The Bismarck Tribune from Bismarck, North Dakota • 1

Will fiOAOSDftS railMiRfil i Saturday, January 5, 1985 Vol. 112, No. 4 BismarckAtondan, N.D. Committed To Excellence "'ZmtwZlllZl Supreme Court fells Olson to pock it far II They have put the issue to rest' By GREG SELLNOW Tribune Staff Writer and The Associated Press Former Gov. Allen I.

Olson smiled, snooks hands with Gov. George Sinner, made a few brief comments and walked out of the governor's suite for the last time late Friday afternoon. Olson was followed out of the governor's office by was," he said. "Frankly, we were not all that surprised. I don't feel a whole lot of things (but) I feel vindicated.

"I didn't have a great deal of emotion about appointing the justices it seemed to me that it was my job." Thomas F. Kelsch, the Bismarck attorney who represented Olson in the case before the Supreme f) me memDers of nis staff one of them carrying one last plant from the barren office. It was obvious that Olson and his staff had been prepared to vacate the office at the spur of the moment. And that they did at about 5 p.m. Friday after the state Supreme Court settled a legal dispute between Sinner and Olson over who was the governor of the state during the first few days of 1985.

Olson, who stayed in the executive office and refused to talk to reporters throughout the controversy, appeared cheerful and amiable both at a press Court, asserted that the outgoing governor's term was cut short by Sinner when the new governor took office early. But when asked Friday afternoon if he thought he had been shortchanged, Olson said that he had not. "You know, in a court case you throw in the kitchen sink," Olson said about shortage of term argument. "You make every conceivable argument." At stake throughout he controversy were two appointments to the Supreme Court. The state Judicial Nominating Committee, a panel "You know, in a court cose you throw in the kitchen sink.

You make every conceivable argument. Olson, when asked if he thought his term had been cut short. conference called by Olson's staff after the court decision was reached and at a photo session with Sinner a few minutes later. "1 think the transfer, symbolic and otherwise, can now take place without problems," Olson said at the press conference. He said he was somewhat surprised and disappointed with the court's unanimous opinion.

But he did not dispute the decision and said the ruling settles the matter once and for all. "They have put the issue to rest," the former governor said. "There is no question anymore. It is Jan. 1 (that an incoming governor can take office).

That is as clear as can be." "I don't know whether to be pleased that the Supreme Court upheld my 1980 opinion or sad that they disagreed with some subsequent reassessment of our position," Olson said, according to The Associated Press. "They have disposed of this issue, so there are no longer any holes in the law." Sinner said he felt vindicated by the opinion and had been confident he would win. "We thought the case was what the court thought it charged with the task of recommending candidates to the governor for appointment to the Supreme Court, Friday morning submitted a list of eight nominees to both Sinner and Olson. Sinner said Friday afternoon that it will be at least two weeks before he arrives at a decision on who to appoint to the high court. But Olson said he reviewed the list Friday in preparation for possibly making the appointments.

He said he was "prepared to carry out the authority of the office" but stopped short of saying he would have made the appointments had the court not issued a ruling in Sinner's favor on Friday. The governor had said he would leave office on Saturday regardless of what the court ruled. The controversy won't help Sinner's relations with the Republican-controlled Legislature, a GOP leader told the Associated Press Friday night. "Sinner has grabbed this power merely because he wanted to make the two appointments to the Supreme Court," State Republican Party Chairwoman Marlys Fleck said. More on SINNER, Page 2A I By JERRY ANDERSON of The Tribune Sinner and Olson meet after the decision.

In the middle is chaffeur Walt Dockter. Justices unanimously support Sinner V' I v- ft- fr maintained that he had the right to stay in office until at least Saturday, when he said his four-year term technically ended. Both Olson and Sinner said Friday after reviewing the opinion that the court's judgment settles the matter once and for all. The opinion concludes: "Based on the foregoing reasoning, we hold that George A. Sinner is currently, and has been since the first moment of Jan.

1, 1985, the governor of the state of North Dakota. We therefore grant an original writ enjoining Olson from exercising the powers and duties of the office of governor of the state of North Dakota." THE OPINION does not address the legality of executive actions carried out by Olson since Sinner became governor on Jan. 1. (Afore on COURT, PageW By GREG SELLNOW Tribune Staff Writer George Sinner is the governor of North Dakota and has been since Tuesday. That was the ruling issued Friday afternoon by the North Dakota Supreme Court.

THE RULING settled a weeklong dispute over who was the rightful occupant of the governor's office since the new year began. Chief Justice Ralph Erickstad announced the ruling, which was issued in the form of a 20-page opinion, after nearly four hours of deliberations by himself and four presiding district judges filling in for three justices who had disqualified themselves from the case and another who died last month. The court's ruling clears the legal path for future governors to take office on Jan. 1, instead of assuming command the first day of the Legislative session a practice all of the state's previous governors have followed. The Supreme Court's legal staff prepared two opinions, one favoring Allen I.

Olson's position and the other favoring Sinner, and the five-member court unanimously agreed to adopt the opinion favoring the incoming governor. SINNER, A DEMOCRAT who defeated incumbent Olson, a Republican, in the November election, filed his oath of office with the secretary of state's office Monday and announced that he was taking over the reins of the executive branch of government Tuesday, Jan. 1. But Olson refused to move out of the governor's suite and 6 DOUGLAS VAN TASSEL of The Tribune Olson in his emptied office moments before the court decided. INSIDE Norwest official to appear on '60 Minutes' as source North Dakota Page 1C Classified Ads 2C Comics 5C Entertainment 7A In Touch 5B Markets 4B Nubs 2C Obituaries 2A Sports IB Farwest Neil West, senior vice president of commercial banking at Norwest Bank Bismarck, will appear on the CBS news program "60 Minutes" Sunday evening.

