Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 22

Austin American-Statesman Wednesday, May 24, 1989 B2 Homeless man guilty of trespassing By John Harris and Reggie Rivers American-Statesman Staff Delays blamed on rules Witness testifies on Nuke overruns 1 NAACP may pull Houston convention HOUSTON (AP) Unless the Greater Houston Convention Visitors Bureau makes changes to help minorities, the city's NAACP branch said it might take its lucrative national convention elsewhere' in two years. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been monitoring Houston since Don Vaughn, convention bureau head, reportedly made derogatory statements last month, said Al Green, NAACP Houston branch president. Vaughn announced Tuesday morning he was resigning from his job because of the controversy surrounding the incident. Last month, Vaughn told state Rep. Steve Wolens, R-Dallas, he didn't want Black and Hispanic council members reviewing his annual budget because they would not understand it.

A convention bureau spokesman said the annual NAACP convention, set for July 7-12, 1991, is expected to attract 10,000 people and generate $6.8 million for the local economy. ment is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Williams' attorneys asked Kennedy to assess punishment. The six-member jury deliberated for more than six hours Tuesday before returning the guilty verdict shortly after 9 p.m. Kennedy sentenced the man to three days in the Travis County Jail, which he must serve in the next 30 days.

Jurors said deliberations dragged on because they were not sure of the circumstances surrounding Williams' arrest. "There was a big deal about implied consent," said Juror Jeff Conn, 23. "The university seemed to put up with what went on to a certain point. They didn't go out there when the crowds were out there and say, 'Get off our Attorneys for Williams argued that the 48-year-old homeless man left the house at the request of UT police, that the men had the implied consent of UT officials to stage their protest, and that the cottage was not a building under legal definitions. Williams' attorneys had planned to call four witnesses they described as experts regarding homelessness, but called only one of them to the stand after Kennedy ruled their testimony was not relevant.

The only witness presented by defense James Williams A homeless Austin man arrested after spending the night at a vacant East Austin house owned by the University of Texas during a July protest was found guilty of criminal trespassing charges Tuesday. James Williams, president of the Street People's Advisory Council, was one of three men arrested and charged with criminal trespassing after they ignored warnings to leave the vacant house at 2201 -A Comal in the Blackland neighborhood. Williams and two other men occupied the house as part of a protest to draw attention to the plight of the homeless. The men participated in a demonstration, part of more than 70 conducted nationwide that day, which drew about 100 people. The demonstrators marched to the cottage where they spent the night.

The University of Texas, which owned the cottage, demolished the structure and 11 others northeast of Disch-Falk Field about 10 days later. Williams' trial on the misdemeanor charge began Monday in County Court-at-Law Bren-da Kennedy's court. The maximum punish lawyers was Dr. Veon McReynolds, a psychologist and Blacklands neighborhood activist. McReynolds testified that he told UT officials that the homeless group planned to remove boarded windows of the houses and probably would enter the houses.

The two other men arrested with Williams, Brian Joyce and Ron North, also were charged with criminal trespassing. But they pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of reckless damage or destruction. Their sentence was commuted to time they served in jail after their arrests, or less than a day, said attorney Beth Crabb, who also represented Williams. Southwestern University names Rosenthal provost MM ruary that he will leave Southwestern on July 1 to become president of Hiram College in Ohio. "Dr.

Rosenthal is an accomplished and respected administrator and teacher, and we are happy that he and his family have chosen to come to Southwestern Univer Michael Rosenthal, vice president for academic affairs and dean at St. Mary's College of Maryland, has been named provost and dean of the faculty of Southwestern University in Georgetown. Rosenthal will succeed G. Benjamin Oliver, who announced in Feb sity," said President Roy Shilling. "Dr.

Rosenthal joins Southwestern during a period of rapid change and growth. and his credentials indicate that he is capable of providing us with academic leadership of the highest caliber." Rosenthal, 49, has been at St. Mary's since 1984. A chemist, he was on the faculty of Bard College in New York from 1965 to 1984. He was associate dean of academic affairs at Bard from 1980 to 1984.

AFTER 71 YEARS GOING OUTof BUSINESS By William G. Smith Special to the American-Statesman DALLAS Sweeping regulatory changes resulting from events such as 19798 Three Mile Island accident not bad engineering and inept management were mainly responsible for the costly delays on the South Texas Nuclear Project, an expert witness testified Tuesday. Harry Hollinghaus, vice president of San Francisco-based Bech-tel Power testified that more "prescriptive" government regulation caused "massive and overwhelming" cost overruns and timetable slippages at all nuclear power plants built in the 1973-86 period. Hollinghaus testified as a Houston Lighting Power Co. defense witness in the trial of the City of Austin's breach-of-contract suit against over alleged mishandling of the South Texas Project.

The trial is now in its 10th week here. Under direct examination by attorney Roy Minton, Hollinghaus disputed prior testimony by Austin witnesses including Robert Allen, who was also a Bech-tel executive about the reasons for the project's troubles. The stocky, 60-year-old Hoi-' linghaus used numerous charts as he told the jury that millions of man-hours of additional work were required to make the STNP conform with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's stricter safety regulations. As he began his "lecture," Minton quipped, "The jury will be glad to know they're in for some exciting, fascinating testimony." "I'm under oath, counselor," Hollinghaus fired back without cracking a smile. Hollinghaus cited the thousands of feet of pipe that transport hot water and steam under extremely high pressures throughout the plant as an example.

He noted that if you hold a garden hose several feet from the end and tum up the water pressure, the hose starts whipping violently back and forth. Prevention of such whipping action and the danger of pipe breakage required an extensive, intricate system of pipe supports at the STNP. He noted that because of stricter regulation, the number of man-hours required to install the plant's pipe supports eventually almost quadrupled, from less than 3 million to 11.5 million. During his cross-examination, City of Austin lawyer Jeff Wolff tried to establish that Hollinghaus had failed to quantify the impact of faulty engineering performed by former project engineer and builder Brown Root. Another witness, Robert "Bud" Moeller, a consultant with the management consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton, testified that the Houston utility met or exceeded recommended personnel staffing levels on the nuclear project.

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Famous Name Watches. Houston man is executed for 1981 slaying HUNTSVILLE A Houston man was executed by lethal injection today for his role in the 1981 slaying of a woman who was abducted after her car broke down on a freeway. Stephen McCoy, 40, died at 12:25 a.m. in the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections. The U.S.

Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, rejected McCoy's final appeal Tuesday. He was the second Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and the 31st since the state resumed executions in 1982. McCoy made no final statement. His brother-in-law, two friends and his attorney, Karen Zeller, were present for the execution. McCoy's final meal was a cheeseburger, french fries and a strawberry milkshake.

McCoy was convicted in the slaying of Cynthia Johnson, 18, who allegedly was abducted by McCoy and two other men after her car broke down on a Houston freeway as she was returning home from a New Year's Eve party. According to trial testimony, McCoy raped the woman and then held her legs down while James Paster apd Gary LeBlanc strangled her with an electrical cord. A CliRTII'ICATE OI; APPRAISAL r. ACCOMPANIiiS EVI-HY DIAMOND AND PRECIOUS GEM PURCHASE. 'Tha line tolno ottered lor ul In ihli unit comn Irom ih Froti Brot.

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