Fort Lauderdale News from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 17

Fort Lauderdale News Section Friday, May 22, 1987 MfettlD ailor's life torched many in Broward 'Although he's gone, I don't question w- I ft I why God took him What bothers me is all of the unanswered questions. How could this happen? We're supposed to be a nation that is so sophisticated with computers and access to everything. How could this happen?" Mim Gaines, Vernon Foster's mother j'f i' Jin I (X .0 4 Vi i J7, i Iff I 1 j. Foster Bethune-Cookman College who met Foster at a college career fair in Broward years ago. "I had just gotten a letter from him three weeks ago.

He expressed in that letter how much he missed South Florida. He was such a role model for many black kids here." Foster had been stationed in South Florida including offices in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale between 1977 and 1982, recruiting young men into the Navy. Relatives in Jacksonville said Foster One of the friends with whom Foster corresponded was Hazel Dove, a curriculum specialist who met Foster through vocational programs sponsored by the Broward School Board. "I got a letter from him three weeks ago that was dated Feb. 16," Dove said.

"It traveled to an old address I had before I moved. I was so glad to hear from him. He probably never had a chance to get the letter I wrote back to him." In the letter, Foster wrote Dove: "Perhaps one day I will be able to get in recruiting again." Beneby said on Thursday that he hoped to organize a scholarship fund in Foster's name. In addition to working as a Navy recruiter in various schools in Broward and Dade counties, Foster had served on the county's advisory committee for the program. He also had worked with middle school students enrolled in work experience programs.

SEE FOSTER 7B Mi -MA staff photoSUSAN GARDNER By VALERIE HILL-MORGAN SUtf Writer In the U.S. Navy, he was known as Senior Chief Petty Officer Vernon Tyrone Foster, a navigator. In Broward County, however, the 33-year-old serviceman was widely known for the keen interest he showed in Broward's high school students particularly underprivileged seniors and younger troubled students. He had a broad smile and an outgoing 1 personality two traits, his friends say, that enabled him to touch so many lives and to make so many friends in the five years he worked in the county as a Navy recruiter. And that is why so many friends were stunned this week when they learned that Foster was among 37 servicemen killed on Sunday aboard the USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.

"It's really hard to believe that he's -dead," said Fred Beneby, a Fort Lauder-tdale resident and a student recruiter for Hosts not liable for minors Private parties exempt from law By DEBORAH PETIT Staff Writer People who serve alcohol to a minor at a private party cannot be held legally responsible if the youth gets drunk, leaves the party and has a car accident, the Florida Supreme Court decided on Thursday. The high court concluded in its 4-1 ruling that Florida legislators did not intend to include hosts of private get-togethers in the 1980 law they enacted prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors. The Supreme Court decision backs a December 1985 ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeal in a case brought by Ed- I mund and Mary Banks ton of Plantation. I The Bankstons were injured in May 1983 when a car driven by high school senior Brian Brennan collided with theirs on St. Andrews Boulevard in Boca Raton.

The accident left Edmund Bankston with brain damage. The Bankstons recovered damages in their claim against Brennan. They also filed a lawsuit against Steven Ladika, who was host of a private party at his Boca Raton home on the day of the accident Brennan was one of the high school students who attended that party. 1 The Bankstons' attorneys contended that a party host who knowingly serves liquor to a minor should be liable. A Broward Circuit Court judge, however, dismissed the claim against Ladika.

The Supreme Court's action on Thursday affirmed that dismissal. Fort Lauderdale attorney Valerie Shea, who represented the Ladikas in the appellate court, said she thinks the court properly decided that state law applies only to vendors or bar owners who sell liquor to minors who are then involved in accidents. The high court said that, while it may be socially desirable to impose a similar standard of liability on private party hosts who serve alcohol to minors, that action should properly be addressed by the Legislature. "If it Is done in the Legislature it will be done in a much more public and progressive manner," Shea said. "It Is an issue of such sweeping Implications that it should be done In the legislative forum." With the recent surge of concern about drunken driving, Shea said, she expects groups to lobby the Legislature to broaden the law to include private parties.

Retired Justice James Adkins wrote the sole dissent, saying the family knowingly Served alcohol to a minor and should therefore be liable. "I find no valid basis, nor did the Legislature, to distinguish between tavern owners and social hosts when it comes to furnishing alcoholic beverages to minors," Adkins wrote. News of the high court's decision was greeted with dismay by members of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. "It certainly takes the host right off the book," said Stan Johnson, vice president of MADD'i Broward County chapter. INSIDE LOCAL A graveyard is blocking the path or a highway.

3D School Board decides not to expel Tour students accused in counterfeiting ring. 4B Gary Stein's column will resume on Wednesday. transferred there in early 1982. Three years later, he reported to the Stark, where he was responsible for navigation aboard the ship. "He had a very responsible Job," said LL Cmdr.

John Lloyd of the Navy Personnel Command in Washington, D.C "He was involved in supervising people who pilot the ship. In terms of pay grade, he was second from the top" of enlisted personnel Foster wrote regularly to several friends in Broward, his relatives said. MURDER VICTIMS All nine victims wer found within one mile of Eddie Lee Motera home at 1048 NW 27th Ave. Legend 1) Nov. 3, 1972: Unidentified female, found near the New River and Seaboard System railroad tracks.

2) Jury 9, 1973: Vetta Turner, 34, found at 626 NW 22nd Road. S) Christmas Eve 1979: Susan Boyn-ton, 21, found at 660 NW 22nd Road. 4) Feb. 22. 1080: Arnotta Tukaa, 19, found at 1300 NW Fifth St.

