The Daily News-Journal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee • 1

A MM 1 37th Year RUTHERFORD COUNTY'S HOME NEWSPAPERINCE 1849 Good Morning Phone 893-5860 CurtHrtw Ck 1 0Q7 pa i 224 No. Wolnvt Sr. 75' Murfreesboro. Tennessee 37130 i 37 doctors sign leffer bockitiia sex educeafion Accident -ja kills 1, injures 8 i By DAN GOODWIN i News Journal Staff Writer I A 26-year-old Nashville woman was killed and eight people including 'five children were injured in a head-on collision Friday afternoon near College Grove on U.S. 31A, ac- tcording to a report filed by Trooper Clifford Babits.

Tammy Sweeney, of 4648 Nolensville Road, was killed when the northbound car' she was a pas- senger in tried to pass on a double 'yellow line around a curve and struck southbound vehicle at about 2 p.m. 'Friday, the report Ms. Sweeney's 8-month-old daughter, Annna Marie, who was tiding in her mother's lap when the. wreck occurred, received a broken leg and arm, She was listed in fair condition at Vanderbilt Hospital. Melinda Sweeney, 4, suffered a concussion and was listed in fair 'U Kevin Ray Freemon, 26, of 921 Barnes Road, Antioch, the driver of the car Ms.

Sweeney was killed in, was also listed in fair condition at Vanderbilt Hospital. His three children, Robin, 5, Kimberly 4, and Kasey, 2, are also listed in fair condition. Freemon was the only person wearing a seat belt. The occupants of the car Freemon struck, driver Norma Rogers, 56, and Janice Lowe, 29, both of Lewisburg, are in guarded condition in Vanderbilt's intensive care unit. Both women were wearing seat belts.

Ms. Sweetaey is the second person to have died as the result of an automobile accident in Rutherford County this year. The Highway Patrol said' no charges against Freemon had been placed. Saturday afternoon, 13 people -had died on Tennessee i Plase lee Accident, page tw9) "to! -5W tions," he added. The Family Life curriculum was developed by the Tennessee Department of Education between 1983 and 1986 at the direction of the Tennessee Board of Education.

It is designed to help students achieve their potential through a better understanding of human health. The 10 parts of the program, called strands, deal with community health; consumer health, disease control, environmental health, family life, mental health, nutrition, personal health, safety and first aid, and substance use and abuse. Nine parts of the curriculum were mandated by the state and are already taught in public schools. Adoption of the 10th strand, family life, for which the entire curriculum package named, was left to the' discretion of local school boards. So far some 43 local school boards in the state have voted to adopt family life.

The 43 school systems contain over half of all Tennessee public school students. Earlier this school year, the Murfreesboro school soard voted to adopt the curriculum although some parents lodged protests. "We urge you to join the Murfreesboro Board of Education and some 43 other boards of education, representing over 50 percent of Tennessee students, by approving and implementing the Family Life Curriculum into our Rutherford County schools," the letter states. "The goal of the Family Life Curriculum is not only to understand and enhance family relationships but also' to provide certain factual information regarding sexuality," the letter says. "We believe this, vlatter, more (Please see 37, page two) worst ONJPheiebyJImDMil iaunny aaymiiletes i Sunny weather brought out the joggers on MtSU's outdoor running track at Horace Jones Field.

Forecasters wih the National Weather Service say the party will be over soon as winter returns tonight with temperatures expected to be In the mid 20s. NHC plans 15-story for block off Public By JOHN HOWZE News Journal Staff Writer Citing "far too many cases of unwanted pregnancy and venereal disease among our teen-agers," 37 local physicians have petitioned the Rutherford County school board to adopt the controversial Family Life Curriculum developed by the State of Tennessee. Rutherford County School Board members and the superintendent will receive the letter early this week, according to Dr. Robert Sanders, director of the county's health department. Written on the letterhead of Murfreesboro gynecologist Dr.

Terry J. Witt, the letter is signed by Witt, Dr. James L. Boerner and Dr. J.

Howard Young. Attached to it are second and third pages with the names and signatures of 34 other physicians who are in agreement with the request. It was presented to the Rutherford County Board of Health for informative purposes at Friday's meeting. Earlier, the health board joined the Stones River Academy of Medicine in endorsing the Family Life curriculum and asking the school board to adopt it. "I wanted the health board to see this letter because it indicates the widespread support among physicians for the Family Life Curriculum," Sanders said.

"Family Life is an overall health curriculum developed by the state after several years of research," Sanders said later. "Because of the increasing numbers of teen-age pregnancies, cases of venereal disease and increased sexual activity among our young people, we think it is vital they be informed, about human biology, anatomy and reproductive func- I III III! I irill" -1" oner over properly, and we did. There was an order to release him and we complied." The U.S. District Court is closed until Monday and Weatherly's claim of a lawsuit could not be verified. Gage was the only man identified in the lawsuit Weatherly said he has filed.

