Great Falls Tribune from Great Falls, Montana • Page 30

8-C Great Falls Tribune Wedm-mlay, Auguni 26, 1981 Abused wives strike back with murder Dear Abby (ft) It's going to take the court some time to trust what puts a woman over the edge." professor. "But the courts have to take cognizance of what women find to be mentally and sexually abusive. Getting drunks off none in 1979 and one in 1980. Counselors and lawyers say the statistic has refocused attention on violence against women and on the tragic results when the victims return the violence. "The fear is incredible," Ms.

Crawford says. "The terror in their eyes is incredible. You've exhausted everything: you've utilized the courts and the police, and you're still living in total fear of being abused. What we're seeing in these women is terror, absolute terror." SOME WOMEN ALLOW THE TERROR TO GO on endlessly. In others, something snaps.

"It's probably a combination of utter hopelessness and all of a sudden a rage," Ms. Crawford says. "There is a rage that you're not allowed to do this to me. The blind rage comes over them and they strike out." Some people question if the violence is that spontaneous. Assistant Attorney General David Harrigan wonders if last winter's pardon of a woman who killed her husband with an ax "had anything to do with a bunch of wives saying, 'Hey, what the hell? She did all Richard Sebastian of the University of New Hampshire's Family Research Laboratory says the knowledge that battered women who kill may be able to defend their actions might remove a deterrent to murder.

"I'M NOT SURE IT NECESSARILY encourages women," Sebastian says. "But fear of punishment for crime is an inhibitory factor, and when people no longer fear the factor, it's no longer influential." Nonetheless, "even if they're concerned about the consequences they may do it," he says. "To those women, the consequences of living with this brutal man are worse than the consequences of going to jail." Physical abuse is "something the courts are beginning to recognize," says Ms. Scribner, a law school DEAR ABBY: The recent letter in your column from Cyd Hassner. whose 16-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver, reminded me that drunk drivers have just about been eliminated from the roads of Norway because of mandatory jail sentences and revocation of driving licenses.

1 have often wondered why we, as Americans, continue to tolerate this needless slaughter on our highways. Our state legislature just reformed Maryland's drunk-driving laws on July 1. Now our congressman, Michael D. Barnes, has introduced in the House of Representatives Bill HR2488 to combat the nationwide epidemic of drunk driving. Identical legislation in the Senate (S671) is being sponsored by Rhode Island Sen.

Claiborne Pell. If you agree that such legislation is a step in the right direction, please bring these bills to the attention of your readers. If they are seriously interested in saving lives and reducing injuries on our highways, I'm sure they wouldn't mind spending a few minutes writing post cards to their congressmen and senators in support of these bills. GERALD1NE NORBY, BETHESDA, MD. DEAR GERALDINE: First, some statistics provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Safety Council: One quarter of a million Americans lost their lives in alcohol-related auto crashes over the past decade.

About 26,000 citizens are killed in drunk-driving incidents yearly. Nearly 70 Americans are killed in drunk-driving incidents every day. Over one million Americans suffer crippling and other serious injuries every year in drunk-driving incidents. The drinking-driver problem creates an estimated economic cost of over $5 billion annually. For Americans up to age 35, the No.

1 cause of death is motor vehicle Quality Fashions tor Apparel and Home 7 )'4remnants G(ft? MfJvEj3li A huge selection of colors m. (TnvSSil and Oil doll clothes, toys. the marked price 10th Ave. and 16th 453-7733 Shop: Sun. 12-5; 10-9; Frl.

10-8; Sat. 10-6 Smelter NW By-Pass 453-7763 Shop: Sun. 12 10-7; Sat. 10-6 VISA Mastercard; plenty of free parking CONCORD, N.H. (AP) July 14: Ana Pelton, down to 88 pounds from 120 and psychologically "a piece of meat," is home with her husband.

Last night, she mailed suicide notes to her son and her sister. Now she's pointing a Beretta at her head. "Go ahead," says her husband, who's been cheating on her for four of their 12 married years. "It'll save me the cost of a divorce." Mrs. Pelton turns the pistol and shoots him nine times.

She reloads and fires four more shots. He is hit in the head, the chest "all over the place," a prosecutor says. Mrs. Pelton, 45, is charged with first-degree murder. Today she is a patient at the state mental hospital.

"She's a hopeless case," says her lawyer, Thomas Allison, who related the incident. "She doesn't know where she is. She doesn't even know he's dead." JULY 29: PRISC1LLA SZELOG, 38, mother of three, is home for a day. She was hospitalized, for depression, by her husband described in court by her lawyer as "a severe, reprehensible, cruel man who physically, morally and emotionally abused her over a long, continuous period of time." She is alone with him "no more than five minutes and he starts at it again," says the lawyer, Frank Holland. A 20-gauge shotgun roars once, and Henry Szelog, hit in the chest, is dead.

Holland calls the case classic. He says Szelog drove his wife to an "irresistible impulse, a spur of the moment mental aberration wherein you really lose control for a brief period of time, never to do it again." When Mrs. Szelog goes on trial for second-degree murder in November, Holland will argue that his client's actions were justified. AUG. 3: SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE Richard Dunfey hears Catherine Kelley describe five years of psychological abuse from her ex-husband.

She recalls the scene last summer, how he demanded $1,000 and oral sex in a parking lot before she could visit their daughter, how moments later she shot him five times in the abdomen. Dunfey sentences Mrs. Kelley, 34, to 15 to 25 years. "It was a little hard for the court to understand the mental abuse she had been put through," says Ruth Scribner, one of Mrs. Kelley's lawyers.

