The Daily News Leader from Staunton, Virginia • 1

The Stahj mm It? A7TW10) 'M. The Staunton Leader (USPS 560 760 0 Box 59. Staunton, va 2401 Second Class PMaoe Paid Staunton, vj 20i VOL. 133, NO. 230 STAUNTON, 24401, FRIDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 21, 1980 TWENTY CENTS Stocking mask rapist seeks Reagan begins choosing Cabinet 'J Ml -1 1 Vr if' Vc si A ull WASHINGTON (AP) Presidentelect Ronald Reagan, his debut among the nation's power brokers over, is flying home to California to begin choosing a Cabinet.

Reagan is expected to spend the weekend reviewing a list of Cabinet News Inside (One section) Abby Page 17 Church Pages 8, 13 City, County, State Page 9 Classifieds Pages 1 4-18 Comics Page 13 Editorials Page 4 Obituaries Page 3 Sports Pages 10-12 Theatres. Page 10 Women's Pages 6-7 Weather Clear tonight; lows In the 30s. Sunny and mild Saturday; highs in the midSOs. See complete weather on Dane 5. finalists prepared by a group of old friends and trusted advisers.

A source close to the transition said Reagan will focus first on the top Cabinet posts State, Defense, Treasury and Justice along with the Cabinet-level jobs of running the CIA and the Office of Management and Budget. Even as the weekend approached, the Cabinet competition was still developing. A source said California Supreme Court Justice William P. Clark, a Reagan appointee who served as the former Republican governor's first chief of staff, now is in the running for attorney general. Until Thursday, that slot was thought likely to go to William French Smith, Reagan's personal lawyer, who was said by other sources still to be the leading candidate.

Reagan was to talk with former President Gerald R. Ford and meet with his transition team before departing today. He capped his five-day stay here with a White House conference Thursday with President Carter, their first meeting since the election. "We're very glad to have you here," Carter told his successor as he and his wife, Rosalynn, greeted Reagan and his wife, Nancy, at the South Portico of the White House. "I think you'll like the place." OPEN ARMS President Carter stretches his arms wide as he walks from the White House entrance onto the South Lawn Thur sday.

He is followed by Rosalynn Carter, President-elect Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. AP Laserphoto) SAWTO fails to change board's decision other people in the county. "It's time you people wake up and realize this organization is here to stay," Fulcher stated. "We're not second-class citizens. If we have to go further, it's going to be that way," he warned.

In the board's defense, Chairman Bill R. Borden said the board hasn't "intimidated you or your group at any time." Borden noted that Ruritan clubs throughout the county receive a break on the use of schools for their meetings because they are civic groups "which contribute greatly of manpower and funds to schools. "This is a concession," Borden admitted, and I feel we are justified to do this." "The board has never intended to play favorites," said John Moore, vice chairman of the board. "There is no animosity or ill feelings toward you." A move by Moore to have the board By GEORGE M.MAYS Leader Staff Writer FISHERSVILLE Despite veiled threats by a watchdog taxpayer group, the Augusta County School Board Thursday night stood firm on an earlier decision to charge the group for using a school as its meeting place. Claiming they were being "discriminated against" and treated like "second-class citizens," several members of Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Taxpayers Organization appeared before the board to ask that they be charged on the same basis as other groups.

The organization, which holds its monthly meetings at Fishersville Elementary School, is charged $30 each time it uses the school. When the initial request for a rate reduction came to Supt. Edward G. Clymore in July, he asked Edward L. Plunkett, board attorney, to research the matter.

Clymore said Plunkett feels it is the board's prerogative to waive the fee for civic groups if it desires. He said Plunkett ruled that SAWTO is a political group and should be charged a fee. "Based on this," Clymore told the board, "I recommended that we adhere to the attorney's opinion and charge $30." H. Troy Horn, SAWTO president, told the board that the organization's "sole purpose is tax matters. Never has an item of political action in any form surfaced.

"We're strickly a taxpayer group. I believe we are entitled to the same privilege as other groups," Horn said. "We feel we're being discriminated against," he added. Robert Fulcher, president-elect of SAWTO, said the group is "being treated as though we have leprosy. We're not getting a fair shake.

