The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 11

THIRD 7 NORTHAMPTON MONROE 7 AND WARREN COUFJTIES i BH THE MORNING CALL THURSDAY. JULY 22, 1 993 SECTION Weather B2 Newsline B3 Police B2 Deaths 89 Business BIO LV. stocks B11 Easton decides against fufl-tlms Solicitor Page B3 Encor of Oath may drop bankruptcy shield Page bio msszr ested. jury finds man falsely air Ignorance still slapping them down Hedda and William Martin's 8-year-old foster daughter has found her own way of coping with disappointment. When a child has AIDS, she gets but awards only damag By MARIO F.

CATTABIANI Of The Morning Call plenty of practice. So when the little girl was told last A federal court jury yesterday found Stroudsburg, its former police chief and others violated the civil rights of a former Canadensis man when they arrested him in 1990 on drug charges. However, while finding for plaintiff Dean Post, now of Florida, the jury awarded only $150 in damages the arrest. He has since pleaded guilty, served probation and has had his record expunged. Post's suit also named Stroudsburg Mayor Chester Gross and police officer Kenneth Nevil as defendants.

The federal jury in Scranton deliberated for about two hours yesterday the trial's third day before finding for Post. Post and his attorney, Richard Orloski, had reportedly turned down a $30,000 settlement offer on Tuesday, hoping the jury would award more. Pansy and the borough are facing similar civil suits from other one-time drug defendants who have had their cases dismissed. 'Here's $150 for your trouble; here's gas money for the ride home. "We feel vindicated by this, but it's still a kick in the a- to all law enforcement." Post's suit alleged borough police arrested him on cocaine trafficking charges in the summer of 1990 without probable cause and based on fabricated evidence provided by former police officer Heath "Chuck-ie" Williams, who was also named as a defendant.

Counts against Post were dropped after state agents arrested Williams on charges of false swearing. Williams, who had testified at other hearings that he had never used steroids, resigned from the force after week that be or one-thousandth of the $150,000 he was seeking. cause of her disease, she couldn't return to church day Bill Whit "The jury said that technically we were guilty," said former Police Chief John Pansy, a defendant in the suit. "But really they were saying to Post, 1 i Strikers to vote on pact Saturday camp, she kept her feelings bottled inside. "So many things have happened to the child that when something more happens, she just kind of closes up," says Mrs.

Martin. "She doesn't cry she just remains quiet." The Martins, a retired Plain-field Township couple who have been adopting HIV-positive and AIDS youngsters since 1988, have a wealth of stories like this one. "Sometimes I get very angry," Mrs. Martin says. "These are children.

They have a right to live, they have a right to participate in society. You can't put them on an island." But the Martins' efforts to give these children a normal life have been slapped down time and again by the fear and ignorance surrounding AIDS. Mrs. Martin still gets emotional when she talks about the day she and her adopted 5-year-old daughter, Ciara, arrived at the little girl's dance school in Bethlehem for class picture day. Until a Morning Call story on the Martins, the Baton and Dance Connection had been unaware that the child was HIV-positive.

Before the class started, Mrs. Martin was called into the office and told that the little girl would have to withdraw. Mrs. Martin walked out of the office, she says, her voice cracking at the memory, "and there was little Ciara, all dressed up for picture day." They had to leave. "Ciara just said, 'Why, Mrs.

Martin says, crying. "That was the hardest thing, explaining it to her." At about the same time Ciara By KIRK BELDON JACKSON Of The Morning Call yW x. 4 i 1A7 fv ww -1 i i i'i' She kept her feelings bottled inside. Striking workers at Ingersoll-Dresser Pump Co. in Phillipsburg have reached a tentative agreement with the company setting the stage for a possible resolution to a 2 'A -month-long strike, officials on both sides said yesterday.

The sides met for 4 hours yesterday with a federal mediator, according to Tom Murphy, human resources manager for the company. Tom Torcivia, president of United Steelworkers of America, Local 5503, said union leaders will explain the package to the membership tomorrow. The members will then vote on Saturday, he said. Neither Torcivia nor Murphy would reveal any details of the package. But both sides have said in the past that the issues have been salary and benefits.

The union went on strike May 16. It initially asked for wage increases totaling 16.2 percent over three years. Later, it offered a counter-proposal, asking for 16 percent. The company rejected that as well. The two sides last met June 30.

Again, they failed to agree. This work stoppage has already exceeded a 55-day strike that extended from April 16 to June 9, 1990. That strike took place when the company was known as Ingersoll-Rand. It later joined with the Dallas-based Dresser Industries Inc. to form the present company.

