The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 82

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Wednesday, February 7, 1996 The Scene On the Main Line and in the Western Suburbs at B2 West John t'JrVK, Corr "iff -7 1 (' 1 being the first to call for a debate. She even set a deadline for her opponents to accept her challenge, a move that generated some petulant replies. This is shaping up as one of the liveliest campaigns of the primary season. Martynick is a county commissioner. Her toughest Chester County opponent is State Rep.

Joseph Pitts, whose campaign manager is another county commissioner, Colin Hanna. The mailbag A reader from Aston wonders about the parents whose objections got that John Updike novel pulled from the shelves of the Sun Valley High School library, suggesting that these parents would not find the novel so shocking if they monitored the TV shows and movies watched by their kids. Write to "The Scene," Inquirer Neighbors, 919 Conestoga Building Two, Suite 106, Rosemont, Pa. 19010. enough to take opposite positions on the issue.

Killion favors it. Nunn opposes it, but says the voters should have a chance to make the final decision. McFadden wonders whether the open-space program will benefit the less-developed and more affluent parts of the county over the more-developed and less-affluent parts. Tonight Downingtown and the Downingtown-Lionville area are on the verge of changes that will have a profound effect not only on the present, but on future generations. Tonight, the Uwchlan Township Planning Commission will be looking at a sketch for a new middle school for the Downingtown Area School District.

Also under consideration are an elementary school and the conversion of the junior high school into a high school. The sent an agent to the S. M. Jenkins Co. office on the 14th floor of the Tower Building in West Conshohocken to look out the window.

The reason is that the folks who work there have discovered the nest of a peregrine falcon near the window. The bird is on the endangered species list. $100 million When it comes to talking about $100 million, John McFadden confesses to "a certain tightening of the throat." However, this Delaware County councilman's throat loosened up enough at yesterday's council meeting for him to express some real reservations about asking county voters whether they want to spend that amount on open space. The council ultimately voted to put the question on the ballot, but not before two other members, Thomas Killion and Wallace Nunn, loosened up their throats long meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. in the township building.

Also in the Downingtown-Lionville area, the YMCA is planning to expand its building from 5,000 to 48,000 feet. And plans are being hatched for a new Catholic high school in Downingtown Borough. Talk Jill Johnson called. She spoke clearly, and emphasized certain words appropriately. Her message was that the Delaware County Toastmasters organization is celebrating its 35th year.

The club, whose members help each other to polish their public speaking skills, meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Springfield Library. First shot Karen Martynick got in the first shot in the campaign for the Republican nomination for the 16th Congressional District seat by te i 4 Language an issue; accused robbers say if xr 't They want statements to police thrown out. A restaurateur's house was invaded. By Jennifer Wing INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT The four men accused of terrorizing and robbing a Cain Township family in July are arguing that their inability to understand English invalidated the statements they made to state police at the time.

All four appeared before Judge Howard Riley yesterday in Chester County Court for a hearing aimed at throwing out those statements. State police have said all four admitted participating in the crime in the statements. Because the defendants do not speak the same Chinese dialect as the state trooper who translated, they are suggesting that they did not understand the thrust of the Miranda warning about their rights and may not have understood that they were making confessions to police. Their trial is slated to begin Feb. 26.

Wearing handcuffs, shackles and the same light gray sweatshirts and darker gray pants they have worn in every public appearance since their arrest were Huang Qi Huang, 22, of New York; Long Qun Lin, 23, of Tipp City, Ohio; Kai Sheng Tang, 19, of New York; and Xing Xang, age and address unknown. The four are accused of organizing the invasion robbery with another man, whom police have not apprehended, in New York City's Chinatown. Police said the men entered the home of restaurateur Wang Wong on Paul Nelms Drive For The Inquirer JILL ANNA GREENBERG Grace Park Elementary School student Erin O'Brien loves to work on computers, both at school and at home. Gov. Ridge pledged $40.3 million yesterday to help schools buy more.

Ridge shares a message from Ridley Township fifth grader Schools need more computers, Erin O'Brien told him. Birds I If a big flock of crows descends on your back yard, don't worry. They will move on, says Dick James, head of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. "When they arrive in your back yard, it looks like that Hitchcock movie ITTie Birdsl," he said. Sometimes the crows travel in flocks of 100 or 150, he said.

It helps them keep warm. "In this colder weather, it's warmer to be with 150 crows than two crows." Birds II The state Game Commission has DNA tests to check remains' match Experts said a torso in Chester County and leg bones in Bucks were from the same woman. By Richard V. Sabatini INQUIRER STAFF WRITER DNA testing is planned to confirm the conclusion of experts that the torso of a woman found in July in woods in Chester County and leg bones found Jan. 28 in Core Creek Park in Bucks County were from the same victim, Chester County District Attorney Anthony Sarcione said yesterday.

want to be absolutely certain," Sarcione said after discussing the findings of forensic pathologists Thomas A.J. Crist and Arthur Washburn with Bucks County District Attorney Alan Rubenstein and agreeing to take the next step. Both prosecutors said a DNA match would tell authorities "once and for all" that they had but one homicide. "If the DNA doesn't show a match," Rubenstein said, "then we go back to square one and have two separate deaths to investigate." The testing could take up to two months, Sarcione said. He said it would be done either by the Pennsylvania state police laboratories or a Maryland firm.

