Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 7

I 17a SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 1984 ST. PETERSBURG TIMES 1 U.S. Rep. Andy Ireland switches his allegiance to Republican Party i' AMociatad Praaa 'In becoming a Republican after a lifetime as a Democrat, I do not see myself leaving the Democratic Party so much as I see the Democratic Party leaving me and our state and its values. Andy Ireland I WINTER HAVEN U.S.

Rep. Andy Ireland, seeking his fifth term in the House, said Saturday he has switched to the Republican Party because the Democrats have ignored conservatives and moderates. Ireland, 53, who represents several Central Florida counties, made the announcement at an annual re-election money-raiser at Cypress Gardens. "In becoming a Republican after a lifetime as a Democrat, I do not see myself leaving the Democratic Party so much as I see the Democratic Party leaving me and our state and its values." The defection gives the GOP seven Florida seats while leaving the Democrats with 12. IRELAND SAID he and others who share his moderate to conservative views have lost their voice in the Democratic Party.

"Millions of moderate and conservative Democrats in Florida and in the South and across this nation are being forced into a permanent minority role within the party," Ireland said. Ireland represents Florida's 10th District, which includes DeSoto, Hardee, Manatee and Polk counties and part of Osceola. A banking executive, Ireland serves on the Foreign Affairs and Small Business committees. He heads the subcommittee on special small business problems and export opportunities. His spokesman, Mike Thomas, said Ireland has been considering switching parties for about 18 months.

Thomas said he didn't know how the change would affect Ireland's committee assignment in the Democratic-controlled House. The incumbent so far has one official challenger in No- v-'-f i 'i vember, Jack Carter, 51, of Lakeland. A Social Security Administration employee, Carter formerly was a Republican but switched to the Democratic Party about six months ago. Ireland said at the money-raiser that he went to Washington in 1976 "determined to fight within the party for the kind of moderate and conservative policies supported by Central Floridians. "RECENT ACTIVITIES in Congress and recent election results have convinced me that this fight is useless.

Our views are not heard, not heeded, not wanted he said. "I've decided to take my stand for principles. Perhaps only few of my fellow Southerners, my fellow Floridians, my fellow moderates and conservatives will join me. "Perhaps millions will in this crucial election year." r'J -mi ii fi in ii II WRBZ-TV photographar Abram McGull via Auociatad Praia I Latest delegate count Campaign I United Press International from 1-A Shooting from 1-A- WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge, La. captured on tape, photo above, the moment Gary Plauche turned from an airport phone booth, lifted his gun and prepared to shoot Jeffery Paul Doucet.

Doucet, left, was returning to Louisiana to face charges in the abduction of Plauche's son. Plauche, below, faces a charge of second-degree murder. WASHINGTON Here is the UPI national count of delegates committed to each of the Democratic presidential contenders as of 10:30 p.m. EST Saturday. Walter Mondale: 447 (378 before Saturday's caucuses) Gary Hart: 299 (258) Jesse Jackson: 60 (36) Uncommitted: 238 (207) Total: 1,044 (879) Of the 3,933 delegates to be chosen, 1,967 are needed for nomination at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco in July.

V. .4 i -y i 4 Jfc Jt .4. driven by an overwhelming and unending concern and love of a parent for a child, having heard very serious allegations about what happened to his son while he was actually kidnapped by the alleged kidnapper. And I think as these facts become known more people will be able to understand what drove Gary Plauche to what happened in Baton Rouge last night." Sanders refused to elaborate on what Plauche thinks happened to his son during the abduction, but he described his client as "a very distraught, sick parent." Jody Plauche, who had taken karate lessons from Doucet, was abducted from his home outside Baton Rouge on Feb. 19.

He was rescued 11 days later when the FBI arrested Doi-cet in an Anaheim, Calif, hotel room. Barnett said Doucet demanded that the child's mother take her other three children and join him in New York if she wanted to see her son again. Otherwise, he said, there was no other explanation why Jody was kidnapped. The sheriffs department had charged Doucet with aggravated kidnapping. Conviction of that crime carries a mandatory penalty of life imprisonment without chance for early release.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED at the Baton Rouge airport, according to witnesses and law enforcement officials: Doucet had just arrived on a flight from Los Angeles and was being escorted past the airport's metal detector by Maj. Mike Barnett and Lt. Bud Conner of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Department. A crew from WBRZ-TV had arrived to cover Doucet's arrival and was taping as he walked through the metal detector. Maj.