5) March 16. 1980: Gloria Irving, 16, found at 201 NW 18th Ave. Dec. 19, 1983: Qeraldlr BarfMd, 35, found at 716 NW 14th Way. 7) Christmas Day 1983: Emma La Cook, 54, found at 735 NW 15th Way.

8) Nov. 28, 1984: Loratta Brown, 29, found at 2790 NW 1 1th Plaoa. 9) Dec. 19, 1984: Thereaa OlkM, 22, found at 1151 NW 27th Ave. Staff papNoOtEOO (M 1 'www 1 EddleLei CZI -1ZStl Mosley's I ZINWl Sunrise Blvd I AA I Jfek NW6SI Broward Blvd 7T I I I HI I light of weekend Lauderdale beach, The reunion, Council, lasts I 1 Fred Beneby: Foster a "role model." aroie offices opposed Riverwalk location upsets developers By NANCY E.

ROMAN Staff Writer FORT LAUDERDALE Criminals and tourists don't mix. Neither do criminals and business owners. For those reasons, city officials and developers said on Thursday they are unhappy that the state may move its local probation offices to a building near Riverwalk, a plan approved by voters last November to build offices, shops and trendy cafes along the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale. At a meeting of a Riverwalk advisory group, members conjured images of pickpockets on probation milling among the musicians, sidewalk cafes and tourists along Brickell Avenue. "It seems like every time we take one step forward we take two steps back," said Bill Johnson, the Riverwalk project director.

"It will be terrible if they dump 2,000 criminals right on the Riverwalk next to Brickell Avenue, the area we hope will be the entertainment district." Officials said they were alarmed to learn that Jerry Vogel, owner of One River Plaza, 305 S. Andrews Avenue, submitted a bid to rent 10,000 square feet of office space to the state for probation offices. Vogel was out of town, but his staff confirmed that be had submitted a bid to lease space for the processing of criminals who are placed on probation. The term of the lease is five years. Joyce Haley, the state's regional administrator for probation and parole services, said Broward County has given her agency SEE OFFICE 7B rapes, pulled her off a street and dragged her into a vacant lot in the 1300 block of Northwest Fifth Street.

The place is just several blocks north of police headquarters. Mosley, 40, a convicted robber and rapist, is being held without bail in the Broward County Jail. He was first charged with burglary on Sunday, and that arrest meant that detectives, whom Mosley had avoided for years, finally 1ot their chance to question him at cngth about the series of homicides. On Tuesday, he was charged with second-degree murder In the Christmas Eve 1983 slaving of Emma Cook, 54. Hurt said that his Investigators "picked Evans' brain" while researching Moiley during the past three months.

Evans retired less than three weeks ago after 23 years with the department "It's really Ironic," acting Police Chief Joe Gerwens said on Thursday. "The case really haunted him." Other investigators have been haunted as well since 1972, when Mosley was first Identified as a rape and murder suspect But despite the detectives' best efforts to link Mosley to the killings, the murders continued. Besides Tukes, the victims that police attributed to Mosley on Thursday were: An unidentified woman found on SEE MOSLEY 7B TTti Spring Break nostalgia Entertainers Frankie Avalon and Connie Stevens arrive at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Thursday night for the first Spring Break Reunion in Broward County. The reunion starts today. The high- events is Monday's concert on the Fort featuring Jan and Dean and Fabian.

sponsored by Broward's Tourist Development through June 14. THE HUNTER AND THE HUNTED Suspected serial killer's arrest ends 1 5 haunting years for detective. Pipeline opponents get $50,000 By DAVID UHLER 8taff Writer FORT LAUDERDALE For years and years, Detective Doug Evans was the hunter. Eddie Lee Mosley, now charged In the murder of one woman and linked to at least eight other slaylngs, was the man he hunted and hated. Mosley is in jail.

And even though Evans recently retired, those who know him say that his hatred will probably never so away On Thursday, Ev- Mosley ans' cousin, Arnette Tukes, was identified by police ai one of Mosley's suspected victims. Other names and details also released by police complete the list of nine homicides, committed over the past 15 years, that detectives are attributing to Motley. "Doug just hated Mosley," said Sgt George Hurt, supervisor of the homicide squad. "The case consumed him and he was just obsessed with it." Tukes was 19 when she was strangled In February 1980. Investigators think that Mosley, a former mental patient who also is a suspect in more than 100 ''AAV By SCOTT A.

ZAMOST Staff Writer The Florida Alliance, an anti-pipeline lobbying group that has received more than a half-million dollars from Port Everglades, easily won the port commission's approval on Thursday for another $50,000. But, for the first time, the commission also placed a port commissioner on the alliance's board of directors to oversee Its activities more closely. "We are putting the last nail In the coffin," said Commissioner Walter Browne, In explaining his vote to approve the additional money. Browne, appointed to serve on the alliance's board, said he doubted the group would request any more money from the port. The alliance, a private group of marine businesses and organized labor, has received $540,075 from the port since 1974, alliance Chairman Hans 1 1 vide said.

That represents 34 percent of the group's expenses. It was formed four years ago solely to oppose conversion of an 889-mile natural gas pipeline to carry petroleum products. Transgulf Pipeline Co. canceled the project in March 1086, citing a drop In oil prices. Hvide said the group needs additional financial support to ensure that the state Department of Environmental Regulation SEE PIPELINE 7B VALU i ft 1 I'.