Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 297

TOWN NEWS: Rental Truck Returned Holding Toxic Load Page B3 6 6 THE HARTFORD COURANT SECTION WWW.CTN0W.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2002 nrmmTiiTnnpiOT II ii J1 HI Nil JL JLXA 'i i Rape Complaint Called A Hoax Student Admits Fabrication By CHRISTOPHER KEATING And GRACE MERRITT COURANT STAFF WRITERS Murder Suspect Breaks Down combination, th' reports have concern and increased publicity fcaiHe 7 m4 the campus. "Softie students are aroun charged with falsely reporting an incident But UConn police said that the case is closed, and "no further police action" will be taken. The hoax came only days after an incident on Oct. 27 in which a woman reported that two men dressed in black and wearing ski masks sexually assaulted her in the darkness as she was jogging near the former UConn Coop. The case that turned out to be a hoax was said to have occurred about 11 p.m.

PLEASE SEE HOAX, PAGE B7 A Mow student said the woman, i whose Aame has not been released, has withdrawn from the university. But UConn officials were unable to confirm her status Thursday night "We don't plan to discipline or charge her," said Karen Grava, a university spokeswoman. "We're very sympathetic to her problems." In similar hoaxes, women have been A female University of Connecticut student has admitted fabricating a story about a rape that heightened alarm recently at the Storrs campus, police said Thursday night. The woman made the false report last week, describing an attack that closely resembled another incident near the former campus bookstore in the center of the campus. nervous, and some are very calm.

Some parents have been calling" the university, a campus spokeswoman said. The student who falsely reported the rape gave only a vague description of her attacker, providing little for detectives to investigate and prompting them to question inconsistencies in her ac- 2 REMEMBERING AN OFFICEft KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY 25 YEARS AGO By TINA A. BROWN COURANT STAFF WRITER Gregory McArthur led Hartford Det Michael Sheldon down a dirt road in Suffield in September 2000, looking for AnnMarie Cusano's body. Sheldon testified Thursday that McArthur told him, "I know I put her around here somewhere in the area." As they ventured offBoston Neck Road, down the dirt path and 100 feet into the woods and high grass, Sheldon nearly stumbled. He moved brush aside with his foot.

"I noticed a human skull" Sheldon testified. The revelation was too much for McArthur, 42, who is on trial for murdering Cusano. As Sheldon was ready to point out the location of Cusano's skull in a large photo displayed on a screen, McArthur started sobbing uncontrollably. Hartford Superior Court Judge Joseph Koletsky suspended the fourth day of the trial while McArthur collected himself. But when Sheldon retook the witness stand PLEASE SEE SUSPECT, PAGE B7 "0 -i i vi-'J7 CLOEPOISSON THE HARTFORD COURANT AT A GRAVESIDE MEMORIAL SERVICE, Mac Holcomb, right; his stepfather, Kevin Searles; and Holcomb's wife, Becky, with their infant son Bobby, honor Holcomb's father, Plainville police officer Robert Holcomb at St.

Joseph's Cemetery in Plainville on Thursday. Holcomb was just 3 years old on Nov. 21, 1977, when his father Robert was gunned down while responding to a burglary. He is the only Plainville officer to be slain in the line of duty. Union Pickets Wal-Mart Retailer's Growth Creating Fears By LORETTA WALDMAN COURANT STAFF WRITER BRISTOL Wearing yellow vests and matching baseball caps, about 50 members of Local 919 of the United Food and Commerical Workers circled outside the entrance of a Wal-Mart store on Farm-ington Avenue Thursday.

They carried signs calling for "living wages" and "affordable healthcare." The workers were among thousands from the union's 500 locals nationwide mobilized for a mass protest of Wal-Mart stores, which are not unionized. Another local of the UFCW held a similar protest Thursday outside a Wal-Mart in Stratford. Union officials allege the Arkansas-based retail giant isn't paying its workers enough and offers inadequate and expensive medical insurance. The so-called "Day of Action" was intended to alert the public to those conditions, union officials said. "We're just trying to inform the PLEASE SEE UNION, PAGE B9 Budget Chief: Urgent Need For Cuts eral Assembly can vote on in early January: "Certain commitments were made.

