Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 37

1 7 Editorial pages D14, D15 Local sports Section More Connecticut news D8, Dll, D13 Obituaries D12 Town marketplace D4 Bloomfield D5 East Hartford D3, D5 Hartford Dlf D3 West Hartford D3, D4 Windsor D4, D5f D7 Windsor Locks D5 Coming events D2 Legal notices B7f E14 Statewide U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson distributes a 54-minute campaign monologue to every library in her district. Page Dll Hartford Fourteen Latin Kings gang members were arrested Thursday as they conducted an open-air drug market, police said.

PageD3 Hartford Thousands of dollars raised by a political action committee called Democrats '92 will go toward helping Democrats gets elected. PageD3 Windsor A proposal to appropriate $2.95 million to build a new fire station in Wilson and buy fire-fighting equipment has gained support. Page D5 Local editorial Windsor needs a new, larger fire station in the south end of town. Hartford needs new and renovated schools. PagD14 Every Friday REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS In this section 7 i i life y.

SECTION FRIDAY OCTOBER 30,1992 State car phones misused, auditors say told that state phones should not be used for personal calls. He said he made the calls to keep in touch on private business matters that he continued when he became commission- reimbursed. Most of the calls were made by former Agriculture Commissioner John J.C. Herndon, who became Weicker's deputy chief of staff in February. The other calls were er and to let his family know his schedule.

He said that he has a 90- made by the current News and notes from the hallways of government In a letter to Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. this week, the auditors said that "a sizeable percentage" of more than 2,500 calls made from car phones by the officials were personal. The calls were made over a 16-month period.

The auditors said the officials reimbursed the state about $1,300 for personal calls. They said those calls were about 35 percent of the 2,500 or so total. But they also said there were calls made that might have been personal, but were not identified as such and By BRANT HOUSTON I Courant Stqff Writer Current and former officials of the state Department of Agriculture misused their state car phones by making many personal calls, state auditors have found. State policy clearly says that personal calls should be made on state phones only In emergencies, the auditors said. "State phones are to be used for state business," Deputy Auditor Robert J.

Hilliard said Thursday. been discussed with Herndon. Meehan said that as a general rule state phones were to be used only for state business and officials were to reimburse the state for their personal calls. The auditors began their Investigation into use of state car phones after The Courant reported last month that Herndon had made at least 90 personal calls from his state car phone to the home phone of a female state employee, who later Please see Auditors, Page Dll minute commute to work from northwest Connecticut. Filchak said in a recent Interview that no one had explained the policy to him when he became deputy commissioner this year.

Avice Meehan, a Weicker spokeswoman, said the matter had also John R.H. Blum, and Deputy Commissioner John Filchak. Weicker sent a letter Thursday to Blum asking him to respond to the Issues raised by auditors about reimbursement Blum said he expects to respond quickly. Blum said he did not recall being a Candidates jockey for lead in packed race By LAWRENCE STRAUSS Courant Staff Writer Seated together at a debate In Merlden recently, the three major candidates In the 5th Congressional District race had to share a microphone, passing It back and forth each time they answered a question. It was a fitting symbol.

The race has been crowded and unconventional, characterized by Jockeying for the spotlight and the 1 micropnone, one wnose dynamics nave served up plenty Ji loaaer xor punaits ana outers ioiiow-jmZZZ Ing the campaign. Two major candidates one from ISSUE A Connecticut Party are trying to Hounseat Incumbent Republican Gary A. Cfisnpsign Franks, a former Waterbury alderman who until last month was widely considered the most vulnerable member of the state's congressional delegation. Franks' liabilities Include personal yr r- financial difficulties, complaints that V4 Shn Surtck Tht Hartford Courant Prematura? There's talk on college campuses this week about an ad in The Chroni-; cle of Higher Education, in which more than 200 college deans and trustees endorsed Bill Clinton and Al Gore. The advertisement Is unusual, i campus wags said, because college presidents tend to stay neutral In politics and might not want to anger i a sitting president Still, the slgnees may have thought It was safe to jump on the Clinton bandwagon a week before the election.

