Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 13

star Wyoming Bl Tuesday, September 11, 1990 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo. Bomb victim's sister asks Sullivan to stop Hopkinson execution 1 1 Ofc guilty of arranging the bombings or the murder of Green. "From my knowledge, there are huge discrepancies too many in the way Mr. Hopkinson's case was presented in court and the way I see them." Coggeshall said. "I'd rather see a guilty guy go free than an innocent guy get killed.

Maybe the man is totally innocent, and had no knowledge of any of it." she said. "If he was innocent, or even if he is guilty, I don't think it's going to be right to kill him." In 1987, Coggeshall wrote an angry, hateful letter to Hopkinson while he was in prison. "I wrote him feeling him out. I felt he might implicate other people at the last minute to save his life." But Hopkinson wrote back, saying, "I don't realy (sic) care if you believe it, but I would be better dead than in prison for something I didn't do." Coggeshall admits she's had to struggle to justify her defense of Hopkinson. "It took a lot of real personal struggle and difficulty," she said.

"Sometimes you're able to separate emotion and objectivity." Coggeshall realizes there's little chance that Hopkinson will again be spared from the death penalty, and she fears the repercussions of his execution. "It would make me feel like I've somehow killed another part of myself," she said. "I think I would feel a greater sense of loss than I do now." GILLETTE (AP) The older sister of Beverly Vehar, who was killed 13 years ago in a bombing arranged by condemned murderer Mark Hopkinson, has asked Gov. Mike Sullivan to spare the man's life. Marjorie Coggeshall of Gillette is opposed to the death penalty, uncertain of Hopkinson's guilt and doesn't want to see him die by lethal injection as is planned for Sept.

25. The governor has said, however, that he does not plan to commute the execution unless "unusual circumstances" arise, which he doesn't expect. But Coggeshall says, "It would not give me any additional peace or comfort in a sense of vengeance if he's executed. "There's no compensation for that loss anywhere. That's irreparable," she said in a Gillette News-Record copyright story.

Hopkinson is serving three life terms for arranging the 1977 bombing deaths of Evanston lawyer Vincent Vehar, his wife, Beverly, and one son, John. Another son, Anthony Vehar, survived the explosion. Hopkinson faces execution for ordering the torture murder of informant Jeffrey Lynn Green of Mountain View, allegedly also volved in the bombing, and who was scheduled to testify in the Vehar murder case. The actual killers of Green have never been found. Coggeshall, 53, has doubts of her own that Hopkinson is actually Rick Sorcnson Slar-Tnbunc Devils Tower in northeastern Wyoming forms a backdrop at John Dorrance's ranch in Crook County.

Dorrance is currently embroiled in a dispute with state Game and Fish officials over his plans to bring exotic wildlife to his ranch lands. Towering ranch Jackson Hole Alliance hits proposed new visitor center, other changes eyed in Grand Teton park Opposed to construction 'in an area with high scenic values' west of the Jackson Hole Airport, because it "is not used by visitors to the Park" as well as areas in Kelly, where the park currently owns several structures, according to Garland. A third option is to increase the existing housing located at Moose, the letter suggests. "We'll take all that into consid-. eration," Stark said.

"We considered those, but we will consider them again. There is some merit in those suggestions," he said. The proposed consolidation of of Exum guides and mountain rescue at the Highlands Ranch are is not needed, the Alliance maintains, and the status quo should be maintained. The Park should not build a concrete helicopter pad because the "current facility works fine and should be retained." Also, the "structures occupied by the Exum guides are a rustic reminder of days of old." Currently slated for removal, they should be allowed to remain, Garland said. Stark said that the NPS has not decided on any changes to the DCP, but should be working on preparing the final draft in the next three weeks.

He estimates that the final plan will be released in October or November. on a better sign is more cost effective than construction of a multi-million dollar facility on currently unbroken ground in an area with high scenic values," he said. Stark said that while the NPS is always interested in ways to improve its signs and will consider suggestions, the discussion in the DCP about a new visitor's center is "not a part of (the DCP) as far as the assessment of it is concerned." "There's been a lot of confusion," about the proposed move so the NPS will "probably just take the discussion of that visitor center out of the plan," Stark said. The proposal is included in the draft DCP as a suggestion for a future plan, he explained. The Alliance also finds fault with proposals to expand employee housing at Beaver Creek, citing the park's 1976 Master Plan, which "called for moving housing out of this area and returning it to a more natural setting." Alternative housing sites should be examined, Garland said, and "at a minimum, the NPS should proceed to install the vegetative screening for existing housing promised years ago." The JHA suggested the area tions made by the public.