Marc has always been a man of integrity. I do not know what has changed him," Sullivan said. "It does not speak well for the process." Republican leaders accused Sullivan of being petty and said the governor PLEASE SEE BUDGET, PAGE B9 kind," said Senate President Pro Tem Kevin B. Sullivan, D-West Hartford. "We need to continue to do what we set outtodo." Sullivan said the two committees will make recommendations to legislative leaders on possible spending cuts and tax increases next week.

Sullivan said he hopes then to work with the Republican legislative leaders, without Ryan, on a deficit-cutting agreement the Gen unless spending cuts are made soon. But there were few signs that any concrete deficit-cutting efforts will begin quickly. The day became bogged down in a dispute between legislative leaders and Ryan about whether the budget chief broke a deal over how to spend some old surplus funds. "I think today, in some respects, is a declaration of war on the legislative branch. We need to not respond in By SUSAN HAIGH ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER The governor's budget chief told lawmakers Thursday the state needs to take immediate action to tackle the current budget deficit.

Testifying at a packed public hearing held by the legislature's two budget-writing committees as state employees rallied outside Marc Ryan said the budget problems will worsen I String Bass Resonates With Plucky Student Wi 14 I i By CAROLYN MOREAU COURANT STAFF WRITER TOWN NEWS INDEX Hartford g3 New Britain ($3 Public Notices gg Local Editorial A14 Police News J6 News Bureaus 285 Broad St, Hartford, CT 06115. Telephone: 860-241-6747 or toll-free 800-524-4242, Ext 6747. Fax: 860-241-3865. For Newington, Rocky Hill and Wethersfield news: 40 South St, New Britain, CT 0605L Telephone: 860-832-5000 or toll-free 800-524-4242, Ext 5000. Fax: 860-832-5032.

Music teacher Andrew Mayo wasn't about to turn away this gift of a bass player, even though a fourth-grade girl now also wanted to play. She'd had the advantage of private bass lessons, so Mayo immediately recruited her for the fifth-grade orchestra and made Schuyler the bass player for the fourth grade. Prospects for the spring concert had never looked better. Schuyler had to stand on a wooden box so he could reach the strings, until the school district came up with $1,500 to buy a quarter-size bass so he could keep his feet on the floor. There was nothing they could do about the bow, however.

Bass bows come in only full and half sizes, so Mayo taught Schuyler to hold the half-size bow about a third of the way up so that it feels shorter. He also got a bass to keep at home for practice, easing mother Lynne Randall's anxiety over driv-ing around with an instrument bigger than her son on mornings when both had to be at early orches- PLEASE SEE BASS, PAGE B7 WEST HARTFORD Schuyler Randall isn't the shortest kid inhisfourth-gradeclass at Wolcott School, but the boy with close-cropped blonde hair and blue eyes comes pretty close. Not long after school began this fall, he told his mother that he could learn either the clarinet or the string bass in his school's music program. Apparently this was a slight misunderstanding of his music teacher's message that Schuyler showed promiseattheclarinetand the school badlyneeded a bass player but it set the course for the way things turned out Schuyler wasn't looking for an easy way around the adult notion that every child should learn to play a musical instrument He wanted to have fun. And what could be more fun, when you're Schuyler went straight for the bass.

This decision was good news and bad news as far as Wolcott was concerned. Its only bass player had moved on to middle school, leaving the fourth- and fifth-grade orchestras without anyone to add those throaty low notes to "Mary Had A Little Lamb." But the school didn't have a bass small enough for Schuyler to play. nov.corrr Visit ctnow.com for more news stories. And search for local upcoming events on the Towns" page of the site. i I 4 Amy Pagnozzi's column does not appear today.

SCHUYLER RANDALL, 9, has his hands full playing the string bass in Wolcott School's fourth-grade orchestra. STEPHEN DUNN THE HARTFORD COURANT r..