Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 15

Wisconsin State Journal City Editor: David Stoetfler, 252-6130 WISCONSIN 3B Thursday, February 23, 1995 Loss of parental rights upheld The mother's lawyer, Mary Behling, argued that the father had abandoned the child under state law. The law says a child can be ruled abandoned when "the child has been left by the parent with a relative or other person, the parent knows or could discover the whereabouts of the child and the parent has failed to visit or communicate with the child for a period of one year or longer." The father's lawyer, Jack Schairer, argued that the law was meant to apply "where a child was dumped on a relative or person for care," not when the other parent got custody. Appeals Court Judges Margaret Verge-ront and Paul Gartzke ruled for the mother. They said the word "left" in the law applied not only to actively placing a child with another, but also allowing a child to remain with the other parent and not maintaining contact. jury trial in January 1994.

The boy's mother, of Deerfield, had asked O'Brien to cut off her ex-husband's rights to the boy. The mother, 35, said the father, 32, had made little effort to see the boy after she moved to Wisconsin and was awarded custody during a 1989 divorce. The father was allowed visits with 30 days notice and permission of the child's lawyer and the Dane County Family Court Counseling Service. He saw the boy a few times in 1988 and 1989 and sent him letters and cards, but was arrested for owing $8,800 in child support when he tried to visit in 1991. He also tried to visit in 1992 and said he had bought and remodeled a house with his son in mind.

During the trial, the father was in prison in Monroe, Wash, for business-related fraud and testified by phone. He is scheduled to be released in April. Vergeront said a contrary interpretation "would mean a parent could never be found to have abandoned a child simply because the parent did not actively place the child with another person Judge Charles Dykman, who dissented, said legislative history showed Schairer was right "A parent has a fundamental liberty interest in raising his or her child," Dykman wrote. "Not only must government bear a heavy burden before it can overcome that right, but opinions continue to vary as to the value of terminating parental rights even when a parent does not conform well to community values." Schairer called the decision "very scary" because it exposes more parents to the possibility of losing their parental rights. He said he would appeal the decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Lack of contact with son ruled abandonment By Cary Segall Wisconsin State Journal A parent can lose parental rights by failing to contact a child for a year after the child is with the other parent, the 4th District Court of Appeals has decided. The court ruled, 2-1, that a Washington man had abandoned his son, 7, by having little contact with him after the boy's mother brought the child to Wisconsin in 1987. The decision upheld a ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Sarah O'Brien after a DNR leader: Agency should maintain parks Son tells of finding father after shot Borchardt murder goes to trial By Richard Jaeger Regional reporter JEFFERSON The painful testimony Wednesday of a mur Associated Press Above: Chuck Borchardt, son of the late Ruben Borchardt, testifies Wednesday as the first state's witness in the murder trial of Douglas Vest Jr. Below: Jefferson County District Attorney Linda Larson delivers opening remarks Wednesday. ACROSS THE STATE WAUSAU Lawsuits revived in bus crashes A state appeals court has revived two lawsuits involving school bus crashes, including one in Outagamie County that left a motorcycle rider permanently disabled.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals said judges erred in dismissing lawsuits filed by the injured people against bus companies under contract with local school districts. At issue in both disputes was the legal relationship between the school districts and the bus companies, and whether laws protecting governments from liability extended to the private companies. In the Outagamie County dispute, Randall Kettner of Shioc-ton was permanently disabled May 21, 1991, when a school bus operated by Eugene Conradt pulled out in front of his motorcycle, court records said. DARLINGTON Money granted to move properties The city has received $586,400 from the government to buy 10 business properties and remove them from a flood plain, a federal agency announced Wednesday. It's the latest installment of money to help the city recover from the 1993 floods and prevent future flooding.

A year ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave the city $1.1 million to improve 38 business structures in a downtown historic district along the Pecatonica River and make them less susceptible to flooding. VALDERS Principal quits; denies harassment The principal at Valders High School has resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment, saying the accusations are false but too costly to fight. "It finally comes down to a matter of economics," Robert Ganka said. "I can't fight them any more, I've got to get on with my life." Ganka was placed on administrative leave Oct. 11 after a female maintenance worker accused him of passing his arm across her chest on one occasion and rubbing her back on another as she worked at the school.

