The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 46

The Orlando Sentinel 7 Boaters win higher bridge over St. Johns River, C-3 WEDNESDAY, April 26, 1995 sitaft i Boy's death treated as slaying Mom says she doesn't know how son ended up in car trunk I By Mickie Anderson and Pat LaMee Of THE SENTINEL STAFF Dawson Dimitric Moore was 'an extraordinary a straight-A student who was 'disappointed' when he gotaB on his last report card, said his mother, Ora Lee Moore. An autopsy provided no official finding of a cause of death, police said. i SENTINEL COLUMNIST vinced the child was killed. Police are focusing on family members in the home his mother, her boyfriend, Anthony Wright, and Damin Moore, Fleming said.

Fleming said some items seized at the Jefferson Street home are believed to be of evidentiary value. "We also are looking at some juveniles who had been with the boy before his mother reported him missing Sunday night," Fleming said. Ora Lee Moore, however, said her Please see CHILD, C-6 noon in the trunk of a 1991 Nissan Sentra at 706 Jefferson St. "I couldn't even fathom how it could have happened," Moore, 37, said Tuesday. "I talked to police.

I don't have any kind of lead, nothing. I've been waiting for the police officers to call me back and tell me something." Dimitric Moore apparently had been in the trunk of the car for "quite some time," Fleming said. He was reported missing at 9:08 p.m. Sunday and was found by his brother, Damin Lamar Moore, 21, about 3:45 p.m. Monday.

Fleming said he "definitely" was con NEW SMYRNA BEACH Ora Lee Moore, whose 8-year-old son was found dead in the trunk of the family car, said Tuesday she doesn't have the "slightest idea" what happened. Police are treating the death of Di-mitric Moore as a homicide, Police Chief Denver Fleming said. The boy, who had been missing since Sunday night, was found late Monday after Chiles' ov nn hang up may on I WBBWBBB I Gov. Lawton Chiles put pressure on the Legislature to delay plans to freeze basic residential and business phone rates for three years. The Legislature also will not go ahead with rewriting laws aimed at increasing competition to provide local phone service.

Chiles argued another plan would be better for consumers. His demands for controversial changes may derail efforts to deregulate local phone service. By John Kennedy TALLAHASSEE BUREAU TALLAHASSEE Gov. Lawton Chiles on Tuesday may have single-handedly disconnected the Legislature's efforts to end monopolies now held by local phone companies. EZ3 host of controversial changes.

With less than two weeks left in the legislative session, Chiles' demands could prove tough to meet, lawmakers concede. But House Majority Leader Jim Davis refused to label the cable TV and telephone law rewrite dead. "I wouldn't go that far," said Davis, a Tampa Democrat. "There's time to make changes. Please see PHONES, C-5 Chiles and Attorney General Bob Butterworth wrote in a letter to lawmakers that proposals now being considered fail to provide enough consumer safeguards against rising phone rates and unfair competition.

Chiles sent the letters to House and Senate telecommunications committee chairmen, insisting on a I' 1 II ll ft IL 1 Those brain surgeons don't know everything I doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out why a professional association would choose Orlando for its annual convention, but I thought I would ask one anyway. "So," I asked Dr. Stephen Tillim of Tulsa, "why did your group pick Orlando for the convention?" He was stumped. "I don't know," Tillim said. "Maybe it was time for an East Coast tity." Actually, the answer is right there on page 3 of the official program for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons meeting at the Orange County Convention Center this week.

"Orlando is a magical and memorable city known to travelers worldwide for its glorious weather and unequaled attractions." Journalism isn't brain surgery, but I knew that. It may be the only thing I know that Tillim doesn't know. If you want to feel really inadequate, try surrounding yourself with 2,000 brain surgeons for a few hours. I felt like I was wearing a sign all day that read: "Kick me my IQ is under 150." Adding insult to injury, not once was I mistaken for a brain surgeon by doughnut vendors, security people or shoe shiners. Is it really that obvious? I have no special interest in brain surgeons.

Despite repeated suggestions from readers, I have not had a brain transplant. But like most people who barely broke 1,000 on their SAT, I stand in awe of brain surgeons. There is a special aura about them not felt with any other sort of physician, even heart surgeons probably because the brain is attached to the soul while the heart looks like the knot of VCR and cable wires behind my TV. I had no idea what to expect when I strolled into the convention center Monday morning too late, it turned out, for a breakfast seminar titled "Intercranial Fra-meless Stereotaxis: Principles and Applications." Darn! So I wandered into a cavernous exhibit hall where the trade-show portion of the convention is being held. Move over, Terror on Church Street.

This is the scariest show in town. Talk about a skull session. The array of state-of-the-art surgical tools is not for the squeamish. Across the vast hall are dozens of skulls (plastic, I hope) with wires and metal rods coming out the eye sockets or the top of the head. One exhibitor has a real sheep's skull, pink and raw, locked in a vise for those wishing to try out some sharp instrument Another is using a ham bone to demonstrate a high-speed cranial drill.

