Green Bay Press-Gazette from Green Bay, Wisconsin • Page 4

A-4 Friday, March 22, 1985 Green Bay Press-Gazette 3 Emergency agency unprepared for sewage calamity "You can't cover vnur office with erywhere in our office. And I mean didn't know that several blankets had been torn into strips and those bits of cloth stuffed down a toilet stool, plugging the whole plumbing system for the jail. Meister, whose office is in the basement of the jail, said maintenance crews were working on the jail plumbing Tuesday, which is located in the suspended ceiling above her office. Suddenly: "It was like the thing erupted," Meister said. "We really should have been prepared," Meister said Wednesday, noting that her office has been flooded three times in the past two years.

"Before, it was just water and it happened in the other end of our office. Meister said about six months ago prisoners somehow got hold of 50-pound sacks of rice and flour and poured them down the drains. While the mess didn't reach her office, the stench did. She said she and her assistant literally ran from 'the office to escape the flood falling from the 12-foot ceiling. Meister said after the system emptied the mess was cleaned up by maintenance crews.

She and her assistant helped. She said a typewriter and her secretary's sweater were the only items ruined. Meister said a meeting she had scheduled was moved to an open office in the Sheriffs Department. By Terry Anderson Of the Press-Gazette Brown County Emergency Government is ready for tornados, blizzards, nuclear attack and almost every other possible disaster. But the agency was beset earlier this week with a calamity almost beyond description the overflow of 70 jailhouse toilets.

"Human waste," moaned Col-lette Meister, director of emergency government. "It splattered ev plastic every night, she lamented. The response from jail officials? Commander Robert Ellis said he "sympathizes" with Meister. He said vandalism in the jail, particu-lary that caused by minors, isn't unusual. But, Ellis said there isn't much he can do to prevent the problem.

"We just try to smile as much as we can," he said. "And that's not always easy." everywhere. If a file drawer was left open, just an inch, it got in." Meister, who- said she has been on the receiving end of every bad joke imaginable, said the problem apparently started Sunday in the juvenile section on the second floor of the jail. Water faucets were left running and toilets jammed. Three cell blocks were flooded.

The water on the second floor was cleaned up. But authorities j.iu iuihu wi I. ii. i iii in i mi i ii in i ii 1 1 mi ii unrr-n in inn i mmmmtmmtmm ftk U' Jul ft- VtKt; J' Whiting's lawyers attempting to put trial behind them By Terry Anderson Of the Press-Gazette Mary Lou and Nila Jean Robinson went horseback riding today at their Askeaton farm in southern Brown County and tried to put the trial of Randolph Whiting behind them. After they rested their case Thursday afternoon, and before the decision was handed to the jury, the two attorneys who handled Whiting's defense freely talked about themselves and their views.

They practice law in the Appleton-based firm of Robinson, Smith, Robinson and Peterson. Mary Lou, 37, who founded the firm eight and a half years ago, said when Whiting was looking for an attorney he didn't know her name, "he just asked for that woman lawyer from Appleton. I guess he had heard about some cases I was involved in." Mary Lou said there was never any doubt about her career choice as she grew up in the little crossroads of Easton in Adams County. "In the sixth grade I announced I was going to be a lawyer and I meant it," she said. She said her husband, an Appleton physician, has supported her fcareer, even though there have been times that her life has been threatened by either the victim's families or those who fear they could be implicated.

Mary Lou said she believes a woman does enjoy at least one advantage in the courtroom: "I think sometimes it's easier to get a jury to confront the emotional issues," she said. Although there's 10 years difference between them, the sisters share many similarities. Both were English majors at the University of Visconsin-Madison before going to law school there. Both share a passion for their farm with its horses and pets and peacocks where they escape the pressures of the courtroom. As they sat in a restaurant sipping chocolate milk and critiquing their courtroom performance Thursday, it was clear they think on Jrnuch the same wave length.

can look at a dog and immediately tell you its breed," Mary Lou said. "I can look at the dog and tell you if it can hunt. Together we make one pretty good lawyer." After a bit of sisterly prodding Nila, 27, modestly accepted the tag of intellectual, admitting that before she became a lawyer she read a book each day, often in the original foreign language. Although Whiting was found guilty, courtroom experts, including District Attorney Peter Naze, had praise for Mary Lou's performance. "She was a vigorous, aggressive advocate who represented her client From A-1 mmmm Press-Gazette photo by Ken Wesely Sister lawyers: Mary Lou Robinson, left, and her sister, Nila neys.

