News-Journal from Mansfield, Ohio • 4

fir Swastika-scrawling crime was staged, say police posited the check in her personal account, Cates said. When the check cleared, she withdrew all the money from that account and from a checking account she shared with her husband, Cates said. She charged about $16,000 on her husband's credit cards, he said. "She left her husband and started to live a lavish lifestyle with her boyfriend," Cates said. "Neither were employed, but they began buying expensive jewelry and spent a lot of time at Calder Racetrack." Jamie Roedel declined to comment on the charges, her attorney James Cohn said Thursday.

She was released from the Broward County jail on $2,000 bond and told police she is living with her parents in North Miami Beach. Police said Jerry Roedel was out of town, and he could not be reached for comment. "The main thing we want to stress is there was no hate crime in Cooper City," Cates said. "This was an insurance crime from the get-go." Knlaht-Riddar Ntwipopwi COOPER CITY, Fla. When someone ransacked and scrawled black swastikas all over Jerry and Jamie Roedel's Cooper City home, neighbors, religious leaders and politicians joined together to eradicate the hate they thought had intruded into their city.

Now after an eight-month investigation, police say the vandalism wasn't a hate crime at all it was an alleged attempt by Jamie Roedel to milk sympathy from an unsuspecting community while scamming the couple's insurance company for $28,000. Cooper City police on Tuesday took Jamie Roedel into custody on charges of grand theft and filing false insurance claims, Detective Robert Cates said Thursday. He said an arrest warrant also has been issued for Jerry Roedel in connection with the incident "We believe she staged the burglary, inflated her insurance claim and submitted fictitious receipts for stuff she never owned," he said. After the April 28 break-in, community leaders and politicians were so outraged by the purported bigotry that a rally against hate crimes a week later drew more than 500 people to Temple Beth Ahm Israel in Cooper City. "The community instinct to be repulsed by an apparent hate crime is something that speaks well of the neighbors of this family, who could not have known this was a false claim," said Arthur Teitelbaum, southern area director of the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith, when told of the investigation.

The incident at the Roedel house and others in preceding weeks had inspired Cooper City Councilman Barry Warsch to sponsor a resolution making Martin Luther King Jr. day a city holiday as a symbol of tolerance. "If it is true that this family faked this, it's a fairly low-class thing to do," Warsch said Thursday. "But any decent legislation passed for any decent reason will be taken advantage of sooner or later by individuals." Rabbi Avraham Kapnek of Temple The crime apparently targeted Jerry Roedel, who is Jewis h. His wife is not.

Someone had blacked out his face in family pictures. Police found three or four swastikas in every room. Every household item of value, including a power saw, Hummel figurines and small appliances, was missing. When Cates saw a list of missing items worth $48,000 submitted to the insurance agency, he figured something was wrong. "She had some extraordinary things.

The average burglar will know exactly what he's looking for," Cates said. "They take electronics, jewelry and cash. They don't take little figurines." Cates began tracking the insurance claim. He noticed that statements Jamie Roedel gave to police didn't match ones she gave Allstate, her insurance agency. He said he found expensive purchases, including a 1991 Cadillac, made just prior to the alleged robbery.

And he said he uncovered fake receipts. When the insurance company paid $28,000 on the claim, Jamie Roedel de fifiWe believe she staged the burglary, inflated her insurance claim and submitted fictitious receipts for stuff she never owned. 5 3 Detective Robert Cates Beth Ahm, who helped form the Council for Human Understanding and Diversity after the vandalism, said work remains for the council to do despite the alleged fraud. "There's no question that this helped galvanize the community into doing something, but the need was felt long before that," Kapnek said. "Unfortunately, we know there's too much bigotry in this community and the council's endeavor is to work toward addressing all kinds of bigotry." It was the supposed robbers' thoroughness that first tweaked Cates' Woman slain in triple murder posed as man i I "ft ber, Brandon resembled a teenage boy, with a cute smile and a pug nose.

Friends described her as having a slight, 5-foot-5-inch frame. She always dressed in men's clothes and kept her black hair close-cropped, they said. Brandon had every one of us fooled. 5 5 Kim Gresham Brandon Teena was really Teena Brandon FALLS CITY, Neb. (AP) Young people in this small Nebraska city took Brandon Teena at face value.

