Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 40

(jc Hartforb lEourant 2nd 1 2 SATURDAY APRIL 8, 2000 SECTION On The Weekend 'rrrrr I El II VI 1 1 CONNE 'aces Loss Of A House Seat ate Killer ToAid Search For His a blow to the state. For a state with only six House members, the loss of a single seat would translate into a 17 percent reduction in House membership. On a practical level, it would mean one less seat on a key committee, one less voice in a party caucus and one less vote on bills of Concern to the state. Johnsoa R-6th District, is likely to retire in 2002. Johnson's retirement would mean that state officials could carve up her New Britain-based district among the remaining five members of Congress and avoid a scenario in which two incumbent members of Congress face each other in the 2002 election.

But the idea that the 65-year-old Johnson is thinking of retirement is wishful thinking by Democrats, DePino said. "We're not going to lose Nancy Johnson," he said. "Nancy Johnson is very intent on representing that district not only in the next election, but in the next and the next after that." Democrats "know they can't beat her," De-Please see HOUSE, Page B2 The show is scheduled to air Sunday at 11 a.m. on WFSB-TV, Channel 3. The reason for the loss of the seat is not so much a decline in Connecticut's population -which has been going up since 1997 but the fact that other states have grown faster over a longer period, Rocks said.

Still, Rocks said he was optimistic that the state and Hartford in particular would not suffer from an undercount in the census. Preliminary figures show the overall census response in Connecticut is above the national average, but the response rate in Hartford is among the lowest in the country. Republican State Chairman Chris DePino said Friday he was not surprised that the state is likely to lose a congressional seat but he sharply disputed speculation among some Democrats that veteran U.S. Rep. Nancy L.

A Census official says Connecticut will likely lose one of its six seats in Congress as a result of reapportioning based on the 2000 census. By MATTHEW DALY Courant Staff Writer Connecticut is almost certain to lose a U.S. House seat when Congress is reapportioned following the 2000 census, a senior Census official said Friday. The statement by Bill Rocks, head of the Census Bureau's Hartford regional office, confirms what many politicians and census-watchers had long expected, but still comes as Rocks, whose office is scrambling for ways to boost participation in the census by state residents, said that no final decisions have been made. But based on current projections, "Connecticut appears likely to lose a seat" in Congress, he said.

Rocks made the comment Friday during taping of the television talk show "CT 2000." Let's See If There's A Little Potential Here' iy Victims Says He May Have Murdered 11 By DAVE ALTIMARI Courant Staff Writer A confessed serial killer with family ties to Meriden is return ing this weekend to lead state police on a potentially gruesome search for some of his victims. Hadden Clark, a cross-dressing, cannibalistic, convicted double-'; murderer in Maryland, has told an inmate whom he believes to be Jesus Christ that he may have killed as many as 11 women and children along the Eastern Seaboard. Clark first came to Connecticut in January and led state police on a tour around West Mountain, where Craig's Castle is located, but no bodies were found. Based on Clark's claims, the FBI opened several case files on unsolved child murders in Connecticut including the cases of Dawn Cave, 14, and Mary Mount 10, who were abducted and murdered in the same week nearly 31 years ago. But this week, federal authorities also started focusing on another killer who operated in the New Haven area around the time of those deaths.

Federal authorities are now helping New Canaan and state police gather information about Harold Meade, who is serving a life sentence for bludgeoning to death; three mentally retarded people in New Haven in 1970. Specifically, investigators are trying to determine if Meade is linked to the deaths of Cave, of Bethany, and Mount of New Canaan. "We are looking at the Mount case all over again," New Canaan Lt Thomas Bendernagle said. "Information is suddenly coming in to us in a fast fashion, especially for an old case, and we want to make sure we look at everything." Meanwhile, state police detectives went to McDougal Correctional Center this week to interview Meade for the first time ever about Cave's death. State police are reinvestigating the Cave murder after suddenly finding some of the original files that were missing for years.

State police detectives spent five hours with Clark in January. His stop in Connecticut was part of a New England tour that weekend. Authorities also took him to Well-fleet and Block Island, R.I. No bodies were found at any of those locations. All three locations have a common theme, Clark's family owned property in all of them.

Authorities believe Clark lived on Yale Avenue in Meriden, Please see KILLER, Page B2 Probation John Alsop, Political Giant, Dies Classic Republican, Ran For Governor By CHRISTOPHER KEATING Capitol Bureau Chief John deKoven Alsop, a retired Hartford insurance executive and former state legislator who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1962, died Thursday at a nursing home in Old Saybrook. He was 84 Known as one of Connecticut's most influential and colorful Republican politicians, Alsop was a member of the famous family that included two nationally known ALSOP brothers who worked as newspaper columnists, Joseph and Stewart Alsop. Alsop had a long political pedigree as the grandson of a lieutenant governor and the grandnephew of President Theodore Roosevelt A blue-blooded moderate, Alsop lived with his family for nearly 40 years on a 60-acre farm in Avon and raised goats, chickens and cows. With cash, cachet and connections through his brothers, Alsop lived a full life that included extensive travel and meetings with presidents that ranged from John F. Kennedy to Richard M.

