Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 19

Ne vada Tonight's tip Tuesday AUGUST 18, 1987 RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL CITY EDITOR: JOE HOWRY, 788-6305 Section 2C OBITUARIES 2C VITALS 4-1 3C CLASSIFIED 13C BRIDGE The annual Shakespeare festival at Sand Harbor features "Charlie's Aunt." Gates open at 6 p.m. Show starts at 8. Cost: general, members, children and seniors, $6. Details: (916) 583-9048. Defendant: I didn't try to shoot murder suspect By Michael PhlllisGazette-Journal A Reno woman testified Monday that she checked to make sure the safety of her pistol was on and prayed no one would be hurt before she pointed the gun into the back of a murder defendant in court and allegedly tried to pull the trigger.

Suzanne Chilow is being tried for attempted murder and carrying a concealed weapon stemming from an incident April 2 in the courtroom of Washoe District Judge William Forman, who testified for the prosecution Monday. In a fast-paced trial, Chilow testified that she just wanted to scare Eileen Cunningham, one of three defendants being arraigned for the murder of her friend, Kathleen Kennedy. asked her boss at a Reno rent-a-car firm if she could take a long lunch. She went out and bought the gun at a sporting goods store, but the store had run out of ammunition, so she went elsewhere to buy that. She said when she first tried to load the clip into the gun, she put the bullets in backward.

Then she said she thought it was broken because the hammer was cocked wide open. She put on the safety because she was afraid it would go off, she said. She entered the court and sat down before the defendants were up, she testified, but again got worried the gun would discharge in her purse. She went to the See TRIAL, page 2C "I don't know how to explain it. We just had some real basic happiness," she said.

After she learned of Kennedy's death, she "just couldn't handle it." She couldn't sleep and she thought about it all the time. On March 4, she went to the defendants' arraignment in Reno Justice Court, but without a gun. "What my plans were was I was just going to follow it through to see that they got justice," she said. On a question from defense attorney Herb Santos, she said she had always been a pacifist. "I don't believe in hurting anyone or anything in any way." But when she learned the three defendants would be arraigned in Washoe Distort Court on the afternoon of April 2, she New charges filed against ex-lawman CARSON CITY District Attorney Noel Waters filed new criminal charges Monday against former Undersheriff Jim Scribner, alleging four counts of embezzlement.

Waters filed the complaint in Justice Court, asking for a summons that Scribner appear in court Aug. 28 on the charges filed following a recent deadlocked trial on three counts of misusing public funds. The prosecutor said the original three counts will stand, so that Scribner, 44, will face trial on all seven counts. Scribner, 44, resigned from the Sheriff's Department after former Sheriff Hal Dunn lost his bid for re-election to a third term last November. Scribner has been accused of cashing three checks totaling $925 from a Sheriff's Department commissary account and using the money for himself.

After Scribner's first trial ended with a deadlocked jury, Waters said he was told the jurors' main question was whether the commissary fund was public money. He said the new counts alleging embezzlement apply to such funds whether they're considered public or private. alter one step cioseir to it i Chief Deputy District Attorney Ken Howard put on 11 witnesses for the prosecution before resting his case in the late afternoon. Witnesses testified they could see Chi-low's hand jerk at least twice as if she were pulling the trigger of the automatic before she threw the gun at Cunningham. The pistol's safety was on.

Cunningham, 27, Valerie Moore, 28, and James R. Mayfield, 41, are charged with murdering Kathleen Kennedy, a 32-year-old unemployed waitress brutally beaten to death Feb. 28. Chilow, 38, said her childhood, two-failed marriages and a bad trip on LSD that landed her in a mental hospital left her continually depressed until she met Kennedy and her boyfriend in June 1986. confined to concrete electrical transformer rooms underneath the hotel's north and south towers.

Smoke billowed throughout the 593-room building, forcing evacuation of 400 people. There were no major injuries. Five firefighters were released from Saint Mary's Hospital after treatment for heat exhaustion. Several hotel guests were treated for minor smoke inhalation at the scene but refused hospitalization. The hotel's 11-story north tower reopened Monday, while the 20-story south mh i Craig SailorGazene-Journal BUMPER-TO-BUMPER BLUES: Lake Tahoe resident hour while road crews were paving.

