Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 91

Editorial pages CIO, Oil Local sports Section More Connecticut news 05, 06, C7, 08, 09 Obituaries C8 Town talk 02 Avon C3 Canton C3 East Granby C4 Farmington C3 Granby C3 Hartford 01,04,08 Simsbury 04 Hartford Al, 03 Coming events 02 Legal notices D10 Avon A driver of a Honda is in serious condition after a collision with a Blazer atop Avon Mountain. Page C3 Bristol Bristol pupils air their questions on an ESPN national classroom program featuring three aeronauts. Page C7 Canton The charter revision referendum would replace the first selectman with a chief administrative officer. Page C3 Canton Parents and teenagers criticize large-scale police arrests in Halloween egg-thf owing incidents. Page C9 Farmington A three-month parking ban is recommended on streets near River Glen Park, where a fourth Little League field is going.

Page C3 Granby School officials hope to climb back from a recent plunge in SAT scores. Page C4 Simsbury A two-day teachers' furlough is expected to cut about $160,000 from this yearns school budget. PageC4 West Hartford A dress and boutique shop offers four ways to show that secondhand clothing is in fashion. Page C3 Letter to the editor Whitney Jennison of North Canton says leaders of a taxpayers' group oppose charter proposals. Page C2 Watch for the TOWN COURANT section Every Sunday 5E 1 -imTTnur-TTifi Hi a iimiiwfi SECTION SATURDAY NOVEMBER 2, 1991 More minority students among those taking SAT By ROBERT A.

FRAHM Courant Staff Writer High school senior Ines Soto has heard all the criticism of the Scholastic Aptitude Test that it may be unfair to inner-city students such as her but she views it as a step toward her dream. "I'll be the first in my family to graduate from high school," she said. "It's very important for me to finish college, too." Like a growing number of urban students, Soto, 17, of Hartford Public High School, will be among about 18,000 Connecticut high school seniors and more than 400,000 seniors nationwide taking the SAT this morning. The college entrance exam, for years a rite of passage for millions of middle-class high school seniors, is becoming important to students in some of the nation's poorest cities, too. "It's cool to go to college now.

People look up to you more," said Soto, who hopes to attend Temple University in Philadelphia and study to be a teacher. A few years ago, "nobody was really talking about college or SAT's," she said. Fifty-four percent of the seniors in Hartford public schools took the test last year, up from 50 percent the previous year and 47 percent two years earlier. Bridgeport and New Haven also have reported increases. Many of the students in those cities are members of minority groups, which have traditionally been under- represented at colleges.

Statewide, 17 percent of those taking the SAT last year were members of minority groups, up from about 9 percent a decade earlier. Although some of that increase can be attributed to growth in the overall population of minority students, educators believe it also reflects a growing interest on the part of these students. Nationwide, the number of Hispanic students taking the SAT increased by 33 percent between 1987 and 1991, with only about half the increase attributed to population growth, The College Board, the national organization that sponsors the test, reported. The figures also showed that the number of black students who took the test increased by 14 percent during the same period, even though there was a slight decline in the number of black high school graduates nationwide. Soto, who is Puerto Rican, is among dozens of Hartford students who siened ud for tutoring sessions this year to prepare for the test.

"People are beginning to realize education is important," said Isabel Pacheco, Soto's friend and classmate, who also signed up. "We were overwhelmed at the response we got," said Elizabeth Jones, executive director of the San Juan Tutorial Program, where Pacheco, Soto and more than 40 others took a four-week preparation Please see More, Page C6 Legislator faces felony charges Churches condemn tax-issue violence 4 i i i 4 A By HILARY WALDMAN and MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writers NEW HAVEN Freshman state Sen. Charles H. Allen III was charged Friday with stealing a $30,000 life insurance check made out to the fiance of his sister, Dawn, who died of lung cancer in March. Allen, who turned himself in to New Haven police Friday morning, denied any wrongdoing.