"There was Jim Gage, a deputy I didn't know, and a second-shift jailer named Charlie," Weatherly said. "They took me in that little attorney interview room off the cellblock upstairs and told me they wanted me to testify against Chris Fox and Werner." Weatherly said when he refused the beating began. "The Jailer, Charlie, asked me what I was taking medication for," Weatherly said. "When I told him I had an injured tendon in my right arm he walked behind me and pulled my right arm and jerked it up behind my back. Then Gage stepped up and said, 'I been wanting to whup your a-for a long and punched me in thechest." Weatherly said he fell down and the other deputy began stomping and grinding his ankle into the floor and (Please see Sheriff, page two) T- V't, tnf 1 Sn-is- n-'lfe'Jhi4ii three separate buildings within a mile, Adams said.

The building will bring together NHC's 120,. acuninistrative workers and its risk management, administrative, development, investor relations, accounting and data, processing sions.hesaid. The nursing-home management company began operations in 1971 in the rear of a Quonset hut building on tiie proposed building's The Quonset hut and building that in-cludes the Music Shop will be leveled, Adams said. company operates nursing homes and retirement units in 10 states. It expanded its operations in the last two years' to the former Morning Press building on South Church Street and its original building.

Adams said company officials opted not to add on to their present administrative office building on South Church' Street because they wanted their own design. j- Consideration was given to building" near either of Murfreesboro's exits off Interstate 24, he said. "If we went downtown, it would give us more identity and help downtown Murfreesboro," Adams TALLEST BUILDING This is how National Health Corp. officials envision the company's proposed 15-story office building on East Vine Street near the Public Square. Construction on what will be Murfreesboro's tallest buildina could beain within six months.

building Square; said. He said the building design is intended to combine the look of historic structures with a more modern The first three floors would include about 12,000 square feet each and include arched windows and other features of historic structures on the Public The remaining, portion would arc into a more modern tower shape with floors totaling about 8,000 square feet each. didn't want a block look. It would certainly be cheaper to do a box building, but we didn't want to do that," he said. Adams said an investor has already proposed construction of a lavish "city club" on the top floor.

The company has also had interest shown on leasing nine other floors for office space. A brick plaza featuring trees in planters and benches would ring the ground floor, building plans show. The parking lot would, also be heavily landscaped, Adams said. That could later be replaced with a parking garage, he said. NHC is asking the city Board of Zoning Appeals for a 125-foot variance of the 75-foot height limit (Please see NHC, page two) story something is different The inmates on the cellblock said he told them while he was here (on Jan.

31) he was going to file a suit for anything food or whatever. He was troublemaker while he was here and he is Just continuing." Weatnerly was, mistakenly brought to the Jail 'Jan. 31, deputies said. After realizing the mistake, deputies say be was taken back to the MTRC at Cockrill Bend the same night. dayshift sergeant mistakenly had him picked up," Deputy Jim Gage, one of the men Weatherly claims beat him, said.

"He thought the court date was Feb. 2 but it was March 2." -4 Weatherly is scheduled to appear for a sentencing hearing in1 Circuit Court here March to determine if the sentence he received should be served concurrently or consecutively to a three-year sentence for burglarizing a post office. 7 Weatherly entered a "best-interest" plea of guilty on charges of aggravated assault, attempted escape and aggravated kidnapping on Jan. 15 here in Circuit Court. The charges arose from a July 22 incident in which Gage was taken hostage, beaten and handcuffed, allegedly by intersections .1 1 laenrmea By TOM SPIGOLON News Journal Staff Writer An average of one wreck every six days was reported in the area of the intersection of Northwest Broad Street and Memorial Boulevard in 1986, records show.

The intersection area topped the list of 10 worst intersections for wrecks in the city in 1986, reports show. Six of the 10 intersections were along Northwest Broad Street. Police reported 61 wrecks at Northwest Broad Street and Memorial Boulevard in 1986. That far outpaced the 1985 total of 32. Fourteen of those 1986 wrecks involved personal injury.

More than 47,000 vehicles pass through the intersection daily, city traffic counts show. Placement of no left turn signs at the intersection' of Northwest Broad Street and West Lytle Street may have increased the wreck total in the area of Broad and Memorial, said Capt. Hiram Lester of the Murfreesboro Police Department. Lester could not explain why the wreck total would increase so dramatically without looking through all 61 accident reports. However, Lester noted that wrecks decreased dramatically when left turns from Northwest Broad Street to.

