South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 3

Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday, October 5, 1993 3A I NORTHEAST OTHER ACTION Sun-Sentinel wire Couart hears affgiimeBits over legislative districts Cop sick of attention NEW YORK Police whistle-blower Frank Serpico says dishonest officers are getting too much attention in the city's latest round of police corruption hearings while good officers are being overlooked. "It's sick," Serpico said in Sunday's Daily News. "We focus on the bad guys, don't praise the good guys and never end up holding the bosses accountable." Also on Monday, the Supreme Court: Cleared the way for an avowed while supremacist's third trial in -the 1963 slaying in Mississippi of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. The justices turned down Byron De i La Beckwith's arguments that forcing him to stand trial again vio- lates his constitutional rights. Agreed to decide whether a Mis- souri town violated the free-speech rights of a woman who was told to remove from her window a sign protesting the Persian Gulf War.

Refused to lift mass murderer John Wayne Gacy death sentences for the sex killings of 33 young men and boys in Illinois. Said it would study a South Carolina Death Row inmate's argument that he was sentenced unfairly be- cause a trial judge refused to tell the jury that a life sentence would carry no chance of parole. Rejected an appeal by officials seeking to bar students from forming a religion club and meeting for prayer and Bible study at a Ren-ton, high school. Turned away the appeal of a men-only Elks lodge in St. George, Utah, forced to let a woman become a member or give up its liquor license.

Refused to block a trial in which the Chicago Fire Department must defend its efforts to promote more minorities against a racial bias challenge by white firefighters. The debate continued on the steps of the court after the hearing. "What the plaintiffs have argued is that the Hispanic community should be given more than its fair share," said Peter Wallace, D-St. Petersburg, former House reapportionment chairman. "What I heard the justices saying today was why should you get another chance to prove your case when you couldn't prove it the first time?" DeGrandy disagreed.

"The best we can get is equity," said DeGrandy, R-Miami, who filed the original case in federal court in 1992. A decision from the high court is expected in three to six months. It could approve the current lines or order the Legislature to redraw the districts which would have an inevitable spillover effect and probably change district lines in Broward and Palm Beach counties as well as Dade. "If they draw more Hispanic districts, they will only disadvantage blacks," said Susan McManus, former chair of the department of government and international affairs at the University of South Florida. High court begins term with business cases.

3D But the U.S. Supreme Court delayed that ruling in order to review the case. The state says that the redisricting was fair: "You are creating a far greater opportunity for Hispanic voters than you are for white voters," said Joel Klein, a Washington lawyer representing the state. Questions from the justices indicated they shared some of Klein's concerns. Allen Foster, an attorney for the Hispanic voters, cited maps and figures and said, "If you respect Hispanic neighborhoods, you will get 11 Hispanic House districts." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her first day on the high court's bench, interrupted: "Would that involve any disrespect to any other district lines?" she asked.

It was one of several times she questioned the attorneys during the 90-minute argument. Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy also pressed Foster during his argument. By KATHY HENSLEY TRUMBULL Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Creating more Hispanic legislative districts in South Florida would compromise the rights of other groups, an attorney representing the state told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. But an attorney for a Hispanic group says that two more Hispanic-majority state House districts should be carved out to put Hispanics on equal footing with other minorities and non-Hispanic whites.

The case was argued as the high court opened its 1993-'94 term on Monday. The question before the court is whether the state's legislative redisricting violates the Voting Rights Act by weakening Hispanic voting power. During reapportionment before the 1992 election, the state Legislature created nine Hispanic-majority districts. But state Rep. Miguel De-Grandy sued, saying that there should be 11 Hispanic-majority seats; a lower federal court agreed and ordered De-Grandy's plan put into effect.

SOUTH Mom gets 6 life terms BALTIMORE A woman was sentenced on Monday to six consecutive life terms for setting a rowhouse fire that killed six of her seven children. Tonya Lucas, 29, who maintains she is innocent, received the maximum sentence. Lucas, her boyfriend, William Cook, and her son, William Lucas, 8, escaped the July 1992 fire, but heavy smoke choked the others, who were ages 2 months to 12 years. Teens charged in death WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. A 16-year-old girl, her boyfriend and two other teens plotted for several days before killing and robbing the girl's stepfather, police said.