Brandon dressed like a man, talked like a man and dated women. Then they found out that Brandon Teena was really Teena Brandon, a woman. About two weeks later, Brandon, 21, and two other people were found shot to death in a farmhouse about three miles south of Humboldt, a town of 1,000 in southeastern Nebraska. Also killed were Lisa Lambert, 23, and Phillip DeVine, 22, of Fairfield, Iowa. "Brandon had every one of us fooled," said Kim Gresham, 23, a convenience store clerk who frequently talked to Brandon when she came into the store.

"He was in here all the time with girls, and the girls Were hanging all over him," Gresham said. Two local men, John Lotter, 22, and Marvin Nissen, 21, both of Falls City, were arrested on suspicion of murder. They were being held in the county jail and arraignment was scheduled for today in Richardson County Court on charges of kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault in an alleged Christmas Day assault on Brandon, said County Attorney Douglas Merz. Charges related to the three deaths also will be filed, Merz said, but declined to give details. Authorities were investigating the allegations of sexual assault at the time of the slayings, Merz said.

In a snapshot taken in Decem Cold weather fisherman Dennis Ray Newton scoops snow from his fishing boat last week on the Potomac Creek in Stafford, Virginia. Neton explained that if too much snow piles up in the boat it will sink and the ice will damage the boat. Newton is a fisherman and crabber on the Potomac Creek, working with his father. They will resume fishing for mud shad as soon as the ice melts. (AP Photo) She moved to the area about three months ago from Lincoln, about 60 miles away, and lived with Lambert and her infant son in a rented farmhouse in Humboldt.

Lambert's son, who was in the house at the time of the slayings, was unharmed, authorities said. DeVine's stepfather, Roy McCain of Fairfield, said his stepson had been visiting friends in Nebraska. Merz refused to speculate on a motive but said he did not believe Brandon's sexual identity was behind the killings. But Michelle Lotter, 21, the sister of John Lotter, said her brother and Nissen were angry after learning about Brandon's deception. Lana Tisdel, 19, of Falls City said she dated Brandon for about a week.

She said she didn't find out until about two weeks ago that Brandon was a woman. That's when Brandon was arrested on forgery and alcohol-related charges. "They (authorities) were calling her a female so we started asking questions," Tisdel said. She said she confronted Brandon. "She told me that she had a sex change and it's not all done," Tisdel said.

Some AIDS patients use underground drug network The desperate need per month for Bactrim. The desperate need for expensive, life-prolonging drugs has driven AIDS patients to humanitarian drug deals. In a health-care system that leaves some sick people with no money for treatment, this drug pipeline is an underground safety net. In every major city, people with AIDS "have really learned the extent to which this health-care payment system leaves people out in the cold," said Spencer Cox, a spokesman for Treatment Action Group, an AIDS activist organization in New York. Some distributors get AZT, Bactrim and other drugs from the families of AIDS patients who die.

Others get medicine by participating in tests of AIDS drugs; then they get a prescription from a physician and tap their insurance coverage to pay for it Authorities don't know much about the network. They are squeamish about cracking down on a lifeline for desperate people. But insurers, not happy about subsidizing drug handouts, say they're concerned. So are some health experts, who cite the risks posed by people getting medicine from untrained friends. Because their activities are il President Bill Clinton's proposed changes to health care, which promise coverage to all Americans, would help many AIDS patients who now depend on the underground network.

But for now, the practice continues. In Michigan, that may involve health fraud, a felony, and dispensing a prescription drug without a license, a misdemeanor. "My concern is not so much what's legal and illegal, but what's moral and immoral," says Tina, an AIDS drug distributor who lives in Oakland County, Mich. "If the system doesn't work, then you have to go around it" People with HIV or AIDS often take multiple, costly medications. AZT, ddl, and ddC, drugs given to slow the virus' progress, cost from $2,200 to $2,600 a year each.