"A woman should not have to walk into court with missing limbs and her head broken open to prove she has been provoked." EACH YEAR IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, three or four men are charged with killing their wives. Police know of 324 cases of wife abuse last year, and counselors say that's just a fraction of the real count. Some experts say that increasing numbers of women are striking back at violent husbands and more are using provocation as a defense in court. The defense has been raised elsewhere, with varying success: perhaps the most celebrated case was that of Francine Hughes of Dansville, who was acquitted in 1977 of killing her sleeping husband by pouring gasoline under his bed and igniting it. Testimony showed she had been mentally and physically brutalized for years.

"IT ISN'T THE RIGHT THING TO DO but they're saying enough is enough, and they're lashing out," says Deanna Crawford of Nashua's Rape and Assault Committee. Three New Hampshire women have been charged with killing their husbands this summer, compared to the road accidents, and more than halt of highway deaths are caused by drunk drivers. On an average weekend night, one out of every 10 drivers on the road is drunk. 65 percent of drivers who kill themselves in single-car wrecks are drunk. Of every 2,000 drunken drivers, only one is arrested.

44 percent of all nighttime fatal alcohol-related crashes are caused by the 16-to-24 age group (this group comprises only 22 percent of the total licensed population). Now, HR2488: For first oftenders, would provide mandatory sentence of at least 10 days of community service, in addition to fines and participation in alcohol treatment or traffic safety programs. For repeat offenders (persons convicted of drunk driving two or more times within a five-year period), would provide a mandatory sentence of at least 10 days' imprisonment, in addition to fines and participation in alcohol treatment programs. For repeat offenders, provides for mandatory suspension of driver's license for up to one year. Establishes a statewide driver record-keeping system capable of identifying repeat offenders that is easily accessible to the courts.

A uniform standard definition of driving while intoxicated shall be set at a blood-alcohol concentration level no higher than .10 percent. Provides a program coordinated in close cooperation with the local communities that includes: 1. Adequate enforcement and public information efforts. 2. Efficient arrest and adjudication procedures.

3. Monitoring to assure compliance with court-ordered sanctions. 4. Pre-sentence screening of offenders for sanctioning purposes. 1981 Mrs.

America The suit contends that Mrs. Boyd also won the Mrs. Photogenic contest, but used a program photograph several years old. In addition, some judges conceded they were pressured in connection with their choiqes and admitted this to some of the contestants, the suit contends, adding that some contestants were offered additional financial awards so they wouldn't complain about the way it was run. 9mm NAPKINS TABU CLOTHS reature or Back-lo-School Lim i Contestants charge rigging of Mrs.

America Pageant AZJTAD IH MM" 'Hi KW1K Pitt FOOD MART PEN DAYS Ad Effective Aug. 26, 27, 28, 29, 1981 OPEN A.M. to 10 P.M. 7 Days A Week Frozen Pink SALMON STEAKS ftp taw MSA I Fresh Pork SPARE RIDS Oscar Mayer LUNCH $n49 ib. LOS ANGELES (AP) Two contestants in this year's Mrs.

America Pageant filed a $2 million suit against the pageant Monday alleging that the contest was rigged. Denise Ames, 29, Mrs. Nevada in the contest held in Las Vegas last April, and Vicki Vidoni, 28, Mrs. Maryland, contend that the winner "was predetermined by design and with the knowledge and consent of" the pageant operators, who appear in the suit as approximately a dozen "Does." Specifics of the suit against Mrs. America Pageants Inc.

of Beverly Hills include breach of covenant and fair dealing essentially breach of contract fraud and deceit and "intentional interference with a prospective business advantage." Each plaintiff seeks $1 million. Marvin Mitchelson, the palimony lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, contends more than 25 of the contestants have backed up the plaintiffs' allegations, but pageant owner David Marmel has called the charges "untrue" and "The allegations are false and we resent them all of them," said. Mitchelson said he decided to file the suit after a six-month investigation. "Four out of the top five choices (contestants)" wore padded bathing suits, the suit contends, although that is supposed to be forbidden. Families of the top 10 choices were seated in the front of the theater throughout the contest and the family of the eventual winner, Mrs.

Louisiana, Paddy Boyd. 33. was seated front and center throughout the contest, it said. The suit further contended that Mrs. Louisiana had been flown to the pageant first class, when all others had been flown coach class.

The suit also said that Mrs. Ames was told that she could not win the Best Costume portion of the contest because she was from Nevada and last year's Best Costume award winner also was from Nevada. YWCA fall tour still has openings The Great Falls YWCA still has a few seats available through this week for the fall tour going to the Great Smoky Mountains. The tour will leave Great Falls Oct. 24 to fly to Chatanooga, Tenn.

After a few days there, they will travel by bus to the Great Smoky Mountains to see the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.; Knoxville, Lexington, Frankfurt and Louisville, and then tour Mammoth Caves. They go to Nashville for city tours and the Grand 01' Opry. For more information, call the YWCA. Variety Pack 98 i -ox. pkg.

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bog $339 Mcintosh Terms lay-Away Charge ft U.S. No. 1 PLUMS FACIAL TISSUE Kleenex Boutique 125 cf. pkg. 69 A SMALL DEPOSIT WILL HOLD YOU SELECTION IN STORAGE 'TIL WANTED, STORAGE FREE! 109-31 1 Ctntrol Mi 453 6571 Now in Our I3rrj Year as Matter furriers Women's Stylists Longer library hours By Tribune Correspondent LEW1STOWN The city library will be open longer hours, starting Sept.

1. The new hours, which apply to both the children's and adults' divisions, are 1-9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday; 1-5 p.m., Friday; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

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