The four teens were charged with murder in the shooting death of Robert Lee McCravy, 50, a machine operator at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Thousands joined chain SAN ANTONIO, Texas Organizers estimated that 15,000 to 17,000 anti-abortion activists joined the third annual, 90-minute Lifechain demonstration in San Antonio. Participants stood at the curbline on Sunday for about seven miles between Cypress Street and the entrance ramp of U.S. 281.

Demonstrators also fanned out along the frontage road at Interstate 410 to form a symbolic human cross. it if House GOP leader Michel plans to retire Sun-Sentinel wire services WASHINGTON House GOP leader Robert Michel announced his retirement on Monday, touching off a race for ,4 li 1 a successor. Newt Gingrich of Georgia emerged as the early front-runner, but other Republicans jockeyed for position. Michel, an easygoing Illinois legislator who has led House Republicans for 13 vonrc maHo an omn. MIDWEST Judge keeps schools open CHICAGO A judge on Monday agreed to allow Chicago's public schools to remain open at least through Friday averting a shutdown that would have put 411,000 students of the country's third largest school system out of class.

Judge Charles Kocoras of the U.S. 'District Court agreed to extend an existing order that has kept the schools open for the past 20 days. The School Board and the agency that controls its financing agreed -to try to work out a solution to the fiscal 9Ml f3 crisis by midnight on Friday. I A -1 it, -L Prosecutor cites war of terrorism Conspiracy described in tower bombing case Sun-Sentinel wire services NEW YORK The four Muslim fundamentalists accused of bombing the World Trade Center were part of a terrorist war against the United States, a federal prosecutor said on Monday. Assistant U.S.

Attorney Gilmore Childers said the four men were part of a conspiracy to bomb the Trade Center and other buildings in the city, and that they would kill again if given the opportunity. "This was part of a self-proclaimed war of terrorism on the United States," he said in his opening statement of the trial. He called the bombing "the single most destructive act of terrorism in the U.S." The four defendants are charged with conspiracy. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole. Two other suspects are fugitives; a seventh has been severed from the trial for reasons that are unclear.

The trial is expected to last for the rest of the year. As the jury was being sworn in on Monday, U.S. District Judge Kevin Duffy noted the importance of the proceedings. "All of us together are about to start on a great adventure. You are to become true ministers of justice," he told the jurors.

Childers said the government would prove that the four immigrants made the powerful bomb and took it to the Trade Center in lower Manhattan, the largest office complex in the nation. But Robert Precht, attorney for defendant Mohammad Salameh, said he would use testimony by police officers to show his client's behavior was that of an innocent man. Salameh rented the van thought to have been used in the bombing but reported it stolen 15 hours before the blast. He was arrested when he tried to retrieve his deposit. Precht said those were not the actions of someone who WEST fm jAy -'ml 135 forced from jet DENVER Smoke spewed from an engine of a Delta Air Lines jetliner on Monday, forcing the pilot to abort the flight and the 135 people aboard to evacuate down chutes.

Two or three people on Flight 1975 suffered "some scrapes and strains" during the runway evacuation, said Bill Berry, a spokesman at Delta headquarters in Atlanta. None required hospital treatment. One of the MD-80's twin engines failed as the pilot was preparing to take off from Stapleton International Airport for Dallas-Fort Worth. Kmart hostages rescued tional farewell in his Michel hometown of Peoria as he announced he would not seek a 20th term in Congress next year. "It's a good time to hang it up," said Michel, 70.

He would have stayed on if George Bush had won re-election, Michel said, but "I don't have that obligation now." Michel's departure to take effect after the 1994 elections comes at a time when Republicans are still groping to mold an effective role for themselves when Democrats control both the White House and Congress. The election to replace Michel, to be decided among Republicans in the House, will probably be held in December 1994. Gingrich is the heir apparent because, as majority whip, he is the second-highest Republican in the House power structure. But challengers began emerging within hours. Rep.

Gerald Solomon of New York, ranking Republican on the House Rules Committee, said he would run, saying he could unite the party's moderates and conservatives. The race to replace Michel is seen as both a contest of styles and a battle over who can best develop strategy for the minority party. "I don't know if it will be a fight for the soul of the party as much as it's going to be an issue of perceived style the lower-key, more conciliatory style vs. being antagonistic," said GOP Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a freshman from Michigan.