He described the matter as a "family dispute." "I have to answer this as a criminal dispute, but it's something that should be handled as a family dispute, or at most, a civil dispute," Allen said Friday evening. Allen, 38, is accused of stealing the insurance payment issued after his 36-year-old sister died, said New Haven police Lt. Melvin Wearing. The check was made out to Dawn Allen's fiance, but Allen allegedly forged the fiance's signature and deposited the check in a bank account controlled jointly by Allen and his sister, Wearing said. The fiance, Gilbert Allston, complained to insurance company officials, who in early June notified investigators for Connecticut National Bank, Wearing said.

Police were notified Oct. 23, he said. Among the evidence is a videotape purportedly showing Allen depositing the check in an automatic teller machine, Wearing said. Allen was charged with first-degree larceny and first-degree forgery. Both charges are felonies that carry a minimum penalty of a year in prison.

He was released Friday after promising to appear in court on Nov. 15. "He signed someone else's name to a check and deposited it in somebody else's account," Wearing said. "It was a clear violation." Allen disputed the police account of what happened. He called a press conference at his lawyer's office to tell his side of the story.

At the press conference and in a telephone interview later Friday, Allen objected to the characterization of Allston as his sister's fiance. Allen said Allston was the father of Dawn's daughters, now 15 years old Please see Lawmaker, Page C6 Marc Yves Regis Trie Hartford Courant called Right of Passage sponsored by the town's department of social services, was one of many challenges designed to help children improve their self-esteem. A STRETCH CHALLENGE Jimmy James, 12, of Newington, is lifted over a rope by his classmates from St. Mary's School Wednesday at Mill Pond Park in Newington. The exercise, part of a program New Britain constable involved in bar incident By ROBERT S.

CAPERS Courant Staff Writer Leaders of Hartford area churches Friday condemned violence, threats and harassment against those involved in debate over the state income tax. A group of 12 religious leaders issued a statement listing many incidents of threats and violence, saying, "We are deeply concerned about these acts of harassment and intimidation." The behavior is "unacceptable in a community based on morality and democracy," the religious leaders said. The committee called on state residents "to reaffirm the principles of love and respect for all persons, even when we disagree." However, the committee was challenged after the press conference in Central Baptist Church in Hartford by a leader of the tax-repeal movement and by another clergyman, who said the alarm was politically motivated and talk of violence exaggerated. Among the incidents cited by the religious leaders: The governor was spat upon by income-tax opponents at an Oct. 5 rally.

The crowd at the rally was urged to surround a state legislator who had voted for the income tax and "teach him a lesson." A personal slur also was made against the legislator, and state police had to extricate him from the crowd. Income-tax opponents surrounded the governor's car in New London and threatened him with injury. The wife of a state representative was run off the road when she was driving a car with state legislator's license plates. A state representative's home was hit by gunfire in a drive-by shooting. Several public of ficials have received harassing, obscene or threatening telephone calls, often in the middle of the night.

The Rev. King T. Hayes, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Hartford and one of those issuing the statement, said that the religious leaders felt it was incumbent upon them to denounce the violence. "Certainly it's antithetical to what America is all about," Hayes said. The Rev.

Chris Rose of Grace Episcopal Church in Hartford said, "There's an atmosphere of violence which has gotten out of hand. And we as religious leaders are standing up opposed to the tenor of this debate as it has evolved." Thomas Scott, chairman of the anti-income tax Connecticut Taxpayers Committee, said the religious leaders were insincere and politically motivated in issuing their statement. Scott expressed skepticism that violence has occurred. At the very least, he said, it has been exaggerated by state legislators. Scott also said the religious leaders are naive and are being used by those in favor of the income tax, including the Capitol Region Conference of Churches.

Please see Church, Page C6 no action because there was no formal complaint from the club. Dancers declined to talk to police, other workers said, but the bouncer and the barmaid gave statements. "He kept flashing his badge, saying he was a New Britain police officer," said Michael Turi, the club's bouncer. "He was coaxing them to flash and to take off more." Barmaid Bonny Mattig said she refused to serve Walsh a beer because she noticed him stumbling and thought he had had enough to drink. He flashed his badge at her, she said.