Barnett walked ahead of Doucet and Lt. Conner to scan the area. Col. Fred Sliman of the sheriffs department, said later that Barnett "didn't see anything suspicious." Plauche, meanwhile, was pretending to be having a conversation on a pay phone in the airport lobby. I As Doucet and Conner passed him, Plauche walked up behind them, stuck his gun in Doucet's ear and fired.

He then aimed the gun at Barnett, who shoved it away. Plauche then handed the gun to Barnett and was arrested. The WBRZ-TV crew had captured the shooting on tape. Ed Buggs, a WBRZ reporter who witnessed the shooting, said that after Plauche fired, "the suspect (Doucet) dropped to the ground immediately. Blood was squirting from it (the wound)." "DEPUTIES IMMEDIATELY grappled with the man who pulled the trigger.

"I was an eyewitness when Maj. Barnett asked him, by name, 'Gary, why did you do "Gary said this back: 'If it were your son, you would have done the same Elizabeth M. H. Smith, a Pinkerton guard who also witnessed the shooting, said Plauche seemed emotionless. "The guy who did the shooting just stood there like he does this all the time.

He just stood there calm and collected," she said. Doucet was first taken to Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge. Early Saturday, he was transferred to Charity Hospital in New Orleans, where he died about noon. and impressed voters with his stands on two issues of critical importance to a state dominated by the auto industry domestic-content legislation and the federal government's financial bailout of Chrysler Corp.

With 88 percent of Michigan's caucuses reporting, Mondale had 49.7 percent of the vote, Hart 33.4 percent and Jackson 13.8 percent. Hart, who said he spent only one day campaigning in Michigan, took solace from his showing, claiming it was an "extraordinary achievment" to get the vote he did in a state "where the process was stacked against us." IN KENTUCKY, where Democrats caucused in three of the state's 120 counties, voters supported Gov. Martha Layne Collins' effort to lead an uncommitted delegation to the national party convention in San Francisco. Uncommitted delegates won more than 50 percent of the vote. Latin-American Democrats in Panama Saturday chose in their caucuses to send three uncommitted delegates to the national convention.

In Mississippi, party officials halted the count and said it would be next week before it was completed. With 66.3 percent of the precincts reporting, Mondale had 30.1 percent, uncommitted 30 percent and Jackson 27.5 percent. Hart had 12.4 percent. Mondale had been expected to win easily. "Those uncommitted voters are people who are breaking away from Mondale but who are not sure yet about Hart," said state Sen.

Henry Kirksy, Jackson's state campaign director. "They're shrewd enough to want to be with a winner, and they're not sure who it's going to be." Jackson said he was delighted with his strong showing throughout the South, where he is hoping to demonstrate that he can spark increased black voter registration and participation. "It shows it is a legitimate three-man race," he said Friday night in Waukegan, 111. "Our campaign is getting strong; it continues to grow." MICHIGAN, whose 136 delegates at stake Saturday represent the campaign's largest prize so far, turnout was much heavier than party leaders had predicted. Long lines at some caucus sites induced officials to allow balloting beyond the scheduled closing time.

Mondale had been counting on union and political leadership to deliver his vote, but a heavy turnout estimated at 200,000 suggested that many voters came on their own. "Mondale did well in areas where there weren't any unions or blacks," said Democratic Gov. James Blan-chard, who heads a long list of Michigan elected officials supporting Mondale. "I need you. I need you bad," Mondale had implored a rally of his supporters yesterday morning outside a caucus at the Polish-American Century Club in Hamtramck.

Saturday marked the first time in the presidential campaign season that voters in a major industrial state had a chance to express themselves. HART'S one day of Michigan campaigning was in Detroit last week, but he put on a heavy television and newspaper advertising effort in the final two days. Still, he was hampered by his 1979 vote against Chrysler loan guarantees. Mondale repeatedly thundered in the past week against that Hart vote. "There was a good idea; there was a new idea," Mondale told voters in Michigan, effectively parodying Hart's "new ideas" campaign.