Reuters photo Police department workers unload barricades outside U.S. District Court in New York as part of security for tower bombing trial. The blast also shattered Americans' sense of security, Childers said. "After doing this, these four defendants put Americans on notice it was they who carried out this heinous act and they would do it again," he said. He said that while there were no witnesses who saw the men mixing the chemicals used in the bomb, "you will hear testimony undeniably tying the men to the chemicals." was guilty.

"The evidence will show Salameh's conduct is not that of a person plotting to blow up the World Trade Center," Precht said. "He acted as if he had an innocent state of mind." The bomb killed six people and injured more than 1,000. It devastated the underground garage of the complex and sent thick black smoke pouring through the twin 110-story towers. Former priest pleads guilty in sexual abuse of children LANCASTER, Calif. Two gunmen planning to rob a Kmart store held nine employees hostage for nearly six hours before sheriff's deputies rescued the workers and arrested two suspects early Monday.

Members of a Los Angeles County sheriff's special weapons team managed to quietly enter the store and bring out the nine, Deputy Angie McLaughlin said. High court denies bail The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by one of the two white Los Angeles police officers convicted in the beating case of black motorist Rodney King to be allowed free on bail during his appeal. The high court denied the emergency request by Officer Laurence Powell. Jury deliberates LOS ANGELES The jury in the Reginald Denny beating case began its first full day of deliberations on Monday with one of the panel being taught to use the computerized video machine so they can view the news footage of the attack, i Denny, a white truck driver, was beaten "by a mob of black men at the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues in south-central Los Angeles.

Damian Williams, 20, and Henry Watson, 29, are on trial for Denny's attempted murder and a number of other charges including assault with a deadly weapon and robbery. Correction Because of an editing error, information with a 3A story in Monday's edition was incorrect. Charts showing the 10 richest Americans, including one from Florida, should have listed their net worth in the billions of dollars. regret the errors 1 -f) 7' (V guilty, Porter, 58, said: "Because I am guilty, your honor." Initially, he had pleaded innocent. The former priest, who remained free on bail, was hustled from the courthouse.

His attorney, Peter De-Gelleke, said Porter felt "tremendous guilt." "He's obviously very nervous. He feels that he's reached a positive decision, a decision that will allow him to proceed with the rest of his life." Porter pleaded guilty to 27 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, seven counts of unnatural acts on a child under 16, six counts of abominable and detestable crimes against nature and one charge of assault and battery. Porter could be sentenced to more than 200 years in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec, 6. Some of Porter's victims, now in their 30s and 40s, sat in the courtroom and cried softly as court oilicials read a litany of Porter's crimes.

District Attorney Paul Walsh said that in compiling the case against Porter, investigators found that parents of molested children had complained to church officials, who moved Porter from one parish to another, but otherwise took no action. Porter began serving in Massachusetts in 1960 and worked at parishes in North Attleboro. Fall River and New Bedford. In 1967, he left Massachusetts and entered a treatment program in New Mexico for pedophilia. He was assigned to a church in Bemidji, but left in 1970.

Several victims formed a group called Survivor Connections and demanded that the church make it a policy to immediately investigate any sexual abuse complaints involving clergy; remove the perpetrator if the charges are true; and report the complaints to civil authorities, The Associated Press NEW BEDFORD, Mass. A former Roman Catholic priest admitted on Monday that he molested 28 children in three Massachusetts parishes in the 1960s in one of the largest child sexual abuse cases of its kind. Prosecutors said 125 men and women had come forward willing to testify that James Porter had molested them when they were children. They said several had complained to church officials at the time, without results. The pleas culminate a case that surfaced in May 1992 and helped focus the Roman Catholic Church's attention on sexual abuse by priests.

"I hope that every victim of sexual abuse someday in their ordeal can have a day like this," said John Roba-taille, one of Porter's victims. When Superior Court Judge Robert Steadman asked why hehad pleaded AP photo James Porter appears in court in New Bedford, on Monday; he admits to molesting 28 youths..