The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 13

hp urlimjt0n Deaths 2B Court Roundup 5B Thursday, January 14, 1982 Funeral Services Held for Victims Of Derby Crash Bail Amendment Clears Hurdle In House Vote -n AO 0h 7- burden he carried." Among the mourners were about 30 students from the 6th and 7th grades at North Troy Elementary School, where David was a 6th grader. Carmen was a freshman at North Country Union High School. For the most part Wednesday, the mood was sad, not bitter. After the service, friends clustered around the childrens' parents, Muriel and Melvin Flood, in the church basement. With them was their surviving sqp, Steven, 12, who was released from the hospital this week after being treated for a head injury suffered in the crash.

A committee of North Troy women served dinner in the church basement to 110 of the mourners a turkey dinner complete with stuffing, homemade rolls and home-baked desserts. "I'm the school cook, and I've served school lunches to Carmen and David from way back," said Lise Fournier, who organized the meal. "A lot of people in the community donated thought it would be a good way of expressing our sympathy for the Floods," she said. "This was such a tragic thing," added Gloria Vincent. "I didn't want to believe it when I heard the news.

I just didn't want to believe it was true." By CANDACE PAGE Free Fran Staff Writer NORTH TROY Pink for a girl, blue for a boy. The coffins of Carmen Flood, 14, and David Flood, 11, lay together Wednesday before the altar of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, identical except for the color of the carnations and daisies crowning them. Nearly 300 relatives and friends crowded into the church's 40 oak pews to mourn the two children, killed in a Saturday night traffic accident in Derby. "We must help each other bear the burden," the Rev.

Francis Prive, a relative of the children, told the congregation. Their deaths the first Vermont highway fatalities of 1982 have aroused anger in the border towns of northeastern Vermont. The car the children were riding in was allegedly rammed by a loaded milk truck whose driver police said was drunk. Larry Forbes, 28, of Newport Center, has been charged with two counts of manslaughter and is free on $10,000 bail. Inside the church.

Father Prive cautioned the mourners, "It is so easy to concentrate on how Carmen and David died, yet the Lord just asks us to take up his' yoke, his burden (of much as we feel our burden today, it is nothing compared to the A wr I ml). By DEBORAH SLINE fre Press Capitol Bureau MONTPELIER The House gave preliminary approval to a constitutional amendment Wednesday, giving judges the power to keep people accused of murder, fatal arson or kidnapping locked up without bail. The proposal passed 125-23, despite claims by law enforcement officials that the measure is not tough enough to keep dangerous criminals off the streets. The bail amendment must win approval from Vermont voters in a statewide referendum to become law. It will be scheduled for a public vote later this year if the House gives its final endorsement today.

The constitutional amendment would give judges more leeway to deny bail to people who have been arrested and await trial on criminal charges. Bail can be denied now only when someone is accused of a crime punishable by death, such as the murder of a policeman. The proposal would allow judges to deny bail for crimes punishable by a life sentence: first- and second-degree murder, kidnapping and extortion for money, arson resulting in death, breaking and entering at night into sleeping quarters, and crimes by habitual offenders. After winding through the Legislature for more than three years, the amendment comes to a House vote at a time when several recent murders have fostered a get-tough attitude about crime in Vermont. Vermont's leading law enforcement authorities, however, including the attorney general, the state's attorneys and the Vermont Chiefs of Police Association, all contend the proposal is not as tough as it seems.

Attorney General John Easton claims the measure is inadequate because it does not allow bail denial when a judge believes a person is dangerous to the general public. Easton had urged lawmakers to postpone changes in the bail law, but Rep. Norris Hoyt, D-Norwich, warned Wednesday that starting the amendment process all over again would delay actual passage another three years. Vermont's amendment process requires two separate Legislatures to pass a proposal before it goes to a public referendum. This think the public demands that we take action, some action, with regard to the bail Rep.