While the strike has been going on, the company had been transferring orders to other Ingersoll-Dresser plants around the country, according to Murphy. The men of summer Charles Matthews, above, of the Kids and Kubs, hits a Softball in a game against the American Cancer Society at Wind Gap Park. At right first-base coach Walter Brooks, 86, cheers from the bench. Members of the baseball club, organized 60 years ago in Florida, range in age from 75 to 92 years. Proceeds from the contest benefit the Cancer Society.

iV LiiJjiiiiMiJMi ni mi ir -mla-MaaiMlM-JMJJMMMJJM TOM VOLK The Morning Call County contends Diomedo ignored orders By GAY ELWELL Of The Morning Call was being thrown out of her dance class, the 8-year-old foster daughter triggered an uproar in her T-ball league when parents discovered she had AIDS. The Martins finally withdrew the girl from the team. There also have been many people who supported the family, showing their kindness in a variety of ways. But it still hurts when one of the children has to face rejection again. Last Thursday, Mrs.

Martin signed her 8-year-old up for her second year at the day camp, paying in advance and talking to the program's assistant director to ensure there would be no problem. The camp includes crafts, swunming, puppets, stories and games. The girl attended Thursday, but that night, Mrs. Martin got a call from the assistant director. A volunteer had expressed concerns, and the assistant wanted to discuss the situation with her director that weekend.

In the meantime, she asked Mrs. Martin not to bring the girl back. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, Mrs. Martin still hadn't heard from them, and she was angry. "No matter where we go," she said, "we find the same story." I finally tracked the director down, and she explained that the assistant was new and inexperienced, the volunteer was scared, and the director had been out of town.

They had reassured and educated the volunteer, and the assistant was to get back to the Martins and tell them the girl could return. "There was no problem as far as we were concerned with this little girl going to this day camp," the director said. It's not clear to me why it took so long to get this resolved and tell the Martins what was going on, but the assistant visited their home yesterday to explain what had happened, and the girl can return to camp, if she chooses to do so. It's somewhere in the Lehigh Valley; I'm leaving the name of the organization and its location out because I don't want to be responsible for still more grief for a child who already has endured more than her share. 1 By the way, when she arrived with the Martins in 1990, doctors said she had only six months to live.

Three years later, she's still fighting. It would be nice if her disease was the only thing she had to fight. rector disregarding direct orders from the county executive. It's unheard of." Over and over, Regina hammered at what the county is treating as the most damaging evidence against the former sheriff: a series of administrative actions and decisions that the county contends were against county policy and contrary to direct orders he received from Seyfried and Regina. Included was Diomedo's knowledge of the alleged misdeeds of former deputy Brian Kunkle, who faces criminal action in Lehigh and Northampton counties over physical exams he conducted on a number of part-time bers.

The board will also discuss scheduling for the presentation of Diomedo's defense. For the second night, Diomedo was absent from the hearing, while he tended his father at the Wisconsin hospital where the older Diomedo underwent cardiac surgery two weeks ago. And for the first time, by agreement of the parties, not all four board members were present for the entire hearing. Parker Valentine arrived late, after Regina had testified on direct examination by county labor attorney Edward Feege, and before cross-examination by Diomedo's lawyer, Philip D. Lauer.

"I think when one looks at the complete picture, there was no following of direct orders" from Seyfried by Diomedo, Regina said. "You can't have a department di Sheriff Alfred Diomedo displayed insubordination in several ways that warranted his firing, Northampton County Personnel Director Peter Regina asserted last night. Regina spent nearly 3Vi hours on the witness stand before the county personnel appeals board, which is hearing the fired sheriffs appeal of his termination. County Executive Gerald Seyfried, the last of the county's witnesses, is slated to testify at 6 tonight when the personnel appeals board reconvenes hi council cham Please See DIOMEDO Page B7 if -'1 State Theater deal bringing movies bade Merluzzi will head Middletown District By MATT ASSAD Of The Morning Call By KIRK BELDON JACKSON Of The Morning Call Phillipsburg School District Superintendent Peter Merluzzi yesterday signed a contract to become the new superintendent of the Middletown Township School District in Monmouth County. Merluzzi, 50, who on-and-off has been the superintendent in Phillipsburg since 1977, will assume his new position Aug.

1, according to Middletown Township Board of Education President Karen Fenton. that will bring movies back to the State's 44-foot screen as early as next week, said Mark Goodman, owner of Keystone Entertainment which runs the theater. This time the movies will be mainly first-run art, foreign and commercial art films, many of them arriving at the theater weeks earlier than they would have under the State's previous second-run Please See MOVIES Page B7 The State Theater is back in the movie business less than three weeks after New Jersey movie man Nelson Page walked away from the operation of the downtown landmark. The theater, which has been without nightly movies since Page abruptly left, has signed a deal with a New Jersey booking agent Peter Merluzzi outgoing superintendent Please See MERLUZZI Page B7 3.