Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 6

A6 THE HARTFORD COURANT Thursday, January 8, 1998 Connecticut Owner Of WTIC To Manage WTXX Terminally 111 Woman's Suit Must Proceed, Judge Rules "Finally, there will be justice for Jane. What happened to her is every woman's nightmare." MICHAELA ROSENBERGER Plaintiff's Attorney It currently has a local-marketing agreement with Paramount, which has provided children's programming daily from 3 to 7 p.m. and on weekends from 8 to 10 a.m. WVIT, Channel 30, which Paramount recently sold to NBC, runs a nightly 10 p.m. newscast on Channel 20.

It was unclear how the Tribune-Tiberius deal might affect that relationship. Jerry Martin, WTIC's vice president and general manager, said the deal announced Wednesday would give Channel 61 more flexibility in its programming decisions and give Channel 20 more clout in obtaining programming. The station will be managed from WTIC's Hartford offices, he said. The company that owns WTIC, Channel 61, the local Fox affiliate, will also manage WTXX, Channel 20, in an agreement announced Wednesday. Under the agreement, Tribune Co.

also will take a minority equity interest in WTXX, a United Paramount Network station, and manage it for WTXX's owner, Tiberius Broadcasting Inc. No programming changes were announced. WTXX General Manager David Brewer said the station would continue providing "values-centered" programming, including the "Celebration of the Eucharist" each day at 10 a.m. wmnpwm ii i Boil, ii iti i rf' vi JANUARY CERAMIC FLOOR TILE Choose From In stock Only 99f ALL AT SQ.FT. udice from delay," Berger wrote.

"Justice, our Constitution, our statutes, our rules and finally, basic decency, require this decision." Michaela Rosenberger, Doe's attorney, said Wednesday that lawyers for defendant James Duke and his former employer have asked the state Supreme Court to overturn Berger's decision. She thinks chances of that occurring are slim. "I'm very pleased with Judge Berger's well-reasoned decision, with its grounding in our Constitution and our practice book," she said. "Finally, there will be justice for Jane. What happened to her is every woman's nightmare.

I'm hoping we will get a trial very soon." Attorneys for Duke and his former employer, the Hospital For Special Care, in New Britain, could not be reached late Wednesday for comment. Rosenberger said her client, still a patient at the hospital, has even less movement than before but can still move her eyes "a millimeter. She still communicates with her husband. She already knows of the judge's ruling and that her case is progressing." The judge's decision was prompted by a motion, filed by Duke, asking the court to delay all civil action until his pending criminal case is heard. That trial, originally scheduled for November 1996, has yet to be rescheduled because of a flurry of defense motions and subsequent appeals filed by Duke's attorney, Louis Flynn.

In the motion before Berger, Duke's lawyers sought a delay on grounds that a civil trial would violate his Fifth Amendment rights by establishing testimony that could hurt him in his trial on two sexual assault charges. Police allege that Duke attacked Doe in May 1995 as she lay mute and helpless in her room at the hospital where Duke had worked for 11 years as a physical therapist. The victim, mentally alert but unable to talk because illness had robbed her of almost all movement, was able to communicate what happened by blinking "Yes" when people pointed to letters. It took her several hours to spell out her complaint police said. She also identified Duke as her attacker from photographs of hospital staff shown by police.

Duke, who denies the allegations, signed a consent decree last January with the state Department of Public Health that places him on administrative probation for four years and prohibits him from being alone with any patient with cognitive, sensory or motor impairments. He also agreed to a psychiatric evaluation and to pay a $1,000 fine. He was able to keep his therapist's license. Flynn has asked that the criminal charges against his client be dismissed, claiming a criminal conviction would result in double jeopardy against Duke because of the state's administrative agreement. Prosecutors familiar with the criminal case were uncertain Wednesday about the effect Berger's decision on the civil suit might have on the criminal proceedings.

Hospital officials have said the facility has not had a similar case in its 50 years in existence, nor has it ever been sued by a patient. When the suit was filed last May, hospital Vice President Laraine Mi-lazzo said the hospital was cooperating with the police investigation and that "our primary concern has been, and always will be, our 1862 BERLIN TURNPIKEWETHERSFIELD -563-0151 OPEN: DAILY THURS. SAT. SUN. 11-4 LIC.

511494 III 1 MkaHMHHMaMMaVMHMaV CtCE-GClJJj jjOlijapwy CijrtijLjuLl jJiIiy By BILL LEUKHARDT Courant Staff Writer NEW BRITAIN A terminally ill, paralyzed woman whose therapist was charged in 1996 with molesting her during hospital treatment must have her day in court before she dies, a Superior Court judge has ruled. Judge Marshall K. Berger Jr. said that the woman, a 55-year-old stricken with the wasting-nerve disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, popularly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, has a right to see the start of a trial on her civil suit against her alleged attacker and the hospital that employed him. At the core of Berger's decision is the issue of a plaintiffs right for a speedy trial vs.

a defendant's constitutional right to remain silent and not incriminate himself. In a 13-page decision dated Dec. 24, Berger said he will seek a speedy trial because of the plaintiffs extraordinary circumstances, including medical opinion that she has less than three years left to live. The plaintiff, known in court papers as Jane Doe, has the right to proceed with such a trial regardless of what happens with criminal charges now pending against the therapist "It is clear that that plaintiff is the party that suffers the most prej- a-- tr i i 1 v- KwC 2 1 RGEST SELECTION EVER OF IN-STOCK KARASTAN im I i fro Wi iiiiHi KiI.i.ij.iiivji CERAMIC TILE INSTALLED WALLS AND FLOORS $99 4X4, 8X8, 12X12, MOSAICS, SO. FT.

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