For now, Bucks and Chester County detectives and state police from the Embreeville barracks will circulate dental X-rays taken from the torso found by a fisherman July 11. in a suitcase near the Brandywine Creek in East Cain. "Remember," said Rubenstein, "it was good to know that the remains are apparently those of the same Woman, but now we need a name." The body parts in Bucks County were found by a hiker in the west-era section of Core Creek Park. said a positive DNA match would allow the investigators to put all their efforts into one investigation and "maybe give us a little better idea as to where she was killed." Crist and Washburn, joined by forensic pathologist Halbert A. Fil-linger, examined the remains in the morgue of Phoenixville Hospital for two hours before concluding that the torso and leg bones appeared to be from the same victim.

They based their conclusions on similar cuts and lesions found on both the torso and leg bones and the fact that the right leg joint, from Bucks County, matches the hip socket in the Chester County remains. A femall sharp metal instrument, probably a knife, was believed to have been used to cut both the torso and legs. "The examination showed no inconsistencies between the torso and the legs and revealed that both sets of remains were from a woman believed to have been 25 to 30 years old, between 4 feet, 11 inches and 5 4 inches tall, and possibly of European ancestry. Though the examination turned up the apparent match, Rubenstein said, it failed to determine a cause of death. There were no signs of stab or bullet wounds.

A itoxicology report taken when the torso was recovered, Rubenstein said, showed no drugs in the woman's system except one or two alcoholic beverages. The torso was irt garment bag inside the suitcase, found in a dark green trash fag, Rubenstein said, gart of the remains in Bucks Count also were in a dark green trash bag, authorities said. For The Inquirer H. RUMPH 3R. Helen and Tom Wallace pass an anti-snow flag at Spread Eagle; Village in Strafford.

about 5:30 a.m. on July 31 and began taking valuables. As the family members awoke, two of the men brandished a gun and a knife and herded 12 of the family into a room, police said. Another man allegedly forced Wong into his home office and made him hand over between $13,000 and $15,000. Lin is accused of threatening to kill Wong when he hit a panic button to alert police.

Wong suffered a minor knife wound. As police arrived at the house, five men fled. After a daylong hunt by police, four suspects were captured. At this point, State Trooper Eric Chuang said yesterday, he trans- -lated for other officers as the four were rounded up by police. The four men say they are most familiar with the Chinese dialect spoken in Fukien Province, where Wong lamily also originates.

Chuang said that he does not know that dialect but that both he and the four men understand Mandarin, China's most common language. "He understood and made it clear he was willing to cooperate," Chuang said of Lin, the first defendant to argue his case. "We had a conversation, and you could see we were conversing." Under cross-examination, public defender Treva Hall criticized Chuang for not being a certified translator and suggested that Chuang acted as more. "You weren't acting as a translator," Hall told Chuang. "You were acting as a police officer trying to get information out of the defendant." The hearing was continued until Feb.

15, as no translator was avail able after lunch. mitted to Pocopson after falling into a coma as the result of a drunken-driving accident in 1991. She was' not at fault in the accident. Immediately after the incident, Davis was fired from Pocopson, and he was arrested by Chester County detectives Aug. 22 on indecent-assault charges.

Yesterday's sentencing in Chester County Court was the result of a plea bargain, in which prosecutors agreed to drop one of the indecent-assault charges in exchange for his guilty plea. County officials did not immediately make public the allegations anu iirmg saying iney were respecting the family's wish for confidentiality. They added that the incident was isolated and that there had not been a pattern of similar problems. Feb. 7, 1996 Delaware County Birmingham Township supervisors, 7:30 p.m.,' Township Building, Stationway Road.

Information: 610-388-6368. Darby Borough Borough Council, 7:30 p.m. Borough Hall, 821 Summit St. Informa-' tion: 610-586-1102. Morton i' Borough Council, 7:30 p.m., Borough Hall, Sycamore and Highland Avenues.

Information: 610-5434565. Thornbur" Township supervisors, 7:30 p.m.,. Administration Building, 6 Township Dr. Information: 610-399-8383. By Mara Stanley INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT RIDLEY TOWNSHIP Eleven-year-old Erin O'Brien knows that her educational future lies in the computer.

The fifth-grader at Grace Park Elementary School e-mailed Gov. Ridge and told him so. "We could be on the Internet and reach out to places that we aren't in right now," she wrote. "We could see things that otherwise would be impossible to bring into the classroom." Ridge was so impressed with her letter that he quoted her yesterday in his annual State of the State address. "I want Erin and her fellow students to see the impossible.

