Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 58

2nd ED. ftf fiD. B2 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Saturday, February 6, 1982 City Crime Increases 4.6 for Year, but Drops 4.4 in 4th Quarter crime rate. He has pointed to the last three reports as evidence that policies insituted since he became chief in August 1980 have been successful in suppressing crime. In October, the chief went a step farther, saying criminals were going to the suburbs to commit crimes because "things are too hot in Hartford." Some suburban chiefs disputed that claim, however.

Asked Friday where the criminals had gone, Sicaras wouldn't speculate, saying simply, "They're not so active in Hartford." "We have re-established ourselves as the No. 1 police department in New England," Sicaras said, adding that police departments from Jacksonville, to Worcester, have been calling or visiting Hartford to study its techniques. Asked if factors other than police effectiveness could have contributed to the decline, Sicaras said, "There's no question that our people are responsible for that." According to individual crime statistics for October through December 1981, murder dropped 72 percent; rape 33.3 percent, burglary 18.2 percent and auto theft 21.4 percent. Robbery was up 14.6 percent, assault 19 percent and larceny 8.5 percent. Sicaras said a full statistical report, including a crime-by-crime breakdown for the full year and an analysis of crime by neighborhoods, would not be available until next week.

He said murder fell 30.4 percent, rape 21 percent and auto theft 23.8 percent. He also said crime was down in 10 of 17 neighborhoods. The chief also announced what he said would be a crackdown on crime by juveniles, who he estimated are responsible for half the city's major crimes. Distributing a written profile of a 16-year-old Hartford youth who had been arrested 56 times since he was 10, Sicaras said he is pushing for legislation that would treat juvenile repeat offenders as adults in the judicial By SUSAN HOWARD Courant Staff Writer Hartford Police Chief George W. Sicaras sat down Friday in front of a blackboard that declared, in broad yellow strokes, "We are 1" "We have some good news.

We have stabilized crime," he said. Sicaras showed off his quarterly crime-statistics report Friday, revealing that for the last three months of 1981, major crime fell 4.4 percent from the same period the year before. He also made public a report for all of 1981 that showed crime increased 4.6 percent a showing he said was good in light of the 42 percent increase the city suffered in the first three months of 1981. Sicaras had been on the defensive when he released that first-quarter report he called the sharp rise consistent with the experience nationally but he has enjoyed the quarterly announcements since then, unveiling three straight declines in the Hartford system. He also wants a maximum-security prison built for juveniles.

The chief attributed the lower crime rate in the last nine months of 1981 to the "esprit de corps with which we did our job," increased foot patrols and a "serious attitude toward crime1' by Hartford police. Although some department members have complained of morale problems, Sicaras said absenteeism is down and more crimes are being solved. Lt. Joseph Croughwell, top aide to Sicaras, later said those signs of increased productivity refute the claims of low morale. Sicaras said the department has been concentrating its patrols in areas of high crime.

It is this effort that the police call "crime suppression," a campaign the department started in March 1981 in Frog Hollow an area plagued by daytime burglaries. The effort since has expanded into all city neighborhoods, and Sicaras said the Crime Suppression Unit has been responsible for 1,300 arrests in the last nine months. The department's vice and narcotics division, which was increased last year from six to 22 members, also has cracked down on crime, showing an increase from 374 narcotics arrests in 1980 to 525 arrests last year. Prostitution arrests rose from 56 to 305 from 1980 to 1981, he said. The police chief said auto theft was down 23.8 percent in 1981, and that suppression of violent street gang activity was successful.

Police made 178 arrests of street gang members in the last six months of 1981, which decreased gang activity significantly, Sicaras said. Gang-related murders decreased from four in 1980 to none in 1981, he said. Police during the past month, however, have seen a resurgence of street gang activity, particularly in the fatal shooting last Friday of 22-year-old Migdalia Quinones Torres. Two city teenagers who Sicaras said belonged to the Latin Locos, a Hartford street gang, had been arrested in connection with that shooting and were charged Thursday with murder after the woman died Monday from a gunshot wound to the head. Strikers Small Plane Crashes In Field, Injuring 2 01 I Issued --v -a -a 9 By ANNE McGRATH Courant Staff Writer a He's a rea2 the airport," Salter said, good, conscientious pilot.

