The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 275

FLORIDA Old favorites A Palm Harbor man's fascination for ancient artifacts ranging from coins to bronze nails to fragments of Egyptian coffins has turned his home into a museum. Amazing space A careful attention to details, particularly in the trim and molding, reduces the scale of the fairly large rooms in this Federal-style home on the Palma Ceia golf course. TAMPA TRIBUNE mnnnni nn H.J i 74 pages Tampa, Florida Saturday, September 26, 1992 FLORIDA charaed in bank prolbe Partly sunny with a 30 chance of afternoon showers. J4igh in lower 90s. lows in mid-70s.

NationWorld-12 Tampa mayor's husband tops the list 0Jfl rnI IF rA, AWAY tion, have so marty prominent figures I By TIM COLLIE and J.D. Callaway rhareed with crimes at the same i 5f I -rv Tribune Staff Writers 4 4 It's always been our position been charged with crimes at tne same i rf KV that whatever he did, he aid And there mav be more to come. Fri without any criminal intent. attorney Gary Trombley, referring to Michael Freedman day's arrests were only the first round in an investigation still in its infancy, authorities said at a morning news conference called to announce the arrests. U.S.

Attorney Robert W. Genzman said his office also is conducting an investigation, but declined to provide any details. Genzman's office wasn't part of a multiagency task force initially conducting the probe. In essence, authorities said, charges describe a circle of people who had the ability and access to manipulate banking documents and transactions. The message of the alleged crimes is "it's OK to do anything you can to make a profit," said Assistant State Attorney Lee Atkinson.

"Unfortunately, Ameri- TAMPA One of Hillsborough County's most sensational criminal probes in a decade resulted Friday in banking fraud and perjury charges against 15 legal, law enforcement, political, banking and alleged organized crime figures. Topping the list of those arrested were attorney Michael J. Freedman, husband of Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman; Lee Duncan, a former city councilman chairman with more than 30 years of public service; and Santo J. Traffi-cante III, the nephew of the city's legendary Mafia boss, Santo Trafficante Jr. Also charged were Key Bank of Florida President Frank Pupello; vice president Michael Pupello; assistant vice president Shirley Williams; bank adviser Lester Hirsch; Trafficante's wife; and Duncan's wife and daughter.

Rounding out the list were the bank's head book- Polishing the boots: A formation of male and female Navy recruits stands at attention waiting for lunch recently at the Orlando Recruit Training Center. Since February, male and fe-jnale recruits have been training together. Sunday's BayLife keeper, an investor, a news stand operator and a local doctor. All but one of the 15 surrendered to authorities Friday. The charges include making false documents and statements in schemes designed to defraud private institutions, and the state and federal governments of amounts totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most of those charged face multiple counts. Not since the early 1980s, when members of the county commission were nabbed in an anti-corruption opera a -j Tribune photograph by SKIP O'ROURKE Michael J. Freedman was released on his own recognizance after his arrest Friday. See MAYOR'S, Page 6 Magic quits: Pro basketball star Handwritin; Suspect's past has dark side Earvin "Magic Johnson, 33, resigns from the National Commission on AIDS, saying he was fed up with a lack of support from the Bush administration. A Bush spokesperson said they regretted his decision and defended Bush's NationWorld-3 links suspect i.

1 to 3 slayings commitment. Still on target: Russia is still aiming nuclear missiles at the United States and is awaiting a U.S. response to Boris Yeltsin's initiative to point the weapons elsewhere. NationWorld-4 1 -x-- News of a suspect being held was the talk of Van Wert, Ohio, the county seat near the Rogers' dairy farm.1 Suspect Oba Chandler matches the FBI's profile of the killer, said Sgt. Glen Moore of the St.

Petersburg Police Department.1 A chronology shows key developments in the brutal murders that shocked Bay area and Ohio residents1 Education appeal: The chairman of the state Board of Regents asks Jor higher salaries at the state's colleges and universities. FloridaMetro-1 By WILLIAM YELVERTON and DOUG REARDON Tribune Staff Writers PORT ORANGE In his quiet neighborhood, Oba Chandler cared for his lawn, chatted with neighbors and worked on his boat. Neighbors in Volusia and Hillsborough counties, where the smiling 45-year-old lived in the past two years, said Chandler appeared to be a typical neighbor who enjoyed his time on the water. But Chandler had another side; a past kept secret from those around him. Some of the secrets were weird; some violent.

