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Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 8

Location:
Honolulu, Hawaii
Issue Date:
Page:
8
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

A. Star-Bulletin A-8 Friday. January 3. 1992 THE NATION -4 to Miami 4 Cubans seeking asylum fly out difficulty at Tamiami Airport, a small strip for private planes about 10 miles southwest of Miami International Airport, said FAA control tower supervisor Mike Jones. Pompa said he had been planning the flight for three months, and Miami relatives knew they were heading to Florida.

They had to abort two previous attempts, including one scheduled for last week. On the third attempt, early today, Pompa dressed his brother-in-law and another defector as pilots and took them to the helicopter. "They looked happy to be here. Ev- Cuban air force lieutenant assigned to ferry tourists aboard a Russian MI-8 helicopter in the Varadero Beach resort east of Havana, said Tom Bowers, spokesman for Customs aviation wing. The aircraft was spotted on Coast Guard radar about 65 miles at sea off Homestead Air Force Base south of Miami, said Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta.

The helicopter was escorted to the airport by two U.S. F-16 jets, as well as Coast Guard and Florida Marine Patrol aircraft, officials said. The helicopter touched down with By Richard Cole Associated Press MIAMI A Russian-made Cubana Airlines helicopter carrying 34 refugees seeking asylum landed this morning at a small airport in suburban Miami, police and Cuban exile groups said. Maj. Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman in Washington, said all 34 men, women and children requested political asylum and were in the hands of Customs officials.

The daring defection was led by German Pompa, a current or former Texans get some relief from flood SIMONTON, Texas Flood waters near the Brazos River continued to recede today. Some residents returned to their homes, but other homeowners were forced to wait and wonder what had become of their belongings. Meanwhile, clouds gathered over southern Texas and a slight chance of rain was forecast for tonight The Brazos River and two nearby lakes began receding Wednesday in the area just southwest of Houston. By early today, the Brazos had dropped from 49.7 feet to 48.75 downstream at Richmond, where flood stage is 48 feet. The river crested at Rosharon and was expected to remain high, and similar crests were forecast into the weekend for East Columbia and the Harris Reservoir.

Congress gets down to work again WASHINGTON Last year's list of unfinished economic policies and unmet domestic needs is getting up picked up again as the House and Senate meet to gavel out the old congressional session and convene the new one. Although no legislation was on the opening-day calendar today, lawmakers from both parties plan to begin staking out positions on how to help the economy. President Bush has promised to offer his plan in his State of the Union address, and Democrats have promised to try to respond quickly. But many have already put forward competing proposals. Senate Budget Committee Chairman James Sas-ser, and Sen.

Paul Sarbanes, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, planned to release their own program including an end to the 1990 budget agreement that has blocked any shift of military funds into domestic programs. Congress and the rest of government's top officials will be better paid as they work to revive the economy. House and Senate salaries this year are $129,500, up from $125,100. Both Republicans and Democrats have proposed tax cuts as a way to rejuvenate the economy. 212-year-old New Jersey paper folds ELIZABETH, N.J.

The Daily Journal published its final edition today after 212 years in business. "Over the last two years, we've taken some stringent cost-reduction measures, but in the end, the recession proved too stubborn," Publisher Richard Vezza said after announcing the closing yesterday day. Vezza wouldn't say how much money the newspaper had lost. Most of its 84 employees will be laid off. Negotiations to sell the paper to Rudder Publishing Co.

of Daytona Beach, fell through this week, Vezza said. The newspaper said it was founded Feb. 16, 1779, by Shepard Kollock, a former lieutenant in the Continental Army, as a voice to combat newspapers loyal to Great Britain. U.S. checking on KGB's P0W tale WASHINGTON U.S.

diplomats and senators are looking into a former KGB official's story that Soviet agents questioned U.S. prisoners in Vietnam five years after all were supposed to be freed, but the Pentagon cast doubt on the story. The State Department said yesterday that diplomats are checking former KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin's account that prisoners were questioned in 1978.

