Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 127

Bin THE HARTFORD COURANT; Mondoy, Jonooiy 34, 1994 1 IIHM IP John J. Bracken; retired fK- Dispute resolution firm judged Continued from Connecticut page log. The state court system began the new year Jan. 1 with 64,716 civil cases and 14,626 family cases, all awaiting a judge's attention. Ment said Friday's conference was the kickoff of a campaign to make judges aware of the relief that 4 -in I.

Sri- i Paula Bronstein The Hartford Courant Joseph in Hartford Sunday night. Hundreds attended the event, which included speeches in addition to music. Nat Jones, performing with The Piano Choir, stands to sing a tribute to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Cathedral of St.

Words, music honor King at cathedral Mate judge By DERRICK STOKES Courant Staff Writer John J. Bracken of Hartford, a 'retired Superior Court judge and former state attorney general, died Sunday at his home. He was 85. Judge Bracken was appointed to the the Court of Common Pleas in by Gov. John N.

Dempsey and to the Superior Court in 1972. He retired 15 years ago but remained active, his daughter Marianne O'Neil said. As a retired senior judge, he did pre-trial work for the state until about 1990, she said. Judge Bracken "He was a -meticulous, hard-working practi-. tioner of the law," said Judge John Daly, a former associate of Judge Bracken.

Daly said he had known Judge Bracken since 1950, when they worked for the same law firm. Judge John Brennan, a friend of -Judge Bracken for 45 years, described him as an excellent trial lawyer and "a real fighter" in the courtroom. 1," "I think he was one of the finest "men I've ever known," Brennan said. "He knew what was right and he did it." Former Lt. Gov.

Edward N. Allen and former Hartford Mayor William H. Mortensen backed Judge Bracken in his bid for lieutenant governor i in 1954, but he did not receive the Republican nomination. He was elected state attorney general that fall, a post he held from 1955 to 1959. He had also been a member of the Subversive Activities Committee of the National Association of Attor-: hey Generals.

The committee sought to eliminate communist ac Suggs said. That changed when he arrived in Washington, D.C., at which point southbound trains became segregated, Suggs said. "That experience changed him," Suggs said. "That experience led him to believe that he had to change that system, that people should not live like that." The concert was sponsored in cooperation with the cathedral and radio station WKND-AM, and there was plenty of music. Among the performers were The Piano Choir, whose members performed on five baby grand pianos.

Dollie McLean, a member of the the board of directors of the Artists Collective and a founder of the organization, said that music ties in with the themes King addressed. "I think music has always had a healing power," McLean said. "It touches us in our souls." dral, Brittain blamed state laws for perpetuating segegration in public schools. Many children in Hartford, he said, "live on a lonely school district island of economic insecurity in the midst of the surrounding districts in a sea of material prosperity." He concluded his remarks by saying: "I hope you can understand the legitimate and unavoidable impatience of people in Hartford. These are the same reasons that led Martin Luther King to entitle his 1963 book 'Why We Cannot Brittain was followed by State Treasurer Joseph M.

Suggs who said there is a special bond between King and Connecticut. As a young man earning money to help pay his way through college, King worked in the tobacco fields of north-central Connecticut. Returning to the South after those stints, King initially could select any train seat he wanted, Continued from Connecticut page Brittain, a professor at the University of Connecticut Law School, began his remarks by quoting from "A Dream Deferred," a poem by Langston Hughes: What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun does it explode? Brittain said Hughes was writing about the American Negro experience, but those words also apply today to Puerto Ricans and other Latino people in the inner city. "The schoolchildren have been deeply disappointed over the slow pace of school desegregation in the greater Hartford region in the past 30 years," Brittain said. "At the current pace; it could be the year 2050 before integration in Greater Hartford would be a reality." His voice resonating through the cathe from vehicles on 1-84 by gunfire passed the exit when they heard glass in the rear window of their van break.

A bullet came to rest just behind the two front seats, said the man, who asked not to be identified. State police later determined that the incident occurred as suspects in a white 1 986 Buick were shooting at a red Honda. Both cars were traveling eastbound. The Buick, which had been reported stolen in Hartford, was recovered on Capitol Avenue, but the suspects fled on foot, state police said. A tracking dog searched the area, but no one was found, and no ar ADR services can provide the court by siphoning off cases for mediation and settlement.

When the judges begin their special settlement conferences in March, most will be recommending ADR to the lawyers and litigants of those cases that don't get resolved. And when some of those unresolved cases remaining after the March settlement conferences wind up on the docket of Sta-Fed in April, Zampano will be there to act as a mediator, as well as chief executive officer. Zampano is retiring from the federal bench effective April 1, a few weeks after his 65th birthday and in keeping with plans he announced before Sta-Fed was devised by him and Ment. Zampano is a nationally renowned mediator who has settled such complex cases as the fatal L' Ambiance Plaza collapse and the lawsuit against the state Department of Children and Families. Zampano will join an impressive list of senior state court judges who cannot, by laws governing their pensions and status, work for any ADR firm but Sta-Fed.

