Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 78

6th cd, 1 i 111 iCffllfili Editorial pages BIO, Bit More Connecticut news B6, B7, B9 Obituaries BS Scholastic sports Section Weather B12 East Hartford Hartford Bl, 03, B4, B7, Now Britain Ntwington Rocky Hill West Hartford Wethersfleld Coming tvonte Legal notices Every Tuesday SENIOR MEALS In this section BS B9 BS BS B4 C3 B4 B2 A8 Hartford The council passes a resolution designed to slow the rise in city taxes and spending. Pag B3 Hartford The Civic Center posts its smallest budget surplus in five years. Pag B9 Hartford A group formed to suggest ways to improve schools recommends passing the job on to an expanded task force. PageB3 Rocky Hill The poor economy may be denying many stray dogs a dog's life. Page' B4 Wethersfield Officials may learn this week if the state will consider a $750,000 granp-for improvements to the historic district.

Page B4 Local editorial New citizens get a bonus when they, take their oaths of allegiance in Hartford court. Page BIO Hartford A hospital executive is charged with making sexual advances to a woman during a phony job interview. Page B3 Hartford A tutoring program for children will be discontinued until a Hispanic club finds a new home. Pag B3 Newington The council will honor a woman who has earned its respect despite disagreements. Pag BS 1 V- y.

'5Hs 5 fc b. is 4 I 1 A 0 A Jpf(i rtfi OIIB Knights of Columbus chief named director of Vatican bank ternational scrutiny. Even cardinals had been excluded from the information. Cardinal John Krol, retired.archbishop of Philadelphia, reported to the Catholic bishops meeting in Washington two weeks ago that he and other advisers convinced the Vatican that it could not appeal for financial help unless it made its budget public. The Vatican reorganized its several financial departments last year to provide greater accountability after it ran annual deficits running as high as $50 million throughout the 1980s and was implicated in several scan York.

Dechant has been supreme knight, or chief executive officer, of the 1.5 million-member fraternal benefit society since 1977. With $3.6 billion in assets and $14 billion of life insurance in force, the Knights' organization has been a generous church benefactor. It has set up a $20 million endowment fund for the pope and paid for refurbishing St. Peter's Basilica. Dechant's appointment is the latest in a series of Vatican moves opening up the once tightly held Vatican financial accounts to close in formally called.

The directors were selected for their experience in finance and administration, an announce ment from the Knights' headquarters said. Thev will re port to a five- member cardf- DECHANT nals' commission, which includes Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New. I lift 1 i I Ml By GERALD RENNER I Courant Religion Writer Pope John Paul II has named Virgil C. Dechant, head of the New' Haven-based Knights of Columbus, one of five lay directors of the Vatican bank.

The board of directors was established last year as part of a restructuring after financial scandals involving the bank. Dechant, 60, of Hamden, will serve with four Europeans to supervise operations of the Institute for the Works of Religion, as the bank is Home release for Asherman still before court By GEORGE GOMBOSSY Courant Staff Writer Ttie 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected Steven M. Asher-man's claim that his manslaughter conviction in the brutal 1978 slaying of his medical-school classmate Michael Aranow was improper. The three-member panel of judges in New York ruled unanimously that a jury could convict Asherman of manslaughter while he was charged with the more serious charge of murder.

The Connecticut Supreme Court, U.S. Magistrate Joan G. Margolis, and U.S. District Judge Jose A. Ca-branes had rejected similar claims by Asherman.

In the latest ruling, Judges Jon O. Newman, George C. Pratt and Thomas P. Griesa rejected Asher-man's claim that because of differences in the elements of the two charges, he could not be convicted of the lesser charge. "It has always been the law in Connecticut that under a charge of murder, a defendant can be convicted of other forms of homicide that involve a less culpable state of mind," the judges wrote in their Friday decision, which was released Monday.

