Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 178

Gem 0 0 Opinion, Page 2 Sports, Page 5 Dear Abby, Page 16 i ST. PETERSBURG TIMES LF I Obituaries, Page 18 FRIDAY, JULY 10. 1987 CotlizetrDS to CHILDREN'S PROGRAMING I Woman found dead in ff carport 1 By USE OLSEN TiiTwa Staff Wrttar By MARY JO MELONE TIrmi Staff Wfftar ri m- i I it i i IMF jpf.M through" all the cases, the chief said. But the committee won't, have the power to discipline officers. I McLane was among about 3Q officials, including Mayor Sandy; Freedman, who attended Thurs day's seminar.

Also present were Freedman's chief aides, other pon lice officials, and members of the; City Council, the Tampa Housing Authority and the Biracial Commission. TAMPA A select group of ordinary citizens will get their first chance next week to see how Tampa police officers work in their most difficult moments. On Tuesday, six civilians will begin participating in the Police Department's Incident Review Committee, which investigates police shootings. TAMPA Loretta Vann told her sister she was on her way home when the two met by chance 10:30 Wednesday night on an east Tampa street corner. She never made it.

Vann's partially clothed body was found just after 7 a.m. Thursday in the carport of a 22nd Street boardinghouse about five blocks from the apartment she shared 7 with ner par Jr-i i- in ents in the Ponce DeLeon public housing Both Miami and Dade; County have civilians re view controversial police cases. The South Florida! officials said citizen re-; view gives the public confidence in the police and can convince the skeptW cal that police brass don't; hide wrongdoing by their Chief A. C. McLane announced the meeting on Thursday, during an all-day seminar where city officials and civic leaders listened to Miami leaders describe how they have tried to improve relations between police and minorities.

Citizens were named to the review panel in the complex at 1832 Cano Court. Police esti i McLANE mate that Vann, 22, was killed in VANN the early morning hours. She had a head wound, and a neighbor who discovered Vann's body said her face appeared swollen. A Loretta Vann would have celebrated her 23rd birthday July 15. I1IV officers.

But the seminar. made clear that Tampa! police officials are skittish about; the process. McLane's boss, public safety administrator Bob Smith, said he isn't opposed to civilian review. But the department already disciplines errant officers, Smith said. The public just doesn't know about it.

Forty-two percent of the complaints lodged against officers are verified, according to Smith. In another 9 percent of the cases, other disciplinary infractions are uncovered. "If we could convey that to the public, they might think we do a better job," Smith said. The Tampa officials turned to Miami for help because officials there have learned hard lessons in police-community relations. Riots erupted in 1980 and again in 1982, after police officers were exoner- Please see POLICE Page 8 spring, after four blacks and one Hispanic died in separate confrontations with police between the end of November and mid-April.

City officials sought help from Miami after street disturbances erupted in College Hill in February, when one of the men Mel-vin Hair was killed. Since civilians were named to the panel, another black man has died in a confrontation with police. The man was shot by police after he tried to rob a restaurant. The incident review committee, which will meet in private, is scheduled to review the police investigation into the first incident, in which 16-year-old Franklin Lewis was shot and killed by police on Nov. 30.

Authorities said Lewis fired a gun, but it was never found. The shooting was ruled justified. McLane said the panel will later review all the other incidents. i "We're going to go systematically Another store not needed, resident says Tknmt photo MIKE PEASE Students in a class work eagerly on their computers. By WENDY WEYEN Tlm Staff Wrttar Computers are providing summer entertainment in experimental project children huddle behind the personal computers from 8 a.m.

to noon every weekday. They work on programs that match their abilities, from kindergarten level to eighth grade. Through computer exercises and games, the children learn spelling, math, language arts, basic programing and reading. And they seem to enjoy themselves. On a recent morning at West Tampa Elementary, 12-year-old Ernest Mills was learning how to spell words by competing against the computer in a game.

Valerie Anderson, who lives in the green Spanish-style boarding-house on 3007 22nd found the woman's body after she heard a woman "hollering that somebody was dead" about 7 a.m. Thursday. Anderson saw Vann's body, face down in the dirt beside a pickup parked in the carport. Vann was clad only in shorts. Police impounded the pickup to check for fingerprints.

The truck's owner, the boardinghouse landlord, is not a suspect, police spokesman Steve Cole said. Anderson, who was at home all day and all night Wednesday, said she heard no screams or sounds of struggle. "I would have heard," she said. "Evidently they killed her somewhere else and (brought) her here." Glorida Solomon, another boardinghouse resident who lives on the first floor, also said she heard no noise. Cole would not comment on whether the body might have been moved.

Thursday afternoon, Vann's mother, Lula, sat with two of her daughters on a love seat in the family's small apartment, surrounded by a crowd of mourners. "That's my baby. I've lost my baby," she repeated, showing a photo of a smiling Loretta wearing a shining hat and seated on a motorcycle. Loretta Vann was the youngest of her six children. She would have celebrated her 23rd birthday July 15.

Her sister, Janice, said she hadn't worried about Loretta's safety when she saw her Wednesday night because she was standing in a crowd of friends at the corner of 22nd Street and Columbus Drive. Said Janice: "She had a lot of friends." By USE OLSEN TlntM Staff Wrttar "They're fun, and they know all the answers. John Garcia, on computers barely 10 minutes. Zoning and planning officials already have recommended that the proposed store, at 7604 EhrJ lich Road, be allowed to sell pack' aged beer and wine. The decision now rests with zoning hearing master Martin Smith, who has 15 days to make his recommendation.