This has prompted several private mediation firms in the state to cry foul, saying Sta-Fed has an unfair monopoly. Since Sta-Fed began taking cases Nov. 17, however, its monopoly hasn't resulted in overcrowded dockets. Sta-Fed has a strict definition of what constitutes a case. Lawyer Patricia N.

Blair, director of operations, said a case is docketed only after the lawyers for both sides have submitted their completed application forms, a deposit and a list of mediators they find acceptable. By that standard, Blair said, Sta-Fed has received 23 cases and resolved six of those, for settlements ranging from $45,000 to $2.5 million. Among the pending cases are portions ot the massive Colonial Realty litigation. Blair said another 100 cases could be arriving soon, with lawyers in the final stages of completing the applications. Sta-Fed, located in newly renovated quarters at One Long Wharf Drive in New Haven, has a sliding fee scale based on the amount of money in dispute.

Litigants involved in an injury claim of $100,000, for instance, would have to pay $500 per party for the first three hours' of mediation, and 160 an hour per party thereafter. One of the attractions of Sta-Fed, and other alternative dispute resolution firms, is confidentiality. Cases that go to ADR typically move from public courtrooms to private conference rooms and, if mediation is successful, result in secret settlements that are then ratified by the courts. Defendants of medical malpractice, products liability and discrimination cases in particular find this element of confidentiality attractive. In keeping with this, Zampano would not reveal the lawyers who sent in the tip, nor the cases they represented.

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The medication is in addition to the maintenance insulin. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL: 724-9941 1.800-234-4388 "Dedicated to the Advancement ot Quality Medicine" HARTFORD CENTER FOR CUNICAL RESEARCH Body in Florida may be New Britain official Car, van hit By KATE FARRISH Courant Staff Writer Two vehicles traveling into Hartford six hours apart Saturday were struck by gunshots from other cars, state police in Hartford said. No one was injured in the incidents, which took place at 1 and 7 p.m. on 1-84 eastbound near Exit 48, state police said. At 1 p.m., a Rocky Hill man and his wife, driving to a store after visiting relatives in Bristol, had just Long-divided churches join for service Continued from Connecticut page through the continuing negotiations, Cronin said.

"Over the centuries, dissension and division have occurred," the archbishop said in his sermon, "but this is not the will of Jesus Christ, who wants us to be one." The Rev. Kim-Eric Williams, pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church, pointed to two examples of change wrought in the Lutheran liturgy by concern with ecumenicism. Lutherans now off er the Eucharist, or Holy Communion the ceremony of bread and wine reminiscent of Jesus' Last Supper every Sunday instead of twice a month, as was done through the late 1970s. And the use of incense in ceremonies, quite common in Catholic Masses, is becoming more accepted. "Now people realize that it is a symbol of prayer, a symbol of Christ's sacrifice, so it's no longer a flash point," Williams said.

Mark L. Winzler, chairman of the committee coordinating Concordia Lutheran's celebration of its centen-nial this year, noted that the church's ecumenical relationship with St. Bartholomew's began six years ago, and the tradition extends even further. "This really began 25 years ago," he said, "when Richard Cardinal Cushing, then archbishop of Boston, preached from our pulpit." rests had been made as of Sunday, state police said. The Rocky Hill man said he and his wife were still shaking from the encounter hours later.

"Things like this random acts of violence seem to be becoming more prevalent," he said. "We come into Hartford a lot. We have season tickets for the Whalers, and we come in quite a bit for dinner. Now, I'll think twice about going on that stretch of highway." In the later incident, a Hartford man said he had just gotten onto the highway at Sisson Avenue and was talking on his car phone when he police spokeswoman said they will wait for the medical examiner's report to positively identify the man. An autopsy report was inconclusive, but police said there is no evidence of foul play.

The medical examiner will try to identify the body through dental records today, said Ollie Foll-weiler, owner of the Beckman and Williamson Funeral Home in Cocoa Beach. The funeral home has custody of the body; Follweiler said the Balciunas family believes it to be Joseph Balciunas Jr. and is preparing a funeral. Nevertheless, Follweiler said he is awaiting confirmation of identity from the medical examiner. "They usually won't release the body until it's identified," he said.

"They told us to hold on to it." Louise Matulis of New Britain, a family friend, said Balciunas had been in Florida about three weeks with his parents, Anne and Joseph Balciunas when he went out one morning before they awakened. Sixteen days later his body was found in the river with no identification on it, she said. Balciunas had fallen last year and suffered a head injury, Matu-lft said, but he appeared to have made almost a full recovery. Paul Carver, a fellow member tivities in the United Mates. He attended St.

Peter's Parochial School and graduated from Hart- ford Public High School in 1925. He from Georgetown School of Law in 1931. He was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1932 and practiced law with the firm of Odium, Bracken Burke. He was a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1942 to 1945 during World "War II. He was prosecuting attorney of he Hartford Police Court in and again after the war in 1946-47.