"We'll try to seriously consider all (of the JHA's) suggestions along with others and see what we can do," Stark said. He said that "it would be premature to discuss" probable modifications of the plan. The Alliance supported many aspects of the DCP, including the proposed clean up operation at jenny Lake. Removing congestion caused by roads and buildings to further away from the shoreline is slated as a top priority in the DCP. The conservation group highlights the relocation of the park visitor center as the first of four "problem areas" in the plan.

Garland calls the proposal "a waste of money," and says that a new center is not necessary to "capture more of the tourists leaving Jackson on their way to Yellowstone." Garland said that the "high costs and visual impacts" of a new facility on the southern boundary of Grand Teton National Park "outweigh the incremental gain in public education." Instead, Garland suggests that the park increase public awareness of the visitor center's present location, which he says is not well marked. "A few hundred dollars spent Miiinimmi "Iimmot ifnvrn- 1 Truckers stage weekend road protest CHEYENNE (AP) A four-mile line of trucks that started with just three tractor-trailer rigs rolled By ELIZABETH BERRY Star- Tribune correspondent JACKSON The Jackson Hole Alliance for Responsible Planning has raised questions about a proposed new visitor center and other changes planned in Grand Teton National Park. The new center is among proposals in the draft Teton Corridor Development Concept Plan developed by the National Park "Few environmental assessments have aroused as much public ire" as the draft DCP, said Scott Garland, Public Lands Director of the JHA. The main objective of the plan is to consolidate facilities and services, and will determine all management decisions in the eight designated areas of Grand Teton National Park for the next fifteen to twenty years, according to park officials. 1 Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Jack Stark said that the NPS has not made any decisions about modifications to the draft DCP.

He said that he would not rule out any of the DCP proposals or any alternative sugges Tribes seek Wind River RIVERTON (AP) The Shoshone and Arapaho tribes are in the process of extending their self-granted permit to hold back water in the Wind River to maintain their fishery at least through October and November. Tribal water engineer Kate Van-demoer said she does not "anticipate conflict of use" with non-Indians who irrigate their crops with the water since the irrigation season will be mostly complete in late September. Whether the Wind River Reservation tribes have the right to hold back water for fisheries, instead of just for agricultural uses, is being fought in the courts between the tribes and the state of Wyoming. In the meantime, non-Indian irrigators have gone with less water to allow the Indians to hold it back for a fishery they established last WOC sets ag LANDER Range management and sustainable agriculture will provide the topics for the annual Wyoming Outdoor Council's statewide conference Sept. 29 in Sheridan.

The conference is designed for the general public, ranchers, natural resource agency employees, and conservationists, according to a WOC announcement. University of Colorado law professor Charles Wilkinson, "one of the country's leading scholars on protest to what one driver called a whole list ot stuff. Chicagoan Ed Piane said the convoy started Saturday afternoon at Wyoming's western border with just three drivers and grew to well over 100 by the time it reached Cheyenne at nightfall. The convoy along Interstate 80 was not meant to obstruct traffic or cause problems, Piane said, it was just a way to get the attention of Congress and others. "We want to get somebody to notice us," said the driver who calls himself "Striker" in reference to his Marine Corps Reserves background.

"We're not the outlaw drivers; we're not on dope. But we're tired of people taking our radar detectors and trying to legislate the speed limit down for just commercial trucks." Piane said the convoy grew as drivers talked on their radios and spread the word. The drivers who converged on Cheyenne's Little America truck stop are concerned that Congress will approve a proposed law banning radar detectors in commercial vehicles. "You would be allowed to keep one in your car," he said. "But it's kind of an infringement on our rights and it's kind of discriminatory." Among the other complaints that Piane said he and the hundreds of other drivers shared were dropping freight costs, rising fuel prices, and "high food costs at truck stops." While the truckers unsettled workers at Little America, Piane said the drivers were doing no damage and were working to keep their convoy safe and legal as it rolled across Wyoming and into other states.