West said he served as a source in reporter Harry Reasoner's seg- 'Dear Sir: We have your daughter' isn't quite what it seems RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) It happened one Sunday last July at Mike Johnson's home in Black Hawk. Johnson, a friendly young, single man, had invited friends over for brunch. The whole brunch bunch then went to the lake. Johnson didn't notice anything awry when he returned home at the end of the day.

But a week later he got an anonymous letter that started something like: "Dear Mr. Johnson. Just want you to know we have your daughter, but she'll be OK as long as you agree to pay a certain amount." He couldn't figure out what the writer was talking about at first. "But it finally dawned on me. I tore into the living room and Too late.

She was gone. Hetty Dorthea was not there. Kidnapped by one or more of Johnson's (More on TOO, Page2A) OUTSIDE 2P 'Sj VCA West: "What I found was nothing short of incredible. wealth in January 1984. "What I found was nothing short of incredible," West told The Tribune.

"It shows how bad a bank can get if it is allowed to run amok" in careless and criminal banking activities, especially in hurting small depositors. The case resulted in the bank president, his son and the Nebraska attorney general going to jail and the state banking commissioner being fired, West said, and the financial and political repercussions are still being felt in Nebraska. Commonwealth claimed $75 million in assets at the time of bankruptcy, West said, but was found to be $37 million short. The 7,000 Commonwealth depositors, many of them small savers, are spread out as far away as South Dakota, he said, and "none have seen dime one of recovery" because the Nebraska banking insurance company had only $1.6 million in its insurance fund. Today should be another great day for winter sports.

After a low in the teens -tonight, the temperature in the Bismarck-Mandan area is expected to climb into the mid-30s under partly cloudy skies. Details on Page 2A. AP Laserphoto with a ransom note and Hetty Johnson Dorthea. Li LJ a ment on the 1983 failure of Commonwealth Savings Co. in Nebraska.

West, a former staff member of an Omaha bank, said he was the first outsider to examine Commonwealth Savings' records. West was appointed receiver for Common- Subway vigilante a hero to New Yorkers, others Enquirer never ran stuntman's hot story Did dog kill Woman (court: yes), or did a stroke (daughter: yes)? By BILL LAITNER Knight-Ridder Newspapers DETROIT In a packed suburban courtroom with all the trappings of a major murder trial four attorneys, a host of witnesses, gruesome testimony and the threat of capital punishment hanging over the accused a hearing began Friday on the fate of King Boots, an Old English Sheepdog accused of mauling a woman to death. Gertrude Monroe, 87, the mother of the dog's owner, was killed Dec. 19, apparently after she fell on the sleeping 8'-year-oid dog, according to police and autopsy reports. City officials of Birmingham, where the incident occurred, petitioned the 48th District Court for permission to kill King Boots by lethal injection.

But the dog's owner, Kathryn Schwarb, 60, testified Friday that her mother had a stroke that caused her to fall on the prize-winning dog. Schwarb wants King Boots removed from the city pound and returned to the family. "I know she had a stroke," Schwarb said. (More on WOMAN, Page2A) to do it," said Hershey. Goetz's lawyer, Frank Brenner, said his client was "in the process of making arrangements to get himself bailed out." Meanwhile, workers at city newspapers said the papers had received a heavy volume of letters, with the great majority supporting Goetz in the Dec.

22 shootings. In Georgia, Lumpkin County Sheriff Kenneth Seabolt, whose department has begun collecting money for Goetz, said the shooting "makes me feel like there are a few people left in this world with guts, other than lawmen." "It's nice to see someone standing up for what's right." But Police Commissioner Benja-(More on NEW, PageW NEW YORK (AP) Bernhard Goetz, who surrendered to police and admitted shooting four youths on the subway, on Friday turned down a man who offered to post his $50,000 bail. A man who said he had once been mugged and identified with Goetz appeared with a $50,000 cashiers check that was "seemingly bona fide," said Correction Department spokesman Edward Hershey. The man identified himself as Jose Gonzalez, a telephone technician, said Hershey. Goetz, being held on four attempted murder charges in a special unit for endangered or notorious criminals, thanked the would-be benefactor but said, "No thank you.

It's not the way I wish turn us Sands said. In one stunt, Sands was chained to the handlebars of a motorcycle with a sack over his head while he drove through an 18-foot tunnel drenched with gasoline and set aflame. For the second stunt, he was locked inside a bag wrapped in a 40-foot chain with 25 padlocks. The bag was suspended above the ground, drenched in gasoline and set afire. He said he had to repeat both tricks two times, once because the flames were not prominent enough and again because the bag was not hanging high enough.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) A stuntman has filed a $10 million federal lawsuit against the National Enquirer, claiming he risked his life for a photo spread the tabloid never published. almost died trying to satisfy the Enquirer," said Johnny Sands, who bills himself as the Nashville Flame. Sands said he reluctantly agreed to perform the stunts after being assured that he would be given "centerfold" treatment. He said he was told the spread would earn him more bookings and higher fees.

"They told me, 'You can't afford to.