Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • Page 26

oge 24 Monday, November 13, 1995 tfflte (gazette Alliance seeks to aid air-crash victims, families One demonstrator called the death of Jonny Gammage "premeditated murder." (AP photo) Protest calls for maximum charges against police PITTSBURGH (AP) More than 100 marching, chanting demonstrators called for maximum charges to be filed against five white police officers in the death a month ago of a black motorist during a traffic stop. The predominantly black group demonstrated Sunday outside the municipal building in suburban Brentwbod to protest the Oct. 12 death of Jonny Gammage, 31, of Syracuse, N.Y., a cousin of Pittsburgh Steelers' defensive end Ray Seals. A coroner's jury recommended Nov. 3 that homicide charges be filed against the suburban departments two officers from Brentwood, two from Whitehall and one from Baldwin.

Allegheny County District Attorney Robert Colville is expected to announce later this week if charges will be filed. Colville has said he is leaning toward third-degree murder or involuntary homicide the least serious categories of homicide. A handful of white youths from the borough briefly confronted some of the demonstrators, but the march remained peaceful. Protestor Harold Duquesne called the death ''premeditated murder." "Whenever the law starts breaking the law, there isn't any law," he said. Officers testified during a three- day inquest that they pulled Gammage over after seeing him driving erratically in a Jaguar sedan.

They said they had to sit on him and beat him with flashlights to control him. An autopsy revealed Gammage suffocated from compression of his neck and torso. Gammage family members have distanced themselves from recent demonstrations over the death. "Their focus is that these five individual police officers should be held accountable for Jonny's death," said attorney David White, who represents the family. "And they aren't quite sure that is the sole focus of various protest groups." A half-dozen white Brentwood residents chanted in support of the officers from the sidewalk across from the demonstration.

Several complained to activist Khalid Raheem, one of the organizers, that the demonstrators made the whole community look racist. "It's not an issue of race, it's an issue of justice. We have both white and black people marching here," Raheem said. Couple seeking adoption facing tax questions WEXFORD, Pa. (AP) A white couple caught up in a custody dispute involving two black children provided two widely disparate figures for their income, attorneys for Allegheny County said.

Karen and Michael Derzack of Pine Township provided the county with copies of tax returns reporting $475,736.41 in income from 1990 to 1993, the attorneys said. But according to figures from the Internal Revenue Service, they reported only S102.736.41 in income for that period. The Derzacks did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. The couple sued the county, the county commissioners and Children and Youth Services in June 1994, alleging their civil rights were violated when CYS removed one of the children from their home. The couple served as foster parents for Byron Griffin for the first 17 months of his life.

Byron was born addicted to cocaine and heroin. He was returned in December 1993 to his mother, LaShawn Jeffrey of Pittsburgh, while she was enrolled in a residential drug-treatment program. A judge sent Byron and his sister Byrae back to the Derzacks after Ms. Jeffrey admitted taking drugs in June 1994. The Derzacks are now trying to adopt the children.

By MICHAEL HADDIGAN Associated Press Writer PITTSBURGH Survivors and families of crash victims want to form an "angels of mercy" group to comfort those affected by future disasters, an organizer said. The group would travel to crash sites to counsel victims, relatives and emergency workers during recovery efforts, Gary Trendel of Huntersville, N.C., said Sunday. "We want to be able to help those victims and families with logistics, transportation, communications, with the simplest needs and more extravagant things, such as mental health needs," he said. "We want to be able to help those victims and families with logistics, transportation, communications, with the simplest needs and more extravagant things, such as mental health needs." Gary Trendel, alliance member Trendel, who survived the 1989 crash of USAir Flight 5050 in New York City's East River, was one of 35 people who concluded two days of organizational meetings for the National Air Disaster Alliance Sunday in Pittsburgh. The formation of the alliance in August came after a meeting in Pittsburgh of survivors and relatives of victims from seven plane crashes, including the September 1994 crash of USAir Flight 427 near Pittsburgh, which killed 132 people.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the Pittsburgh crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is to begin a second round of hearings on the crash this week in Washington. Alliance members from recent crashes have complained of sloppy procedures for identifying bodies, mix-ups over personal effects and inadequate attention to the emotional needs of survivors and family members. The group's president, Douglas Smith of Burlington, said aviation authorities and airlines should regard each major air crash a national disaster. The 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion and the Oklahoma City bombing brought swift action that focused the nation's resources on the investigations, he said.

"Bufafter air disasters, it appears that life just goes on," he said. daughter was among 68 people who died in the 1994 crash of American Eagle Flight 4184 in Roselawa, Ind. An NTSB spokesman said last week that the agency welcomes the alliance's formation. The alliance members want to push for higher air safety standards and act as advocates for crash victims and families. Smith said.

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