The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 14

B2 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Tuesday, February 15, 1994 The Scene In Philadelphia and Its Suburbs Metropolitan Area News in Brief 1 Clark r-3 jS DeLeon i Lt. Commander Data: "Captain, we are attempting to simulate certain bizarre meteorological conditions suffered by the Rendellians during a single winter in the late 20th century." Lt. Geordi LaForge: "Captain, I have programmed the computer on the holodeck to replicate an ice-and snow-rutted side street off Passyunk Avenue on Feb. 14, 1994. Rendellians later referred to that day by such names as "Broken Valentine," "Yo Cupid" and "Give Us a Break, Enough Already with the Ice." Picard: "Number One.

Report." Commander Riker: "On the holodeck, sir. I'm standing next to a double-parked Buick with a dead battery blocking a Camaro crammed on a 35-degree angle into half a parking space someone dug out of the snow. The Camaro's front wheels are hung up on frozen chunks of shoveled snow. Pulling out of here will be more slippery than a Ferengi pre-nuptial agreement. Should I hot-wire this short and attempt manual Camaro removal?" Picard: "Make it so." Riker: "Negative, Captain.

Rendellian security technology was highly advanced even back then. Ask Data to run a program to override the access-denial mechanism for the shuttle-transport locking mechanism known as The Club." Spreading their Wings: The city's winning team More than 13,000 sports fans turned their collars up against the damp Sunday night wind and trudged through treacherous ruts of refrozen slush covering the Spectrum parking lot just so they could cheer for the only Philadelphia pro sports team this year with a winning record. The Philadelphia Wings of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League continue to draw big numbers at the Spectrum even in lousy weather on lousy nights. The team's two home games so far have been on snow-bound Sunday evenings, but the fans have turned out. Jesse Rendell is a fan, and his father the mayor sat beside him for the entire game after appearing for the ceremonial pre-game face-off (see photo) during the season opener against the New York Saints.

After Sunday night's record-high scoring barrage against the Baltimore Thunder, the Wings are back over .500, their only loss being to the two-time defending champion Buffalo Bandits in ED MAHAN The Wings' Scott Gabrielsen faced off before the team's home opener at the Spectrum last month with Wings fan Jesse Rendell's father. the Snickers system of the Milky Way cluster." Parking space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Philadelphia. Its continuing mission, to explore strange new streets, to seek out new legal spots, to boldly park where no one has parked before without getting ticketed.

Churches targeted for electronics theft Almost 30 Center City and South Phila. churches have been hit lately. They're easy marks, police say. Buffalo. Eleven Wings players scored in the 25-goal avalanche against Baltimore.

"That's exactly what we're going to have to do to beat Buffalo," said team captain Scott Gabrielsen. "We're going to have to spread the scoring around because the Bandits are going to smother the Gaits whenever they're on the floor." If you were Buffalo, you'd want to smother the Gait brothers, Paul and Gary, the Canadian twins, eh? who have done for scoring what Michael Jordan did for gravity. The fan reaction is the same in both sports: "Did he just do what I saw him do?" Gary Gait scored one of those "Huh?" goals in the first period on a shot with more quick fakes than a hummingbird's wing could make before the ball emerged in a blur from behind his back over his opposite shoulder and into the net. It was so fast and surgically efficient that if he'd been holding a saber instead of a lacrosse stick, he could have carved a jack-o'-lantern on the goalie's face before the poor guy knew he had a pumpkin for a head. Winter Car Trek: The Next Aggravation Another day, another icy twist in this winter's real life sci-fi thriller.

