South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 29

STATE PAGE 10B Sun-Sentinel, Friday, November 14, 1997 Section EmMMei prmdpaFs steitims (rpestfkwniei Employee kept salary while fighting misconduct charges the charges worth pursuing, Smith wasn't suspended. Instead, he was temporarily assigned to the district office overseeing programs for disabled and gifted students, a job he still holds. Now Superintendent Frank Pe-truzielo's staff wants Smith off the job and his paycheck stopped. Smith, who could not be PLEASE SEE PRINCIPAL 4B By BILL HIRSCHMAN Education Writer Whenever Broward County school employees were accused of misconduct, one thing has been consistent the School Board suspended them without pay during the months-long process of hearings and appeals. Except once.

Since January, veteran principal John E. Smith has kept his According to investigators, Smith: Gave special privileges to female employees, then took them away when they spurned his advances or ended their relationships with him. Gave female staffers he was pursuing sexually explicit gifts, cards and notes. paycheck while he battles allegations that he falsified payroll records, destroyed evidence and sexually harassed female staff members. Now that decision, which raised questions about special treatment, is being tossed back to the board to reconsider.

At Tuesday's board meeting, school dis trict staff will once again recommend that Smith be cut from the payroll while he fights the charges. Smith was principal at Cross Creek School in Pompano Beach for severely emotionally disabled children in July 1996, when an employee notified investigators of possible irregularities. Misspent more than $16,000 by regularly giving employees a paid day off and letting them leave early even though payroll records showed they worked a full day. Directed staff members to falsify payroll records and destroy public evidence. But when investigators found Suarez upsets Carollo in Miami runoff By MARTIN WISCKOL Miami Bureau MIAMI Amid the swirling controversy of ballot fraud, Xavier Suarez came from behind to win Thursday's runoff election and become the city's first strong mayor.

However, a lawsuit filed by defeated incumbent Joe Carollo's attorney is pending. It asks that the absentee ballots in the Nov. 4 election be thrown out and Carollo declared victor on the basis of the precinct voting. In Miami Beach, where there was I ilh grrujjiuM I mi. 11 J- also evidence of illegal ballots in last week's election, City Commissioner Neisen Kasdin was elected to replace retiring Mayor Seymour Gel-ber.

Miami Beach also elected its first and second Hispanic commissioners, Simon Cruz and Jose Smith. Attorney David Dermer, who led the successful June referendum drive to limit waterfront skyscrapers, also was elected to the commission. 1 V- 1421 X'-7' 'X "1 i I ft I Suarez But stakes were highest in the Mi ami race, where the victory meant a full-time salary and broad executive powers for the first time in the city's history. In defeating Mayor Carollo, Suarez overcame a three-percentage-point deficit in the Nov. 4 election and accusations that his campaign was involved with voter fraud.

PLEASE SEE MAYOR 6B Candidate for Tri-Rail job was replaced in L.A. Staff photoSUSAN G. STOCKER Did somebody say PopMart tour? Members of a stage crew work on top of a giant golden arch on Thursday in preparation for tonight's U2 concert at Pro Player Stadium. The Irish rock band's PopMart tour features large props that satirize our consumer culture, including a giant mirrored lemon, a 15-foot cocktail olive and a huge television screen. The band is touring in support of its recent album Pop.

The stage set, which takes five days to set up, is one of three that travel to different cities on the tour. Tickets are still available. Please see story, 6B. Cuba on trial for fatal '96 shootdown By LISA J. HURIASH Staff Writer The top choice to lead Tri-Rail is a former interim director of the Los Angeles transportation agency who was replaced after she approved $1 million in retroactive raises and bonuses for about 130 employees, including herself.

Board members of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority also were unhappy with the agency's repeated failure to satisfy federal inquiries during Linda Bohlinger's tenure, the Los Angeles Times reported. This morning, the Tri-Rail Board of Directors is scheduled to discuss and approve a contract and benefits package for Bohlinger. The board interviewed her and two other candidates earlier this month, and a majority voted to offer the job to Bohlinger. Lori Parrish, chairwoman of the Tri-Rail board and a Broward County commissioner, said she did not know about Bohlinger's problems in the Los Angeles job, but she would be asking questions today. "It begs some following up.

