The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 20

B2 City THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Doctors Boy, 15, to face rape trial i i 4 Friday, January 10, 1997; Metropolitan Area News in Brief Teenager shot by police in struggle faces charges A 17-year-old who was shot by Philadelphia police Wednesday night during a struggle over a pistol was charged yesterday with assault and related offenses in the incident, authorities said. The suspect, Gabriel Vanderzee, was listed in good condition under police guard yesterday at Temple University Hospital following sun-gery for a bullet wound in the chest, detectives said. Events leading to the shooting began about 10 p.m. when officers started chasing a 198(5 Chevrolet station wagon at Fifth Street and Allegheny Avenue in Fairhill for traffic violations. Near Second and Allegheny, the car hit a parked auto and Vanderzee jumped from the front passenger seat, police said.

While officers struggled with Vanderzee, a pistol he was clutching fired. Two officers returned fire, police said. They have been routinely removed from street duty pending a review, police said. Their names were not released. i IF Emergency personnel work on a jackknifed tractor-trailer as a salt truck passes on Interstate 95 near Philadelphia International Airport.

The northbound lanes of 1-95 were closed because of the accident. Storm wasn't much, but ice on roads caused headaches i protest surcharge A medical group in Bucks asks members not to pay the malpractice insurance premium. By Stacey Burling 71 INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Despite reforms in Pennsylvania's fhalpractice law passed last year to appease doctors outraged by soaring insurance costs some doctors ate again threatening not to pay their insurance surcharges. Members of the medical executive committee of St. Mary Medical Center Hn Langhorne voted Tuesday night to against paying the miums for the state Medical Liability Catastrophe Loss Fund, or CAT fund, which are known as surcharges, and has asked the Bucks County Medical Society to take the same position, said Nathan Zuckerman, an obstetrician--gynecologist who is president of the hospital's medical staff.

About 320 doctors are active members of the staff at St. Mary. Zuckerman said his CAT fund bill will be significantly higher under the new system. "I do not feel the Pennsylvania Medical Society is doing anything in the interest of physicians in the Bucks County Medical Society," Zuckerman said. "We've gotten no benefit." The Pennsylvania Medical Society is recommending that doctors pay their premiums to the CAT fund the legislature met its demand to change malpractice laws.

The physicians group, which represents "20,000 doctors, had threatened to withhold payments if the legislature failed to reform malpractice and restructure premiums. law changing the way premiums are calculated was passed in November. Raymond Lodise, president of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, said that group's board would discuss the issue next week. He said he also was concerned that physi cians in this area have not been treated fairly. IThe changes were made with the agreement of the CAT fund's director as well as the state medical society and the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania.

All have said they believe that it is more fair, partly because Philadelphia-area doctors, who rack up a disproportionate number of malpractice claims, will no longer be subsidized by physicians in other parts of the state. Lodise, however, said costs here are higher partly because Philadelphia is a research center. That, he said, should be subsidized. Lodise said he would support a boycott of CAT fund surcharges only if large numbers of doctors participated. Louis Meier, president of the Cin-cinnatus Society, a smaller group that opposes the CAT fund, said he does not plan to pay this year's surcharge and knows many other physicians who feel equally disgruntled.

His group plans to continue contesting the validity of the fund. In a statement yesterday, the Pennsylvania Medical Society said it also plans to continue working to abolish the CAT fund. iff y. At the hearing, a woman said she was raped by Erik Hall He is also accused of shooting her. By Christine Bahls INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT CHELTENHAM The contrast could not have been more stark: The victim, calmly testifying in court how she had been kidnapped, raped and shot; and the teenage defendant, moments before the woman's testimony, crying in his parents' arms.

It was a preliminary hearing marked by the parents of the defendant and the victim screaming at one another outside the courtroom while their children, the principals in this drama, played out their respective roles inside. Police separated the families. As the woman testified before Dis trict Justice Loretta Leader, the defendant, Erik Hall, the 15-year-old boy charged with a long list of felonies, including attempted murder and rape, sat between his two attorneys and shook his head. "I was crying, asking him not to kill me," said the 20-year-old Phila delphia woman, relaying her horrif ic experience from the morning of Dec. 23.

"He told me to shut up. I heard a clicking sound. I heard the gun go off, and my head jerked for ward. I was just praying I didn't die." Leader bound all the charges over for county court, and set bail at $500,000 cash. Hall is being held in Philadelphia's Youth Study Center.

Hall, the son of a Philadelphia po lice officer, is accused of staging a violent crime spree Dec. 23 near his West Oak Lane home. Police said he shot and robbed two men in separate incidents in Philadelphia, then kidnapped the woman in her car and drove her to Cheltenham's Lynnewood Gardens apartment complex. There, in the victim's parked car, the boy raped her, police said. He then ordered her out of the car and told her to kneel.

He shot her and left her for dead, police said. But the woman only suffered a relatively minor head injury. She found help minutes later. The boy was arrested about 10 minutes later, after the woman told police she recognized the boy from her neighborhood. Police found the woman's car, which the boy was ac cused of taking, outside his home.