Smith's recommendation will go to the County which will make the final decision. Spicola, representing store owners Scott and Cynthia MeisterJ presented his case briefly. The store, planned for the southeast corner of Ehrlich Road and Walsh Lane, would fit right in with the commercial area around it, Spicola said. The lot is bordered on all sides by businesses, including a used-car lot and office space. Arguments that the area is already too crowded, or that another store isn't needed, are irrelevant Spicola said.

The lot is zoned commercial. All that Midnight Farms needs is permission to sell beer and wine. Linkous said she knew she was fighting an uphill battle. She said she spoke on behalf of the fledgling Citrus Park Committee, an offshoot of the Keystone Park Civic Association. TAMPA Citrus Park doesn't need another convenience store, Chris Linkous argued, when there's one so close to a proposed Midnight Farms Country Store that "you could almost spit from one to the other." The intersection of Gunn Highway and Ehrlich Road, where the store is planned, already is dangerous, Linkous told a zoning hearing master late Thursday.

Another convenience store would only make matters worse especially if that store sells alcohol, she said. Linkous spoke in hopes that her remarks would keep the planned store from getting the permission it seeks to sell beer and wine. Without beer and wine on the shelves, Linkous and other Citrus Park residents figure there won't be shelves, because there probably won't be a store. Linkous and A. G.

Spicola, the attorney for the owners of the proposed store, were among the last holdouts at the marathon zoning meeting Thursday night. They took the microphone after listening to nearly five hours of arguments about zoning changes elsewhere in the county. Their presentations lasted TAMPA Her buddies say she's "weird," but that doesn't stop Kerrie Mooney from taking a bus to school on weekday mornings this summer. "I'm here for fun," says the 12-year-old as she programs an IBM computer to play part of a Haydn melody. Kerrie and about 19 other youths converge at West Tampa Elementary School each day to work on the computers in a trial summer program, pioneered by the state Board of Education in cooperation with the Hillsborough School Board and corporate sponsors.

"Partnerships for Learning" programs will continue through July 23 at 23 schools, most of them in the inner city. An estimated 10,000 students participate in activities that vary from school to school and include drama, dance, open libraries, open gymnasiums and computer classes. Teachers don't take attendance or give tests in the $1 -million experiment designed to keep children off the streets. Without it, many students say they would be home watching television, says Grace Barrs, who's checking to see if the program works. At West Tampa Elementary on Cherry Street, Meanwhile, at the urging of a computer, two kindergarten children were making the sound of the letter and tracing the letter with fingers pressed to the screen.

The kindergartners had not seen computers before this summer, said teacher Antie Sardegna. Other students say they started working with computers at age 8 or 9. John Garcia, 10-going-on-ll, has his own computer at home. Here, he works to perfect his techniques. Older people tell him learning computer skills will be "good for his future," but Garcia likes the machines anyway.

"They're fun," he said, "and they know all the answers." Times DIGEST Tampa Electric seeks rate increase for fuel charge By GLENN BURKINS Timaa Staff Wrttar charge against the other defendant. The jurors had expected to reach a verdict on the other charge early this morning. Women seriously injured in crash PLANT CITY Two women were injured seriously Thursday when a car ran a stop sign and slammed into their station wagon near Plant City. Police say a Mercury Cougar driven by Eriberto Mendez, 20, of Dover, was heading north on Wallace Branch Road about 8 a.m. when it ran a stop sign at Sam Allen Road and plowed into a Pontiac carrying two women.

The station wagon spun around and was struck again, said Hillsborough sheriff's Deputy Bruce Lee. Then Mendez's car hit a chain-link fence and knocked down 75 yards of it before stopping in a yard, Lee said. The driver of the station wagon is in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital, and the passenger is in guarded condition at Brandon Humana Hospital, Lee said. Their names have not yet been released. Mendez, of P.O.

Box 634 Jim Johnson Road, Dover, was charged with running a stop sign, no valid driver's license, failure to wear a seat belt and no proof of insurance. Deputies say modeling agency was front for prostitution Page 3 Centennial calendar Page 3 Jurors fail to reach verdict TAMPA At 12:10 this morning, jurors said they expected to finish deliberations in about an hour in the first-degree murder trial of two Tampa men accused of killing a 53-year-old bank security guard last September. Andrew Williams, 27, and Carlton Myles, 25, are accused of the Sept. 20 murder of Pearl Fisher during a robbery of Columbia Bank in Ybor City. Jurors began deliberation about 11:45 a.m.

At 9:30 p.m. they asked acting Hillsborough Circuit Judge Robert Bonanno to have a transcript of two hours of testimony read back to them. At 12:10 a.m. today, jurors sent a note to Bonanno saying they had reached a verdict regarding both charges against one of the defendants and on one company spokeswoman Karen Raihill. The last fuel-related increase in April 1986 pushed the average residential bill from $75.25 to $83.02.

The utility has twice reduced fuel charges since then by a total of $6.59. Even with Thursday's requested increase, the company's average residential power bill in 1987 will be less than it was in 1986, Raihill said. The company's fuel rates have been held in check the past few years because coal prices have remained low in relation to oil prices, she added. The company uses coal to generate nearly all of its electricity. This year it expects to burn between 6.5-million and 7-million tons of coal.

The Public Service Commission has scheduled a hearing on the latest requested rate increase for Aug. 26-28. TAMPA A monthly rate increase of $3.19 appears likely for the 420,000 customers of Tampa Electric Co. The utility wants to pass on its rising fuel costs by raising the fuel-charge portion of customers' monthly electric bills. It filed a rate increase request with the Florida Public Service Commission on Thursday.

If the request is granted, the average residential bill would increase from $76.43 to $79.62. Commercial and industrial customers would see a similar increase. Utility officials routinely adjust the formula every six months, and most adjustments are approved by the Public Service Commission. The latest increase would begin Oct 1, said.