO-TV and a friend of the Doans. "Our goal is to compile one donated to the fund, "the will be given to the Children's Miracle Network Telethon to benefit local children in need of hospital treatment. "We're getting a very good response," he said of radio, television and billboard advertisements for the fund. "If anyone would like to contribute, they can leave a check with any FIB branch." -d" JVw chosen setting all i4K 0rMS2iMm.

Choice of credit plans: Tf Major credit cards; store 1 1 I fM I account; layaway; or 90-dayno Interest. I tr Ml Weoer had credit? Let us 't 7irWi SetyousuvrUid.ficsk' CWy I yjr about the details. jpf I rfjF Remember: ft's one day liWy MTIStx. call today Jt fr 21 appointment 1 I l- wt our mAster craftsman. ifjtjMjJtldi) jj'esent this coupon for 1 FREE DIAMOND I coupr entes Water bills 7- From page 1C He would not reveal how much he paid for the company, but said it was more than $50,000.

-1 "We live here and like it here," Hurst said. "If someone else took it over, we wouldn't know him. way, we could own it and get a nice little return on our money. This area still has a little growing to do. There's about 15 more acres that could be developed.

Most of the property surrounding us is owned by the (Bureau of Land people of Blue Diamond." Blue Diamond's roots are in the Blue Diamond Mine, about a a mile from the downtown area consisting of a post office, school, store and community building. Blue Diamond Village sprang up in the 1940s to provide homes for about 70 families who worked in the mine. The mine owner, Flint-kote also owned the town. Flintkote sold the communitiy, homes, utility systems and water rights to Castalia Inc. in 1964.

John Galbreath was granted permission to operate the Blue Diamond Water Co. in 1966 Management), though. This is one of the prettiest places around." Hurst said water rate hikes will probably accompany any new ownership because the Dotsons haven't raised their rates in "a long time." Currently the Blue Diamond company charges about 16 cents for 1,000 gallons of water, about a third of what other utilities in southern Nevada charge, Hurst said. "We would have to keep books for nine months before applying for a raise," he explained. "But we'd try to keep it down for the in coming up with a recommendation.

The commissioners are expected to decide on the motion today at 10 a.m. in the Kinkead Building in Carson City. If the motion is accepted, hearings would begin in December instead of this month. New rates would go into effect Feb. 3 instead of Jan.

1. Phone rates From page 1C states, but the cost is spread out over fewer people. Long-distance interstate calls previously subsidized the cost of that equipment, but the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that such subsidies must be substantially reduced over the next eight years. Kristin Burt, assistant staff woursel for the PSC, filed a motion last week asking commissioners for an additional six weeks to study the rate increase requests, saying "serious errors" found in calculations had hindered the staff 0 f'TitttO- 'MM -nUM;.