It didn't fool me. This is your brain this is your brain being drilled. Any questions? Alongside the skulls are all manner of horrific drills, chisels, scalpels, clamps and cranial perforators. "Sharp. Non-Skid.

Cuts 350 Faster," touts one perforator company. The actual drill bit is maybe 2 inches long, but the model is the size of a railroad spike. And then there are the videos. From a distance I spotted a surgeon engrossed in what appeared to be an instructional video on barbecuing ribs. It turned out to be a lumbar laminectomy in progress.

By then it was time for lunch. But guess who wasn't hungry? Instead, I tried to mingle and get some interviews, but it was hard. Brain surgeons are not born minglers. Most of them wear that "don't-want-to-be-bothered" look. "They try to be sociable, but small talk doesn't interest them," said Gregory Johnson, a manufacturer's rep.

"They process information so fast it's hard to hold their interest long." Nor are they born tippers, said two men working a shoe-shine stand in the convention center. "If they give you anything, they give you a dollar," said one. It was Marjorie Rogers who made my day. She works at an information desk near the front entrance of the convention center. I asked for her impression of the brain surgeons.

Much better behaved than the surfers who have met there, she said. The surgeons are friendly and very bright, she said, but she recalled one who had trouble following directions to the I-Ride bus line that serves International Drive. "I tell him where to turn left or right when he gets out the door. Then he gets out there and forgets," she said. Hey, it's not brain surgery, but I made it to the parking lot with no help at all Priest denies he molested children By Debbie Salamone and Jim Leusner OF THE SENTINEL STAFF He also said the diocese, which has received other complaints of child molestation committed by Bendixen, never told him about the specifics of those allegations or the identities of the accusers, despite two letters from Bendixen requesting the information.

"As of the present date, I have not been informed of all the accusations made during 1994, or given the opportunity to respond to these accusations," Bendixen said Please see DEFENSE, C-6 GARY BOGDOWTHE ORLANDO SENTINEL Former Catholic Diocese of Orlando Chancellor Arthur Bendixen defended himself Tuesday against child molestation charges, saying he is innocent and pained by the situation. Bendixen denied any wrongdoing in his first public statement since a Feb. 10 lawsuit accused him of molesting an altar boy. Earth Day 25 may have been last Saturday, Lee Road on Tuesday. Father Bill's on the lad-but Bill, Billy Christmas didn't think they were der son Billy holds.

Today the Christmases late as they cleaned the big globe at 1-4 and plan to paint the small world, after all. Orlando cuts Pinkie Lee's nightclub some slack on debt By Dan Tracy OF THE SENTINEL STAFF with Clayton, a top city administrator decided the restaurant should not be closed. "We're in good shape," said Richard Levey, Orlando's deputy chief administrative officer. "Kevin has made tremendous progress." IRS and state revenue spokesmen would not discuss Pinkie Lee's, citing confidentiality laws. Please see CLUB, C-4 after meeting with Kevin Clayton, Pinkie Lee's owner.

Clayton produced documents showing he had reimbursed the Internal Revenue Service nearly $43,000 in delinquent sales taxes and was in the process of paying back the state more than $38,000 in unpaid payroll taxes. The state Department of Revenue debt, Clayton said, should be satisfied by the end of June. "Our business is very strong and healthy," Clayton said. "We have weathered the storm." Both the state and IRS had filed liens in Orange County Circuit Court against Pinkie Lee's, violating the restaurant's lease with the city. The city, as a result, gave Pinkie Lee's a month to repay the IRS and state or face eviction.

The deadline was Tuesday. But after talking for about 20 minutes Pinkie Lee's, a popular nightspot next to the Orlando Arena, will remain open, having paid more than half of an $80,000 debt in back taxes. Orlando officials last month threatened to close the year-old club unless all the taxes were paid. They backed off Tuesday mmmrr wm -jw 5 Polk awarded $25.8 million in suit over 'sick' courthouse kVY'-- ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 At the insurer's Philadelphia headquarters, spokesman Richard Earl said the company had no comment but added that an appeal is planned. The courthouse, located in Bartow, opened in 1987 at a cost of $32 million.

It was closed in 1992. Repairs have reached nearly $40 million. The county held a $29 million 7 ST. PETERSBURG A jury said Tuesday an insurance company must pay Polk County $25.8 million after mold growth made hundreds of workers ill in a 10-story courthouse that cost more to fix than to build. "Top quality engineers from throughout the country who participated in the investigation and remediation proved what caused the problem was faulty workmanship.

That was what the insurance covered," said Robert Trohn, who represented Polk in the lawsuit against Reliance Insurance Co. JOE BURBANWTHE ORLANDO SENTINEL policy with Reliance and took the insurer to court to recoup some of DUQle bOyS the repair costs. Trohn, a Lakeland attorney, maintained Reliance owed the county millions of dollars in com-! These boogie-woogie bugle boys aren't from Hosmer, Jeff Campese and Dean Dukes belt Company but rather from Epcot '95's Fu- out a tune during a morning show at the ture Corps. Johnny Rosson (from left), James theme park in Orange County on Tuesday. "Allen Rose is taking a break.

Brevard at Large will return. Please see SICK, C-6.