At times he changed names. In 1983 he boasted to a federal judge that he helped authorities shut down adult book stores that employed him all the while he was on the lam from a Florida prison where he was doing time for robbery. On Friday, a slightly balding Chandler faced a rape charge and waited to see whether police would charge him in one of Tampa Bay's most puzzling and ghastly murder cases. The Port Orange businessman was arrested Thursday in connection with the May 1989 rape of a Canadian tourist in Madeira Beach. At the same time, police identified him as the prime suspect in the slayings of an Ohio woman and her two daughters two weeks after the rape.

See SUSPECT, Page 10 By VICKIE CHACHERE and WILLIAM YELVERTON Tribune Staff Writers ST. PETERSBURG Handwritten directions on a tourist brochure overlooked for a year led police to the unassuming, ex-convict who is the prime suspect in the 1989 sex slayings of Joan Rogers and her two daughters. It was only last month that police linked Oba Chandler of Port Orange to the deaths of Joan, Michelle and Christe Rogers. They then showed Chandler's picture to a victim of a savage rape with startling similarities to the killings, and she identified him as her attacker, according to police and court documents. The rape occurred just two weeks before the slayings in Tampa Bay.

The 45-year-old Chandler owned a boat similar to one seen where the Rogers women disappeared; he had troubled relationships with women, at times abusing his wife; and was familiar witn the waters of Tampa Bay, according to court documents and police. Chandler's blue and white Bay-liner boat sold in 1989 has been impounded by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in Tampa. Chandler, a former aluminum siding salesman with a criminal history ranging Courier rallies: Jim Courier J-aJlies to win in four sets giving the JJnited States a 1-0 lead over Sweden in pavis Cup semifinal. Sports-1 from robbery to possession of counterfeit money, was being held in the Pinellas County Jail Friday night on a sexual battery charge in the Madeira Beach rape case. Bail was set at $1 million.

He has not been charged in the deaths of Joan, 37, Michelle, 17, and Christe, 14. But police said Friday his arrest in the slayings is imminent. "The Madeira Beach case was a little quicker way to get him off the street," Sgt. Glen Moore, the lead detective in the Rogers investigation, said at a news conference Friday. Moore said FDLE has deter-See HANDWRITING, Page 10 Retiring: Paul T.

Nolan, president of GTE 9-state south area, decides to retire after serving 17 months. Business Finance-1 Tribune photograph by ALLYN DiVITO Oba Chandler appears in a Pinellas County courtroom Friday charged in the rape of a Canadian woman. FDLE agents and St. Petersburg police also executed a search warrant at Chandler's Port Orange home. wm i i ii in ii i i i i.n I.

vti Boy Gets His Wish Judge OKs 12-year-old's suit to 'divorce' parents Pleasure Probe: The team of Ford and Mazda has fashioned a strong product in the Probe. Automotive-1 Classified Comics-2 jkSTROLOGY ents who have nurtured Gregory for the past year. "Gregory is now the son of Mr. and Mrs. Russ," the judge said.

The briefest moment of silence. The boy smiled broadly. His foster parents grew misty-eyed. Cheers and pandemonium erupted in the courtroom. Minutes later, the judge posed in front of the bench for a picture with Gregory's new family.

Gregory's father did not contest the child's extraordinary lawsuit, but Rachel Kingsley, 30, fought vigorously to preserve her parental rights despite testimony that painted a seamy picture of her life and fitness as a mother. She was not in the courtroom for the decision and had no immediate reaction. A Knight-Ridder Report ORLANDO The 12-year-old boy who filed an extraordinary lawsuit to "divorce" his absent parents and find "a place to be" secured that place Friday: A judge emancipated Gregory Kingsley and allowed him to be adopted by his foster family. Circuit Judge Thomas Kirk, setting legal precedent with the double-barreled case and possibly expanding the scope of children's rights, ruled that Gregory's mother "by clear and convincing evidence" neglected and abandoned him." "It is in his best interests that her parental rights be terminated immediately," the judge said. Kirk dissolved Rachel and Ralph Kings-ley's parental rights over the boy and, barely skipping a beat, approved As adoption by George and Lizabeth Russ, tne foster par BRIDGE Classified Comics-2 CLASSIFIED Classified Comics-3 PEAR ABBY Classified 4 Comlc-2 pEATHS FlorldaMetro-7 EDITORIAL Regional section FOCUS ON FLORIDA FlorldaMetro-6 lOTTERY FloridaMetro-2 PUZZLES Classified Comics-2 TELEVISION BayLlfe-4 WORLD WATCH NalionWorld-4 -Pv 75 of The Tampa Tribune is 2l Ly printed on recycled paper.

98th Year No. 232 1 Copyright 1992 Tne Tribuns Co. Pool photograph 1 See JUDGE, Page 11 Grecory Kingsley shakes hands withlCircuit Judge, Jhorqfs Wrk Frjday.Also pictured is George Russ, Gregory's fC-ter dad,.