The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 29

Tiieaday, November 19, 1996 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER City B5 Site of shootings tied to gambling The two were killed by police after allegedly breaking into a house. Betting items were found. I 1 I'll VZjM 1 fl3 Jl f' I 'i'Mry Once inside, they grabbed a 17-year-old girl, tied'-wd taped her; hands, and then taped her mouth. Carp went to the front of the' home, where he encountered Ricar-do Vegas, 17, of the 500 block of East Westmoreland Street, police Vegas opened fire, Carp his weapon, hitting Vegas several times in the chest. Vegas stumbled outside, where he was pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, Winters and Raycek were shooting it out with Jose Cor-' rea, 21, of the 2900 block of North' Lawrence Street, in the back of the two-story bungalow. Correa was struck multiple tirries and was pro' nounced dead a short while later at Albert Einstein Medical Center. Kane said Correa had been armed with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol and Vegas with a handgun. Carp, Raycek and Winters have been temporarily reassigned, pending a review of their actions by the Internal Affairs Division. said the state Attorney General's Office also had entered the probe into the alleged operation, which investigators believe was based in the Kensington area.

No charges were filed, and the investigation was continuing, police said. The gunfire erupted shortly after 1 a.m. when Sgt. Glen Carp and Officers Edmund Winters and Jay Ray-cek, all of the Second Police District in the Northeast, arrived at the house in response to a 911 call reporting a holdup there. A resident of the house, identified as Ann Rodriguez, 41, had escaped during the robbery and called police from a neighbor's house.

She reported that two gunmen had forced their way inside after knocking and asking for "June," police said. Centre Daily Times ROBIN LOZNAK By Thomas J. Gibbons Jr. INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A Lawndale home where police shot and killed two holdup men early Sunday during an exchange of gunfire was the headquarters of a flourishing illegal betting operation, police said yesterday. "All the paraphernalia would indicate a major numbers bank," said Inspector Jerrold Kane of the Homicide Division.

Large quantities of rice paper a type of paper used by bookmakers that dissolves immediately when dropped in water tally sheets, code names for workers, money wrappers and other gambling props were seized by investigators inside the house, at 516 Longshore Kane said. The items were turned over to the police City Wide Vice Unit, which investigates illegal gambling. Kane In the event that excess funds are raised for this project, A upy (rf die official rinNraiion aid liiuuiual inloniMUtm t( KiitiMtrulioii doe itol imply ciidorM.iiK'iil ESS ES33 ESI please Extended curve strong attention 1'reiers to bank in 11 It r4 lw I If to Please help feed hungry people in the Delaware Valley this Thanksgiving This meal ticket and your holiday check will provide hot, nutritious Thanksgiving meals with all the trimmings and other help for hungry and homeless people this holiday season. Please give today to help the needy here in the Delaware Valley. Si" YES! I will reach out to our city's hungry and homeless this Thanksgiving by providing holiday meals.

Here's my gift of: $17.80 to provide 10 Thankseivine meals il This fire was deliberately set at an abandoned house in Bellefonte by this firefighter. Fred Hunsinger, pf'the Pennsylvania State Firefighting Academy, was training a volunteer fire department Sunday. i 1 No-contest plea in a child-selling I I 1 i'ina Vanderhorst sold her son for drug money. He has not been found. She faces 6 to 12 years.

I v- $35.60 to provide 20 Thanksgiving meals $89.00 to provide 50 Thanksgiving meals $178.00 to provide 100 Thanksgiving meals $890.00 to provide 500 Thanksgiving meals to feed as many hungry people as possible Name Address. City Tlxtnk you! You will Please mail this coupon Stale ZIPL. receive a lax-deductible receipt for your el ft. and your check to: Dept.S26B-0019 t.O. BOX 8580 Philadelphia, PA 19101-8580 KFRj Phone 610-872-6865 people.

alluif; loll free, widiin IVimsylv.uiij. gift today KSsttS ESS CIWiBBIti MINISTRIES had offered several explanations to police of her son's disappearance. Kim Vanderhorst, her sister, reported Ke-Shaun missing Oct. 13, 1995, after she had last seen the child Sept. 24 in her sister's apartment in the 1400 block of North 17th Street.

Vanderhorst had initially told police the city Department of Human Services had taken Ke-Shaun. But a DHS caseworker said the agency did not have Ke-Shaun in custody, Margiotti said. Vanderhorst gave a second account to detectives on Oct. 19, 1995, saying she sold the child to a woman to support her cocaine habit. Then, on Oct.

23, 1995, Vanderhorst gave homicide detectives a third explanation. She said that after smoking drugs with a man in her apartment, she took her son for a walk in a stroller to a friend's fruit stand on Cecil B. Moore Avenue. "Then she became very vague," said Margiotti, summarizing the evidence. "She could not remember if she brought the baby back." Because police don't know what happened to Ke-Shaun, the charges against Vanderhorst were confined to endangering the child, rather than harming him.

Meanwhile, detectives have continued to look into the 1980s deaths of three of Vanderhorst's other By Linda Loyd INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A woman who told police she sold her 2-year-old son to a stranger for $500 and then "went out and got high" on cocaine pleaded no contest yesterday to charges of selling an infant and endangering the welfare of a child. Stoic and dry-eyed, Tina Vanderhorst, 32, did not challenge charges that she sold her son to a stranger who came to her North Philadelphia apartment on Sept. 25, 1995, and handed her $500 in $20 bills in exchange for her son, Ke-Shaun. "All I can say is that drugs take control of me. I never meant to let this happen to my baby," Vanderhorst told police in a statement summarized by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Margiotti.

