The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • 1

IN SPORTS WEATHER: Sizzle and drizzle. High 82, low 59. Details, page A-2. WEDNESDAY, April 5, 1 989 Hue QrimdkD 1989 Sentinel Communication Company The best newspaper in Florida 35 cents By Kirsten Gallagher Ex-guard arrested state demands checks OF THE SENTINEL STAFF their the boys' names or anything," said Higginbotham, crying, in a telephone interview from the jail. Higginbotham worked at the crisis unit for more than seven months until he resigned March 22.

He quit after unit officials learned from Orlando police that he had been convicted of raping a 14-year-old Tampa boy in 1982. Police investigated Higginbotham after a 17-year-old male patient at the unit accused him of sexually assaulting him a Please see ARREST, A-4 A convicted rapist who worked as a security guard at an Orlando mental health center was arrested Tuesday on charges that he offered to have sex with two 16-year-old male patients in return for promising to help them escape. Jack Ray Higginbotham, 31, is the second employee at the Crisis Stabilization Unit to be arrested in the last 2Vi weeks on charges involving sex with patients. counts of sexual activity with a child by a custodial authority, a third-degree felony. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine on each count.

He was in the Orange County jail on $10,000 bond. Higginbotham denied that he solicited sex from the boys. "I don't know what the hell they're talking about. They police didn't tell me He also is one of two employees found to have a record of felony convictions even though state law prohibits anyone convicted of serious crimes from working at mental health centers. Because of the arrests, a state agency has ordered crisis units and other programs for mental patients throughout Florida to prove that the backgrounds of all employees working with minors have been or are being checked for any criminal violations.

Each program has until May 15 to send a sworn statement to the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services verifying compliance, according to a March 29 memorandum from Connie Cheren, director of the agency's Office of Licensure and Certification. Higginbotham was charged with two Lake Apopka's future brightens Agreement with 18 farmers paves way for cleanup of polluted water By Bob Levenson Martinez: Get a grip on growth Lawmakers asked not to finance urban sprawl By Donna Blanton and Donna O'Neal SENTINEL TALLAHASSEE BUREAU OF THE SENTINEL STAFF ill cftS MmW' ir A -V i Cb- 1 TALLAHASSEE Eighteen vegetable farmers oa' Lake Apopka's north shore have agreed to signifi- cantly cut back the amount of dirty agricultural wa-, ter they allow to flow into Lake Apopka, paving the' way for cleanup of the polluted lake. The agreement between the farmers and the Str Johns River Water Management District, to be announced at a news conference here today, should mean cleaner lake water in as little as two years, according to representatives for both sides. "For the first time in 50 years, we'll have a lake that's getting cleaner instead of dirtier," said Henry Dean, executive director of the St. Johns district.

"I'm quite excited about it. We can only do better things after this to continue the cleanup." The compromise would end years of bickering between the water district and the Zellwood Drainage District over runoff into the lake from the-muck farms. The two groups sued each other in Or-, ange Circuit Court last June. I The agreement, engineered by state Reps. Tom Drage, R-Winter Park, and Everett Kelly, D-Tavares, in meetings during the last month, is expected to be finalized May 10 at a water district meeting in Palat-ka.

The two parties would then drop their lawsuits, Dean said. That would be the final step of a three-part plan begun last year to reduce by 80 percent the discharge into the lake from 18,000 acres of muck farms. The Legislature decided because of food shortages during World War II to drain part of the lake to create the fertile farms. They represent the only significant! source of man-made pollution of the state's fourth- MARK LOSEYSENTINEL TALLAHASSEE Calling growth management "the. one issue that casts its shadow over everything else," Gov.

Bob Martinez Tuesday opened the 1989 legislative session with an attack on urban sprawl. The Republican governor flatly rejected claims by business groups and others that more state taxes are needed to keep up with Florida's rapid population growth. Instead, the state must encourage Expanding Sunshine Law: D-3 growth in urban areas and ensure that each local government pays its fair share for needed public services, Martinez said. "We cannot buy our way out of the challenges of growth," Martinez said in his 40-minute speech to lawmakers. "Throwing more money at the traditional patterns of growth merely pre-empts the use of innovative planning techniques to manage and control growth." Martinez gave lawmakers an outline of his plan to implement the 1985 Growth Management Act, but did not provide a bill or even specific proposals to lawmakers.

