Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 408

Naugatuck's Rado loses last- minute THE HARTFORD COURANT: Friday, November 11, 1988 C5 bid to avoid jail Associated Press WATERBURY Former Nauga-tuck Mayor William C. Rado Sr. lost a last-minute bid Thursday to avoid prison on his bribery conviction and surrendered to begin serving his six-month jail term. Immediately after Superior Court Judge Maxwell Heiman ordered Rado to surrender for taking $3,000 in payoffs on town contracts, the 71-year-old, former six-term mayor stood up, smiled, shook hands with his family and walked over to sheriffs. "If I do go in, I'm sure some of my political enemies will be taking a bubble bath tonight," Rado said before the hearing.

"But I hold no ill feelings toward anybody, even my enemies. I know I did a good job for Naugatuck." Rado will begin serving his sentence at Somers state prison, his lawyer, Timothy Moynahan, said. Moynahan had tried to keep his client out of jail for at least another week while a federal judge considers a habeas corpus petition requiring authorities to justify why they are holding someone in custody. Moynahan asked for the hearing after U.S. District Court Judge Peter C.

Dorsey Monday ordered the state to show why the start of Rado's sentence should not be delayed. Moynahan said he did not know when Dorsey will rule on the habeas corpus petition, but expects a hearing by Dec. 5. The federal court, Moynahan said, has until Monday to decide whether Rado can be freed on bond pending its final decision on the "We believe this has already been reviewed four times twice by the state Appellate Court, the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court," the prosecutor said.

"Obviously, the language is different in the habeas corpus motion, but the claims are basically the same as those already raised." Rado has maintained he is not guilty of charges that he accepted three $1,000 bribes from the Albaitis Construction Co. in return for borough contracts. The charges against Rado were developed during an investigation by Superior Court Judge Martin L. Mc-Keever into allegations of municipal corruption. Rado was arrested in 1985 soon after the end of his sixth term on six counts of bribe-receiving and one Earlier attack cited at triple-slaying trial habeas corpus issue.

"It would be unjust and ludicrous," Moynahan said Thursday, "for Mr. Rado to go in today when Judge Dorsey is still considering whether to grant him a stay of execution." But Assistant State's Attorney Christopher Malaney said there should be no more delays. "It's not a matter of particular urgency whether he goes today or next week," Malaney said. "We've got a jury verdict that he's guilty so we want him to go to jail." Moynahan contends Rado's constitutional rights were violated by the state's one-person grand jury system under which he was charged. Malaney said that issue already has been reviewed in several courts and Rado has lost the appeal.

Br Ufa w.jj 1 I Pi nn I mmm mmm mmm mum nn i i By JACK EWING Courant Staff Writer Mark J. Chicano dragged his former girlfriend out of an apartment by the hair and gave another man a broken nose in an attack that presaged the triple murder for which he is now on trial, according to testimony at Superior Court in Hartford Thursday. Prosecutor Herbert Carlson Jr. said the Dec. 21, 1986, attack on Ellen Babbitt, 29, and Raymond L.

Arnold, 26, was similar to the attack that left them dead two months later. Carlson said he wanted to demonstrate that the Feb. 28, 1987, triple slaying in which Babbit's 11-year-old stepson, Mark Babbitt was also killed was part of a pattern. Carlson also said the evidence may prove important to counter Chi-cano's legal defense, which is expected to focus on his mental condition. Much of Thursday's session in the week-old trial was taken up with legal arguments about whether the evidence of previous violence by Chicano can be considered by the three judges hearing the case.

Defense attorney Gerard A. Smyth, saying there are important differences between the two incidents, argued it should not. "We are 4 JA" i X' -f Governor, top officials to attend club dinner count each of larceny, conspiracy to commit larceny, and soliciting and receiving illegal campaign contributions. Ronald Albaitis, owner of the construction company, was a key prosecution witness against Rado at his 1986 trial, describing to the jury how he handed Rado packets of $100 bills in plain white envelopes, payoffs for contracts for work at Naugatuck High School and on Prospect Street. Rado was accused of taking the payoffs in 1980 and 1981.