Now, with President Bush closing the gap, who- knows? On the Clinton list are Trinity Col-, lege President Tom Gerety, Wesley-: an University President William M. Chace, Dallas K. Beal, president of the Connecticut State University system; and Jonathan M. Daube, president of Manchester Community College. Clinton supporters repre-' sentlng Yale University, alma mater of President Bush, are Provost Ju- dlth Rodin and law school Dean Gul-doCalabretl.

The Chronicle reported that no national education groups have backed Bush, but named Drew University President Thomas H. Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, as a Bush supporter. J. Brian Gaffney, Bush's campaign coordinator In the state, says he knows of no Connecticut college leaders who have endorsed Bush. But by week's end, a group of 62 prominent law school professors announced their support for Bush.

Among the signers were Yale law-professor E. Donald Elliott, who just returned to New Haven after serving in the Bush administration, and Northwestern University law professor Steven G. Calabresi, the libertarian-conservative nephew of the liberal Yale law school dean. TheScorecard Adding to previous endorsements In the Register-Citizen of Torrington and the Evening Sentinel of Clinton in the past week has won the -backing of The Courant, The Boston -Globe, The New York Times, The Bristol Press, The Day of New London, The Herald of New Britain, The Advocate of Stamford, Greenwich Time and The Chronicle of Willl-mantic. Bush's only endorsement from a Connecticut newspaper has come 1 from The New Haven while Roti Perot has been endorsed by the Connecticut Post Chambers don't agree The Greater New Haven Chambers of Commerce, which represents 1,200 businesses In the region, has distanced Itself from the U.S.

Cham- ber of Commerce's endorsement of Republican Tom Scott in the Srdj Congressional District. The national group's endorsement of Scott has been portrayed In some news accounts as simply the "Cham- ber of Commerce." But this week, the New Haven chamber wanted to make sure ev-7 eryone had it straight It sent press releases to the state's news organ- izations. "tl Matthew Nemerson, president of the New Haven group, said it does not take positions in congressional elections. He added that the group has enjoyed "a strong working rela- tionship" with Scott's opponent in the 3rd Congressional District race, U.S. Rep.

Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Srd District. Etc. Odds and ends from finance re-! ports filed by the central organiza-i tions of the political parties in Con-" necticut: Democratic State Chairman Edward L. Marcus spent $3,000 at a framing shop on pictures for his new office; the consulting firm of Peter W.

Gold, a confidant of Gov. Lowell P. Weicker collect- ed 39,000 this year for fund-raising 1 services rendered to Weicker's A Connecticut Party. For the Record is compiled by The "1, Attorney General Richard Blumwrthal, left, and Gov. Lowell P.

Weicker Jr. look over the shoulders of Amanda DeUlle and Steven Colas, sixth-graders at St. Edward School In Stafford, Thursday as they get computer returns at The Courant In Hartford from a mock election for schoolchildren. At right, explaining the system set up to get returns In the election sponsored by The Courant and the League of Women Voters, Is Peter Ingersoll of The Courant. Election in schoolrooms favors Clinton Perot outpolls Bush among state children casting ballots Thursday th DitTRieT ne ta not Always attentive to ent8 anQ Shakeups on his congressional Btaff.

But that was last month, and a month is a long time Please see Candidates, Page D13 Officer testifies he feared for life By LYNNE TUOHY Courant Staff Writer Serge Inho, the Hartford patrolman whose arrest last summer on brutality charges sparked police protests and bouts of "blue flu," testified Thursday that he feared for his life when he beat a "belligerent" man in an apartment building eight months ago. Six jurors will decide what really happened, minutes before midnight that Feb. 8, in a dimly lit corridor charged with tension and resounding with two police officers and four suspects shouting at once. The jurors could convict Inho of felony second-degree assault for the Injuries Inflicted on 32-year-old Edwin Cruz including a head wound that required 150 stitches and a jaw broken In three places. Cruz was not armed.