The chairman of a Senate committee said Kalugin may testify at a public hearing. But the Defense Department said it had no good evidence that Vietnam held American prisoners after a 1973 peace agreement that called for repatriation of all prisoners. Kalugin said in U.S. press interviews that Soviet agents questioned a high Navy officer, an agent from the Central Intelligence Agency and an Air Force pilot held in Vietnam in 1978. From Star-Bulletin news services erybody had smiles on their face," said.

Jim Hunter, owner of HMC Helicopter; Service who watched the arrival. "Some of them had their luggage and, everything. They were unloading their luggage just like it was a regular flight." "Obviously I'm very happy. Freedom is marvelous. I just couldn't take it there anymore," said one unidentified woman passenger.

Representatives of the Cuban American National Foundation exile group rushed to the airport shortly after the 9 a.m. arrival, said foundation spokesman Fernando Rojas. West wants I U.N. demand for terrorists Associated Press WASHINGTON The United States, Britain and France are seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Libya hand over agents accused of bombing American and French jetliners, U.S.

and European officials said today. If Libya fails to comply, the three will seek further U.N. steps, including possible sanctions, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Washington Post reported today that the three governments decided against calling for U.N. sanctions or other punitive action because they couldn't muster sufficient support in the 15-member Security Council.

But French Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurice Gourdault-Montagne said in Paris the report is "without foundation." He said the United States, France and Britain are continuing consultations on the matter and have yet to make a final recommendation to the U.N. Security Council. "We have not ruled out any options," said a British official. Britain circulated several proposals at the United Nations before Christmas, he added. The explosions destroyed Pan American World Airways Flight 103 over Scotland in December 1988 and-a French UTA airliner over Niger in 1989.

"What has apparently been decided is that for the time being we would first demand a U.N. resolution" condemning terrorism and demanding that Libya hand over its suspected agents, said one European official. "If Libya doesn't comply, we'll propose a second resolution, including sanctions," he added. All three countries have accused Libyan intelligence officers of the bombings and called on Libya to hand them over for criminal trials. The strongly worded demands were widely viewed as a signal that the three governments would ask for U.N.

sanctions. "3 .1 Associated Press New Year's addition: Eve, a Grevy zebra, rests near her mother, Penny, at the Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, yesterday. The baby zebra was born sometime between 9 p.m. on Dec.

31 and 7 a.m. New Year's Day. Bush: Let IMF, World Bank lend to ex-Soviet republics the IMF and World Bank, status that entitled it to economic advice and technical assistance, but not loans. The Soviet Union had been struggling with the loans it already and, as the year began, the republics had suspended repayment of principal on foreign debt but were still paying interest. The United States had opposed full membership for the Soviet Union until it could demonstrate that it was reforming its economy and would be capable of repaying loans.

former Soviet Union have created new opportunities and challenges for international financial cooperation," Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady said in a statement. Membership "will further market-oriented economic reform in these newly independent nations. We will work with them to ensure that their applications are considered as quickly as possible," he said. Since October, the Soviet Union has been a "special associate member" of Associated Press WASHINGTON The Bush administration, in a policy shift, said today it supports full membership now for Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union in the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Membership in the two 156-nation organizations potentially could provide the former Soviet states with billions of dollars of loans to ease their transition from communism to capitalism. "The dramatic developments in the FROM PAGE ONE Probation program closely monitors offenders fender Treatment Team coordinator. "They need to be confrontive and supportive. It takes a special kind of person," Chun says. They not only maintain frequent contact with the probationers but attend group therapy sessions, she says.

"Even their presentence investigations take two or three times longer than normal." Electronic monitoring is used to enforce curfew restrictions, with every offender under electronic surveillance the first 30 days of probation and more if needed, Inouye says, adding that the unit is trying to increase supervision. Inouye can recall only two cases where probation was revoked and the men were sentenced to prison. Both were for technical violations, she says. About seven motions are pending to revoke probation for probationers with sexual offenses six for technical violations and one for a misdemeanor assault, she says. Although she has investigated sex offenders in the past, Inouye says she didn't have the knowledge and skills she has now through training by nationally recognized experts in the field.

