Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 16

Cl Albuquf.rque Journal METROPOLITAN Tuesday, February 18, 1997 Oman's Arm, Nose Broken in Alleged Robbery Iry Baca pled guilty to armed robbery in September 1993 after being accused of robbing several people in the University of New Mexico area, according to court records and a Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office prosecutor. Baca was originally given five years' probation but was sent to prison after a parole violation. He was released Dec. 16, a New Mexico Corrections Department official said. Baca and Apodaca have been charged with robbery, conspiracy, aggravated battery, false imprisonment and tampering with evidence.

Baca's bond was set at $20,000, and Apo-daca's at $10,000 during court hearings Monday. Both men remained in -the Bernalillo County Detention Center- on Monday evening. off. A witness notified police of the attack. Heitzman said police have been holding their briefings in neighborhoods instead of at their substation, and he and other officers were only three blocks away when the call came in.

Heitzman said officers raced to the scene and called out a description of the attackers. A criminal complaint said one officer saw the suspects jump a fence and go into Baca's house in the 1100 block of Arno SE. "If we had been at the station at 2:30 the chances of us getting those guys would have been slim to none," Heitzman said. "We got the house surrounded. Joe (Apodaca) was hiding underneath a sofa, but the sofa was floating.

He was a tiny guy, but he wasn't that thin." Whitby said two young men "appeared out of nowhere." She said she smiled at them, started to say hello and asked them what they wanted. They cursed at her and told her to get out of the car, she said. Heitzman said Whitby tried to bluff her attackers by saying she left her keys in the church. But Heitzman added, "They didn't buy it, so they proceeded to pound on her." Criminal complaints filed Monday said Baca punched Whitby "about the face" during the attack and broke her arm, apparently while reaching for her keys on the front seat. "I didn't realize my arm was broken until I looked at it and it was sideways," she said.

Whitby said she hit the car horn to try to scare off her attackers. She said she also began screaming and they eventually ran while she was being attacked. "I didn't say anything. (But) I was praying. Just calling on Jesus," Whitby said Monday before heading to a doctor's appointment, where she was to find out whether her broken left arm would require surgery.

"I just didn't consider they were out for devilment," added Whitby, who asked her age not be revealed. "It was one of those things you just don't believe what's happening. APD Sgt. C.J. Heitzman said the attack happened about 2:50 p.m.

outside a church in the 1700 block of Walter SE. Whitby said her car was the only vehicle in the lot, and she had left her door open. "Usually, when I get in the car like that, I lock the doors immediately," she said. But "it was such a pretty day." Bv Jkh- Junks Jinimal Stuff Writer Vicki Whitby said some extra prayers Sunday. The middle-aged woman said she was sitting in her car enjoying the weekend sunshine at the church she attends when two young men tried to steal her car, breaking her arm and nose in the process.

One of the suspects 22-year-old Casey Baca recently finished a prison sentence for robbery. And an Albuquerque Police Department sergeant says Baca and fellow suspect Joseph Apodaca, 20, were nabbed partly because officers were doing a briefing near the site of the attack. Whitby said she started to say "hello" to the men when they appeared at her car. She also said she offered up some silent prayers l-Mm Crusaders Wan Teen's Murder Solved 1 ft 'b4 a fir i'fj, T'i r'rrrr THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Bv Sit: Ma.iok Hoi mi The Associated I'ress It may seem like a strange plot twist mystery writers banding together in cyberspace to pressure New Mexico officials to solve the murder of a teenager. An on-line campaign urges writers and friends across the nation to send e-mail messages to New Mexico officials to convince them the July 16, 1989, slaying of Kaitlyn Arquette should be turned over to an agency other than the Albuquerque Police Department.

The effort, which landed more than 100 messages on officials' desks Valentine's Day morning, began when mystery writer and editor J. Alec West read a Mystery Writers of America newsletter late last year in which Kaitlin Arquette's mother, writer Lois Duncan Arquette, sought help in solving the murder. West logged on to Mrs. Arquette's Web site, which outlines how her 18-year-old daughter, a University of New Mexico freshman, was shot twice in the head late that summer night as she drove from dinner at a friend's house. The Web site which includes photos of Kaitlyn Arquette and newspaper headlines about the slaying questions the police investigation, accusing officers of failing to question important witnesses.

It also suggests a police coverup. West, who has never met the Arquette family, said he was "completely shocked" by the material. The Vancouver, man fired off an e-mail message to Gov. Gary Johnson, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and a few others, saying that based on what he'd seen, "there was a travesty of justice going on here." He received no replies, but Mrs. Arquette sent him an e-mail thanking him and asking if he could think of anything else to do.