Many AIDS patients also take Bactrim and drugs to prevent fungal infections. Friends Alliance, a non-profit Detroit group, helps people get free AIDS drugs through the few legal channels that exist: clinical trials of AIDS drugs, conducted in Detroit by Henry Ford and Harper hospitals; and free drug programs sponsored by pharmaceutical firms for the very poor. But they don't nearly fill the ever-growing demand for free AIDS drugs. for expensive, life-prolonging drugs has driven AIDS patients to humanitarian drug deals Knijhl-Rldder Nwwxptr DETROIT On a dark street in a northwest Detroit neighborhood, a beat-up, red subcompact pulled up to the curb. Mason, the driver, opened his window and waited.

John, parked behind him, climbed out of his 1970s sedan. John slipped the envelope through the window into Mason's waiting hands. Inside were 30 thick, white, oval pills. "Now I can get to keep going," said Mason, a brown-eyed, bearded 27-year-old. "I have 30 days left" The brief transfer was no ordinary drug deal.

It was illegal, yes, but free as well. Bactrim, the drug John gave Mason, offers no fleeting high; it helps prevent a type of pneumonia that kills people with AIDS. "I wish we didn't have to be so cloak-and-dagger about it It's like being in a bad James Bond movie," Mason said. "But I've got to live somehow." Mason's $475 monthly Social Security check barely pays for rent and food; there's not an extra fZi jMW 7 I Jet crashes and burns in Russia 120 are killed in crash blamed on engine failure MOSCOW (AP) An Aer-oflot passenger jet crashed and burned today shortly after takeoff from the Siberian city of Irkutsk, killing all 120 people aboard, officials said. Cause of the crash of the three-engine Tu-154 jet 2,500 miles east of Moscow was blamed on engine failure.

The jet was 12 minutes into its regularly scheduled flight to Moscow when it crashed. It was carrying 110 adult passengers, one child, five crew members and four flight attendants, said Yeka-terina Glebova, spokeswoman for the State Committee for Emergency Situations. "The captain radioed the control tower that his No. 2 engine was on fire and he was turning around," Glebova told The Associated Press! "Then he radioed again and said that the engine was completely out and they had lost control of the airplane. Then it just disappeared from the radar screen," she said.

Doctors, rescue workers and troops rushed to the scene, but "there were no survivors," Glebova said. "The aircraft crashed and burned completely." The Soviet-made Tu-154 is a three-engine turbo-fan jet that can carry up to 180 passengers. The plane crashed into a field 7 miles outside Irkutsk, a city of 650,000 people. Glebova said it was clear there could be no survivors after an intense fire fed by the plane's fuel tanks. legal, AIDS drug distributors and recipients spoke on condition their names not be used.

Teena Brandon, left, dated Lana Tisdel for a week until Tisdel found out Brandon was a woman. This photo of the couple was taken in mid-December, 1993. Brandon, 21, was one of three people found shot to death Friday in Richardson County, Nebraska. (AP Photo) Murder charges against Toledo juveniles soar in 1993 Youthful murderers are a different breed, Toledo police say TOLEDO (AP) Last year, 12 juveniles were charged with murder more than in the previous three years combined. Toledo recorded 48 homicides in 1993.

By year's end, the juveniles and 36 adults had been charged with murder in the slayings of 35 people. Police have not made arrests in 13 homicides. "In 1975, murder was a last resort crime," Detective Tom Ross said. "But now I think these kids will murder at the drop of the hat." Police say youthful murderers are, in most cases, a different breed from the adult perpetrators. "I don't know if it's a facade they are putting on or what but they seem to be pretty cold individuals," said Capt Ray Carroll, who heads the crimes against persons section of the Toledo police division.

"I certainly believe they are well aware of what they are doing, but there is some sort of philosophical outlook or something that precludes them from giving proper weight to what they are doing," Carroll said. Youths who murder act on emo tion without thinking of consequences, said Harold Mosley, a detective in the police division's youth services section. "Youngsters have a lot of bravado, and they don't like to be backed into a corner," he said. "I don't think they have the mental capacity to think or to rationalize enough to see the big picture that there will be no more prom nights or parties for them today, or a nice house and a nice job for them tomorrow." Mosley said parents are slowly starting to see the big picture, and some are holding themselves accountable for their children. "The pendulum is starting to swing slowly the other way, and parents are starting to learn they have to take responsibility," he said.

"Families are tired of burying their children. And when their children commit violence, it affects the whole family.".