"We are able to make better decisions and evaluations for recommendations to the court. I feel really good about it." The evaluations assist in monitoring an offender on probation because they reveal high-risk situations and potential sexual targets, she says. For example, if he is aroused by children, the officers make sure he doesn't work at a preschool or a business exposing him to children, she says. "By the same token, if we know he has arousal to masochism, we want to make sure there is no pornography in the home, so we have search and seizure (procedures) and restrictions on leisure-time activities." Inouye says the probation program has the same philosophy as the parole program: to prevent further sex-assault victims. "We make sure what's happening in treatment is consistent with what we're doing in monitoring him.

The true test is how he's performing in the community." Sex therapist Joseph Giovannoni reviews cases at least twice a week with the officers to report any backsliding behavior, she says. If he notes a man is drinking, for example, they increase urine testing, she says. The unit has nine positions, including seven probation officers, but three are vacant, Inouye says. Two officers are assigned to 74 probationers, and two handle presentence investigations. "They are not just mainstream probation officers," says Paula Chun, Hawaii Sex Of By Helen Altonn Star-Bulletin Sex offenders thrive on secrecy, so secrecy has been removed from a court probation program concentrating on these criminals, the supervisor says.

Probation officers work with the therapist, who works with the sex offenders, and reports go back and forth, says Cheryl Inouye, who heads the special services unit in Oahu Circuit Court's Adult Probation Division. "There are just no secrets anymore, and secrecy is the lif eblood of sex offenders." The court program is the most advanced of those set up under a state sex offender treatment master plan and "has proved remarkably effective," says Roger Smith, outgoing administrator of the Department of Public Safety Sex Offender Treatment Program. Besides providing intense supervision for sexual offenders placed on probation, the Oahu unit in February began handling all the presentence investigations on such criminals. So far, the unit has done about 138 presentence investigations, which include assessments and sexual arousal tests as well as the usual background and history checks, Inouye says. posed Au's body was found on Tantalus 10 days after she disappeared and 10 years have elapsed since she died, Omori is not hopeful the mystery of her death will be solved by scientific tests.

He has been trying to find new techniques to determine whether the amount of cocaine Au took was a fatal dose. "All we can say is that cocaine was found at a low level," he said. The presence of amphetamines may be the natural result of decomposition, he said. He also said he could not comment on why Odom waited a year to run the toxicology tests. Odom lives on the mainland and could not be reached for comment.

"I don't know what all of the circumstances were," Omori said. "There might have been a good reason for the delay." Odom's official finding was that the cause of death was undetermined. In June 1983, more than a year after the death, police had Au's body exhumed and another autopsy performed, this time by Dr. Ronald Korn-blum, chief of forensic medicine for Los Angeles. He also found that the cause could not be determined, but said Au died by unnatural means.

Au was last seen alive about 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 22, 1982. She had spent the evening with her boyfriend, Doug Holmes, at bis sister's Mott-Smith Drive apartment. Holmes told police that he and Au left the apartment building in separate cars.

He returned to his University of Hawaii dormitory room and she drove over the Pali to Kailua. Later that morning, Au's car was found abandoned near the Kailua Drive-In. Her decomposed body was found 10 days later on Tantalus. Police focused on police officer Byrne, who knew the Au family and admitted pulling over a woman on the Pali Highway that evening for driving erratically. Corniel contends the police ignored an eyewitness who saw a second suspect on Tantalus the night Au died.

The same suspect flunked two lie-detector tests, according to police records. Neither Byrne nor the second suspect were charged. Since the grand jury disbanded in 1984, nothing publicly has happened in the Au case. But a number of people originally associated with the case including former Prosecutor Charles Marsland, Deputy Prosecutor Michael McGuigan, Byrne's attorney John Ya-mane and the Aus' attorney Roy Chang have asked that the police take a new look. AU: Friends told police she didn't use any cocaine Continued from Page A-l near the Kailua Drive-In during the early morning of Jan.