Moynahan tried to discredit Albaitis' testimony by alleging that Albaitis was misappropriating company funds belonging to family members affiliated with the company. But the jury deliberated only 57 minutes before returning a guilty verdict against the popular ex-may ..4 1 lO fraternity bers. "We get around that by having women write things and submit them with the names of current male members," said Lehr, smiling. The Wesleyan chapter won seven prizes in the 1988 literary contest. Three of the winners were women.

Fraternity leaders said they were willing to risk the chapter's expulsion. "If they leave us no option, we could do fairly well on our own," said Paula Cohen, a senior from St. Louis. A university task force recommended last year that all of Wesleyan's male-only fraternities become coeducational. "I think it's crystal clear from the task force recommendations that Wesleyan believes what our Alpha Delta Phi fraternity is doing is right, appropriate and consistent with Wesleyan's values," said Edgar F.

Beckham, a Wesleyan dean. "We think it's unfortunate that our fraternity is in disagreement with its (board of governors, and we wish them well in working that disagreement out." The students at Alpha Delta Phi clearly hope they can resolve the dispute with the board and other chapters without having to dissociate from Alpha Delta Phi. "We like the tradition we have of being associated with an international organization," Cohen said. Larson said he has "no idea" what will happen, but hoped that a compromise could be reached. "The problem is, we're talking about issues like this when we could use the time discussing things of more importance," he said.

"But the feeling right now is, you can't make hasty decisions." If 1 TV -1 I um or. And the jury's foreman said the all-male jury believed Albaitis. Rado's conviction was upheld by I the state Appellate Court in May. The state Supreme Court in July also refused to overturn the conviction. Rado was a popular and contro- versial Democratic mayor from 1973 to 1985.

Rado was tried in April 1986 on charges that he accepted a $9,500 bribe from developer Wayner Kadar fcr pushing through the town's pur-chase of 27.4 acres of land owned by Kadar and Alfred Corsino for the-; town's industrial park. But Judge William La very ruled that the state failed to produce sufficient evidence against Rado and ac- quitted him of charges of larceny, conspiracy and bribe-receiving. 'No Jail' I urged in Newtown Residents demand that state build prison elsewhere By ERIN MARTIN Courant Correspondent NEWTOWN Nearly 400 dents brandishing "No Jail" signs gathered at Newtown High School Thursday night to demand that the state abandon plans to build a 400- prison in town. Dozens of speakers criticized the environmental impact report re- leased by the state in early October, contending it is based on faulty in- formation and comes to inaccurate conclusions. John King, the lawyer represent- ing the town, told state correction officials who called the public hear- ing that they had produced a docu- ment to "justify a decision that has already been made." The state is proposing to build the prison on nearly 115 acres of state land next to the Fairfield Hills Hos- pital, an institution for the mentally ill.

The proposed minimum-security' prison has been bitterly opposed by residents, who say they are con-1 cerned it would threaten property values, sit directly above an aquifer -that yields 30 percent of the town's! water supply, and would be located too close to the mental hospital. Leonard Barbieri, deputy com-4 missioner of the state Department of Corrections, would not respond when residents asked if they had a voice whether the prison would be built in Newtown. Barbieri said the decision? would be based on the adequacy of the final environmental impact re-. port. State officials will take day's comments into consideration before releasing a final environmental report in late January, with con-struction beginning soon after, Barbieri said.

The prison would be one of three? new prisons proposed by the correc- tion department to cope with crowding in the penal system. The others would be built in Suffield and Montville. Many Newtown residents Thurs- day said the state environmental re- port includes illogical conclusions, subjective judgments on the social and economic effect of the and inaccurate data on water flow and wetlands. "This report was a waste of tax-" payers' money," said Elaine Hen-drickson, a member of the town's -legislative council. Many residents fear that numer-1 ous acres of wetlands at the pro-1 posed site would carry contaminat-'' ed street runoff into the aquifer, said Sandra Machaud, an opponent of the jail.