Yesterday's class episode: "The Trouble with Tripping." Cue: Car Trek theme music. VO Capt. Jean-Luc Picard: she was caught," Sitarchuk wrote. Between September 1985 and October 1992, while she was manager of the Whitehall Acres Apartments in Oxford, Santos used a variety of schemes to steal at least 588,000 from tenants and from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

She also obtained 515,600 worth of federal rent subsidies for her daughter by understating her daughter's income, the memorandum said. "Much of what the defendant stole came from HUD funds designated to help needy tenants obtain decent and affordable housing," Sitarchuk wrote. Although Santos' work was supervised by Altman Realty, a real estate management company, she was trusted to verify tenants' incomes and report the information to HUD. The iii.i..tiL.iiiiiiiliiiiiiiii.i.i.u, 1 1 i 1 ill i i N-f ft i l' i Southwest Phila. man is wounded in shooting A Southwest Philadelphia man was wounded last night in what police said was a drive-by shooting.

The victim was found shot seven times and transported to the Hospital Of the 'University of Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery last night. Police responded to a report of a man shot at 6:30 p.m. on the 5100 block of Chester Avenue and found Anthony Owens, 31, collapsed on the street with multiple gunshot wounds. Police said Owens was shot '-three times in the torso, twice in the stomach, once in the right thigh and once in the left arm. His condition was upgraded from critical to guarded, but stable this morning.

Police said the assailant or assail-1 ants fled in a vehicle. There are no suspects in the shooting, and the -motive has not been determined. Second assailant gets 10 to 20 years for beating A Philadelphia man who pleaded guilty to taking part in the beating of a Havertown man was sentenced last, week in Philadelphia Common Pleas -Court to 10 to 20 years in prison. Donte Camp, 21, of the 6100 block of Chestnut Street, admitted his role in the attack on Walter "Jay" on Nov. 23, 1992.

Hart had driveiu into West Philadelphia to buy mari juana when he was knocked down. and pummeled by Camp and William Benjamin. Benjamin, 22, was previ-, ously sentenced to 12V2 to 25 years? The incident was sparked by the murder the previous night of Derrick "Rick" Draper, a friend of Camp's and Benjamin's. Camp and Benjamin told police that they attacked Hart, who had nothing to do with the murder, as an act of revenge. Juan Antonio Pagan, 22, of Upper Darby, is serving four to 10 vears for the killine.

Town meeting to address violence in the Northeast A town meeting on violence in for 7:30 tomorrow night in Port Richmond. The session was originally scheduled for last month but was postponed because of bad Federal, state and city elected officials have been invited to the meeting, along with high-level police supervisors and leaders of neighbor hood civic groups. It is to be held at the Pilsudski Fraternal Association at Belgrade and East Ontario Streets. The focus will be on violence in the Northeast, but the agenda will include discussion of recreational opportunities and the justice system. Man dies of head injuries from snowplow accident A 50-year-old man has died of head injuries suffered when he was thrown from his tractorsnowplow in a traffic accident Friday in front of his home in Trappe, Montgomery County.

John C. Shiner died Saturday morning at Pottstown Memorial Hospital. According to state police at Limerick, Shiner, was plowing his driveway with a small tractor. After depositing a load of snow across the street from his house, he began to back up the tractor. Police said Thomas F.

Blythe, 27, of Perkiomen, who was driving a Jeep Wrangler, struck the tractor's rear wheel on the driver's side, causing Shiner to be thrown 22 feet. Blythe was not injured. No charges have been filed, police said yesterday, and the accident is still under investigation. 2 engineering firms broke election laws, state says The state Attorney General's Office yesterday charged two engineering firms that have received no-bid state or municipal contracts, mostly in Bucks County, with violating state election laws by failing to report political contributions. According to the criminal complaint, O'Donnell Naccarato with offices in Philadelphia and Doylestown, received 5373,750 in no-bid contracts in 1991, while its two chief officers contributed more than 511,000 to the Bucks County Republican Committee.

In addition, the complaint said that William G. Majors Associates Inc. of Bristol received more than 5230,000 in no-bid contracts from Warminster Township, while the company's chief executive officer, William G. Majors, contributed 5900 to the Bucks County Democratic Committee and 5450 to the county's Republican Committee. Major's company is the township engineer for Warminster Township.