From that evolved the idea of "sending Kait a Valentine," a campaign to press for an investigation by some outside agency. West e-mailed about 1,400 people Monday, asking them to send messages to New Mexico officials including state police through a special Web site activated Thursday night. The campaign generated more than 100 "very impassioned letters," West said Friday. "The first recorded message came from a woman whose son was murdered. Another came from a woman who belongs to the group Parents with Murdered Children," he said.

"We've got letters from trial lawyers, writers, just ordinary people." Albuquerque police have labeled Kaitlyn Arquette's killing a random shooting. They ruled out gangs and the teen-ager's live-in boyfriend, who passed a test proving he had not recently fired a gun. Three young men were arrested six months after the killing. Police said at the time they believed the men, out joyriding, shot Kaitlyn Arquette on a dare. Charges against all three were later dropped for lack of evidence.

Don and Lois Arquette have hired private investigators and have fought to get police to look into what they believe are possible leads, including a bystander whose Volkswagen mysteriously disappeared from the scene and the alleged involvement of Kaitlyn Arquette's boyfriend in a car crash insurance scam reportedly operating in California. Police spokesman Tony Herrera said the department believes its investigation was complete. "The FBI and the New Mexico attorney general's office have conducted independent reviews of this case as well, and their findings did not adversely reflect on the Albuquerque Police Department," he said. He said the case is closed pending further leads. The Arquette family has moved from Albuquerque to another city they do not want disclosed.

Mrs. Arquette, in an e-mail response to The Associated Press, said hitting the Internet was a last resort. "In the political structure of Albuquerque, the police appear to be the only game in town; if they decide not to follow up on certain information, then it doesn't get investigated," she said. "Seven years is too long for any family to have to RALLYING OFFICIALS: A cyberspace campaign sent more than 100 e-mail messages to New Mexico officials Friday morning to ask them to look into the 1989 slaying of Kaitlyn Arquette. The campaign was sparked by this Web site page, in which writer Lois Duncan Arquette outlines her daughter's killing and asks for help in solving it.

"However, I would forward all that information to' the Albuquerque Police Department. I have nothing but utmost confidence in the homicide unit of the." Albuquerque Police Department. They're some of the leading homicide investigators in this country," said White, a former Albuquerque police sergeant. "We understand the family reaching out," he "They would like to see justice served, as would this agency. And I know the Albuquerque Police Department would as well.

We share their frustration." When West sent messages to New Mexico officials late last year, "it was just like dead air," he said. "But I'm just one person. One person can ignored," he said. "Ten people, it's a little harder. One hundred people, a little harder still.

A thousand people are a bit hard to ignore." battle the system in order to get an honest and thorough investigation of their child's death," she said. Her Web page said she accepts police cannot solve' every murder. "What we should not have to live with, however, is a deliberate police effort to conceal or alter important evidence," wrote Mrs. Arquette, the author of more than 40 books under the name Lois Duncan, including one about the murder, "Who Killed My Daughter?" State Department of Public Safety Secretary Darren White said he had not seen Friday's e-mail messages. He said while the department would review them and respond individually, it does not ordinarily review a murder case by another agency.

He said DPS would look at any information anyone wanted to provide on the case. IT METRO 'PL KERRVfLLE WATCH mk Council Delays Impact-Fee Vote Technicality Slows Rio Rancho Decision i if i I i I 1 i i i 1 i Swisstack has suggested the council toss the city's. impact fee ordinance until surrounding communities; such as Albuquerque, adopt ill. similar laws. STEVE SHOUPJOURNAL CRASH SCENE: An Albuquerque Police Investigator studies the scene of a fatal collision between a charter bus and a car late Sunday.

The two men in the car were killed In the wreck, which happened about 11:20 p.m. on West Central near 13th Street. Police said the eastbuund car abruptly swerved in front of the westbound bus and was hit broadside. No one on the bus was seriously Injured, police said. The car's driver had not been Identified Monday, but the passenger was Identified as David RublcnGomez, 21, of Albuquerque, APD said.

UNM To Celebrate Classroom Work University of New Mexico officials will host a gfcitmdbreaking ceremony I ndiy for the school's planned $11 million classroom building. The building, named after the late English Professor Dane F. Smith, will include three lecture halls, 31 classrooms and five seminar rooms. It also will be equipped with high-tech communications and computer equipment. The 9 a.m.

ceremony will be in a parking lot along Roma NE, across from ScholesIIall, UNM's administration building. Speakers will include UNM President Richard E. Peck and Board of Regents President Penny Rembe. Also attending will be members of Smith's family, including his widow, who moved from an on-campus house to make way for the new building. Construction on the building is scheduled to begin next month.