Amy Dent, another member of the council, contended that the writers" of the environmental report SEA Consultants Inc. did not state regulations that require soil samples, air quality and inclusion of, statistical data in the report. "I want" to know about whether the state" obeys its own laws," Dent said. Ted Buckner, a representative of SEA Consultants, explained how the report was written, but was chided. repeatedly with hisses, boos and a' few expletives from the crowd.

An organization called Citizens' Action Group Against the Jail has been lobbying against the pro-, posal since May 1987 with the aid oft a lawyer and an environmental con-' sultant. Wendy Beres, chairwoman of the; group, said that mentally-ill patients' suffer from being stigmatized as-prisoners and that a nearby prison' would only make matters "The rights of the mentally ill were never considered," she said. "This is, a step back to the Middle Ages." Barbieri, however, said the state had examined situations in York and Rhode Island where prison and mental-health facilities were lo-; cated in close proximity, and found, they have minimal impact on other. Gov. William A.

O'Neill and other top state law enforcement officials are scheduled to assemble in East Windsor Saturday for the 21st annual dinner meeting of the Hundred Club of Connecticut. The Hundred Club, a statewide organization with about 2,000 members, financially assists the families of police officers, firefighters and correction guards who lose their lives in the line of duty. There have been 166 such deaths since the Con- Rewards offered in slayings not dealing with another homicide. We are not dealing with a situation involving a child," he said. He also said there was not enough evidence to prove that Chicano committed the December attack.

Chicano, 28, was charged with second-degree assault, third-degree assault, criminal trespass, unlawful restraint and disorderly conduct, and the charges are still outstanding. After hearing a sampling of testimony from two eyewitnesses and a police officer, the judges ruled in the prosecution's favor. Among those testifying was Steven Caravello, a resident of Mill Pond Village in East Windsor, who said he saw Chicano dragging a woman apparently Babbitt from a neighboring apartment. Gary Screen, who shared a town-house apartment in the complex with Arnold, said he helped call police after the attack. Screen then took Arnold and Babbitt to the hospital.

Arnold's face was bloody and he had a broken nose, he said. Chicano is accused of later beating Arnold and Babbitt to death and strangling the boy at an apartment at 154B East Road in East Windsor. He is charged with capital felony, three counts of murder, three counts of felony murder, injury to a child, and second-degree burglary. necticut club was founded in 1967, an average of about eight per year. Saturday's annual dinner meeting at La Renaissance is expected to draw about 600 people who will watch the installation of the club's new officers, including its new president, Sid M.

Miller, a New Haven lawyer. Miller succeeds Nicholas "Dick" Robinson of Farmington. Former Gov. John M. Dempsey of Groton, the club's first honorary member, will speak.

certainly need the public's help." Police have not located the man Tortoro was walking with on Franklin Avenue, he said. The man could be one of the pieces which would help police put the puzzle together, he said. In the Meriden case, 27-year-old Jeffrey Williametz was found shot to death nearly seven months ago in his driveway at 270Vz Elm St. Williametz, who was raised in the city, was shot in the left side of his abdomen. No witnesses have come forth.

Williametz had worked as a siding contractor and rented the house on Elm Street for about four months before his death. "From all indications, the gates were working and the gates were down," Windsor police Lt. Nicholas Riccio said. Police and firefighters said it appeared the truck's driver ignored or failed to see warning lights at the level crossing and smashed through closed warning gates into the train. Skid marks were visible on the street leading up to the railroad crossing, and one of the gates was damaged.

The truck was owned by Bradley Kitchens Inc. of West Hartford. Lacafta was treated at the scene by paramedics from Bradley International Airport before being flown by Life Star helicopter to Hartford Hospital. He was not wearing a seat belt. No tickets were issued at the crash site and police said the accident remained under investigation.

srN iff i h0lf Hi Skip Weisenburger Special to The Courant bers Jeanne Kramer of New York and Gordon Agress of California. In the back are Paul Rooney of Delaware, Paula Cohen of Missouri, center, and Sherry Lehr of New York. The national leaders will visit the chapter today and Saturday. Members of Wesleyan University's chapter of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, including the five above, hope to convince national leaders of the organization that the chapter should continue to admit women. In the front row are chapter mem- Men, women stand up for The state is offering $20,000 rewards to anyone with information leading to arrests and convictions in slayings in Hartford and Meriden, Gov.