Nixon. Like both of his parents, Alsop was elected as a Connecticut state legislator, serving two terms in the late 1940s. Despite his defeat in the governor's race against Democrat John Dempsey, Alsop said the contest was the pinnacle of his career. "I was very ambitious when I was young," he once told The Courant "All I thought about was being governor." Please see ALSOP, Page B2 PINSIS -a ik i It, '1 The competition, held at Central Connecticut State with 100 top students in grades 4 through 8. After several rounds, only Felix and Bri- PENG an remained.

It came down to a question about the port city of Campeche, an off transcripts and letters of glowing recommendations from Cuyahoga Community College and Central State University, both in Ohio, that helped her win the scholarship. She attended the community college, but did not earn a degree. She never attended the other school. Jenkins raised suspicions while she was attending Yale when she made repeated excuses to miss exams. Jenkins could have received more than 50 years in prison on all of the charges.

She rejected an earlier plea bargain that would have given her two years of probation and required her to repay $15,000. Jenkins' attorney, Norman A. A- University, CNh-f I had started THREE UCONN RECRUITS, in Hartford to play in the PhoenixWBCA High School All-America game at the Civic Center today, meet Micaela Ann Collins, a 2-week-old premature infant held by her mother, Nancy Collins, at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. Ashley Battle, lower right, of Pittsburgh, shows Micaela how to shoot while Diana Taurasi of Chino, and Morgan Valley of Colchester, Vt, watch.

Geography Champ Going To National Bee a. shore oil service center. What peninsula is it on? Brian answered incorrectly. But Felix, who had not missed a single question all day, knew it cold: "The Yucatan Peninsula." That's in Mexico, for those who aren't geographically inclined. Felix, who attends Elisabeth C.

Adams Middle School, certainly is. He placed second in the statewide contest three years ago and on Friday won his second trip to the nationals in Washington, D.C., to com- pete for a $25,000 scholarship. "It's my fault" his father, Rich Pattis, said he thought the sentence was fair, "given the way the events unfolded in this case." Pattis is the same attorney who represented Lon Grammer, who was convicted in 1998 of forging transcripts and letters of recommendations to get into Yale. Grammer also escaped jail time and was ordered to pay restitution. As in the Grammer case, Pattis said the university was overly vigilant in pursuing the case.

"I think Yale looks bad in these cases," he said. "They feel they havr to bleed some kid for pulling thi wool over their eyes." Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said university officials also agreed with the judge's sentence. CLOE POISSON THE HARTFORD COURANT ard, said ruefully. He and his wife, Catherine, emigrated from Taiwan before Felix was born. Before the boy could even talk, Richard gave Felix his first geography lesson.

"We wanted him to know where his mom and dad were from, so I showed him where Taiwan was on the globe," Richard said. "Then I showed him where Connecticut was. Soon I could ask him, 'Where is Taiwan? Where is and he would point to them. So I Please see BEE, Page B5 Three Years "We believe the authorities handled the matter appropriately," he said. Conroy would not elaborate on whether there would be any changes in the screening process for applications.

"Yale has always been very vigilant about applications and will remain vigilant," he said Several twisU in the case may have prompted the slightly panicked look on Pattis' face Friday, minutes before the sentencing, when he looked around the courtroom and asked, "Where's my client?" Jenkins had just stepped outside the courtroom for a minute. Woman Who Forged Her Way Into Yale Gets By ANGIE CHUANG Courant Staff Writer NEW BRITAIN The Guilford eighth-grader's expression was calm, almost serene, behind wire-rimmed glasses. Felix Peng had been here before. As one of two Connecticut Geographic Bee contestants remaining in the championship round early Friday afternoon, Felix knew only three questions stood between him and a repeat win. Three questions and eighth-grader Brian O'Hara of Kent For the larceny, forgery and assault charges, Jenkins received a suspended sentence and was placed on three years of probation.

In addition to the probation, Jenkins was ordered to repay $16,000 in scholarship money and to receive psychological counseling. Jenkins did not speak at the sentencing. Judge Roland D. Fasano said he believed sentencing Jenkins to jail could only cause "further damage to a young woman who I believe is in need of psychological help." Jenkins earned a full scholarship to an elite neuroscience program in 1997. In December of that year, she was arrested and accused of forging By WILLIAM WEIR Courant Staff Writer NEW HAVEN An Ohio woman was placed on probation Friday for forging letters and transcripts that got her into an elite graduate program at Yale University, capping what a judge called a "series of rather bizarre events." Tonica Jenkins, 24, also pleaded guilty in Superior Court to two counts of third-degree assault for biting two guards at the York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic in August 1998 as they tried to escort her to a shower.

She pleaded guilty in December to larceny and forgery charges. In 1998, she missed a court date and was found the following day at' her home in Ohio. She said she had been abducted from a parking lot in New Haven the day before the court date, raped and forced into the trunk of her car. Jenkins said she escaped after the assailant abandoned the car in Pennsylvania. The judge didn't believe the story and sent her to jaiL Early last year, Pattis submitted to the court an anonymous letter he received stating that Jenkins was abused by Yale officials and was the victim of "outright racial hatred." The letter was accompanied by pictures of Jenkins, bound and gagged.

Yale officials dismissed the letter as a fabrication. 3. v. I'.