Ganka said the allegations wouldn't "stand the light of day." Ganka had been principal at the high school of 400 students for seven years. He had previously been principal at other Wisconsin schools, including Berlin, Tomah and Iola-Scandinavia. WAUKESHA Witnesses describe Oswald threat Theodore Oswald was nowhere in sight when his gun-toting father stormed into a print shop and threatened to kill those inside if they didn't cooperate, witnesses testified Wednesday. Prosecutors at the younger Oswald's trial contended he was outside guarding duffle bags and guns and could have left if he had not wanted to participate in a crime spree last April 28. Oswald's attorneys tried to show that threats made by his father, James Oswald, in Interstate Printing prove the elder Oswald coerced his son into crime.

The incident at the town of Pe-waukee print shop occurred after the Oswalds robbed a Bank One office in Wales and killed Waukesha police Capt. James Lutz, 57, while trying to escape, prosecutors said. MILWAUKEE Postal employees claim harassment U.S. postal inspectors are investigating complaints of harassment and unequal treatment of black employees at Milwaukee area post offices. less frequently visited parks by cooperating with the Division of Tourism under an agreement or "memo of understanding." Members of the board briefly discussed Thompson's plans for its future and the future of the agency.

They listened as Joe Pola-sek, director of the DNR's Bureau of Management and Budget, explained the impact of Thompson's budget. Thompson's budget, Polasek said, would decrease the DNR's proposed $875 million budget by nearly $60 million, partly by transferring about $21 million to other agencies that would oversee what had previously been DNR programs. The cutbacks would slash about 456 positions from the agency's staff. About 283 of those positions would be moved to other agencies. Members of the board pondered some of the implications of Thompson's proposed changes.

Board member Jim Tieftenthaler said he agreed with Meyer's testimony before a Senate committee earlier this week that the public would have less say in environmental issues if the board became advisory and power was vested instead in a cabinet post "I don't see access as open as it would be now," Tieftenthaler said. Board Chairman Herb Behnke pointed out that the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, a loosely organized statewide group that advises the Natural Resources Board on sporting issues such as fishing and hunting, would become an advisory board to an advisory board. That could considerably reduce the influence of the congress, which, over the years, has played an important role in shaping the regulations that govern fishing and hunting and other outdoor sporting activities in Wisconsin. "It certainly dilutes the impact of those bodies that are out there right now, especially this board," Meyer said. By Ron Seely Wisconsin State Journal Gov.

Tommy Thompson's proposal to transfer management of Wisconsin's state parks from the state Department of Natural Resources to the Division of Tourism doesn't make much sense to DNR Secretary George Meyer. On Wednesday, Meyer told the members of the state Natural Resources Board, the body that sets policy for the DNR, that the expertise needed to manage the park system already exists in the DNR. Moving responsibility for the parks to the Division of Tourism, Meyer said, would require an expensive duplication of that expertise. Thompson, in the sweeping budget proposals announced last week, reserved some of his most striking changes for the DNR. In addition to removing responsibility for the state parks from the agency, Thompson proposed reducing the Natural Resources Board to an advisory board.

It now has full rule-making power. In addition, Thompson proposed making the DNR secretary's post a cabinet position a move Meyer has already warned would make the position too political and disrupt the continuity necessary for caring for the state's natural resources. Meyer said Wednesday that managing Wisconsin's state parks takes skills in five crucial areas: land management, natural resource protection, general recreation management, environmental education, and promotion. With the exception of promotion, Meyer said, the Division of Tourism would not be able to provide the skills necessary to manage the state parks. In four of the five areas, he added, the DNR already has the expertise.

Meyer said he agreed with Thompson's premise that the state parks could be making more money. He suggested the DNR could better promote the state parks especially some of the dered man's son about finding his wounded father opened the trial of the first of four people charged with killing Ruben Borchardt. Chuck Borchardt, 17, choked back tears as he told of holding his dying father's hand less than five hours after the two of them had prayed together before retiring for the night. Young Borchardt said he heard a moaning coming from the lower floor of his rural Bear Hole Road home after being startled out of his sleep by a loud noise. He later determined the noise was a gunshot.

He said he crept out of his bedroom and found his father bleeding and slumped in a chair on the lower level of the home. Although Chuck Borchardt's testimony did nothing to tie Douglas Vest 17, to the murder scene, it gave jurors a vivid picture of what happened early Easter Sunday, just hours before he and his father were to usher at sunrise services at St. John's Lutheran Church in Jefferson. His testimony opened the murder trial of Vest, who is charged with being a party to Ruben Borchardt's murder. Also Charged in the murder were Borchardt's estranged wife, Diane Borchardt, 45; Michael Maldonado, 16, and Josh Yanke, 17.