Principal killed and wife hurt in crash with pickup An elementary school principal was killed and his wife injured Saturday when their car hit the back of a plow-equipped pickup truck in Oley, Berks County, police said. William G. Kahres, 52, principal of Palmer Elementary School in the Easton Area school district, came in second last year for Pennsylvania Principal of the Year. Kahres died when he tried to pass the pickup on a one-lane road in Alsace Township, police said. The truck tried to move to the right but hit a snowbank and veered into the road, hitting Kahres' car, Central Berks Regional Police Sgt.

Ronald Uczynski said. Janet Kahres was treated at Reading Hospital for awoken arm, police said. "Captain's log, Star Date 215199.4. Federation fleets have been ordered to familiarize officers and crew in emergency escape techniques necessary to extricate transport shuttles from a variety of naturally occurring gravitational anomalies found during certain months in the Northern Hemisphere of the third planet from a medium-size star in Associated Press PAUL VATHIS information was then used to qualify the tenants for rent and utility subsidies. Santos accomplished her theft through a series of lies, according to prosecutors.

She submitted false income information to HUD, leading the government to pay larger rent subsidies than tenants were entitled to receive. When tenants paid what they owed based on their actual incomes, she pocketed much of the rent money. In some cases, she simply overcharged low-income tenants, thus stealing directly from them. Occasionally, she charged tenants phony late fees, the memorandum said. Santos also stole rent payments for a short period while managing Clayton Court, an Altman Realty apartment complex in Wilmington, the prosecution said.

In all, Santos stole rent money received from at least 18 tenants of Whitehall and Clayton Court, plus utility subsidies for at least 13 Whitehall tenants, prosecutors said. to murder Robot recruits to the State Police got a sprucing-up from Trooper Amy McLaughlin before being introduced in Harrisburg yesterday. Police will use the 15 four-foot robots for community-service work in schools. Woman guilty of defrauding HUD By Ralph Cipriano INQUIRER STAFF WRITER The burglars who broke into St. John the Evangelist Church in Center City two weeks ago used a crowbar to break through 15 custom-made wooden doors.

They cracked open a marble collection box and found it empty. Then they helped themselves to a computer, a fax machine, three tape recorders, a VCR and a camcorder. Father Greg Chervenak, the church pastor, couldn't believe it had happened. "Breaking into a church, it's like you're messing with God's house," the pastor said. "It's stupidity and ignorance.

And no respect for God." It wasn't an isolated crime. Police say that since mid-November, burglars have invaded a dozen churches in Center City and 16 churches in South Philadelphia, stealing thousands of dollars of electronic equipment, such as telephones, VCRs and public-address systems. The churches are easy targets, police say, because they often sit empty during the week. Typically, churches do not have electronic security systems or even elementary precautions, such as bars on the windows. So far, police have arrested one man, Keith Kilpatrick, 33, of the 1400 block of South 19th Street, after he was found insi.de a neighboring South Philadelphia church on Dec.

27. Kilpatrick was charged with burglary, theft and receiving stolen property. Because of the prison cap, he was out on bail shortly after his arrest. He is a suspect in other burglaries, police say. Meanwhile, the burglaries have left many pastors wondering what they can do to beef up security, as they and their congregations clean up the mess left behind.

At St. John's, the damage the burglars inflicted on the church ultimately will be more expensive than the equipment that was taken. The doors that the burglars damaged were 100-year-old, 2V2-inch thick, custom-made, seven-foot-high wooden doors, the pastor said. He doesn't know what it will cost to replace them. The burglars had hopped a wall around St.

John's, smashed out a basement window, and broken into the church, an adjoining parish office building, and the C.Y.O. office. While they were on their rampage, of eviction the burglars overlooked 550 in cash lying on the bookkeeper's desk. But they helped themselves to handfuls of left in bowls. "They left a trail of candy," the pastor said.