And, the judges said, the evidence against Asherman "adequately supported the lesser charge." The ruling on the 1979 trial is one of two challenges the federal appeals court was asked this year to decide in the Asherman case. The second appeal will be heard Thursday by a different panel of judges. That appeal, by the state, questions whether Asherman should Please see Court, Page B7 Slaying appeal denied "6 SECTION 19 TUESDAY NOVEMBER 27,1990 Testimony tied Sindona to the Sicil--ian Mafia. Last month, Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus, 68, who was president of the Vatican bank for 18 years and brought in Sindona and Calvi as advisers, announced his retirement.

Marcinkus, a native of Cicero; was accused of financial fraud and indicted by the Italian government in connection with letters of credit he had given to the Ambrosiano bank. But a court ruled he was protected by diplomatic immunity under terms of a treaty between Vatican City and Italy. Teachers to reap rewards Milken conviction, won't taint prize: state educators say By ROBERT A. FRAHM Courant Education Writer When eight Connecticut teachers and principals accept awards of $25,000 each this week, the name on the check will have a familiar some would say notorious ring. For the third year, the awards will be made to Connecticut educators by a California foundation operated by 'the family of Michael Milken, a former Wall Street financier and now a convicted felon.

Officials in New York state decided not to participate in the program after Milken pleaded guilty last year to securities fraud and other crimes, but Connecticut and several other states have decided to continue their affiliation with the awards. The 44-year-old junk bond trader was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison, the harshest sentence so far in a recent series of cases covering the major Wall Street scandal. "It's something obviously you've got to consider," said Daniel Record, a science teacher at Portland High School and one of this year's recipients, whose names were announced this month. Record, recognized nationally for his teaching experiments with lasers, said state officials convinced him that the award is not tainted. "The Milken family foundation established this award several years ago, just like other wealthy families the Carnegies, the Rockefellers," Record said.

"Unfortunately, one' family member happened to commit a crime. You have to divorce the fact that one person brings notoriety to the award." Based in Sherman Oaks, CaliL, the organization known as the Foundations of the Milken Families was formed in 1982 to support education, Please see Teachers, Page B7 Weisman took issue with several of the hearing officer's findings and testimony by Rodriguez and a witness. Weisman said he believed the motor vehicles department was under pressure to punish Spillane's because of widespread negative publicity about the company. Officials with the motor vehicles department which is closed Mondays, could not be reached. Two of the violations cited by the department stem from Spillane's conviction on a reckless-endanger- Please see Towing, Page B7 Columnist Tom Condon is on special assignment.

Tony Dugal Special to The Courant Enfield Dets. Walter Gadomskl, left, and William Moryto. Segarra Is accused of the sexual assault last week of a Hartford girl. dals. The Vatican bank was connected with the collapse of Italy's largest private bank, the Banco Ambrosiano in Milan.

Ambrosiano's president and a Vatican adviser, Alberto Calvi, was found hanged under a bridge in London in 1982. TheVatican, while denying culpability for the Ambrosiano crash, paid $243 million to creditor banks as a "moral responsibility." The Vatican also relied on investment advice from financier Michele Sindona, who was convicted of bank fraud in the United States and Italy. I pulled her through his car window, slapped her, and, after sexually assaulting her, dropped her off in a northern neighborhood of the city. On Friday, Segarra spent quite some time in the parking lots of malls near the center of town, Gadomski said. Police gave the following account of Segarra's movements: At Elm Plaza at 10:30 a.m., he tried to persuade a 13-year-old girl to get into his car.

The girl, who was waiting for her parents to come out of some nearby stores, ran for the nearby mall, and Segarra followed her slowly in his car until she met her father. Also at Elm Plaza, he reached out Please see Suspect, Page B7 that he will appeal the decision in Superior Court Spillane's has been the subject of numerous complaints by people who have had their cars towed by the company. In June, a Superior Court judge ruled that Spillane's had violated the state's Unfair Trade Practices Act The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by people saying Spillane's overcharged them and treated them improperly after their cars were towed. The decision by the motor vehicles department submitted by hearing officer William D. Grady, found that Spillane's violated three motor-vehicles statutes Feb.

