Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 3

THE HARTFORD COURANT: Friday, November 18, 1994 A3 CTICUT CONNE Outburst in courtroom lands three women in jail A thprpcofd Santana, a Los Solidos gang member, was killed during a bloody feud between that gang and the Latin Kings. Torres, said to be a Latin King, was arrested more than a year after the killing. Freed called a recess after Thursday's outburst. When court resumed with the benches nearly empty Davila took the witness stand and again was asked to identify the killer. Davila looked down.

Then he glanced at Torres and looked away. Several times, he began moving his arm and stopped. Finally, he gave a loud sigh and pointed at the defen- Please see Judge, Page A23 He then sentenced two of the women to 10 days in jail. A third the woman who made a reference to killing was sentenced to 60 days. The fourth woman insisted she had not said anything to the defendant.

Those arrested Thursday were Luz Torres, 36, of Hartford; Enelida Torres, 32, of East Hartford; Sonia Torres-Arroyo, 26, of Hartford; and Yolanda Diaz, 29, of Hartford. Davila was the star witness Thursday in a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to prosecute Ralph Torres for murder. Torres, 20, of Hartford, is accused of shooting Santana Aug. 31, 1993, as he stood near the corner of Park and Wadsworth streets in the city. "Sheriff," he said, "take them all into custody." Davila appeared to be crying as sheriffs and an inspector grabbed the women.

State police arrested the four women, some or all of whom were relatives of the defendant. They were charged with threatening and tampering with a witness and were held on $100,000 bond. But judges also have the authority to impose sentences as long as six months on those who disrupt their courtrooms. At the end of the day Thursday, Freed ordered the women brought back to the courtroom, where the tape recording of the outburst was played repeatedly. Santana and shot him in the back.

Assistant State's Attorney Stephen Preleski asked Davila to identify the man. Davila hesitated. After a long pause, he said, "Man, if I say that, they're going to kill me." In a burst of pandemonium, first one, and then three or four women seated on a bench behind the defendant began shouting at Davila. Several pointed fingers and yelled, ''You're lying!" and "It's not him!" One shouted, "He knows who's going to kill him!" Judge Samuel Freed originally ordered the women to leave, but after hearing the he changed course. mmrm.

I' i lTt i -v surgery Cecilia Prestamo The Hartford Courant name. She is sitting with her mother, Valerie Koschmieder. The operation, called a cochlear implant, was a first in Connecticut. Jessica Koschmieder, 5, of Groton, who is deaf and recently had an operation to restore her hearing, turns to see who is calling her By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writer An outburst from spectators disrupted a Hartford courtroom Thursday just as a witness was about to identify an alleged killer. The judge ordered a recess, had four spectators arrested and later sentenced three of them to jail for contempt of court.

The arrests were a dramatic display of the perils of prosecuting gang-related cases. Christopher Davila, a key witness in a gang killing, sat nervously in the witness box Thursday, telling a prosecutor that a man he knew as "Magic" walked up behind Felipe Student with gun arrested Incident occurs in West Hartford By GERALD JACOBS and RJTAA.NIRO Courant Staff Writers WEST HARTFORD A 15-year-old Hall High School freshman was arrested Thursday after taking to school a loaded handgun that the student claimed he needed "for protection," police said. The student, whom police declined to identify because of his age, was referred to juvenile authorities after being charged with carrying a pistol on school grounds and carrying a weapon without a permit, said Officer Dennis Dougherty. The boy, whom the principal identified as a West Hartford resident, was released into his father's custody. The arrest occurred just days before paid security guards were scheduled to begin patrolling the school hallways.

Local police were called to the school after school authorities notified them that they were holding a juvenile who was carrying a gun in a holster, Dougherty said. The gun, a revolver, was loaded with five rounds, Dougherty said. "He stated he needed the gun for protection," Dougherty said, reading from a prepared statement. Please see Student, Page A23 State will ask ouster of Rioux By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writer Hartford County Sheriff Alfred J. Rioux, whose term expires next June, could be forced out of office under a petition state prosecutors plan to file in court early next week.

Hartford State's Attor-; ney James E. Thomas is ex-', pected to go to court as early as Monday to seek Rioux's ouster. The request would be made under a centu- 22 ry-old law that Rioux requires the removal of sheriffs who demand or receive money from their deputies. It could be the first time the law has ever been invoked. Thomas declined comment Thursday, but a court official famil- 1 iar with the investigation confirmed the petition was expected early next Timothy Brignole, a Hartford at-I torney who asked Thomas and his two predecessors to investigate Rioux, said he, too, was told the petition would be given to Judge Thomas P.