I have a right to the same privileges as new hearing By PATRICK KELLY Leader Staff Writer Staunton's "stocking mask rapist" claims he was "railroaded" by police and is asking for a hearing on his complaints. During his Feb. 6 trial in Staunton Circuit Court, James Bruce Robinson was convicted of 22 felony charges -including five rapes and a series of break-ins and sentenced to 20 years in the state penitentiary. He is now confined in Roanoke City Jail where he is serving a sentence for violating his probation for statutory burglary and grand larceny convictions. Acting as his own attorney, Robinson has filed a writ of habeas corpus in Staunton Circuit Court, claiming his rights were violated.

In it he claims he was denied proper legal counsel, and pleaded guilty against his will to offenses he did not commit. The court has been directed by the Virginia Attorney General's office to hold a full hearing on Robinson's allegations, but a date has not been set. If Robinson's complaints are justified he could get a new trial. "I don't know anything about the law, but I have been done wrong and I have to get something done about my case, Kobuison wrote in a leuer to Circuit Judge Rudolph Bumgard-nerlll. "This is my life sir," he continues, "and it's not fair how the detectives treated me.

I have been railroaded and I have to fight for my life. During questioning for an attempted break-in, Robinson said a witness to the crime at first failed to indentif him. Later, after a conversation with police, he said the witness identified him as the suspect. While being questioned by state police and Staunton police investigators, Robinson said he was told to confess a number of "unserved and unsolved charges" or he would receive 380 years in prison. State police Investigator D.E.

Stillwell and Staunton Detective Ronald Whisman were present during the questioning, he said. "Being duly frightened and under emotional stress at this time" Robinson said he told the detectives he committed the crimes they wanted him to confess to. At that point, Robinson said, the detectives wrote statements detailing the rapes and break-ins and told him to read them into a tape recorder. Robinson said Staunton Public Defender William E. Bobbitt his court appointed defender, would not go with him during additional questioning.

He claims Bobbitt told him "to go ahead and do what the police wanted him to do" because he "had other things to do. At his trial, Robinson claims, he wanted to plead innocent, but his attorney told him he was "going to mess up things" if he didn't plead guilty. At the trial, Robinson was asked by Bumgardner if anyone "in any manner whatsoever, threatened you, or forced you, in any way to enter the plea of guilty." Robinson replied "no." Robinson was asked on each of 22 charges what his plea was and 22 times he replied "guilty." Staunton Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond C. Robertson said this morning had not heard of Robinson's legal action, but said he has little doubt that Robinson was the rapist who terrorized the city for nearly a year. "I'm sure he did it.

He's the only one who could have known the things he told police," Robertson said. tempt to take over the government, of plotting to murder Mao and stage an armed coup and of plotting to stage an armed rebellion in Shanghai after Mao's death. They could be sentenced to death. Television reports of the first trial session showed Jiang Qing looking as self-assured as she did when she was in power, before her husband's death and her arrest four years ago. She was escorted into the courtroom by two armed women guards, but she showed no ill effects from her long detention.

She held her head high, and her appearance was unchanged. Dressed in a dark Mao suit, she wore her usual dark-rimmed glasses, and her hair was still thick and jet black despite her 67 years. During the seven minutes of TV film broadcast Thursday night, she looked around the courtroom occasionally and yawned a few times. United Way makes special fund appeal The United Way of Staunton and West Augusta County campaign is drawing to a close and is several thousand dollars short of the required goal of $267,803. The campaign has been affected adversely by employee layoffs in the community and inflation in general.

In view of these economic conditions, the United Way is appealing to everyone in the community who has given to consider giving a little more and to those who have not given to make a pledge or contribution. The Staunton Leader in supporting the United Way effort will publicly recognize the names of donors answering the "special appeal" who make a pledge or contribution of $15 or more by Dec. 10. No dollar amounts will be printed, just names. All pledges or contributions must be received directly at the United Way's office and be noted as a "special appeal" donation in order to be recognized in this newspaper.