They're shown here in Brown County court during Jean, worked together as Randolph Whiting's defense attor- Whiting's first-degree murder trial. well," Naze said. And Public Defender John Brown, who served as counsel for Whiting's wife, Victoria, described Mary Lou as a tough competitor. "If she's not in demand already, she will be after this," Brown said. She said she could never envision herself as a prosecutor.

"Randy Whiting was a troubled person. But I could never participate in putting people into cages," she said. "I believe that everybody has an absolute right to the best defense possible," Mary Lou said. "If we didn't defend them, who would give them the right defense they deserve?" Whiting's dad says his son's innocent By Tim Cuprisin Of the Press-Gazette Edgar Whiting sat motionless, staring at the judge, as the verdict was read. His eyes showed only a hint of moisture as he heard his son, Randolph, convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Margaret Anderson.

While thejury was being dismissed to go home to Ozaukee County, his eyes darted around the courtroom. But Edgar Whiting sat ramrod straight in the fourth row of Judge Alexander Grant's courtroom Thursday afternoon until his son's case was adjourned. He walked out of the courtroom and into an explosion of reporters' questions under the glare of television lights. "Were you surprised at the verdict?" "Do you think your son is innocent?" His mumbled answers were unintelligible. His wife, Janice, squeezed his arm and tried to comfort him.

With Mrs. Whiting working to keep the reporters away from her husband, he ducked down a stairwell and away from television cameras. As he walked out onto Adams Street, Edgar Whiting collected himself. He gave short bursts of response to questions from a reporter who followed him out of the Brown County Public Safety Building. "We believe he's innocent," Whiting said, repeating what he's said before about his son's case.

"He's told us he is." As her husband spoke, Mrs. Whiting Randolph Whiting's stepmother wiped the tears from her eyes. Whiting's mother, Rosemary Curry, died late last year from burns she sustained in a fire in her Bellevue home. Whiting, who lives in Oconto, said he wasn't surprised at the' verdict. With as violent a crime as Margaret Anderson's murder, somebody had to be convicted, he said.

His wife nodded her agreement. It was obviously difficult for Whiting to keep hold of nis emotions. "It was the crime, itself, in the tavern. That's all it took," Whiting said, shaking his head. Then the couple walked off, arm-in-arm, down Adams Street and away from reporters and their questions.

'iv; 'Jv i V' i it difficult to find an unbiased jury from among Brown County residents. Meanwhile, Naze said Thursday he'll probably meet soon with Green Bay police officials to discuss whether anyone else should be charged in connection with Anderson's beating, sexual assault and killing. The trial's testimony revealed that four men Whiting, Lukensmeyer, Hinton and Denice Stumpner drove Andersaa from a bar where she was beaten and sexually molested to a manure pit where her throat was slashed on Dec. 27, 1983. Terry Apfel, her date that evening, also testified that he kicked Anderson, 35, with a steel-toed boot outside the Back Forty Tavern, a hangout for motorcycle club members, before leaving her with the four men.

The 10-day trial ended Thursday afternoon when Grant announced that the eight-man, four-woman jury, after deliberating two hours, found Whiting guilty. Whiting, a former Oconto High School track star, had spoken less than 10 words as he sat expressionless throughout the trial. He showed no emotion at the verdict. Robinson said later that's how she told him to act. She said she didn't want his reaction to be subject to "news media commentary." Until late Wednesday night, she said she was convinced she'd escort Whiting as a free man from the courtroom "and take him to dinner." Naze never came close to proving that Whiting was the man who killed Anderson, she said.

But Grant ended hours of argument in his chambers Wednesday night by granting Naze's request to instruct the jury that it could convict Whiting of first-degree murder if it concluded that he was a party to the crime and "willingly renders aid in it." Press-Gazette photo by John E. Roemer Listen to verdict: Edgar Whiting, Randolph's father, sits with his wife, Janice, in Brown County court Thursday after hearing the jury convict his son of first-degree murder in the death of Margaret Anderson. Whiting meat packing plant where she was killed. Another woman juror declined to say who she believed was the killer among the three other men with Whiting and Anderson in the car. "He was there (at the murder site), but I think there were, brains behind it (the murder)," and those brains weren't Whiting's, that juror said.