K.L. House Construction Co. of Albuquerque is the contractor, and the architect is Custer Basarich Ltd. of Albuquerque. psychiatric center without authorization Feb.

12. She alleged she had been sleeping on a bench near Eubank and Chico NE when two men approached her and walked with her to a pickup. She then was taken to an apartment. The complaints said Garcia and LaPlante raped the girl repeatedly in the apartment. Garcia also is alleged to have forced her to smoke "something" while LaPlante was having sex with her.

Two Men Accused Of Raping Girl, 12 Two Albuquerque men have been arrested on suspicion of raping a 12-year-old girl, police said. Bobby Peter Garcia, 36, and Timothy J. LaPlante, 21, were arrested Friday, according to criminal complaints released Monday. According to the complaints, the girl left an Albuquerque The men have been charged with criminal sexual penetration of a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A Bernalillo County Detention Center official said LaPlante's jail bond was set at $32,500 on Friday, and he was released Sunday.

Garcia's jail bond has been set at $74,500, the jail official said, and Garcia remained behind bars Monday evening. Bv Andkkw Journal Stuff Writer Rio Rancho councilors decided to postpone a vote that would have suspended the city's impact fee ordinance. Mayor Tom Swisstack asked the council to hold off voting on the fees because the item was presented for discussion only. In order to take a vote, he said, it would have had to be presented as an ordinance. "What I was advised to do (by city staff) is submit another ordinance in order to hold the fees in abeyance," Swisstack said after the meeting.

Swisstack has suggested the council toss the city's impact fee ordinance until surrounding communities, such as Albuquerque, adopt similar laws. He said the city isn't "operating on a level playing field" when it comes to competing for economic development projects with other communities. Since nearby Albuquerque doesn't charge impact fees, Rio Rancho officials have been worried that companies wanting to locate in the area will look past their city because of the fees. Some councilors have said they wouldn't favor suspending the fees, because current residents are being forced to subsidize growth. Impact fees are aimed at making new growth pay for itself.

Councilors adopted the ordinance in 1995 after a state law mandated all New Mexico counties and municipalities do so. The state law says developers can be issued credits for any roads or other infrastructure they provide. Those credits might take the form of cash reimbursement or waiving future fees if enough credits- are earned. Most communities haven't adopted impact fee ordinances because of confusion over the way the state law is worded and how developer credits are to be issued. The New Mexico Municipal League has said it will suggest changes to the state law during this year's legislative session; however, Swisstack said he knew of no bills to that effect that have been introduced so far.

Swisstack said Monday night that he wants to see where the Municipal League stands. Rio Rancho has collected about $300,000 in impact fees since adopting its ordinance. That money will probably be returned to developers, Swisstack has said. Rio Rancho developers have been charged the fees to help offset the costs of building and maintaining roads and parks, and picviding police and fire protection. However, Swisstack has, said companies trying to locate in Rio Rancho didn't like the idea of having to pay the additional costs especially since most other New Mexico communities don't charge owan Wins Rio Rancho Athletics Job program at Iowa City.

High School. We are very, very impressed with him." Hveem will make $52,000 a year at the position putting him at the level of district-level administrators. Gibson said the original position and salary director of athletics at the high school at around $45,000 a year was not competitive with districts around the state. The position was then changed so that the new director manages athletics at all Rio Rancho schools, he said. Hveem also asked the district to halt its search for coaches until he arrives, which is the first week of April.

More than 25 applicants have responded to an advertisement for head football coach, but the district will be re-posting the position, Gibson said. Hveem, Alamogordo's head football coach for 10 seasons from 1976 to 1986, accepted the district's offer Friday. A retired principal in Iowa, Howard Vernon, said Hveem would represent Rio Rancho "exceptionally well." Hveem boosted City High School's athletic program from one state championship in its 48-year history to 18 in the last 12 years. "He was a teacher of coaches," said Vernon. "What he did the best was provide them with the support services, equipment and facilities that they needed to be successful." Bv Andkka HUM I KOI'K Journal Staff Writer Rio Rancho's first athletic director got a stamp of approval Monday from the board of education.

The school board hired Gary Hveem, an athletic director at City High School in Iowa City, Iowa, since 1987, based on the recommendation of an eight-member selection committee appointed by principal Katy Harvey. The board approved Hveem's hiring in a special meeting Monday night. "We have probably talked to everybody but his kindergarten teacher," Assistant Superintendent Walter Gibson said Monday night. "He has dd ie an incredible job rebuilding an athletic the fees..