Nearly 1-million Michigan residents are union members. Per capita, Michigan is the nation's second most unionized state, behind New York. About 350,000 people are active in the United Auto Workers alone, and they were anxious to show, on their home turf, that labor support can be more blessing than baggage. Hart and Jackson had complained that the Michigan contest was unfair because of the state's small number of caucus sites, 337, the fact that 32 were held in union halls and that others were in churches presided over by allies of Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, an avid Mondale supporter. In contrast, Iowa, which has about one-fourth as many people as Michigan, had six times as many caucus sites.

In Arkansas, where Mondale had the strongest organization and Hart made a token effort, complete but unofficial results gave Mondale 20 dele gates, Hart nine and Jackson six. With all of Arkansas precincts reporting, Mondale led with 43.9 percent of the vote. Hart had 30.4 percent and Jackson 19.9 percent. Jackson received heavy support from black districts in the eastern and southern parts of the state. Mondale was supported by labor and teachers in Arkansas.

Hart made a brief visit to the state last weekend and relied on a late barrage of television and radio spots. In South Carolina, the political equation was scrambled two weeks ago by the withdrawal from the presidential race of Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, who undoubtedly would have won the vast majority of the 41 delegate seats contested Saturday. Hollings endorsed Hart, but early returns suggested that caucus-goers were not ready to take his advice.

With 78 percent of the precints reporting, 54 percent of the votes went to uncommitted delegations, 25 percent to Jackson, 12 percent to Hart and 9 percent to Mondale. The large blocs of uncommitted delegates chosen in South Carolina and Mississippi suggested that caucus-goers, having seen the nomination battle in its early weeks swing dramatically from Mondale to Hart, then part of the way back again, may be hedging their bets. South Carolina politicians have traditionally supported uncommitted slates in presidential caucuses. In 1976, "uncommitted" was the winner, and in 1980, such delegates accounted for 34 percent of the votes. One uncommitted delegate Saturday was Gov.

Richard W. Riley, who has strong ties to Mondale but did not want to take any steps that might make himself enemies in the state legislature. Riley is trying to push a major education and sales tax package through the legislature. Jackson, a South Carolina native, made a major effort in a state whose population is 30 percent black. Rape from 1-A Analysis from 1-A THREE PERSONS including Vieira's father, Joseph Vieira 58 were taken away in police cars.

The elder Vieira was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly hitting a television cameraman with his cane, police said. The other two were not charged. The jurors, some wearing St. Patrick's Day shamrocks, began deliberations at 9:30 a.m. after a final appeal by the prosecutor not to "perpetuate the myth" that rape victims invite attacks.

After 90 minutes in the jury room, the jurors returned to the courtroom to ask the judge if a model of the barroom could be moved into the jury room. The jury also asked to see transcripts of the testimony. Young agreed to the first request, but denied the second. Silva and Vieira are among six men charged in the March 6, 1983 gang rape of the 22-year-old woman in a New Bedford bar. Four other men are defendants in a separate and John Cordeiro, a defendant in the separate morning trial, tried to force her to perform oral sex.

Another witness, bartender Carlos Machado, said he saw Silva on top of the woman, "doing piggy things." But he said he saw Vieira only touch the woman briefly. The bartender's testimony contradicted parts of the woman's story. He said she had three drinks and joked with the men, putting her arms around one defendant before the attack. The defense called only nine witnesses, including Silva, who said the woman approached him looking for drugs and settled for sex. HE SAID THE woman agreed when he asked if she wanted "to play," but began to cry when other men crowded around the pool table.

Silva said the crowd's laughter made him impotent. But when he got off the table, he testified, the woman hugged him and asked him to take her to his house. It was only when he declined that the woman became angry, he said. In closing arguments Friday, Bristol County District Attorney Raymond Veary told jurors that the woman may have been afraid to admit she drank and talked with her attackers. But he said it didn't change the basic element of the case.

"Take away her innocence if you must," he said. "Don't take away her humanity. "Don't perpetuate the myth about rape victims that myth that rape victims somehow through their own acts invited the crime against them." The second jury in the case relaxed Saturday, taking a bus tour of western Massachusetts. Chief Court Officer Peter Cordeiro said he sent the second jury on the trip to keep them from learning what the first jury did during the day. The morning jury is hearing the case against Cordeiro, Victor Raposo, Jose Medeiros and Virgilio Medeiros.