Deadline Channel 8 Workers Face Firing Unless They Halt Walkout By JOHN B. HARRIS Courant Staff Writer NEW HAVEN Management of WTNH-TV, Channel 8, told more than 30 striking technicians, camera operators and film editors Friday that they will be fired if they haven't ended their walkout by Wednesday. Station manager Peter Orne told the workers in a letter that they are "invited" to return to work by Wednesday and that the station will seek permanent replacements" for anyone who doesn't meet the deadline. He said Channel 8 is determined to operate normally. AP Officials examine the wreckage of a small airplane that crashed just after takeoff Friday morning in Ellington.

ELLINGTON A single-engine airplane carrying a flight instructor and his student crashed in a field immediately after takeoff from Ellington Airport Friday morning, injuring the two. The flight instructor, Claude Pelle-tier, 24, of Vernon, was in serious condition in the intensive care unit of Rockville General Hospital with scalp lacerations. The student, Albert Rutherford, 35, of West Springfield, was treated for a cut on his forehead and released. The crash occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. as the two took off, heading north for Rutherford's scheduled one-hour flying lesson.

Robert Salter, chief instructor at the Northeast Flight Training Center, where Pelletier is employed part time, said the plane, a Piper Cherokee 140, was about 100 feet in the air when the engine lost power. Pelletier immediately took control of the plane, Salter said, and tried to maneuver it toward an open field. He banked the plane toward the left, and the left wing struck a utility pole, Salter said. The nose of the plane turned upward slightly, and the plane landed almost flat on the ground about 1,500 feet north of the end of the runway. "It pancaked into the ground," Salter said.

Rutherford, who had returned to the airport by early afternoon, said he and Pelletier were knocked unconscious briefly. An employe at the airport restaurant saw the plane go down and alerted airport officials, who immediately drove to the site, Salter said. Officials quickly helped Rutherford and Pelletier from the wreckage while fuel leaked from the plane. Salter described Pelletier, who received his instructor's license last fall, as an excellent pilot. "I had no qualms about letting him fly anything I had at The employes, members of Local 14-, the National Association of Broadcast Employes and Technicians, walked off their jobs Wednesday to protest the DllSineSS, Labor at OddS station's new contract proposal, which Rutherford, who was flying the four- r3 seater, said later, "I didn't think, Ig reacted," and he let Pelletier take- over.

The training plane has dual con-5 trols. Pelletier's "responsibility is to do-; whatever he can to salvage the Salter said. Pilots are taught to try to find a flat, open spot when they have to make an emergency landing, he said. In Friday's case, straight ahead of-'i the runway was an embankment 75 feet high. A gravel excavation oper-J 3 ation is just north of the airport's sin-5 gle runway.

To the right about 1,000 feet away is2 a house. To the left is open space, al- though a line of telephone poles andS wires extends across the excavation area. Federal Aviation Administration in-S spectors arrived on the scene later Friday morning. The plane's wreckage was towed back to the airport about l- p.m. where mechanics began taking it 5 apart to determine the cause of the5 crash.

Friday's crash came almost a yearS after the last accident at the Feb. 7 in which a Vernon couple seriously injured. Their plane crashed': into a hill between Egypt Road and Rt. 83 shortly after takeoff. The airport has been criticized for 2 several years by residents upset with the noise and traffic and several sky- diving accidents in the last year.

A citizens' group last year lost a suit to halt construction of a runway extension and has turned its efforts toward passing zoning regulations that would curb expansion of the airport. Inspectors from the state Department of Transportation's Bureau of-'1 Aeronautics and the FAA have said repeatedly that the airport, although busy, is operated professionally meets all safety requirements. 'Runaway Shop' Legislation Debated ing (that) a year from now we are go- tends the best way for the state to save 1110 if TIP Of? amMint nf noAnln inhc ic Ia nvnuilo amnlAtimAni ixniiiinH ing to need 'X' amount of jobs is to tney insist wouia tnreaten their job security and weaken the union. A spokesman for the striking workers, Cathy Cummings, a news photographer, said Friday the union hopes the walkout will be over by Wednesday. Both sides agreed Friday to resume negotiations Monday, she said.

The negotiations halted more than a week ago. "We are cautious, but optimistic and encouraged," said Cummings of the station's willingness to negotiate. "This could end Monday night or Tuesday. We want to go back to work." Union members said they don't know whether the station is willing to withdraw the contract laneuaee that By SARAH POLLOCK Courant Staff Writer United Technologies Corp. opened a plant in Maine and is building another in Georgia in order to protect jobs in Connecticut, a company spokesman told a General Assembly subcommittee Friday.

