The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 42

LOCAL K2WS Tlw Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution E2 Thursday; October 29, 1992. I -f Town shocked! by cead's slaying kssw Victims' presence in Atlanta probed DEXALB COUNTY: Investigators Wednesday were trying to determine why four Tennessee residents were in Atlanta Tuesday night when they rammed a police car and crashed into an interstate culvert, killing two of them and critically injuring the others. Ricky Lamar Cross, 18, and Mitchell Edward Wright, 21, died about 8 p.m. at the scene, near Turner Hill Road and Interstate 20. In critical condition at local hospitals were Ricky Cox and Wendy Elder, both 20.

All were from Hixson, near Chattanooga. The victims were traveling eastbound on the interstate when they crashed into a construction area, said DeKalb County police Sgt Andy Anderson. He said an off-duty Fulton County deputy saw the accident, pulled over and was rammed by the car, which continued onto the interstate and then went out of control. Police believe alcohol was involved in the crash. Mr.

Rolfs was bringing it to a man who answered a trade publication ad. The Appla Quadra was a sophisticated film editing system, said Dr. Elliott Pood, chairman of the Middle Tennessee department of radio, television and photography and a friend of Mr. Rolfs. They talked several times Mr.

Rolfs "had talked to the gentleman several times by phone and he asked him to deliver it down there," Dr. Pood said. 1 Ms. Uffelman was worried that her fiance was working too hard and feared he might fall asleep driving, so she rearranged her schedule at the radio station to help Mr. Rolfs make the five-hour drive from Murfreesboro to the Atlanta area to deliver the computer, Dr.

Pood said. The couple arrived in Marietta early Saturday morning and met the killer at the Knights Inn on Delk Road in Marietta, Police Capt. Walter Parker said. The man drew a gun on the couple, rolled them into a bed-sheet to confine them and pounded their heads with a hammer, later recovered by police, Captain Parker said. The motel man- .4..

Gov. Zell Miller, a former it a new inmate boot camp GREAT PUMPKIN Tennessee student Heather Uffelman was slain and Jeremy Rolfs beaten at a Marietta hotel. They were in town to sell a computer system. see were shocked by the brutal crime. "You just dont think that kind of thing can happen to people you know," said Randy O'Brien, news director at WMOT, the public radio station on campus.

i Marietta police are trying to find the man who apparently' murdered 22-year-old Ms. Uffelman. A clean-cut man who went by the name of Tommy Johnson, drove off in a brown Dodge Dynasty with a Tennessee license. Mr. Rolfs, 21, who's scheduled to graduate in December, had a part-time job with the Hal-sey Company of Nashville, a group that made music videos.

The company was trying to sell a $31,000 computer system and ITU BE A St. Simons Island Jim PRISONS SUMMEKVILLE: Governor likes boot-camp approach. Gov. Zell Miller praised the use of military discipline in prisons as he helped open a new inmate boot camp at the Forest Hays Jr. Cor-v rectional Institution.

"Marine boot camp turned my life around," Mr. Miller, a former Marine, said this week. "I hope prison boot Jcamp can do it for them." The new 448-bed facility in northwest Georgia's Chattooga County is one of Ave that will be opened this year under the governor's boot camp program for young, non-vio-1 lent offenders. During the opening ceremonies, Mr. Miller wore a drill instructor's hat and inspected a squad of inmates and a bar-bracks.

"They looked sharp," he said. Victim, fiance attacked at hotel by computer thief By Diane Loupe STAFF WRITER Heather Uffelman and Jeremy Rolfs, both seniors at Middle Tennessee State University, loved computers and each other. Heather had helped half the faculty set up their computers, and broadcasting companies were angling to hire Mr. Rolfs as a technical consultant after his graduation this fall. They dreamed of a spring wedding.

Those dreams ended Saturday morning in a Marietta hotel room, when a mysterious com-y puterjunkie beat the couple, kill- ing Ms. Uffelman and stealing the expensive computer system they had intended to sell to him. On Wednesday, the professor who was scheduled to marry the couple was one of three minis-ters at Ms. Uffelman's funeral in her rural hometown of Erin, Tenn. Mr.