Our goal is to make computers as commonplace as the classroom," Ridge said, pledging $40.3 million to help buy computers for the state's schools. "We will link those computers with other classrooms, with our communities and with our institutions of higher education." The governor had invited fifth and sixth graders from across the state to respond to questions about the future of education and the role computers play in their lives. Erin's teacher, Florence Lesko, asked each of her 23 students to answer the questions for homework, then to e-mail them to the governor from one of the computers in the classroom. "My feeling seemed not only to get the responses from the children, but for the governor to see that the children knew how to use the Internet," Lesko said. "We were actually hoping that the governor would respond electronically." Erin, who loves to play with the computer her family has at home in Ridley Park, said she "began jumping up and down" when she found out Monday that the governor was going to mention her letter in his speech.

Though she sees a dominant role for computers in the future, the fifth grader does not want to see them replace teachers, a profession she aspires to. "A computer couldn't teach us to share with other people or love other people," she said. Erin said she was lucky because her parents, Lou and Kathy O'Brien, care about what she and her older brother, Lou, and younger sister, Kara, are learning. She also told Ridge that she worried about children who come to school with bad attitudes. "There are many children who don't really care about learning or what the teacher has to say to them," she wrote.

"It's because their parents don't teach them how to behave or act in school. Or because their parents don't tell them how important it is to get an education. "I hope that changes in the next 20 years?" 111 e. 'Alt 'l with a list of conditions. Interfaith took the borough to court to protest some of the conditions.

Attorney George Brutscher said Monday that Interfaith had settled differences with the Zoning Hearing Board. The group has agreed to scale back the number of residential units from 30 to 22 and to meet other stipulations. He said Interfaith would not get the public funding it needs to complete the project unless it. could show that the borough did not oppose it. In other business Monday, the borough voted to condemn some property so it could proceed with the building of a new parking garage near Union and Linden Streets.

The borough recently issued $4.5 million, in bonds to pay for the garage, but now it must go to court to defend the bond issue. Resident and business owner Jeff Ward has filed suit in Chester County Court, charging that the borough exceeded the amount of debt it is allowed to take on without voters' approval. Ward first filed a complaint with the state Department of Community Affairs, which ruled in favor of the borough. Man accused of molesting woman in coma sentenced Birch Inn plans may face new foe The Kennett Square Council president fears the mix of people it would house might not mix. By Jennifer Wing INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT A maintenance employee accused of molesting a comatose woman at a Chester County nursing home was sentenced yesterday to 24 months' probation, 100 hours of community service, and completion of a sex offenders' program.

Richard Davis, 55, of Kennett Square, had worked as a housekeeper for about a year at the county-owned Pocopson Home, a 361-bed nursing facility in Pocopson Township, when the incident occurred on Aug. 19. That day, a nurse's aide walked into the room of a 23-year-old Oxford woman and allegedly caught Davis reaching down the woman's gown and touching her breast, according to a police affidavit. The woman, whose name is being withheld by The Inquirer, was ad Calendar Wednesday, Chester County Downingtown Borough Council, 7:30 p.m., Borough Hall, 4 W. Lancaster Ave.

Information: 610-269-0344. East Brandywine Township supervisors, 7:30 p.m., Township Meeting Hall, 1214 Horseshoe Pike. Information: 610-269-8230. East Cain Township supervisors, 8 p.m., Township Building, 110 Bell Tavern Rd. Information: 610-269-1989.

Schuylkill Township supervisors, 7:30 p.m., Township Hall, 801 Valley Park Rd. Information: 610-933-5843. 22-unit facility," Roberts said. Roberts declined to say when the Borough Council would decide whether to issue a letter of support for the project. He abruptly called a recess when Patricia DeWire, the daughter of Birch Inn owner Rae DeWire, attempted to speak out of turn.

Mother and daughter then angrily left the meeting. The plan, conceived in January 1995, was first described as temporary housing for migrant farm workers. But as community opposition to that use mounted, the Potts-town-based nonprofit group said it would limit the residents to low-income homeless people who are elderly or disabled, or to abused women. In August, after hours of hearings, the Birch Inn project gained the approval of the Zoning Hearing Board. The site, originally oned for motel and bar use, had td be zoned for housing.

In August, zoning board members granted their approval By Clea Benson INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT KENNETT SQUARE More than a year after a nonprofit group first proposed turning the Birch Inn bar and motel into low-income housing, the project needs just one more approval from the borough. Interfaith Community Development Corp. needs a letter of support from the Borough Council to apply for public grants. But a caustic exchange Monday night between the Borough Council president and project advocates indicated that the council might withhold its approval. Interfaith wants to convert the Birch Inn into transitional housing for elderly and disabled people and battered women.

Borough Council President Kenneth Roberts said at a council meeting that he thought the three groups might not mix well. "I speak for myself. I am not in favor of housing the three specific types that have been expressed in a.