West Lytle Street were stopped. The total of 60 wrecks which occurred the intersection in 1984 dropped tdN five wrecks by 1986, records indicate. Some of that may have been I transferred to the intersection of Broad and Memorial when traffic to the Public Square area was re-routed; through the intersection of Memorial Boulevard and West College Street! and motorists had wrecks in adt justing to the change. "We used to have a lot of serious; wrecks (at Broad and Lytle)," Lester! said. "I'll have to give (the engineering office) credit.

They've done a lot help the traffic flow," he said. The intersection of Broad and; Memorial is scheduled to 'bO reconstructed to include removal of medians and installation of two ieftN turn lanes, two through lanes and; a I right lane on Memorial Boulevard. The city is to spend about $60,000 for' the reconstruction. Following Broad and Memorial in" order of number of wrecks Included-. the intersections of Broad and WesC Main Street, 28; Broad and West Clark Boulevard, 25; Broad and; South Church Street, 22; Broad and Thompson Lane, 22; South Highland Avenue and East Main Street, 21; Broad and West Lokey Avenue, 19; Mercury and South Tennessee boulevards, 18; Memorial and Nor-thfield boulevards, 18; and Clark and Memorial boulevards, 17.

A total of 159 wrecks were reported (Please see 10, page two) By TOM SPIGOLON News Journal Staff Writer Murfreesboro-based National Health Corp. could begin construction Within sue months on a 15-story office, building to house its new head-' quarters near the Public Square. The building would include retail, restaurant and office space at the corner of South Church Street and East Vine Street, said NHC president W. Andrew VAndy" Adams. "We decided it would give us a little more visibility," Adams said, "The community has been good to us.

Maybe it (building) will bring other multi-state companies' offices to Murfreesboro," Adams said. Murfreesboro Board of Zoning Appeals approval of a height variance is needed before construc- tfon could begin, Adams He said the building would be set back from the sidewalk about 20 feet. A 110-space, heavily landscaped parking lot would adjoin the building on. the remainder of the block bounded by Sevier, Vine, Church and Spring streets, Adams said. proposed new company, headquarters will be the culmination of five years of planning by NHC, whose operations are spread over SUNDAY'S HEADLINES Nobel winner Buchanan given local greetings Nobel Prtie-wlnnlng economist Janwt McCIII "Buck" Buchanan received "greetings from Cum" at a peclal reception last week In Washington, D.C.

from MTSU alumni and the Tennessee Congressional Delegation. See story, page 4A. IB-ioB ex 1 ClotslfledAds. Crossword Accent Editorials 4- Lifestyles 1C-10C Obituaries 2A Sports TV Accent If you hove no receved your News Journal by 6 p.m. dolly, or 1:30 a.m.

weekends pfeose col your correr or 093-5660 before 7 p.m. dally end 10:30 am. weekends. Sheriff denies inmate was beaten Weatherly, Christopher Fox, 19, and John B. Werner, who were attempting to break out of the jail.

Weatherly received 26 years for his guilty pleas on those charges and two other local charges of burglary and obtaining property by false pretenses. Fox pleaded guilty to the assault, escape and kidnapping charges Jan. 23 and received consecutive sentences amounting to 15 years in the state penitentiary. Werner is scheduled to appear for trial on Wednesday. Jones said no testimony is needed from Weatherly in either case.

"Fox has already been sentenced and we don't need testimony for Werner," Jones said. "There is no credibility to Anything he (Weatherly) has said." Department of Correction spokesperson John Taylor verified Weatherly had complained of being beaten when he was returned to the prison reception center Jan. 31. "We are aware of the allegations he made," Taylor said. "And we are investigating our actions not the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department All we are investigating Is if we turned the pris- By DAN GOODWIN News Journal Staff Writer A state prison inmate said he has filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Rutherford County Sheriff's' Department in U.S.

District Court charging he was beaten; by deputies while in custody here Jan. 31. vMark C. Weatherly, 28, currently an inmate at the Middle Tennessee Reception Center at Cockrill Bend in Nashville, said Saturday. he beaten by two deputies and a jailer-: after he refused to testify against two other men here.

"They had no reason to pick me and take me there in the first weatnerly saia. luey neat up on me for about 10-15 minutes." Sheriff Truman Jones said Satur- day he has completed an investiga- tion of the allegation mcluding Interviews with prisoners on the cellblock who could have beard the(, alleged beatind and is satisfied Weatherly's are, "without -substance." "He is saying' the deputies sup-posedly beat him to make him testify against (Christopher) Fox and (John 1 1 Werner, but Fox bad already pled guilty when he was brought up i Jones said. "Every time he tells this.