10, when Robert Spillane, the company's president towed a car owned by Jose Francisco Segarra, of 79 Brooklyn Vernon, a suspect In sex offenses, is led Monday from the Enfield Polios Department by Suspect in sex offenses talks of voices, 1 I ken English, Gadomskl said. "He was very soft-spoken, and it was hard to hear him," Gadomski said. "He has a bushy mustache, and it was hard to even see his lips move. It went pretty slowly." Segarra said voices were waking him up in his home in Vernon, voices that told him to "do dirty things." "He said he tried to get some kind of treatment, but I never learned exactly what be meant," Gadomski said. "He just said he was troubled." On Nov.

20, police said, Segarra approached a car in Enfield at a Super Stop Shop and exposed himself to a 13-year-old boy and his two younger sisters inside. Police said Segarra tried to persuade the boy to unlock the door, but the boy refused. On Thursday, police said, Segarra spotted a 6-year-old girl in Hartford, if. and children in parking lots last week Today Segarra is scheduled to appear in Hartford on charges that he abducted and molested a 6-year-old girl whom he spotted walking on the street Thanksgiving Day. Enfield Det Walter Gadomskl said Segarra admitted the crime Friday while at the police station, after he had been arrested and accused of grabbing two women about noon.

Gadomski and Det William Moryto took Segarra out of his cell to ask if he knew about several other sexual assaults, including the one in Hart-, ford Thursday. "He said, 'I will tell you about my whole Gadomski said. Segarra appeared sedate throughout the confession and tried to make himself understood despite his bro many assumed she would be declaring victory. The problem, she said, was Hollywood. Ray Dean Weddle, a friend of Gagnon's who claims connections to movie studios, has said a filmmaker wants to put Gagnon's story on celluloid.

But Gagnon was under the impression that without a dramatic ending bulldozers razing the homestead, for example the movie would not be made. "I would have been much happier if they'd hurry up and get it over with because I can't start the movie," Gagnon said. "They won't Please see Reprieve, Page B7 By ALAN CULUSON and THERESA SULLIVAN BARGER Courant Staff Writers ENFIELD A man accused of a series of sex offenses, including the assault of a 6-year-old Hartford girl Thanksgiving day, told police that voices had been waking him up at night and telling him to do "dirty things," a statement read at his arraignment Monday said. "He has been responding to those voices, apparently," said Judge John F. Walsh as he set bail for Francisco Segarra at $107,000.

"There is some danger that he may again." Segarra, of 79 Brooklyn St in Vernon, stood quietly in Superior Court Monday. He was arraigned on six felony counts in Enfield, charging him with trying to molest women state-owned land. Gagnon, who had gone to court to fight the eviction, was predictably unpredictable. "You people are worse than Hitler," she told Kevin Mullane, an aide to Attorney General Clarine Nardi Riddle. "You're lower than snakes." Mullane, who stepped out of his car without an overcoat and took half steps back toward the vehicle as Gagnon lectured him, tried to assure Gagnon that the state's motives were honorable.

Gagnon wasn't buying it The 73-year-old grandmother, who has smiled through every setback in her 19-year battle with the state, reacted angrily Monday, the day State fines, suspends tow service; saying Spillane's broke three laws State reprieve on eviction elicits no thanks from Milford woman By BILL KEVENEY City Hall Bureau Chief Spillane's Servicecenter Inc. has been fined and suspended by the state Department of Motor Vehicles in connection with an incident in which the company's president towed a car on 1-84 while the irate owner clung to the back of the tow truck. The department's legal services division, which held hearings on the matter during the summer, last week ordered Spillane's dealer's license suspended for 15 days and fined the Hartford towing service and used-car dealership $1,000. The action is the stiff est that has been levied against the company, said Donald E. Weisman, the company's attorney.

Weisman said Monday By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN Courant Staff Writer MILFORD Doris Gagnon, who taught the state long ago that she is a difficult woman to please, gave a refresher course Monday when a state official arrived at her ram shackle GAGNON homestead with news that Gagnon would not be evicted from the..