Edward Zuccaro bail amendment has been approved twice by the Senate and once by the House, making a second House endorsement the last step before a referendum. "If this amendment is rejected today, it'll be approximately three years at the earliest before another constitutional amendment reaches the stage we are at today," Hoyt said. "And there's really no guarantee any stronger amendment would be enacted in the future." House Majority Leader Robert Kinsey, R-Craftsbury Common, agreed. "A small step forward is a whole lot better than a step backward," he said. Rep.

Edward Zuccaro, R-St. Johnsbury, argued that the proposed amendment should be passed now, with the understanding it could be modified later. "I think the public demands that we take action, some action, with regard to the bail problem," Zuccaro said. Opponents of the proposed amendment charged that its passage could be harmful because the public would believe problems with Vermont's bail laws had been, solved. "If it does pass, the chance for a meaningful, stronger bail amendment will be lessened for the future," said Rep.

Althea Kroger, D-Essex Junction. House Democratic Leader Judith Stephany, D-Burlington, also opposed the measure. "The amendment itself does not deal with the gut issues the public is concerned about," she said. The amendment drew opposition for a different reason from Rep. Peter Youngbaer, D-Plain-field.

He argued it was too strong and potentially unconstitutional. "This proposal would undo 200 years of American history by changing the notion of our founding fathers that one is innocent until proven guilty," Youngbaer said. Free Press Photo by CANDACE PAGE Clifford Dillon Jr. of North Troy, a friend of the Flood family, helps other pallbearers as the coffins of Carmen dnd David Flood are carried from the church. Bar Examiner: Review Process Faulty By LOUIS BERNEY Free Press Caprto! Sureau MONTPELIER The lawyer who com-, mitted the grading miscue on last July's Vermont bar exam conceded Wednesday that more time must be spent reviewing tests that narrowly fail.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Gibson Jr. of Montpelier said all exams that come within one point of passing are automatically supposed to be reread. At least seven exams, according to Supreme Court records, came within one point of 75, the score required to pass, following' the original grading of the July exam. Despite the fact those exams were to be reviewed, Gibson's error which reversed the grading on an essay section of the exam was not discovered. "I guess there needs to be more time spent on the review process," Gibson told the Senate committee.

The semi-annual exam is administered and graded by the Board of Bar Examiners, a panel of seven lawyers appointed by the Supreme Court. It was the responsibility of the chairman of the board, R. Clark Smith of Rutland, to reread those exams that scored between 74 and 75, Gibson told the committee. When contacted Wednesday, Smith acknowledged that it was his task to reread the exams. He said he knew how Gibson's error escaped his scrutiny, but told a reporter, "I'm not going to tell." The board chairman said that after his rereading, he made no changes from the original grades.

"All these papers were reviewed by a bunch of experts," he said. During his testimony before the Judiciary Committee, Gibson disagreed with a court official who had told the panel last week that the Vermont exam is geared toward failing about 50 percent of those taking it. The board set a passing level, Gibson said, that members anticipated would result in a passing rate of between 66 and 74 percent. Last Friday Court Administrator Thomas Lehner told the committee that because of the complex curve system used to grade the exams, about half the applicants could be expected to pass in a given year. "We were all shocked," Gibson said, when last July's exam resulted in a passing level well below the 66 percent level.

The reason such a low percentage passed, Gibson said, is not due to the grading system, but because, "The group of July 1981 (applicants) just didn't do as well as its predecessors on the multi-state" section of the exam. In a response to a question from Sen. Mary Skinner, D-Washington, Gibson acknowledged the 'board "probably" adjusted the passing grade after it learned that only abdut 38 percent initially had passed the exam. The passing grade was lowered on the multi-state (a multiple choice section of the exam offered across the nation) from 145 to 142, Gibson said. "We were shocked to see the (initial) results," he said.