22, 1982. Corniel turned up evidence against a second suspect that also was presented to the grand jury. The case was never presented to an indicting grand jury because of the conflicting theories. Corniel said the presence of drugs is important because Lisa Au's friends told police at the time of her death she did not use drugs, except occasionally marijuana. Had the toxicology tests been done sooner, the presence of cocaine might have caused investigators to look more critically at statements made by her friends.

"I think had the investigation been conducted in a proper way, they would bave been able to determine the cause of death," Corniel said. Lisa Au's mother, Patrice, thinks the toxicology tests were put off because police had focused on Byrne as the suspect. "They were so into trying to go after Mr. Byrne that they weren't going to let anything else come into it," Patrice Au said. She said she wasn't told until nearly two years after her daughter died that drugs had been found in her body.

Byrne has refused interviews. The Police Department officially will not comment on the case because it is still open. Dr. Quentin Belles was the lone forensic toxicologist in the state at the time of Au's death. Working out of Wilcox Hospital on Kauai, Belles received Au's tissues on Jan.

12, 1983, and completed his tests on Feb. 2, 1983, according to laboratory records. Now retired, Belles said he could not recall the actual tests. But he said it was unusual that it took so long for the tissue samples to be sent for testing. "I can't understand why the material would take that long to get to us," he said.

"The longer the tissue sits, the less likelihood (there is) of picking up toxic substances." Omori plans to analyze the actual procedure used to test the tissues. He already is in the process of reviewing the Au autopsy results to determine if any further tests can be done. But because the body was decom PAROLEES: Most of them work 'real hard' to change their lives Cases of rape Honolulu police investigate more than 200 reports of rape each year: 1 989: 269 rape cases; 1 ,244 sexual-assault cases. 1 990: 278 rape cases; 1 ,1 79 sexual-assault cases. 1 991 First six months of the year, 1 39 rapes reported.

Sexual-assault figures are unavailable. Rape is a separata, mora serious offense under the law, and the victim must be female. "There is a lot of balking at first. Nobody likes treatment but as time goes by, they appreciate having some consistency in their lif some structure. "They know the bottom line." They feel good that "somebody cares about what is going on in their life and listening," she says.

"It's a tough job. It doesn't always work but we hope by such close supervision, if somebody has a lapse or infraction, we can have them back (in prison) before another victim is created." When they are caught breaking the rules Woodard says, "there is a lot of begging and pleading, but there has to be bottom-line accountability. "All of us have to work, to maintain a legal drug-free lifestyle, and that's all we're asking for (from) other people." Mostly, they fail on "stupidity," such "as constant curfew violations, she says. "One guy, no matter how many times we warned him we brought his family in, put him on house arrest and he still went out the next day and violated curfew, so we took him back." Tomorrow: Inmates discuss sexual crimes. Continued from Page A-l the two officers are managing about 70 sexual offenders, most of whom are "working real hard (at) attempting to change their lives," Woodard says.

She and Youngblood interview sexual offenders in prison prior to their appearance before the parole board, to assess the risks of releasing them and see if they will agree to a treatment program. If they agree, they are given a psychophysiological assessment and a treatment Elan as part of the parole conditions. This elps ensure that they comply, she says. The parole officers also meet with the inmate's family members and employer. "We want to make sure everybody understands the nature of the offense, treatment and parole," Woodard says.

"We talk with the family continuously to make sure there are no secrets and everybody is helping the process along and not hindering (it)." 1 A close check is kept on compliance with an 8 p.m. curfew, and electronic monitoring is used if necessary, Woodard says. The parole officers work closely with sex therapist Joseph Giovannoni and the Waia-nae Mental Health Center. Both provide the parolees with treatment. They try to keep on top of what is happening to spot any high-risk situations, Woodard says, noting: "If it wasn't for him (Giovannoni), we would be hard-pressed to do what we want to do.

"The man is tireless in his giving to HP The goal is to work toward a positive lifestyle for sexual offenders. Drug treatment is particularly important, she says..

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Pages Available:
1,993,314
Years Available:
1912-2010