He also served as Hartford City and Police Court judge from 1947 to He served as legal adviser to the Charter Revision Commission of Hartford in 1940. He was assistant clerk of the state senate during the 1953 General Assembly session and had also served as chairman of Hartford Local Draft Board No. 3. He was a member of the Hartford County, Connecticut and American "bar associations, the Society of For-urner Special Agents of the FBI, the "Georgetown University Alumni Association and Wampanoag Country "Club. He was a former parishioner of the Cathedral of St.

Joseph and at the time of his death a member of St. Peter Claver Parish, West Hartford. He was a Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus. The funeral will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Church of St.

Peter Claver, 47 Pleasant West Hartford. Burial will follow in Mount St. Benedict Cemetery, Bloomfield. Calling hours will be in St. Peter Claver- Church Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m.

and 7 to 9 p.m. Coventry man, hit by truck, dies A Coventry man who was hit by a pickup truck Friday on Main Street died Saturday at Hartford Hospital, hospital officials said. Kevin E. Johnson, 23, of 263 1 Road, Coventry, was walking south along Main Street i near Sam Green Road on Friday night when a pickup truck equipped 5 with a plow struck him, police said. 5 He was flown to Hartford Hospital, where he died Saturday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

i Mr. Johnson, who moved to Cov-y entry from Tolland four years ago, was a student at Manchester Com- College and was employed f'at a McDonald's restaurant at the time of his death. He was a member of the Emanual Lutheran Church in Manchester and a volunteer at the realized that someone was shooting at him from a new, white, four-door car. Five or six bullets hit the back door on the driver's side, a tire and the windshield, said the man, who asked not to be identified. "I just heard the last shot.

I didn't even have time to be scared until afterwards," the man said. Police said they have no motives for the shootings and would not comment on whether they were related. Anyone with information is asked to call Troop in Hartford at 566-5990. An autopsy report was inconclusive, but police said there is no evidence of foul play. of the zoning board of appeals, said he has known Balciunas since 1975.

Carver said he was minority leader of the New Britain city council when Balciunas was a Republican alderman from 1987 to 1989. Carver said Balciunas was recently reappointed to a seven-year term on the appeals board. "He was in New Britain Hospital for a couple days," Carver said. "He had fallen and struck his head sometime in the middle of June. He had some memory loss." A funeral Mass is planned Tuesday in Florida.

There will also be a funeral Mass on Tuesday in New Britain at 10 a.m. at St. Andrews Church, a Lithuanian Catholic church at Stanley and Church streets where Balciunas sang in the senior choir and served on the parish council, among other activities. "He was involved in all that was going on," the Rev. John Rikterai-tis said.

Courant Staff Writer Liz Halloran contributed to this story. SAVINGS, All New Doors and Drawers Fronts (Total of 16) Your choice of white, almond, light oak walnut All New Hardware and Self-Closing Hinges All Existing Surfaces Finished to Match All New PF Counter Top (8 Feet) ANY PLUMBING OR ELECTRICAL WORK CI Lie. 51 1 941 By DERRICK STOKES Courant Staff Writer A body believed to be that of the chairman of the New Britain Zoning Board of Appeals was found floating in a river Friday in Cocoa Beach, Fla. The family of Joseph J. Bal-ciunas 55, of New Britain had reported him missing to the Cocoa Beach police.

Police in Cocoa Beach reported finding the body of a man floating in the Banana River near the Patrick Air Force Base on Friday morning. Visual identification of the body was not possible because it had apparently been in the river for several days, police said. A Louise Matulis of New Britain, a family friend, said Balciunas had been in Florida about three weeks with his parents, Anne and Joseph Balciunas when he went out one morning before they awakened. cided to relocate to west Avon. "I'm kind of curious what my predecessors were thinking when they sold the building to the town," Prenetasaid.

A 1990 exhibit at the Unionville Museum revived interest in the old church and its glass windows. Titled "Four Spires: An Exhibit of Unionville Church Life," the show featured artifacts, including three of the windows, from Christ Episcopal and objects from other local churches. Crockett said the museum views itself as the caretaker of Union-ville's history. "We would like to hold on to the windows, but I think there are enough for some to be given back," he said. "We're not going to quarrel wih a church over this." Church prays to get back its window NU-FRONTS1 -SUPER A NEW KITCHEN FOR ONLY $(o)'lJ(d (0)SJ Continued from Connecticut page ber.

When a committee was choosing a design for the new church, she recalled, "they wanted everything very plain. Well, I wasn't on that committee." Many members of the congregation said they had forgotten about the stained-glass windows. Like the old church's organ, which was donated by financier J.P Morgan, the windows slipped from memory after the church's hectic move in 1968. But while the whereabouts of the organ are unknown, the windows are close by. When the church was displaced by an urban renewal project that widened Route 4 near the intersection of Route 177, the church was sold to Farmington for $15,000.

Meanwhile, the congregation de COMPLETELY INSTALLED SPECIAL OFFER OOES NOT INCLUDE 65 Louis St. Newington OH Of Berlin Next to Amos call or Tri-Town Emergency Shelter. The driver of the truck, identified I by police as Timothy M. Assessor, 30, of 2273 Main Coventry, was hot injured in the crash. 1 Police said Sunday that they are still investigating and no charges have been filt)d.

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