Miano next week. Miano is the presiding judge of Hartford Superior Court. The petition would be the latest in run of bad news for Rioux, who suffered a dramatic political fall in the past year. Rioux lost a primary election against one of his deputies in September and was arrested on federal charges a week later. Although a new sheriff, Walter Kupchunos, was elected last week, Rioux's term does not expire until June.

He said after his indictment that he would not step down early. Efforts to reach Rioux late Thurs- day were unsuccessful, but his wife Please see Rioux, Page A22 Li News and view from the hallways of government Parting Scott-shots i Tom Scott, whose 11 percent showing in the governor's race secured a spot on future ballots for his! new Independence Party, firedj some parting shots Thursday at Gov. Lowell P. Weicker John G. Rowland and state lawmakers.

Scott said he would not allow Weicker, who has been involved in the creation of an Independence Party nationally, to use the party name here in Connecticut if he mounts a third-party bid for presi-dent in 1996. Scott also warned Rowland and lawmakers that, should they "betray voters" by re-neging on their promise to repeal the income tax and enact a conservative agenda, his party would run opponents against them. Incumbents batting .900 Oddly enough, despite the convulsions of anger across the nation on Election Day, more than nine out of 10 incumbents in Connecticut, 27 of 28 state senators seeking re-election won, a return rate of 96.4 percent. (The incunv bent loser was Kenneth L. Przybysz of Montville, and he lost the Democratic nomination in a September primary.) Of the 125 state House members who ran again, 1 17 won, a re-election rate of 93.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Common Cause reported that 90 percent of U.S. House incumbents and 92 percent of U.S. Senate incumbents retained their seats. (Six too-close-to-call House races were not included in the analysis.) The reason for the overwhelming success? Said Common Cause: "Once again, the huge campaign funding advantage of incumbents played a key role in keeping them in office." The best off both worlds In 1993, employees of the Connecticut Institute of Municipal Studies asked the legislature to treat them as state employees, even though the institute is a private corporation. A bill passed in the waning hours of the 1993 session qualified the four employees of the state-funded think tank for state health benefits and state pensions.

The governor signed it despite protests from the state comptroller's office that state benefits should be restricted to state employees. A year later, the institute's leaders are taking a different tack. "We are not state employees," says Nicholas R. Carbone, its president. That's important because, if they were, they wouldn't have received the pay raises they got in July.

Car-bone and Program Manager Richard Pearson collected 2.5 percent pay increases, worth $2,025 to Car-bone and $1,525 to Pearson, at a time when salaries were frozen for all state employees without union contracts. The other two institute employees also received raises one from $39,000 to $48,000 although their duties had been expanded since they were hired. Not surprisingly, word of the institute raises has raised hackles in the state Capitol office complex where other employees have gone without raises for 17 months. Pearson said that's understandable, but state employees should recognize the institute is not a state agency. "It's unique," he said.

Carbone said he saw no inconsis tency between his successful bid for state health and pension benefits and his being exempted from the salary freeze. He said it was in the state's own interest to extend its benefit package to the institute. Otherwise, the institute would have obtained private coverage at a higher cost and billed the state, he said. Not exactly necessary Transportation Commissioner Emil H. Frankel, who was destined to be replaced anyway when John G.

Rowland is inaugurated in January, has announced his resignation effective Jan. 5. Frankel could have improved his timing, though. Rowland will be sworn in as governor Jan. 4 which still gives Rowland a day to fire him.

New beginnings House Republicans this week chose Rep. Robert M. Ward of North Branford to be their leader, replacing outgoing Minority Leader Edward C. Krawiecki Jr. of Bristol.

Ward, 42, is a five-term veteran Deputy Majority Leader Barbara N. Ireland of Ridgefield, who did not seek re-election, has been added to the House Democratic staff. Ireland, who will earn $49,000, will assist Chief of Staff Bernard Sullivan, working on special projects and issues development. For the Record is compfad by The Courant's politics and government Deaf girl, 5, receives innovative ments in favor of sign language. The patient can, however, shut off the device, McMillen said.

Jessica has 22 electrodes inserted into her inner ear. They pick up different sound frequencies and bypass damaged nerve cells to stimulate the brain. Hearing specialists did not switch on all the electrodes at once because Jessica needed time to adjust to new sounds. "We can't turn on the whole thing because it would be frightening for her," said McMillen. A microphone above Jessica's ear picks up the sounds and sends them to a receptor that carries the sound to the electrodes.

The microphone is also wired to a speech-processing box that helps Jessica hear speech clearly. "It's almost a mechanical type of sound," said Marjorie Jung, director of UConn's adult cochlear implant program. The implant devices will be fine-tuned throughout Jessica's life so speech will sound more natural, she said. ington Children's Hospital by Dr. Gerald Leonard, chief of the University of Connecticut's Health Center's otolaryngology division.