"They must have been people who needed instant energy." After the burglary, the pastor went around the church and sprinkled holy water to "bless everything and to ward off evil." He also took up a collection to buy a security system. Burglars hit St. Philip's Church at 19th and Lombard Streets twice in the last two months. They not only stole property from the Episcopal church but also looted a preschool that rents space in the church's bottom floor. "They pretty much wiped me out," said Ann Seelaus, director of the Formative Years School.

"They took the television, the phone, the answering machine, the stereo cassette player. They even took my ginseng tablets It might be time for me to switch occupations or locations." There were no signs of forced entry after the first burglary, Seelaus said. Detective Fred Fife, who is investigating the Center City church burglaries, said he suspects homeless people may be behind the crime wave. "It appears that the people that are doing the burglaries are hanging out in the neighborhood under the pretext of asking for food and money," he said, adding that "once they get inside," they case the churches. Fife said he is advising pastors to get some identification from new church visitors.

"That way if something happens, we'll have some leads," he said. In South Philadelphia, burglars broke into a side window and took a typewriter and two speakers from the Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church in the 700 block of South 19th Street. They broke in through a rear basement window and stole two speakers, a microphone, an amplifier and ceiling fans from the Christian Faith Church, in the 600 block of South 16th Street. And they broke out a second-floor window to steal a public-address system from the First Tabernacle Church, in the 600 block of South Broad Street. "These are smaller churches with less than adequate security," said Lt.

Joseph Brooks of the Special Investigations Unit. "The burglar takes the path of least resistance. And the property that's taken is easy to move." worker The ex-apartment manager took more than $100,000 from the agency and tenants. She got a year in jail. By Marie INQUIRER STAFF WRITEK The former manager of a federally subsidized apartment complex in Oxford, Chester County, was sentenced yesterday to 12 months in prison for defrauding needy tenants and the government of more than 5100,000.

Reba Jane Santos, 50, of Oxford, also was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Raymond J. Broderick to pay $1,500 in restitution. The amount was determined by her ability to pay. Assistant U.S.

Attorney Eric W. Si-tarchuk, who prosecuted the case, yesterday called the sentence fair. According to Sitarchuk's sentencing memorandum, Santos pleaded guilty in October to one count of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement. "Defendant stopped stealing only when she knew Tenant pleads guilty authorities from getting Pinsker out of the building. He died on the way to the hospital.

Pinkser, 36, of Northeast Philadelphia, had been hired to serve court papers, after Olafson had ignored his landlord's written request to move out and had also missed a court hearing, authorities said. Olafson was wounded in the standoff with police. "The doctors seem to concur he had mental health problems," said Cameron. "He fired a shotgun at Mr. Pinsker when his own mother was talking to Mr.

Pinsker. The shot went past her, and hit Mr. Pinsker in the back of the head," Cameron said. The West Philadelphia man was being served with a notice. He got "nervous" and fired a shotgun.

By Linda Loyd INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A tenant who fatally shot a city worker serving an eviction notice in West Philadelphia in December 1992 pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree murder in the slaying. A jury trial for the tenant, William Olaf-son, was scheduled to begin yesterday, but instead he told Common Pleas Court Judge Eugene H. Clarke Jr. that he wanted to plead guilty to the murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault that stemmed from threatening police who had stormed the building after the shooting. Olafson, 47, who has mental problems but was ruled competent to stand trial, decided to plead guilty "to be done with the whole thing," according to his attorney, Vincent M.

Lorusso. Sentencing was set for April 4, when a psychologist and a psychiatrist are expected to testify about Olafson's mental condition. Olafson faces a minimum mandatory sentence of life in prison. Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron said he plans to seek the death penalty. Olafson, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 400 pounds, was being evicted from his apartment in the 500 block of South 49th Street when the shooting occurred.

He had not paid his rent since July 1992, and Craig Pinsker, a deputy landlord-tenant officer, was delivering the eviction notice. Olafson told police, in an interview read at a preliminary hearing, that he heard his mother plead for more time to pay the rent, became "nervous" and shot at Pinsker with a shotgun. After the shooting, Olafson kept police at bay for more than an hour, preventing.