Gibson's error correcting essays resulted in a regrading that saw half a dozen new passing grades being granted, as well as one failing grade going to an applicant who initially had been told he passed. 77 City to Provide Voter Board Defense (A By SCOTT MACKAY Free Press Staff Writer Burlington's Voter Registration Board will be defended by City Attorney Joseph McNeil in a federal court suit filed by a group of University of Vermont students who charge they were discriminated against when they tried to register to vote. Over the objections of Mayor Bernard Sanders, who walked out of a closed-door executive session, aldermen took McNeil's advice that the city charter requires the city attorney to represent the board. The action came after a stormy public hearing that once again saw the voter board refuse to back down on enacting stringent residency requirements for new voters. The board has set up a six-step system that will force every new voter who is not listed In the telephone book, city directory or Electric Department records to come to City Hall and prove he or she is a Burlington resident.

"My preference would be that the city charter read differently," said Alderman Maurice Mahoney, D-Ward 1. "But Joe (McNeil) made it very clear that that is our responsibility." Sanders vowed to testify against the board at a court hearing scheduled Friday in Rutland. Sanders also said that despite his "respect" for McNeil, he will veto having the city pay expenses for the legal defense. While a group of students and activists who support Sanders jeered, voter board member John Fitzpatrick compared the rights of students to vote to those of inmates in a correctional center. Fitzpatrick said that because an inmate is in a jail, it does not necessarily mean he or she is a resident of the town the jail is in.

"The same thing holds true for students," Fitzpatrick said. "The mere physical presence on a campus does not" constitute residence in Burlington, Fitzpatrick said. Sanders said the issue has gone beyond students. "This means hundreds of poor t' Free Press Photo by JYM WILSON Burlington voter registration board members, from left, Gloria Turcott, Michael Mitiguy, John Fitzpatrick, Louise Hirss and Fredrick Nutt listen at a meeting with aldermen Wednesday night. ft It i sY i you're to get let's get outvoted by our own people." The voter controversy started in November, after Citizens' Party activists and others close to Sanders mounted a voter registration drive.

people will not be voting," Sanders said. Sanders argued loudly with Fitzpatrick, and the mayor was gaveled down twice by Alderman William Blanchard, D-Ward 5, aldermanic president. Fitzpatrick said the object of the new policy is to ensure that "if Jeffords Announcement Expected Feb. 1 5 has been in Congress for four terms. raiser in past campaigns.

"But with him, it could go either way." Jeffords is in Italy serving with a U.S. Navy Reserves unit and was not available for comment. The Rutland Republican made an un-sucessful run for governor in 1972, when he narrowly lost a primary to Luther Hackett of South Burlington. Hackett was beaten In the general election by former Gov. Thomas Salmon, a Democrat.

In 1980, Jeffords toyed with running for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Patrick Leahy, but instead ran for re-election without a Democratic opponent. Jeffords, former state attorney general, By SCOTT MACKAY Free Press Staff Writer Rep. James M.

Jeffords, who is reportedly leaning towards a run for governor, will announce his political plans at a Montpelier press conference Feb. 15. Jeffords, who in 1980 kept even his closest political allies and his office staff in suspense until the last minute about his reelection plans, will make i choice between the governorship or a re-election run, Stephen Carlson, his press secretary, confirmed Wednesday. "It looks like he's leaning to go for governor," said James Johnston of Montpelier, who has been the congressman's fund He has had polls taken that test his strength against the most likely Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov.

Madeleine Kunin. The most recent poll, by the New York firm of Dresner and Morris, gave Jeffords a 54-36 edge over Mrs. Kunin. Five hundred people were sampled. If he decided to run for governor, Jeffords has no primary opposition In sight.

Administration Secretary William Gilbert has dropped his plans to seek the GOP nomination and Transportation Secretary Tom Evslin said Wednesday he will not run if Jeffords Is In the race. State Treasurer Emory Hebard also has said he will not contest Jeffords. Ftm Press PHoto by STU Pf MY Close, Dut No Rocord Smokestack emission from the Burlington. Electric Department's Moran generating plant rises over Lake Champlain. Despite the stretch of frigid weather, the plant has not topped its January 1981 record of 68.9 megawatts generated.

It hit 68.3 Monday morning, officials said. The city utility has asked industries to cut back on electricity use during peak morning hours. I- i.