US West plans to eliminate many jobs ALBUQUERQUE (AP) US West will eliminate between 5,000 across Wyoming, staging a sizeable has been studying customer ser customers expect and what they it takes to install or repair tele table for the actions, which will pled guilty' to unemployment in R. Lake, 39, Cheyenne. and 6,000 jobs during the next several years as the company stream lines and automates itself, a spokesman said Monday. The cutbacks in the 14 states served by West would represent UW study: Insanity plea 'beneficial' to defendants LARAMIE (AP) Wyoming attorneys think defendants benefit by pleading "not guilty by reason of according to a University of Wyoming survey. Psychology professors George Blau and Hugh McGinley surveyed Wyoming lawyers as part of continuing research into the success rate of the plea.

Some 8 1 percent of defense attorneys and 65 percent of prosecuting attorneys felt the insanity plea conveyed benefits at cases resolved at the preliminary hearing stage, Blau said. The preliminary hearing stage was appropriate for measuring attitudes toward the insanity pleas because less than 10 percent of cases actually go to trial, he said. The benefits to defendants did not mean they escaped adjudication or were not found guilty of a criminal act, he noted. "By benefit, we mean that the individuals, because of their mental states, were found guilty of a charge that was not as severe as what they were originally charged with," the professor said. For example, an individual who had been charged with first degree murder might be convicted of a lesser offense such as second degree murder or manslaughter after using the insanity plea.

"They still serve time, especially for severe crimes," Blau said. "Society's goals are met, but some credit is given for the mental state of the defendant." Previous university research shows that most people think the insanity plea is used much more frequently than it really is. Researchers found that the plea was used once for every 4,968 arrests in Colorado, once for every 476 arrests in Michigan, once for every 2 1 4 arrests in Maine and once for every 204 arrests in Wyoming. They also found that in Wyoming just 2 percent of defendants who used the plea were judged insane. Wyoming's attitudes toward an alternative plea, "guilty but were also measured by the Laramie team.

Some states have adopted this new plea as an alternative to "not guilty by reason of insanity." The new plea recognizes that a person is guilty but has some mental problems that need professional attention. The researchers found that the "guilty but mentally ill" plea changes attitudes toward sentencing for a crime. extension of flow permit spring. At that time, the Wind River Water Resources Control Board issued the tribes an instream flow permit calling for 252 cubic feet per second of water to remain in the Wind River from Crowheart to the river's confluence with the Little Wind River below Riverton. The tribes said the water represented a portion of the priority water rights granted by the Wyoming Supreme Court and affirmed by the U.S.

Supreme Court last year. The Indians have priority to the water dating back to an 1868 treaty. As issued, the instream flow permit extended from mid-April to Oct. 1. "We're in the process now of renewing it.

the same amount, 252 cubic feet per second," Vande-moer said. conference natural resources policy in the American West," will offer the keynote speech, according to the announcement. Other speakers include ranchers Press Stephens, Bill McKay, Olin Simms, Joe Foster and John Floc-chini, Wyoming Stock Growers Association Director Bob Budd, and Kurt Gadzia, director of education for the Center for Holistic Resource Management. For infor mation, call 332-7031. about 10 percent of the company's work force, Dave Duran said.

The company likely would offer early retirement incentives and not fill job vacancies in an effort to avoid layoffs, he said. Duran said about I.UUU employees leave 5 west eacn year through attrition. West for the past nine months vice, focusing on gaps between what receive, the company said. The company will boost its investments in new systems, new prod ucts and services to shorten the time phone lines and reduce phone network failures, officials said. West will streamline its operations and buy equipment that can take over some functions that have been done manually, officials said.

Duran said there is no definite time occur during several years as new equipment is introduced into the network and new systems are incorporated. Three guilty of unemployment fraud CHEYENNE Three men have surance fraud, and ordered to pay restitution and fines ranging from $550 to 1 ,960, the Wyoming Department of Employment reported. The three men are: Erik K. Stromsted, 32, Evanston; Thomas A. Feemster, 26, Cheyenne; and Wayne.