Specialists at UConn Health Center and Newington Children's Hospital have formed The Children's Cochlear Implant Program team. The team's first patient was diagnosed as profoundly hearing-impaired at 22 months. Valerie Koschmieder said her daughter cannot hear certain letter sounds used in speech and, therefore, cannot speak clearly herself. "She never got the 's' sound. Time will tell whether this implant will give it to her," said Koschmieder.

The hearing aides Jessica wore before the operation merely amplified sounds. Her implant, however, can pass messages to the brain. Malcolm McMillen, a speech and language pathologist at the Children's Hospital, said the implant is beneficial and controversial. "The deaf community feels the parents are choosing for the child to be oral rather than mechanical," said McMillen, referring to argu By LAURA C. MARKS Courant Correspondent NEWINGTON In a tiny room Thursday, 5-year-old Jessica Koschmieder of Groton sat beside her teddy bear as specialists tested her hearing.

The visit to Newington Children's Hospital was not a typical checkup for the preschooler, who is deaf. Five weeks ago, she became the first child to receive a cochlear implant in a Connecticut operation. The cochlea is a spiral-shaped part of the inner ear that contains the auditory nerve endings. On Wednesday and Thursday, her device was activated. Short, whispy curls covered the left side of Jessica's scalp, which bore a pink scar Thursday.

The brown-eyed child wore only one pigtail. The temporary hair loss should allow a microphone above Jessica's ear to clearly receive sounds she has never heard and help her interpret speech more effectively. Jessica's operation was performed at New Optimism abundant at EAT annual meeting Group forms to fight state integration plans lobbied Congress for changes in federal policies. Instead of seeking to mollify the judge in a pending Hartford-area school desegregation case by approving plans, he said, citizens ought to take steps to make moot any ruling including forced busing. Plaintiffs in the Sheff vs.

O'Neill case have based their argument on the equal education protections offered in the state constitution; Judge Harry Hammer has scheduled final arguments for Nov. 30. D'Onofrio suggested residents should get language inserted into the state constitution that would bar forced busing between communities unless intentional discrimination created inequities. Advocates of the plans are "threatening you with the ramifications of the judge's decision to force you into doing what they want you to do," D'Onofrio said. Please see Group, Page A22 By CHRIS SHERIDAN Courant Staff Writer EAST HARTFORD As if the state's voluntary integration plans weren't in enough trouble already, opponents have now gotten together and organized.

The first public act of the Greater Hartford chapter of the National Association for Neighborhood Schools was to invite a leading opponent of court-ordered busing to talk about the failures of desegregation efforts elsewhere. William D'Onofrio, president of the National Association for Neighborhood Schools, urged residents to lobby against the integration proposals and for changes to the state constitution. "They have a civic duty to fight the plans D'Onofrio told residents during remarks at the Ramada Inn. Formed in 1976, D'Onofrio's national group has lobbied against court-ordered busing across the country and has also But as the company promoted itself and its motto of "schools that work," its officials were still trying to overcome questions about student peformance that have dogged EAI for months. Thursday morning, EAI educators held a press conference to announce that their own analysis of standardized test scores in Baltimore shows that students are doing better at company-run schools than at others.

But the city's data show students at EAI-run schools have not scored as well on tests. Wall Street analysts who follow the company for large investors, and small-timers such as the Peters, apparently liked what they heard Thursday. The stock price has been rising recently, and at the meeting, people were smiling and applauding, including parents, students and staff from EAI-run schools. The stock closed at $22.75 a share Thursday, unchanged for the day. EAI held its annual meeting at its marquee school, Harlem Park Community School, where the floors are waxeli to a glowing shine and fresh-Please see Questions, Page A23 By RICK GREEN Courant Staff Writer BALTIMORE If Education Alternatives 1994 annual meeting Thursday was designed to prove that the private school-management company has a product that works, then Joan and Jim Peters are convinced.

The retired couple from the Minneapolis area, investors in EAI, listened intently to the recitals, songs, games and speeches by students from EAI-run schools that were part of the meeting. "I had no idea what to expect. I'm delighted," said Joan Peters, who described herself as a small investor who cares about education. EAI has been hired to help manage Hartford schools under a five-year, $1 billion contract. The boisterous gathering in Baltimore was full of hope and hype.

The presentations by students, EAI Chairman John Golle and Baltimore Superintendent of Schools Walter G. Amprey indicated that the compi'ny is convinced it has found the solution to the pervasive problem of declining inner-city schools..