Rolfs, released from a Marietta on told the mourners of his love for Ms. Uffelman and read an essay she'd written about growing up on a farm. Students at Middle Tennes- Principal in Douglas officials say Sexual harassment alleged by student By Diane Loupe and Laura Wisniewski STAFF WRITERS The principal of a Douglas County middle school has been suspended following allegations that he sexually harassed a female student and a teacher at his school, county school officials said Wednesday. Jesse "Fritz" Bitterman, principal of Chestnut Log Middle School since 1987, was suspended Oct. 16 "for allegations of sexual harassment toward a student at his school," said Douglas County School Superintendent Jim Steele.

According to Thomas Streal-dorf, president of the school board, a teacher also has alleged sexual harassment. The case is being investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Douglas County Department of Family and Children Services, Mr. Steele said. The superintendent would not elaborate on how Mr. Bitter-man is alleged to have harassed the teacher and the student, and GBI spokesman John Bankhead would say only that the GBI is investigating "allegations of misconduct at Chestnut Log Middle School." The misconduct does not involve child abuse, Mr.

Bankhead said. Mr. Bitterman, who has not been charged with a crime, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His attorney, Ken Krontz, said a hearing will be set with the school board to determine his fate after the investigation by DFACS and the GBI. "Mr.

Bitterman is cooperating fully with the investigation by law enforcement authorities," Mr. Krontz said. "He has done nothing wrong and he feels very strongly that a thorough investigation will vindicate him." An unidentified teacher, her face obscured in shadows, appeared on an Atlanta TV station Tuesday night saying she had been harassed by Mr. BittermanJ "That's the first we had heard of it, when we saw it on TV," MrJ Strealdorfsaid. Mr.

Bitterman, 48, married with two sons, has been working for the Douglas County school system since 1973, serving as a science teacher at Douglas County High School, an agriculture teacher at Turner Middle School and a science teacher and assistant principal at Stewart Middle School. uspended A nationwide search is on for this suspect in the Saturday hoT tel slaying avid -beating. -m ager called police. Both students were taken to Kennestone Hdspi- tal, where Ms. Uffelman diectof head injuries at 12:30 p.m; Saturday.

Captain Parker said pafice have put out a nationwide lookout on the suspect but have'Sot been able to locate him. Helen Uffelman said youngest daughter always lowed writing and worked on campus tutoring other students in wit--ing. She planned to graduate, in the spring, and then attend graduate school. "We are very devastated," said Mrs. Uffelman.

"SinceLthis happened, there's been sucbjan outpouring of love in this sniall community. We're a rural cqjuity in middle Tennessee. People have been coming to our house, telephoning and bringing "food since we got the news." sheriffs race that was broken in the attack, Sheriff Grogan said. Mrs. Robertson's found early on a Saturday afternoon.

Jeffrey and Mrs. Robertson's husband, Jimmy, returned that evening. They told deputies they had been hunting all Jeffrey was living with his father, his older sister and father's new wife when he waV arrested. They had moved frorh'the home where the slaying occurred. Pamela Robertson said investigators "have been trying' to scare Jeff and his father for the past three years, telling them they're suspects." Colleen Smith Burger, a family friend, said that, although Jeffrey Robertson failed a polygraph test, "he grieved too hara to have done it.

-I "Maybe they're trying'tqet Jimmy to come in and say Take me, let my kid Corbey England, Jeffrey's best friend, said deputies had repeatedly shown the teen photos of his mother's bloody body, ask ing mm, "Why'd you do "They've been putting it pn him, trying to scare him into saving something," said Mr. England, who said he talked to-Jeffrey last Sunday. "He said Shey were really getting on -i it. -I if 1 1 tK 1 death mm rst ft V- 1 1 1 The Associated Press Marine, talks with a prisoner in Chattooga Count. EDUCATION VALDOSTA: Actor fights drug use.

Actor Corey Feldman speaks from personal experience when he warns students about the dangers of drug addiction. "Helping kids to get off drugs and alcohol or stay off drugs and alcohol is the most important thing in my life," he said this week during a visit with middle-school students in this south Georgia city. "It's more important to me than any film I'll ever do." Mr. Feldman, best known for his roles in "Stand By Me," "The Lost Boys," "Gremlins," and "The Goonies," said he got caught in the fast-paced lifestyle of drug addiction at age 14. After being arrested three times for drug offenses, he spent nine months in a rehabilitation facility.