Police said they had found no trace of Ke-Shaun despite scouring his North Philadelphia neighborhood and circulating the boy's photo to the National Center for Missing and Abducted Children. "The location and condition of Ke-Shaun Vanderhorst has not been determined at any time," Margiotti said. Vanderhorst was scheduled to go on trial yesterday. A jury was se your gift may be used to provide shelter, clothing, and other help for needy UiyTiimi MmiMrto ituy he obtained (rum die IViinsyiviUiw DeBiirfmuu Sale by mail this coupon with your thanksgiving shows detail, person. WL7 iimSlirumL' Shortened loop exhibits desire to consolidate monthly bills.

Man is acquitted of rape charge You're An Individual. Bank The He was convicted of lesser charges in a Swarthmore break-in. The prosecutor expressed surprise. lected to hear the case when Public Defender Byron Houston announced that his client wanted to enter a no-contest plea. Common Pleas Court Judge D.

Webster Keogh accepted the plea and entered judgments of guilty on the two charges. Sentencing was deferred until Jan. 6, when Vanderhorst faces six to 12 years in prison. The plea was not negotiated, the prosecutor said. "We were ready to go to trial; our witnesses were present and prepared to prove these charges," said Margiotti, who asked that Vanderhorst be held in prison on high bail pending sentencing.

The judge set her bail at $15,000 and ordered Vanderhorst to be placed on electronic monitoring. She told the judge she was living with a boyfriend in the 5300 block of Moore Street in West Philadelphia. "She is a danger to herself because of her drug involvement," Margiotti contended. "She is a danger to the community, as evidenced by what she has done with a 2-year-old child, one of the most defenseless members of our society." Vanderhorst, who displayed no emotion and did not speak in court, charges of criminal conspiracy to commit deviate sexual intercourse and possession of firearms without a license. The jury's verdict followed about six hours of deliberation over two days.

Judge Charles C. Keeler set sentencing for Dec. 16. Ferko faces a maximum penalty of 10 to 20 years in jail on the robbery count. The maximum term on the burglary count is the same.

The verdict was a vindication for defense attorney Barry John Much, who depicted his client, who had. come to America in 1992, as a "patsy" and a "humble" man. To underpin this assertion, Much at one who has found an apartment in Ger-mantown, said the money didn't make up for the inconvenience of having to move her two sons to a new home and a new school. "Nobody can really be reimbursed," said tenant Esther Ellison. "This money doesn't make up for cmy uiiiift.

While residents downplayed the money, spokesmen for the housing agencies trumpeted the financial assistance as a major victory. "The negotiation of the $2,000 payment is a major achievement by the city law department," said Kromer. "And it's an unprecedented achievement." As part of the earlier campaign to rescue the complex, Kromer said, housing agencies had installed round-the-clock security in the buildings and went to court in an effort to keep the complex open through 4the winter with basic re i By Douglas Herbert INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT An Albanian immigrant was acquitted yesterday of attempting to rape an 84-year-old Swarthmore woman who testified that she was jolted from her sleep in the dead of a wintry night to the sensation of her assailant's groping fingers on her face. Instead, a Delaware County Court jury convicted Bardul Ferko, 28, formerly of Orthodox Street in Philadelphia, of lesser charges that he teamed up with a fellow Albanian to burglarize and rob the woman in the predawn hours of Feb. 3.

He was found not guilty on City reaches a deal with tenants Way You Want. at any time without prior notice point called as a witness Sokol Guxha, a childhood friend of Fer-ko's from his Albanian hamlet and, later, his employer at a Philadelphia pizza shop. Guxha characterized Ferko as an avid soccer player who enjoyed the respect of his peers in Albania, and among his tightknit emigre community in America. Assistant District Attorney Heather J. Mattes, who prosecuted the case, said she was surprised at the verdict, given the state's circumstantial evidence.

It included bagfuls of ratty, tattered clothing, blood-spattered socks, and forensic analysis of footprints in the snow leading from the crime scene that produced a match with the black loafers Ferko had been wearing. pairs. The city had proposed installing a new heating system, fire doors and lights, improvements that could have cost as much as $200,000. However, Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Cohen-Pryor refused to grant the city a priority lien on the building, meaning that the city mipht have to wait in line behind Hankey's other creditors to get reimbursed for the repairs. Last week, inspectors said they had discovered potential electrical hazards that would force the city to close the complex.

Tenants argued that the city was exaggerating the electrical problems to back out of its commitment to preserve the buildings. City officials denied that. "We've done any number of inspections over the last nine months," said Tom McNally, an spokesman. "We decided it was in the best interest of the tenants to order Osontz Manor to be closed." At PNC Bank, we know our customers' needs are as diverse as their signatures. We know you want great rates on home equity loans.

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Where Ibrfimtiance Counts I MOVING from B1 had fought alongside local officials and housing activists to save the complex' appeared before a City Council committee to complain that the evacuation demands were unfair. As testimony grew more strident, city attorneys convened a cioseu-door meeting with lawyers for the tenant organization and arranged a second extension and the cash outlays. "It's something," said tenants' council president Kim Wallace, referring to the checks that tenants began receiving shortly after sealing the deal with the city. "It's not much, but it's something. It'll help.

But I still see it more as an attempt to pacify us than anything else." She said that many tenants had to move large families and that the $2,000 per household might not Cover ay of their expenses. JVallace, World Wide Web. Our address is i3 Annual PerctmlaRe Rate (AI'RI Choice 1 Man yi-k, inc mommy uavineiu is i Visit us mi the nlaKC Rate (AI'RI Premium dy payment is $12.13. accurate as of publication dale wilh automatic payment from PNC Bank minimum. Kor example, if you borrow $1,000 for Vii) months at 7.99 $20 dosing costs and property insurance reunited.

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