The Medeiroses are not related. The unusual tandem trial arrangement was devised because of the possibility that some defendants would testify and implicate others. Information from UPI and tha Washington Post was used in this report. it doesn't give the candidates enough time to campaign. Thus, late-focusing voters don't really know for whom they should vote.

Now the process shifts to Illinois and what may be the biggest test yet. It is a state in which Mondale was once far out in front. But recent polls show it is a toss-up. Last-minute campaigning and advertising may be the keys. ALL THREE candidates spent Saturday campaigning in and around Chicago, and they will take part in an hour-long, televised debate here tonight.

Polls show that Hart is ahead in suburban areas and downstate. But more than one-third of the Democratic vote will be cast in the city. And here, the picture is chaotic. For one thing, local and state politics will figure heavily in the picture There are Democratic and Republican primaries for the U.S. Senate to be decided, and a host of local and party offices will be settled.

The fight that has involved everyone is between Mayor Harold Washington and the conservative Cook County Democratic chairman, Eddie Vrdolyak. Vrdolyak is a conservative alderman who has opposed Washington at every turn since the mayor took office. Over Washington's obections, Vrdolyak engineered the Democratic organization's endorsement of Mondale. BUT IT HAS since been disclosed that Vrdolyak met with Presi dent Reagan's advisers last year and reportedly offered to covertly help the re-election effort. Washington has not made an endorsement and is running his own slate of delegates in some Chicago districts.

But the mayor spent Saturday campaigning with Jackson, his arm slung over his shoulder. The mayor is engaged in an intense battle with Vrdolyak over local party posts, which are up for election Tuesday, and both Jackson and Washington would benefit from a large black turnout. Hart was a bystander in the bitter fighting until he stepped right into the middle of it. Hoping to appeal to blacks and liberals, Hart ran a television ad saying that "Eddie Vrdolyak has decided Walter Mondale will be your candidate for president." Gary Hart, the ad says, stands in the way. There were immediate charges that the ads were divisive and had no business in a presidential campaign.

Hart withdrew them, said the whole thing was a mistake and denied that he had authorized them. THE GAFFE allowed Mondale once more to talk about the "uncertainty" of the Hart campaign. The whole thing is Chicago politics at its best (or worst), and all the intrigue has left the veteran politicians refusing to predict the outcome. Jon Margolis, the veteran political writer of the Chicago Tribune, started his Sunday story about the primary like this: "Nobody knows." labor endorsement is worth something. As for the other two, it was a good day for Rev.

Jesse Jackson and a so-so one for Sen. Gary Hart. These states were not supposed to be a part of Hart's strength, although presidential dropout Ernest Hollings endorsed him in South Carolina. Hart did make a respectable showing in Michigan (he campaigned in the state only once), and the battle between him and Mondale brought out many more "people than party officials had expected. FOR JACKSON, it was his best showing yet, and it proves that black voters are not accepting the premise that it is a two-man race.

Or, if they are, they still want Jackson to have a powerful voice at the convention. At this rate, he will. What Jackson has failed to do is add other colors to his Rainbow Coalition. He will try to do that Tuesday by drawing well in Chicago's Hispanic neighborhoods. His showings were tainted somewhat by the fact that in both Mississippi and South Carolina, most of the delegates were elected uncommitted.

Hart attributes this to the system. Sixteen states have held primaries or caucuses under the Democrats' new compressed schedules, and Hart says trial that is expected to go to the jury this week. The case has been in the national spotlight for more than a year since police reported the woman was raped and sexually abused by the defendants while others in Big Dan's tavern cheered them on. The notion of a crowd of men cheering as a woman lay pinned to the table provoked an outcry among advocates of women's rights. A week after the incident, 2,500 people staged a candlelight march to New Bedford City Hall in protest.

MAJOR TELEVISION networks, national magazines and large newspapers have covered the case, and large poi dons of the testimony have been televised by Cable News Network. All six defendants face possible life sentences if convicted of the charge of aggravated rape. The jury can choose the lesser charges of rape or assault with intent to rape Both charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years. In four days on the witness stand, the woman told how how she went into a bar to buy cigarettes, stayed for a drink, and was then grabbed by strangers on her way out the door. She said she was knocked to the floor, dragged to a pool table and raped by Silva and Vieira.

She also said Vieira I i.