POLICE DOUGLAS COUNTY: 6- month-old smothers. A 6- month-old Douglas County baby smothered to death Tuesday when her crib collapsed, said sheriff's Capt. Stan Cope-land. Dixie Marie Adams, born on April 1 1 was dead on arrival at Douglas General Hospital, Captain Copeland said. The child was sleeping in a broken baby bed held together with string, and she apparently rolled over to one corner, causing the bed to collapse, he said.

The mattress covered the child's face, preventing her cries from being heard by her mother, who was in the house on Mcintosh Drive near Doug-lasville, Captain Copeland said. Investigators do not plan on filing criminal charges because they believe the death was accidental, Captain Copeland said. An autopsy will be performed, and the death will be reviewed by the Douglas County Child Fatality Review Committee, he said. staff reports and news services Th Associated Pfeu Rivers (left), 4, and Zachery 5, prepare to carve thetr pumpkin for a contest sponsored by the Glynn County Recreation Department. Teen's friends allege hot Mayor pays off on bet, lets Toronto's flag fly The municipal flag of Toronto was frying in front of I II I unrna wry nail ana 'with the right side up a flag-raising Wednesday after the Braves lost the World Series to the Blue Jays early '-Sunday morning.

The flag a red leaf on a T-shaped white background with royal blue trim was to fly for just one day, to pay off a bet between Mayor Maynard H. Jackson -and Toronto Mayor June "Rowlands. The two also agreed that the loser would plant, in '-front of its city hall, trees from the winning city, but the Canadian maples had not yet arrived. They have to send them to us," city spokes-: woman Deborah Speights said. "They didn't tell me when that would be." Said Mayor Jackson, "The Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series fair and square.

But our Atlanta Braves gave them one heck' a challenge until the end." jjhe mayor greeted Eric PeXetier, fephssenting the Canadian consul, for the fbj-raWng ceremony and prsentedhm a Braves gift box in for a Blue Jays cap. Before the second game i the World Series in Atlanta, a Marine Corps color guard mistakenly flew the flag upside down, setting off a minor intema-" tional diplomatic flap. The Braves wound up losing the Series for the second year, this time four games to two. arrest in mothers explains his By Bill Torpy STAFF WRITER Three years after Brenda Robertson was stabbed to death with as many as five knives in a violent struggle in her Paulding County home, her teenage son has been charged with the slaying Jeffrey Dwayne Robertson, 17, a sophomore at Paulding County High School, was arrested Tuesday' afternoon at home and charged with murder in the death of Mrs. Robertson, 41.

But friends and family mem bers angrily deny that the unas- sumine teen they know as killed his mother. They claim the arrest is an attempt by Sheriff Perry Grogan to sway voters a week before a hotly contested election in which he seeks a sec- ond term. "People are outraged; my stepson is innocent," said Pamela Robertson, Jeffrey Robertson's stepmother. "Here it is, right before the They; had three MaJ. Lamar Hunton, in charge of investigations for the sheriffs deoartment.

said the district attorney's office "gave us their blessing" before making the arrest. An assistant district attorney said the arrest was "appropriate." Jeffrey Dwayne Robertson The Paulding sophomore is charged with killing his mother 3 years ago. Sheriff Grogan would release only sketchy details, saying that the investigation accelerated in the past three or four months. 'The investigation is not over; it's still active," the sheriff "There will be something happening in the next few days." He said Jeffrey Robertson denies the killing. The sheriff could not be reached for comment later on the allegations that the arrest was timed to coincide with the-election.

battle all over the house' Brenda Robertson's body was found Nov. 18, 1989, on her kitchen floor by a neighbor. She had been stabbed 17 times "all over the body the chest, neck, back, legs GlogaJl was reaUy a battle all over the house, a struggle from the bedroom through the house to the kitchen door." Five butcher knives were used in the slaying, including one CCC3 COUNTY: Student charged in taking gun on pchool but. A 14-year-old student who carried a gun onto a school has been charged with carrying a deadly weapon, Cobb police -r taid Wednesday. The student, who was not identified, carried a 32- caliber automatic handgun on a school bus to Lindley Middle "School on Oct 19, police said.

ATLANTA: Suspect sought in fatal shooting. A man was to death Wednesday evening after an apparent argument, po-. "Vlice said. The victim, Ricky Glanton, 35, address unknown, was shot at 186 South Ave. S.E., and police are searching for a suspect.

From.