"The concept is ambiguous at this point, so we don't know what kind of pig we're buying in this poke," said House Community Affairs Chairman Fred Jones, D-Au-burndale. Some legislative leaders were skeptical about Martinez's basic premise that the state can direct the 900 people who move to Florida each day into urban areas. "It would be very difficult to Please see SESSION, A-4 Laid to rest A Navy honor guard carries the casket of former U.S. Rep. and well-wishers attended 2 separate funeral services for Bill Chappell, who was buried Tuesday in his hometown of the ex-Navy pilot who served 10 terms as a representative Kendrick, near Ocala.

More than 1,000 friends, politicians from Florida. Story, D-1. Please see LAKE, A-5 Ethics committee interviews Swann in Wright investigation The committee planned to resume today ASSOCIATED PRESS its closed-door deliberations of a long list of what may have been rules violations by 'ON The HouseEthics WASHINGTON Committee on Tuesday interviewe The committee apparently is exploring whether Wright or longtime friend George Mallick had personal financial interests in the health of the savings and loan industry when Wright was asking federal regulators to be more lenient with ailing savings and loan associations. Committee members met privately Tuesday with Swann and Mallick, who also is a business partner of Wright. The two men were questioned about an investment that Mallick and Wright made in Winderwood, a 20-acre Orange County housing develop- ment undertaken by Swann and others beginning in 1985.

Wright's interest in Winderwood consisted of a $40,000 investment by Mallightco, a partnership made up of Wright, Mallick and their wives. Once the 49-home subdivision, was built, Mallightco got back $120,000, or a Please see WRIGHT, A-6 do lam2RIQTM ArttfctfielBi Wright. The outcome of the case still appeared to be more than a week away. The House speaker has steadfastly denied violating House rules. However, in a new variation on the denial, a spokesman for Wright said if the committee finds any rules infractions they would be only "technical" and not "intentional." ner of House Speaker Jim Wright in an Orange County real estate venture amid reports that Wright may have accepted $100,000 in unreported gifts from one of them.

Shoney's slapped with job bias suit Gorbachev: No arms for Central America By J. Craig Crawford REUTERS OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Almanac A-2 Local state D-1 Business B-1 Bob Morris D-1 Classified F-1 Movies E-5 Comics E-8 Names and faces A-2 Crossword E-7 Obituaries D-6 Greg Dawson E-1 Scoreboard C-6 Editorial page A-10 Sports C-1 Horoscope E-6 Style E-1 Ann Landers E-7 Television E-6 1 rA if Y' 1- 'tY i nmii i HAVANA Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called Tuesday for a halt to all military supplies to Central America, saying there was a real possibility of peace in the region, where wars have claimed more than 100,000 lives this decade. Gorbachev told Cuba's parliament, the People's Power Assembly, the problems of Central America "should be solved only by politicaLmeans." "There is at the present time a real possibility to ensure peace and security in the region," he said. "A major condition for this would be a halt to military supplies from wherever they come." In Washington, the White House said it would have no immediate comment on Gorbachev's al but was examining it. "We are always interested in what Mr.

Gorbachev has to say," said White House spokesman Roman Po- pakiuk. "However, we will have to give his speech careful study before we offer any comments. Gorbachev praised Nicaragua for what he said -were recent steps toward greater democracy and urged the developed nations to support a recent U.S. proposal to ease Third World debt. The speech, the centerpiece of Gorbachev's three-Please see CUBA, A-6 4 Minnesota Twins will call Tinker Field home for another year.

Page C-1 Richard M. Daley fills his father's shoes as the mayor of Chicago. Page A-3 In what the NAACP hopes will become one of the largest job bias suits ever, black and white former workers of the Shoney's restaurant chain are charging the company with a nationwide pattern of racism. The organization's class action suit, to be filed today in federal court in Pensacola, accuses Shoney's Inc. of maintaining "a hostile, racist work environment" in its 1,500 restaurants in 30 states, including Florida.

The company denies the allegations. Lawyers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said Shoney's is the largest firm the group has ever accused of com-panywide bias. They said the suit also is significant because a private organization is filing a bias suit against a private company. More often it has been the federal government pursuing such suits. The NAACP is suing on behalf of five blacks and four whites who worked for the company in North Florida.

However, their lawyers hope to add many more employees to the suit by offering a toll-free phone number for possible victims of racial bias to call. The suit accuses the company of using intimidation tactics to limit the number of blacks working in Please see SHONEY'S, A-4 IN A WORD decimate, DES-ah-mat: verb. From the Latin word meaning ten. Originally, to select by lot and kill every tenth one of. To destroy or kill a large part of.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Gorbachev waves as he and Castro leave family clinic Tuesday in Havana..