"Many of the things we do which we are criticized for are to save as many jobs as possible in Connecticut," Joseph Crisco, UTC's coordinator of gov- unsco toia tne suDcommmee. "First of all, we try not to lay off individuals," he said, adding that before each wave of layoffs, Pratt Whitney officials considered options such as a four-day work week. "After that was all analyzed, we came to the conclusion that we had no alternative," he said. The issue of layoffs and plant closings, or runaway shops, has spawned sparked the strike. They said the sta- ernment affairs, told the plants clos- tion tried to win the right to fire work- ings and relocations subcommittee of ers without cause and to delete a re- the Labor and Public Employes Com- quirement that new employes join the mittee.

union. Management would not com- Crisco defended UTC's actions as ment on the negotiations. necessary to the financial well-being The letter from Orne told the work- of its Pratt Whitney Aircraft GrouD. "Many of the things we are criticized for are to save as many jobs as possible in Connecticut, a UTC official said. ers that, once their position had been and called legislative efforts to re- Abate Urged To Resign Post as House Speaker filled, they could be eligible for re-hiring only if they signed "an uncondition provide employment training and placement services and a good business climate.

Legislation that would restrict the ability of companies to shut plants would discourage new businesses from coming to the state, opponents say. William Rudis, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 1746, said he hoped the committee would consider a one-year minimum notice for companies that plan to shut down. There could be a penalty for plants that relocate, as some European countries impose, he said. Calling the Pratt Whitney layoffs "the silent shutdown," Rudis said the East Hartford local's ranks have been decimated in the last 12 years, dropping from more than 20,000 to less than 10,000. "We believe in the union that we will have a large crackerbox factory over there of assemblers, not skilled workers," Rudis said.

Each time layoffs came, the union and the workers were notified at the last minute, which Rudis charged indicated the company's attitude toward its work force. In contrast, he said, the company demands two weeks notice from employes who are quitting and asks to be told months in advance when workers plan to retire. Even small companies make long-term financial projections when they buy equipment, and all companies should be able to make that same level of commitment to their workers, Rudis said. United Press International strict the ability of Connecticut companies to close "politically self-serving recommendations." He spoke at a sometimes tense hearing conducted by the subcommittee. Pratt Whitney has been criticized for laying off more than 4,000 workers in Connecticut in just over a year while building its plant in Georgia and continuing operations at its new North Berwick, Maine, plant.

"The nature of our business, the size of our business, precludes us from say al offer to return to work" and then waited on a "preferential, hiring list. "It is with a great deal of regret that we take this action, but it is essential that we return to a normal operation and continue the business of this company," Orne wrote. Channel 8 has continued with its regular schedule of programming and newscasts, except for eliminating a 6:30 news show Thursday morning. several bills aimed at preventing runaway shops in the last few legislative sessions. None has passed, and the subcommittee was charged last year with investigating the problem more thoroughly and providing recommendations for action in the current session.

Labor argues that businesses have a social responsiblity to warn their workers and communities of plans to shut down. The abrupt loss of jobs has traumatic social, psychological and financial implications for the community, backers of runaway shop legislation say. Business, on the other hand, con- U.S. Files Suit To Seize Rare Dolphins' Carcasses O'Neill Signs Bill Cutting Offices, Travel, Spending Kawahara failed to obtain the necessary shipping permits. Federal agents who investigated after discovering the infraction found the dolphins languishing in cramped, coffin-like crates, drowning in their own wastes.

Akiko Kawahara, a principal in the trading company, was acting as a middleman in the sale of the dolphins from a South American animal hunter to a Tokyo aquarium. The dolphins were in transit for 50 hours between Argentina and New York. A top Democratic legislative leader said Friday House Speaker Ernest N. Abate, who plans to challenge Gov. William A.

Neill for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, should resign as speaker. House Majority Leader John G. Groppo, D-Winsted, said he expects static between O'Neill and Abate during the 1982 session, which started Wednesday, and Abate should bow out. "I think it's going to be a problem," Groppo said in a taped interview to be aired tonight on WFSB-TV's Face the State program. "I would recommend that maybe he ought to resign." "All I can say is John ought to be happy I was there," Abate said later, referring to the recently concluded special session.

"If I weren't there, we, would not have the solutions to the problems we have found." He was talking about the tax package he proposed, much of which was adopted in some form by the legislature to reduce an $83 million deficit. "When John makes a statement like that, he's not speaking without a bias," Abate said. "He's speaking as the spokesperson for the governor." "I have no intentions of resigning" the leadership post, he said. Abate will announce his candidacy later this month. House Minority Leader Ralph E.