Because of an instruction they received from Grant Thursday, the jurors did not have to state in their verdict whether they believed Whiting, 24, was the one who killed Anderson. Without that instruction, Whit-i 'ing would be a free man today, the "three jurors said. Asked whether the jurors concluded that Whiting slashed Anderson's throat Dec. 27, 1983, one woman juror replied, "Not from what we've gotten so far." She said that at times it seemed as if Mark Lukensmeyer, another of the four men who drove with Anderson from the Back Forty to the manure pit outside the Packer-land Packing Co. where she was "killed, was the one on trial.

But, "We didn't have to decide" whether Lukensmeyer was the she said. Defense attorney Mary Lou 'Robinson said she was sure Whiting would have been acquitted if "the jury had not been told they 'merely had to find that he took part in the crime. A male juror said he "can't elaborate" on whether he concluded Lukensmeyer was the killer. "We were given his (Whiting's) case and that was it," and the jury concluded only that he was a party the crime, the man said. One of the woman jurors said the jury agreed with District Attorney Peter Naze that the excuses of Whiting, Lukensmeyer and Mark Hinton that they were all so drunk that they passed out while Anderson was being beaten and sexually molested and that they kill Anderson were unbelievable.

"That's right," she said. The Anderson suffered in the bar was too intense for anyone to sleep through, she said. The jury was selected from Ozaukee County residents after Grant ruled that pretrial news coverage of Anderson's murder and -Whiting's prosecution could make Settlement pleases Coleman couple "After checking with several attorneys and clerks of court in Oconto and Marinette counties, we believe this Is the largest settlement for a resident of either county." Attorney By Gerry McDowell Of the Press-Gazette COLEMAN Alfred and Shir-. ley Rosera feel like a large load has been lifted from their shoulders after years of suffering and pain from injuries he received in a truck accident Nov. 20, 1978.

He was an over-the-road truck driver for Schneider Trucking Green Bay, and was standing on his truck between the tractor and trailer, fell onto the highway and was hit by a passing truck. An eight-person jury this week awarded the couple $2.4 million following a two-week trial in federal District Court in Milwaukee. The lawsuit involved claims against International Harvester, manufacturer of the truck driven by Rosera, and Dart Transit owner of the truck which struck Rosera. IH was found 75 percent negligent and Dart Transit Co. and its driver 25 percent negligent in the accident.

One of the issues concerned safety equipment on Roser-a's truck. Plier, Judge and McCormick, said, 'We worked and held hearings many times in the last five years. When we attempted to get other firms to co-try the case with us, thpv rpfusfd and said we'd never win." Attorney Frank Terschen of Fritsch, Dudek and Slatery, Milwaukee, agreed to co-try the case. "Now, the results of our hard work have materialized," McCormick said. "After checking with several attorneys and clerks of court in Oconto and Marinette counties, we believe this is the largest settlement for a resident of either county," he said.

The award is subject to appeal, however. Mrs. Rosera said, "Things sure look a lot brighter now." Their children are Julie who has three children, and Mark, who will be married this year, both of Peshtigo; Patrick, in the U.SJ Navy stationed in Jacksonville, and Michael, a student at the' University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Mrs. Rosera said she couldn't believe the condition her husband was in when she first saw him in a Janesville hospital following the accident.

"I sat there for two weeks before he recognized me," she said. He was then taken to St. Mary's Hospital, Green Bay, for two more weeks. "We have four children and three of them were still at home, going to school at the time. They participated in sports and Al always attended most of the athletic events.

After the accident, he was physically unable to attend them," she said. "We also have three grandchil dren now, and he's limited in his activities with them due to his mo-' bility," Mrs. Rosera said. "We had a liquor store before the accident, but we had to sell that. I went to work at Coleman Products, a very good employer who was very considerate in allowing me time off to take him where he had to go." She said for the past five years advice on financial and other problems has come from attorney Joe McCormick, Oconto.

"Several times I suggested giving the case up, but he always encouraged us to hang in there and not get discouraged," Mrs. Rosera said. McCormick, of the law firm of Robinson said she was "devastated" by that ruling, and may base an appeal of the conviction on it. Unless an appeals court overturns the verdict, Whiting will serve at least 13.3 years for Anderson's murder. He must serve two-thirds of 20 years before he's eligible for parole, Naze said.

Police took Whiting Thursday night to Dodge Correctional Institution, where officials will decide where in the state prison system he should be placed. -A.