The thin and pale Vest is accused of being the "foreman" of the "contract killing" allegedly hatched by Diane Borchardt during a study hall she supervised at Jefferson High School. Vest, Jefferson County District Attorney Linda Larson told jurors, then went out and recruited his cousin Michael Maldonado and his friend Josh Yanke to assist in the murder plot. Yanke, who is expected to testify today on behalf of the state, has already pleaded guilty to reduced charges for his role in the murder and is serving 18 years in prison. Diane Borchardt and Maldonado are to go on trial in March and April. Larson, in her opening statement Wednesday, said the murder-for-hire contract between Diane Borchardt and Vest was no different than "you would find on the streets of Chicago." "Without Douglas Vest and what he did, Michael Maldonado and Josh Yanke would not be killers," Larson told the jury.

The district attorney said she will introduce evidence and call witnesses to show that Vest partic- McFarland wants lower Highway 51 speed limit ipated fully in the killing and was not coerced, as he claims. Vest, in a statement to police after his arrest, said he was threatened by a friend of Diane Borchardt who told him she would kill him and his mother if he didn't carry out the murder contract. Larson plans to call that witness, Shannon Johnson, 19, to refute the claims. Johnson, however, faces perjury charges. She was earlier charged with being a party to the murder because she reportedly witnessed Diane Borchardt pay Vest $600 as a down payment for the murder contract with the promise of $20,000 in insurance money after Ruben Borchardt was dead.

The murder charge against her later was dismissed. Larson told the jury she also has a witness who will testify that Vest attempted several times, months before the murder, to convince a friend, Tanya Hoffman, to get him two guns. "Douglas Vest never told anyone he had to kill or be killed or that he was threatened," Larson told jurors. The key witness, however, will be Yanke, who is the state's only cooperative "eyewitness" to Ruben Borchardt's murder, the district attorney told the jury. Hir Siggelkow Road Larson sn -ll Beach Rd.

Jf Waubesa XA if limit zona FarwflllSt. jBurma Rd. MCFARLAND Lower Rivet Mud Lake Lawmakers' goal: Halt sales of controversial gas By Kimberly Garcia Suburban reporter Two traffic deaths on Highway 51 have prompted state transportation workers to study the possibility of reducing the speed limit along the highway in the village of McFarland. Village President Doris Hanson has asked the state Department of Transportation to reduce the 40 mph speed limit between Larson Beach Road and Exchange Street. Crossing the road is difficult for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists, particularly during rush hour, Hanson wrote.

"I am asking for your immediate attention to some very serious village transportation issues," Hanson wrote. "The citizens of McFarland are requesting some solutions to our problems. These are issues which have a tremendous amount of emotional stress foi all of us in McFarland." State transportation workers will use radar guns to determine the speed of motorists on Highway 51 in the village of McFarland, said Gordon Mueller, a traffic engineer in District 1 for the Department of Transportation. They also will review traffic accidents and road conditions, such More than three dozen com-plaints have been filed with Sen. Russ Feingold, and the Milwaukee office of the National 1 Association for the Advancement of Colored People, officials said.

"We are going to review the material and see if there's any merit to the allegations being the lawmakers the problems, such as nausea, headaches and respira-tory problems, could be linked to the gas. "Dr. Hirsch's experience, cou- i pled with the avalanche of health concerns voiced by my constitu-ents, prompted us to take this actio, today" said Kleczka The measure would suspend the program unnl omplaints of ill health effects were examined It would also require the EPA to sus- pend the program until it could show that the fuel does not cause ill health effects. By Karen J. Cohen Washington bureau WASHINGTON After discussions with a Milwaukee doctor, Democratic Reps.

Gerald Kleczka and Thomas Barrett introduced a measure Wednesday that would immediately suspend the EPA's reformulated fuel program in southeast Wisconsin. Since Jan. 1, southeast Wisconsin motorists have had to buy reformulated gasoline to help reduce air pollution. Earlier, the EPA declared that southeastern Wisconsin did not meet federal clean air guidelines and required use of the reformulated gas. But residents have flooded their lawmakers with complaints that the fuel is making them ill.

Kleczka and Barrett, who represent the Milwaukee area, were among a group of Wisconsin lawmakers who met with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner last week to discuss the complaints. And 600 people turned out on Monday to discuss the problems with EPA officials in Milwaukee. On Tuesday, Barrett and Kleczka talked to Milwaukee allergist Dr. Roger Hirsch, who told WSJ graphic made," said Bruce Gentile, program manager for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Feingold said the probe follows unsuccessful efforts to persuade postal officials to cooperate in a U.S. Justice Department plan to mediate the complaints. State Journal wire services as the number of driveways and how close driveways are to each other. They will release a report in mid- to late March, Mueller said. "It may be unreasonable to decrease the speed limit the entire length," Mueller said..