Hall already has been arraigned in Philadelphia on the charges stemming from the two robberies committed there; bail had been set at $750,000. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday. After the hearing, the boy's fam ily declined comment. Hall's attorney, Tariq El-Shabazz, said his client was a "very unstable" child. Be cause of the heinous nature of the crimes, he said, people were over looking his age.

Glaring at Hall from time to time, she recounted how the boy had approached her car as she waited for a light to change on 67th Avenue, close to her home. He pulled out a gun and ordered her into the passenger seat. As he drove, he told her to stop crying. "This .22 Igun will take care of you," the woman recalled him as saying. As she recounted what happened in the car, detailing each sex act with remarkable calmness, her fa ther became more enraged.

He stormed out of the courtroom, mouthing an oath as he left. sentencing had taken Ke-Shaun. But a DHS caseworker said the agency did not have Ke-Shaun in custody. Then, on Oct. 19, Vanderhorst gave a second account: She sold the caine habit.

Four days later, on Oct. 23, 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. She said she could not remember if she brought the baby back.

In court yesterday, Vanderhorst said police had forced her into signing a statement saying she had sold her baby. Because police don't know what happened to Ke-Shaun, the charges against Vanderhorst were limited to endangering the child, rather, than harming him. Associated Press IS- The Philadelphia Inquirer RON CORTES against the storm as she crosses should have a quiet few days. It will be cold and dry. Inquirer staff writer Richard V.

Sabatini and correspondents Anthony Beckman, Eric Dyer, John Murawski, and Mara Stanley contributed to this article. try. "We know two women who were denied overnight hospital stays," said the founder of the group, Donna Gentile O'Donnell, who is also Philadelphia's deputy health commissioner and the wife of Robert O'Donnell, former speaker of the state House. "We don't think it's happening a lot. But as the problem is more widely publicized, I think we'll hear more stories." Margiotti said four of Vanderhorst's seven children are known to be dead: a sickly child who died as an infant; a crack-addicted baby who died less than a month after beine born in Thp I08fiq- nnff twn other babies who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

In imposing sentence, Keogh said: "One could not write a more chilling or sorrowful story either for Ke-Shaun or for Miss Vanderhorst." Vanderhorst gave birth seven times, and only two children survive "perhaps three, if you count Ke-Shaun," said the judge. The other two children, who have never lived with Vanderhorst, live with a relative. Vanderhorst, police have said, offered several explanations for her son's disappearance. She initially told police thaf the city Department of Human Services HI Layers of clothing protect a woman Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. John Dourgarian.

Only a few accidents were reported in Delaware County. "This is just a nuisance storm that's going to use a lot of material," said PennDot's Blaum. Forecasters said road crews Suspect in slaying says confession was coerced One of two Philadelphia men charged in the May 1996 slaying of a Houlihan's restaurant manager in Abington said yesterday he was coerced into giving a confession by Montgomery County Detectives. In a pretrial hearing at Montgomery County Courthouse, Johnnie Blalock, 31, testified that investigators refused to let him speak with an attorney and handcuffed him once while he made statements to police. Michael P.

Gottlieb, Blalock's attorney, argued that Blalock's statements should not be allowed into the trial because they were obtained illegally. County detectives testified that Blalock was not handcuffed and gave his statement voluntarily. Judge Richard J. Hodgson said he will make a ruling on the statement tomorrow. Blalock and David Tra-vers, 19, are accused of murdering John Thurberg, 28, during a botched robbery attempt at the restaurant on Old York Road.

SEPTA'S new El car, to appear at Auto Show The new 1997 SEPTA Market-Frankford El car model, "Ellie," will be on display nestled between the Porsche and Mercedes exhibits at the Philadelphia Auto Show, at the Convention Center tomorrow through Jan. 19. While the show features domestic as well as exotic international automobiles, this is the first time that a SEPTA rail car will be included. The Auto Show appearance is the next stop the El car model will make on its tour across the SEPTA system, SEPTA has ordered 220 of the new cars, which are expected to begin arriving this month. Among the car's features are plush fabric-covered seats.

In addition, SEPTA will have two information booths at the show. Show hours are weekdays, noon to 10 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Winter clothing donations sought for charity drive St.

Vincent de Paul Society of Philadelphia will conduct a "Winter Secular Clothing Drive" on Jan. 18 and 19 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Donations of usable clothing for men, women and children will be accepted. Also needed are small; household goods, such as linens, pots, pans, dishes and cooking utensils, and small appliances in good working order.

In Philadelphia, the drop-off sites' are Academy Plaza Shopping Center, Red Lion and Academy Roads, and Kmart, 8801 Torresdale both in the Northeast; and Kmart, 424 Oregon in South Philadel-, phia. St. Vincent de Paul is a nonprofit charitable organization serving people with material, emotional or spiritual needs without regard to religious or ethnic affiliation. For details, call 610-832-0900. Reservations to be taken for cabins at state parks The Pennsylvania State Depart-; ment of Conservation and Natural Resources on Feb.