The delays are Richard Kazala waits with dozens of other Incline Village- expected to last through Friday while crews lay down a bound drivers on the Mount Rose Highway Monday. Traffic "final wearing course" on a 14-mile stretch of State Route in both directions on the highway faced delays of up to one 431 Sundowner fire raises concerns about stairwell lights death Judge won't stay Neuschafer's Thursday execution By Laura MyersGazette-Journal CARSON CITY A judge on Monday refused to stop the Thursday execution of death row inmate Julius "Jimmy" Neuschafer, convicted of strangling a fellow convict. District Judge Michael Fondi said Neuschafer's appeals had either been heard before or could be refuted by the court records, including the charge that Fondi should have been dismissed from the case. But Fondi did grant Neuschafer's request to fire his lawyer, appointed from the Nevada Public Defenders Office. That move leaves the 34-year-old without an attorney to file further appeals.

Asked by Fondi if he planned to appeal Monday's decision to the state Supreme Court, Neuschafer, after a long pause, replied, "I don't know." Neuschafer Neuschafer was sentenced to death in 1983 for the 1981 slaying of fellow inmate Johnnie Johnson, 21. Neuschafer, from Sacramento, was originally sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the 1974 rape and murder of Shawn Hofer, 15, of Carson City and the killing of her 13-year-old girlfriend, Lorie Woodruff, also of Carson City. "I question whether he's making a good decision," Deputy Public Defender Mike Powell told Fondi when Neuschafer sought to remove him from the case. "I'm not sure he's in a particular frame of mind to make that decision," because of his pending date with death. "I'm satisfied he knows what he's doing in that," Fondi responded, after asking Neuschafer if he understood the ramifications of dismissing his legal counsel.

Fondi then asked the three-time convicted killer if he wanted a new lawyer appointed. "I appreciate that, but it's not necessary," Neuschafer replied. Asked whether Neuschafer might be executed, given the closeness to the execution date and his lack of legal counsel, Public Defender Terri Steik Roeser said, "It certainly appears that way." If no appeal is made to the state Supreme Court, or if the court refuses to stay Neuschafer's execution after hearing a possible appeal, at 2 a.m. Thursday-Neuschafer will become the 33rd person to be executed by the state in Nevada. He would be the second to die by lethal injection in Nevada, which used to have a See NEUSCHAFER, page 2C Attendance mark set at state fair By Lenlta PowersGazette-Journal The 39th annual Nevada State Fair set a new attendance record, Kim Petersen, the fair's executive director, said Monday.

The six-day event, which ended Sunday, drew 60,704 people this year compared with 59,373 in 1986. "What's happened over the past couple of years now is we've been motivating the public to get involved in their state fair and they've really been putting out an effort with their displays and exhibi-' uons, Petersen said. The most popular attractions were the Excell SkateSupply One skateboard ramp demonstrations and a petting zoo, Petersen said, adding that the Washoe County Master Gardeners outdid them-: selves with their blooming displays. "I see even bigger and better things to come next year." Although only 1,331 more people attended this year's fair compared to the previous year, Petersen said he is pleased with the increase. "Sure we'd like to see more people but you have to consider the fact local residents just finished a week of Hot August Nights and there was the (country band) Alabama performance and the Coors Bicycle Race the week of the fair, too." The Nevada State Fair Board spent an estimated $500,000 on this year's events.

Se FAIR, page 2C K4 A y- tower and casino remained closed. The electrical fire had forced firefighters to shut off the entire facility's backup power shortly after they responded to an automatic alarm at 7:56 p.m., Richard said. As a result, emergency stairwell lights went out in both towers. Richard said he didn't know if any hotel guests had to grope through darkened stairwells. The automatic backup power generator See SUNDOWNER, page 2C among those testifying Monday, said injured workers believe that SIIS: Pressures doctors to allow workers ordered back to work before they are ready, Falsifies doctors' reports, or misinterprets or ignores them if they don't suit SIIS purposes.

SIIS General Manager Laury Lewis said if there is any falsification of records, that would be easy to prove since doctors' records are readily available. See STATE, page 2C jMn Dtaion AMdnGazeOsOournal Se ELDERLY, page 2C r- r-' I 1 lambaste state insurance program Prison lockup ends SUSANVILLE Prisoners at the California Correctional Center were released from confinement Monday after a weekend lockup that resulted from a fight Friday night. The lockdown at the prison 10 miles east of Susanville followed a week of racial tension in which 13 inmates were hurt, one of them shot in the abdomen by a guard. The most recent victim was Martin Armas, 20, sentenced to state prison after being convicted of armed in Kern County. Armas received head and face lacerations inflicted by two other inmates, said prison spokesman Shel Merchant.