Or the jurors could exonerate Inho, if they believe his testimony that Cruz repeatedly lunged at him, despite several blows from Inho's gun and nightstick, and that Inho used only that force necessary to subdue Cruz. The Superior Court jury listened intently as Inho, 29, detailed his version of what happened after he was dispatched Feb. 8 on a report of gunfire at a "drug-infested" apartment building on Washington Street Please see Officer, Page D8 Students advised to take precautions By BLANCA M. QUINTANILLA and KIMBERLY HAYES TAYLOR Courant Staff Writers The head of security for Hartford schools said Thursday that since September, he has received at least 10 reports of high school girls being followed or people trying to lure them Into cars. In the latest incident Tuesday morning on Zion Street a 47-year-old man tried to choke an 18-year-old Hartford Public High School student by placing a broomstick across her neck, police and others said.

The man threatened Sophia Genus with a carving knife, attacked her with the stick and told her to come with him because he was God, police said. Now Peter Roach, Hartford's school security chief, is visiting the city's 32 schools, warning students to take precautions and discussing safety with other school officials and police. "This is becoming a serlour problem in urban areas whether it predicts Tuesday's results, sponsors said. But in two previous mock elections, the students were on target In 1988, students voted in favor of George Bush for president; in 1990, they favored Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

for governor. "Our main purpose is to teach children about elections and voting," said Jill Cromwell of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut. The national returns, tabulated by the Washington Consulting Group in Washington, D.C., gave Clinton 45.37 percent of the votes, Bush 30.52 percent and Perot 24.09 percent Results of the mock election In Connecticut were tabulated at The Courant Thursday and posted on charts by sixth-graders from St. Edward School in At that school, Perot won the presidential election. But 11-year-old Casey Callahan insisted Perot won only because a few popular pupils swayed the results at the last minute by telling others to vote for him.

Casey stood by her candidate, Clinton. "I think he has some good ideas he's going to have jobs and try to tax people who have a little more money than other people," she said. One of her classmates, Billie Mat-chett, said he voted for Bush. "I know he'll try to get the economy to come back," Billie said. Another classmate, Dan Tortora, said he had been leaning toward Clinton, but voted instead for Perot after seeing a few of his commercials.

Please see Clinton, Page D8 By VALERIE FINHOLM Courant Staff Writer It's Bill Clinton for president at least that's the way a mock election turned out Thursday In the state and across the nation as thousands of schoolchildren cast votes. In Connecticut, Clinton received 37,572 votes, followed by Ross Perot with 27,038 and President Bush with 23,594. Almost 90,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade in 119 of the state's 168 school systems voted for president in the mock election, sponsored in Connecticut by The Courant's Newspaper In Education program and the League of Women Voters. The mock election was not a scientific sample, so there Is no way of knowing Couple sees ghost; skeptics see through it The first day, her son said they had to leave. "He said, 'This place is I said, 'Son, evil lives in the hearts of man, not in a Snedeker said.

Odd thinp began happening, she said. The children said they saw ghosts, heard voices and footsteps. As Snedeker mopped her red kitchen floor, the water turned blood red. The couple's bed vibrated. An' overpowering smell of rotten meat or human feces appeared and faded.

Sockets glowed after the light bulbs were removed. Not a believer in ghosts, she chalked it all up to imagination. By the summer of 1988, the night she says she saw a disem- Please see Couple, Page D8 But it's Halloween, the book is bitting the stores and its authors are hitting the talk-show circuit; today's stops include "Sally Jessy Raphael" and "Sonya Live." Up soon are "Today" and "Larry King Live. Throughout the interviews and talk-show chats, the eerie question remains: Just what did happen in the house on iden Avenue? Carmen Snedeker, reached by telephone this week in between West Coast publicity gigs, tells the story simply. In 1986, the family moved to Southington from northern New York because their 14-year-old son was getting cancer treatment at a local hospital.

She fell in love with the house and rented the downstair apartment By KAREN SCHMIDT Courant Correspondent SOUTHINGTON It's an ordinary, two-story white colonial on a pretty South-ington street For years, it was a funeral home. Al and Carmen Snedeker say an inhuman, demonic spirit tormented them there. It terrorized their family. It pinched them, chilled them, spoke to them, raped them, nearly destroyed them. They've written a book.

Neighbors, current residents and the landlord say it's hocus-pocus, or worse, a hoax. They're sick of the wple thing. Courant's pities and government staff. 1 Please see Students. Page D8.