Van Norstrand, R-Darien, who also was interviewed, said he thought most of the 'dissension among legislators stemmed from O'Neill's Tack of leadership. "I think the biggest problem is you do not have an Ella Grasso," Van Norstrand said. "I don't think Bill O'Neill is that good a manager to begin with." Groppo rose to O'Neill's defense. "I think the governor has done an outstanding job," Groppo said. He said dissension among Democrats and Republicans has been a problem for years and was not a reflection of-O'Neill's leadership.

Groppo said the hottest issue this. year will be state funding of social ser- vice programs. O'Neill has not reconK mended any increase in funding, de spite inflation. The majority leader said more co- alitions will be seen, like the one formed last spring by a half dozen Democrats who have consistently withheld support for tax increases until deeper budgets cuts are made. Connecticut Fugitive Arrested in Denver Continued from Page Bl 2 p.m., and we arrested him without incident on the front steps," Sage "He wasn't armed, but he was carry-'.

ing a knife." Friday's arrest followed an exten-' sive search of several areas of the' country, a spokesman said. The FBI'" said it had information that prior to-arriving in Denver, Bifield had been in the West Palm Beach, area. Commenting on the investigation, Sage said, "Things started heating up around here only in the past few That's when we had some good information that he might be in Denver." Before his sentencing in 1980 on the; federal gun charge, Bifield was reportedly described in a probation report most dangerous man in Connecticut." But in a hearing before a federa. judge, Bifield's attorney, John R. Williams of New Haven, denounced the claim as "false and ridiculous." Nonetheless, the label has been re peatedly used by authorities in charat terizing Bifield.

Following his escap last year, the FBI released a wante poster that used tie same descriptir By MICHELE JACKLIN Courant Staff Writer Gov. William A. O'Neill signed legis MYSTIC The U.S. Justice Department is going to court to seize the carcasses of four rare dolphins, marking the beginning of the end of a complicated case that started in 1978 when a Japanese firm tried to ship the severely abused animals through New York. The four Commerson's dolphins small, strikingly marked black-and-white marine mammals native to waters off southern South America died as a result of poor treatment during shipping.

The Justice Department wants to donate the remains to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington because there is very little scientific information available on the species. The species is not believed to be small in numbers, but the animals have rarely been captured or studied. The remains of two of the dolphins are frozen at the Mystic Marinelife lation Friday that will reduce state One of the dotohins was dead when SDendine bv $587,000 this fiscal vear. the plane arrived at JFK and a second principally by closing five motor vehi- died within hours. A third dolphin died cle offices and curtailing non-essential within a week at the Mystic Aquarium, travel for state employes, where it was taken for treatment.

The The law also will require officials to fourth dolphin, though badly wounded charge $10 for the State Register and during shipping, survived at the aquar- Manual, a directory of information ium until last July. known informally as the "Blue Book." Kawahara was fined $7,500 for vio- The bill also provides for about $7 lating the Marine Mammal Protection million in added revenue in the 1982-83 approved by the House and Senate Jan. 25, the final day of the special session. The spending cuts were hammered out by a conference committee that was appointed after the two chambers had endorsed conflicting versions of the same bill. The six-member conference committee rejected a proposal to impose a 3 percent across-the-board cut in agency budgets.

In signing the bill, O'Neill has now acted on all fiscal measures approved during the 10-week special legislative session. Last week, the governor signed into law tax and fee increases totaling $41 million and spending reductions of $11 million. All told, lawmakers enacted legislation that will eliminate about $53 million of a projected $83 million deficit. Aquarium. The others are stored at the Act of 1972 for improperly shipping fiscal year through a 25 percent in- TvT 1 i I CL.

Ij .1 r- flm i i National Marine Fisheries Service lab the dolphins. She never paid the fine crease in Conrail fares. The higher oratory in Narragansett, R.I. The dolphin carcasses technically are owned by the Kawahara Bird and Animal Trading Co. of Tokyo, which violated federal law by illegally trying to ship the animals through JFK International Airport in New York in December 1978.

ana it is unlikely she can be forced to rates will take effect July l. because she is a Japanese citizen, a Some savings will be achieved in the spokesman for the National Marine last three months of this fiscal year by Fisheries Service said Friday. closing five motor vehicle branch of- Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry K. fices by March 30.

Lawmakers expect Stevens is prosecuting the govern- to save at least $1.6 million next year ment's case in U.S. District Court in from the closings. Bridgeport. The measure signed by O'Neil was.