Without immediate help of the people in the community, the United Way goal will not be attained. Further cuts to the already bare-bone budgets of each community service agency will be required, and fewer human services for the needy will be able to be provided. Pledges are being urged now, with payment to be spread throughout 1981. Donors can also contribute by sending a check immediately. Letters of appeal are being mailed to several thousand area residents requesting immediate support.

All pledges or contributions should be brought to the United Way office, Professional Building, Room 204, or mailed to the United Way, P.O. Box 273, Staunton, Va. 24401. seek a ruling on the status of SAWTO by Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman was defeated.

Moore said if such a ruling was that SAWTO qualified as a civic organization, it should be treated like one as far as school rental. "We're going to have to do everything we can to see that these people are treated fairly," said Moore. "Do we want to change our policy and open the schools up to everybody or stick to our policy?" asked Dale Smith, board member. Following the defeat of Moore's motion, Borden noted that the board would continue with its present policy on rental of school facilities. In another matter, the board was briefed on activities of the Adult Learning Center by Robert Young, director.

Young noted that the 1970 census (See SAWTO, Page 2) Prime rate hits 17 at one bank NEW YORK (AP) The prime lending rate rose to 17 percent at one major bank today and inched closer to its 20 percent record of last spring as the Federal Reserve kept up its attempt to fight inflation by limiting the amount of money Americans can borrow. The prime rate is a bank's charge on loans to top-ranked businesses, but the general tightening of credit means banks will be "toughening their terms" for consumer and mortgage lending as well, said David Jones, economist at the brokerage house of Aubrey G. Lanston Co. Inc. The nation "is on the verge of a (credit) crunch again," raising "the possibility the economy will hit the skids" by early 1981 after passing in and out of a recession this year, Jones said.

"Housing and construction activity, auto sales and consumer durable (goods) spending, inventory accumulation, business, plant and equipment outlays, and state and local government spending all are in for a second jolt," said economist Allen Sinai in a report issued this week by Data Resources the forecasting service. Ms. Luffey said the money should arrive within a month. The delay has been caused by contract increases with that EPA thinks are unjustified. For several months now the authority and EPA have been trying to reach an agreement on the $500,000 contract.

Tuesday the authority sent further corrections and explanations to the EPA. Ms. Luffey said the other $20,000 of the grant is being withheld pending final review of that material. She would not offer any kind of time scheme for the review I Y- i v. r- Four defendants admit their guilt Reflecting pool renewal Workmen wade through a maze of reinforcing rods and lumber as they work to replace the base of the reflecting pool Thursday on the Mall in Washington.

Behind them are the columns of the Lincoln Memorial. (AP Laserphoto) PEKING (AP) Four of the 10 defendants accused of bringing "untold disaster" to China during the Cultural Revolution have admitted their guilt, but Mao Tse-tung's widow still is posturing like the movie actress she once was and striking "a nauseating pose," the Chinese press said today. The trial of Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, her three radical associates in the so-called "Gang of Four" and six supporters of the late Defense Minister Lin Piao opened Thursday in Peking with the reading of the 48-count indictment. Chinese sources said no session was scheduled today, and there was no indication when the trial would resume. The two groups and their allies are accused of causing the deaths of more than 34,800 people during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, of framing other top leaders in an at and King, private engineers, for completed water design work in order to proceed with sewer design work.

For the first time in more than five loans, the supervisors got a signed loan contract from the authority to pay back the money by April 1. When asked if the money would go directly to county coffers as debt payment, Jim Elmore, authority engineer-manger, said he didn't know if it would. Chris Singleton, Commonwealth's attorney, said the contract would be binding if the authority got the money. By JOEL SALATTN Leader Staff Writer WARM SPRINGS Part of the much-delayed $75,000 funding grant from the Environmental Protection Agency is on its way to the Bath County Service Authority. "We approved $55,100 of it," said Ms.

Janet Luffey, public relations coordinator in EPA's Philadelphia regional office, this morning. Last Friday the Bath County Board of Supervisors released a $55,000 bail-out so the authority could pay Bremner, Youngblood Partial funds released for Bath project.