After Armas' injuries were discovered Friday night, large groups of inmates began forming in the yard of the Cascade unit. Authorities locked up all 1,100 occupants of the medium-security unit to prevent further fights, Merchant said. Racial tension erupted in fistfights between black and white inmates Aug. 8, leaving 12 prisoners injured, Merchant said. Washoe water chief quits Rich Drew, the Regional Water Planning and Advisory Board's first and only executive director, on Monday announced his resignation and appointment as Douglas County's first water engineer.

Drew worked for the water board for Vk years and promoted plans to bring water from Washoe County's northern hydrological basins into the water-starved Truckee Meadows. Drew will be taking a pay cut, as the water engineer's job pays $47,500 compared with $52,500 as the water board director. Drew said the move to Douglas County is for "personal reasons." County Commissioner Larry Beck, chairman of the water board, said Drew's absence should not hamper the presentation this week of a draft feasibility study of water importation plans. The final version of the $100,000 study is due in September. College names new dean Judge William B.

Lawless, a Southern California legal scholar, has been named dean of the National Judicial College in Reno. Lawless is president of the Western State University College of Law in Fullerton and San Diego. Previously, the judge and educator served as a New York Supreme Court justice from 1960 to 1968 and as dean of Notre Dame Law School for three years. Lawless assumes his new post on Sept. 1.

He replaces Judge John W. Kern, dean of the College from 1984 to 1987, who is returning to active status as a senior judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Regents meet Wednesday University of Nevada regents will hold a special teleconference meeting Wednesday to select an acting dean for the UNR School of Mines and a new affirmative action officer for the Reno campus. At Wednesday's meeting, UN-Reno President Joe Crowley will nominate chemical engineering professor James Hendrix as acting dean of the Mackay School of Mines. Hendrix is currently director of the Mackay Mineral Research Institute.

He has been at UNR since 1969. A vacancy was created at the mining college when Dean James Taranik resigned to accept appointment as president of the Desert Research Institute. A search committee is currently looking for a permanent replacement for Taranik. Crowley also is expected to propose David Torres as the new director of UNR's Office of Affirmative Action. Torres currently holds a similar post at Weber State University in Utah.

Staff and wire service reports United Coalition of Injured Workers, a group of about 150 southern Nevadans, who were offered the chance to make specific accusations directly to the SIIS board in an unusual series of individual meetings Monday and today. The coalition founded by Jim Wayman six months ago has expressed continual dissatisfaction with the Las Vegas office of SIIS. Recently, he organized a picket outside the agency's office with placards declaring "SIIS Issues False Medical Reports." Wayman, whose wife Christine was By Wayne MeltonGazette-joumai Concerned after a Sunday night blaze forced evacuation of the darkened Sundowner Hotel-Casino, Reno firefighters may soon recommend the city require battery-operated lights in stairwells of all hotel towers, Fire Marshal Marty Richard said Monday. Meanwhile, Sundowner owner George Karadanis said the club will reopen for full business this evening or Wednesday. Flames doused Sunday night had been Injured workers By Jane Ann MorrisonGazette-joumai LAS VEGAS Injured workers who feel they've gotten a raw deal from the State Industrial Insurance System expressed frustration, anger and hostility at a meeting Monday with the SIIS board and general manager.

"Why does the claimant have to fight so much to get anything?" complained Jerry Horito, a disabled auto mechanic who resents what he called an adversarial attitude of SIIS employees. Horito was one of 13 people from the Seniors claim they can't find decent homes By Ken MillerGazette-Journal Nevada's senior citizens are caught in a nightmarish web of red tape as they try to find affordable, humane housing amid short supply, according to several officials who testified in the first of a two-day U.S. Senate hearing in Reno. The witnesses, representing groups ranging from the National Council of Senior Citizens to the Nevada Indian Commission, urged Sen. Harry Reid to continue to investigate the plight of the elderly, whom they described as victims of a mean-spirited Reagan administration that has turned the nation's elderly into a legion of street people.

Similar hearings are being conducted nationwide by members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging during the current congressional recess. Reid, a junior member of that committee, will hold a second hearing in Las Vegas today. The results of the sessions in various states will be compiled and made part of the committee's report to Congress later this year. At issue is whether the country's burgeoning senior citizen population is being squeezed out of affordable housing by rising costs and shrinking benefits. Almost without exception, wit- 1 a jj, I i Nlt S.

1 i SENIOR POWER: Geri Kaufman listens to testimony at a Senate subcomittee hearing Monday on housing for the elderly. nesses testifying at Monday's hearing hardship from the witnesses, who testi-at the Washoe County Senior Center fied in small groups during the three-blamed the Reagan administration for hour hearing. He kicked off the session the dilemma. with an attack on the Reagan adminis- Reid, the sole committee member at the hearing, solicited tales of severe.