"He said he was with the New Britain police and that he knew he Please see New Britain, Page C6 Walsh in his blue pick-up as he drove away from the club shortly after 7 p.m. Walsh pulled out his badge and also told them that he was a city police officer, according to the police report. The Newington officers decided to take him to the city police department. "We thought it would be handled administratively by New Britain," Casioppo said. City police declined to take action, but offered to turn him back over to Newington's custody, said city Det.

William Kilduff, a police spokesman. "That's where it happened," Kilduff said. Casioppo said his department took By MEREDITH CARLSON Courant Staff Writer and RITA A. NIRO Courant Correspondent NEW BRITAIN A city constable was stopped by Newington police after repeatedly flashing his badge in a Newington nightclub, falsely claiming to be a city police officer and ordering exotic dancers to take off their clothes, according to a police report. Republican Bernard B.

Walsh 51, a city constable for the past four years, was not arrested or charged with any crime, but was turned over to city police, who later released him, a Newington police report filed Wednesday says. A bouncer at the Kitchen Cafe on Berlin Turnpike in Newington called police after dancers complained and one stopped her act because of Walsh's behavior, two club workers said. Walsh said Friday he was sorry. "I was stupid, to be honest with you," Walsh said. "I made a mistake.

I probably had too much to drink." Walsh also said, "I'm very sorry I embarrassed the New Britain police department. I should not have identified myself as a cop. But technically, the word cop comes from constable." Newington police Lt. Frederick Casioppo said town officers stopped New Haven mayoral race won't be over till it's over Amtrak returns to Willimantic I can go from Willimantic to Philadelphia." In anticipation of the train's arrival, Willimantic's temporary station was decorated with balloons and signs. About 1,000 people gathered by midnight for a celebration that resembled a town fair.

As band played bluegrass music with a train theme, residents brought homemade food, drank apple cider and sold raffle tickets to help finance a permanent station. Also available were newly printed Amtrak schedules: evidence of Willimantic's renewed place on the railway map. Nearly everyone agreed that sitting on a train is better than sitting in traffic. Please see Amtrak, Page C6 We've got the whole town out here." The Montrealer, which will stop once a day in each direction, returns regular passenger train service to a community that once served as northeastern Connecticut's rail hub. "It's a dream come true," said Holly Rawson, co-founder of the Transit Alliance of Eastern Connecticut, an advocacy group.

"I'm tremendously excited," said Rawson, who lives in neighboring Mansfield. "I see it as the beginning of regular daytime service into Willimantic. This is a kind of the foot in the door." Rawson said she has already booked her first trip and will travel to visit relatives in two weeks. "I love the train. It is a great convenience.

It's tremendous to think that By SCOTT WENGER Courant Staff Writer WILLIMANTIC At 12:46 this morning the thunderous train whistle of Amtrak's Montrealer sounded the return of passenger rail service here for the first time in 36 years. More than 1,000 residents, transportation activists and politicians cheered wildly as the northbound train No. 60 56 minutes late broke through a banner reading "Willimantic back on track." The banner had been stretched across the tracks at the temporary depot at Bridge and Main streets. A few dozen local people who had boarded in New London got off. P.

M. Garden, a conductor, warned them, "Watch yourself. By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writer NEW HAVEN A dozen black ministers stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a city hall conference room this week, smiling for photographers as they endorsed John C. Daniels for reelection as mayor of Connecticut's third-largest city. "You have done a good job the Rev.

George Hampton said as he gripped the mayor's hand. The mayor rmiled. But Hampton then finished the sentence, and suddenly his praise sounded more like a half-hearted defense of a mediocre administration. as good a job as you could have done with what you had to do it with." Daniels has heard it before. After two years running a city in perpetual fiscal crisis and frequent political upheaval, supporters of the administration are accustomed to commendations that come with fine print.

And they have watched as other early supporters turned their backs. Polls still give Daniels the edge in Tuesday's election and some indicate he could win easily but as the election nears, his supporters are aware that his first term in office has eroded rather than broadened his support. Republican Jonathan Einhorn has courted that discontent. It has been a -long time since a Republican candidate for mayoral has been able to strike fear among Democrats in New Haven, but at city hall, some workers are worried. Einhorn, an Please see Mayoral, Page C7.