I was not aware of it," said Parrish. Board member and Palm Beach County Commis-PLEASE SEE TRI-RAIL 4B sbct pJL ta, 29, and Armando Alejandre, 45, are making history. The suits are the first tried under a new federal law that allows victims to seek damages from foreign governments for acts of terrorism in American courts. A fourth man killed, former Cuban raft refugee Pablo Morales, was not a U.S. citizen and is not covered under the law.

The victims' families hope to persuade Senior U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King to collectively award them $79 million in punitive and compensatory damages even though Cuba refused to answer the complaint and isn't providing a defense. Noting that Cuba has defended itself in U.S. civil PLEASE SEE TRIAL 4B Expert testifies planes didn't violate airspace By LARRY LEBOWITZ Staff Writer MIAMI He wasn't there in person, but Cuban President Fidel Castro was hauled into an American court on Thursday in a landmark lawsuit brought by the families of three exiles whose unarmed planes were shot down over the Florida Straits by Cuban fighter pilots in February 1996. A Cuban MiG-29 shot down the unarmed twin-engine Cessnas bearing four members of the de la Pena Alejandre Costa Brothers to the Rescue exile group as they searched for refugee rafters trying to escape Castro's Communist regime.

The families of Mario de la Pena, 24, Carlos Cos Mom to jury: Terrified son knew he was going to die Beating victim's parent breaks silence in court INSIDE Police are searching for a man they say shot a woman five times after she forgot to buy dog food. 3B Backlogs clog federal subsidized housing program, leading to long waits for homes across South Florida. 3B State's Legislative Delegation picks a chairman, discusses candidates for next year's governor's race. 4B Thang Nguyen, left, mother of murder victim Luyen Nguyen, testifies publicly for the first time in a Hollywood courtroom on Thursday. The Nguyen family is suing Michael Barychko, above, one of six men convicted in the 1992 beating death of the 19-year-old at a party.

Barychko was convicted of aggravated battery of Nguyen in a 1995 criminal trial and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Because of an appeal, he has not yet served his sentence. 54-year-old woman said, her voice rising. "We didn't do anything." The trial, now entering its second week in the Hollywood courthouse, pits the Nguyen family against Michael Ba-rychko, who was convicted of aggravated battery of Nguyen in a 1995 criminal trial and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Because of an appeal, he has not yet served his sentence.

In their wrongful death civil suit, the Nguyens seek damages for pain and suffering and loss of their son's support. If they win, up to $100,000 will come from an insurance policy the Barychko family has with Allstate. More than a dozen others originally named in the 1994 suit, several of whom are in prison, were dropped, leaving only Barychko. Barychko's parents, William and She- PLEASE SEE BEATINQ 6B By NOREEN MARCUS Staff Writer She has refused requests for interviews. She has watched silently as six young men were sentenced to prison one for life, another for 50 years for the racist mob frenzy that left her firstborn son dead at age 19 five years ago.

On Thursday, for the first time in a courtroom, Thang Nguyen, mother of slain Luyen Nguyen, talked. And cried. And revealed to a six-woman Broward County jury the questions she still cannot get a grip on: Why did her gentle son have to die that way? How could his former Coral Springs High School classmates stand by and do nothing as boozed-up bullies beat, kicked and stomped Luyen Nguyen until he lay dying? "I don't know why they did it," the ft Source Line 1 BROWARD BOCA RATON- BOYNTON COUNTY DELRAY BEACH BEACH 954-523-5463 561-496-5463 561-625-5463 CALL AND ENTER A CATEGORY NUMBER Staff photo9 JIM VIRGA Movie Review 7272 Local Music Line 7550 Local Theater Update7275 Trivia Game 7820 CD Reviews 7136 Skywatcher's hotline 2595 Emm.