William A. O'Neill announced Thursday. Christine Tortoro, 21, of New Britain, was last seen pushing a silver 10-speed bicycle and walking with a man on Franklin Avenue in Hartford. Her naked body was found Aug. 31 in the river near the Riverside Park boat launch.

She had been strangled. "Usually when we offer a reward like that we've, for the time being, hit a series of dead ends," said Hartford police Sgt. Gerald Kumnick, who is investigating the case. "We Man injured when truck hits train By JOHN M. MORAN Courant Staff Writer WINDSOR A 30-year-old East Hartford man who apparently drove his small truck through railroad-crossing gates was critically injured Thursday morning when the truck collided with an Amtrak passenger train at a crossing on Macktown Road, police said.

Daniel Lacafta of 31 Pratt East Hartford, was in critical condition at Hartford Hospital, where he was admitted for treatment of multiple injuries, police said. None of the 40 passengers on the southbound Amtrak train, which was en route to Washington, D.C., from Springfield, was reported injured in the accident. Police said the crash occurred about 7:20 a.m. when Lacafta's truck, which was headed east on Macktown Road, hit the second car of the train. The truck was crushed and dragged about 35 yards, police said.

The railroad crossing was equipped with warning lights and gates, both of which apparently were working properly when the accident occurred, police said. visiting the coeducational chapters this year. Wesleyan's turn comes today and Saturday. "I don't know what to think. That's one of the reasons we are going to Wesleyan to investigate what is transpiring," Larson said.

"But I come from an all-male chapter, so I do have some biases." The issue could be resolved by a vote by the, governing council on whether to revoke the coed chapters' charters, Larson said. The undergraduate leaders of Alpha Delta Phi at Wesleyan are hoping to convince the fraternity's board of governors of their desire to remain coeducational and part of the fraternity system. "It's a big day for us, because it's our last opportunity to show the board of governors what we're about in person," said Paul Rooney, a senior from Wilmington, and one of the Wesleyan chapter's leaders. "They don't see how it functions in action, and that's what we hope we can show them when they come," said Sherry Lehr, a senior from Tully, N.Y. Lehr, Rooney and the chapter's other leaders, gathered in the spacious wood-paneled music room of the fraternity house recently, said they were committed to remaining coeducational.

"There's absolutely no chance of the house becoming all-male," Rooney said. "The undergrads would not stand for it, and the alumni would not either." Members of Alpha Delta Phi have resorted to subterfuge in their quest to retain sexual equality at the fraternity. Every year, the board of governors sponsors a writing contest for Alpha Delta Phi members. The board does not recognize women as being mem By MARK CHEATER Courant Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN When national leaders of Alpha Delta Phi visit the fraternity chapter at Wesleyan University today, some things about the house may not meet with their approval. Chances are, it won't be the diverse collection of liquor bottles balanced on a long shelf in the dining room that bothers them, or the bicycles cramming a hall off the vestibule.

What is almost sure to set their teeth on edge is the presence of fraternity brothers with names such as Paula and Sherry. Since 1973, Alpha Delta Phi's Wesleyan chapter has admitted women, in violation of the fraternity's constitution. Half of the local fraternity's 45 members this year are female. This coeducational arrangement has caused tensions between Wesleyan and the fraternity's 27 all-male chapters. Three other Alpha Delta Phi chapters at Columbia University in New York, Brown University in Rhode Island and Bowdoin College in Maine also admit women.

"Some members would really like us to say, 'You're doing it all and go in and shut them down," said Mark Larson, president of Alpha Delta Phi International. Because of the longstanding tension, Alpha Delta Phi's governing council, composed of two representatives from each of the chapters, has decided to settle the issue by 1990. As part of their effort to resolve the dispute, Larson and other members of the fraternity's international board of governors are.