1 will begin ac- cepting reservations for more than; 280 cabins in 27 state parks. For a one-week period from. Feb. 1 through 7 reservations will be taken by phone only, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., for one cabin for one week (Friday through Friday) during the! summer season and two cabins for; up to 14 nights during the off-sea-; son.

Calls must be made to the park where the cabin is located. After the first week of call-in park offices will accept reservations during their normal working hours, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, by phone or in person. Cabin rentals range from $92 to $460 per week, including tax. For information about a state park cabin vacation, call 1-800-63-PARKS.

Nockamixon State Park in Bucks County caij be contacted at SNOW from B1 "Salting's better than nothing," he said. Bealer said that come what may this winter, he is grateful that nature was so generous to the snow-plow trade last year. Yesterday's snow and frozen glop resulted from two storms, a stronger one in the Ohio Valley and a weaker one that formed off the Georgia coast, meteorologists said. The coastal storm drained some of the moisture from the bigger storm, so the snow and rain were light. West of Philadelphia, the precipitation never turned over to rain as temperatures remained below freezing.

That's because the storm was so weak that its winds failed to draw enough warm air off the ocean, said Tony Gigi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. As a result, icing remained a problem on some area roads into the evening. But it appeared that many accidents occurred just as the snow was getting under way. The snow started between 10 a.m. and noon and continued until midafternoon, when it mixed with and changed to sleet and freezing rain, and to rain at the Shore.

Montgomery County police radio reported 40 accidents before 1 p.m. Between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Chester County Emergency Services dispatched police to 106 weather-related auto accidents. Numerous cars were reported overturned. Several drivers were transported to local hospitals, but no serious injuries were reported.

Bucks County police didn't have a precise number but did report scores of accidents. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman Gene Blaum said the agency's Philadelphia region had 400 trucks out yesterday. In light of the forecast of freezing rain, he said, PennDot had decided to salt, rather than plow the snow. Snow, at least, would provide some traction, he said. In New Jersey, the Department of Transportation dispatched about 120 vehicles, said NJDot spokesman of Philadelphia, who is sponsoring it.

The bill is a response to national reports that some health plans, in an effort to cut costs, require breast cancer patients to go home the day of breast-removal surgery. Although some patients opt to go home that soon, mastectomy traditionally has involved two or three days in the hospital. The bill would set minimum hos to 7-year jail term. her toddler, Ke-Shaun. Judge D.

Webster Keogh. Vanrlerhnrst V)t tiIpoHpH contest in November and did not then challenge charges that she sold Ke-Shaun for $500 and then bought cocaine. At her sentencing hearing yesterday, Vanderhorst tearfully testified that the woman who came to her house claimed to be from the city Department of Human Services. Vanderhorst said she gave her son to the woman. "I had no reason to believe this lady was not who she said she was." "Is he dead, or is he alive? I don't know," said the mother, sobbing.

"Fifteen months have gone by I did not sell my child. I could sell my bodv. I could sell my possessions but not my uesh and blood, our honor. Group urges standards for mastectomy stays By Marie McCullough INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A fledgling advocacy group for nurses and patients is pushing state legislation, soon to be introduced, that would set minimum standards for the hospitalization of mastectomy patients. The group, Nurses of Pennsylvania, held a news conference yesterday to announce the bill with Republican State Rep.

Dennis O'Brien pitalization requirements, ranging from 24 hours for a lumpectomy (removal of a breast tumor, but not the whole breast), to two days for a simple mastectomy, to four days for a mastectomy that includes partial reconstructive surgery. In addition, the bill would bar insurance carriers from limiting the time frame for reconstructive surgery, and would entitle women to have reduction surgery on the non-diseased breast to improve symme 'I did not sell my Phila. woman sobs at Tina Vanderhorst got a 2V2- Authorities have not found By Linda Loyd INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A weeping Tina Vanderhorst told a Philadelphia judge yesterday that she did not sell her 2-year-old son for $500 to buy crack cocaine, but admitted she gave the boy to a stranger who came to her door. "I was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. I take full responsibility as far as being high," sobbed Vanderhorst, a former crack addict who was sentenced to 2Vi to seven years in prison for abandoning her son to a woman who came to her North Philadelphia apartment on Sept.

25, 1995. "If I wouldn't have been high, my son would still be herej' Vander-hoity told Common Plas Court I love my baby!" Vanderhorst's attorney, public defender Byron Houston, asked Keogh to sentence Vanderhorst to one to two years in prison. Vanderhorst's life hns hppn trnair Hrmcitnri cniH She never knew her father; after her mother died when she was young, he said, "she went from foster home to foster home." Assistant District Attorney Thomas Margiotti, saying Vanderhorst "has changed her story a number of times," asked for the maximum, six to 12 years in prison. The toddler was reported missing by an aunt and not the defendant, "who hasn't shown any care at all," Margiotti said. Kim Vanderhorst, Tina Vanderhorst's sister, reported Ke-Shaun missing Oct.

13, 1995, saying she last saw the child that Sept. 24 in her sister's apartment in tfje 1400 block of worm 17th Street..