The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 15

THE BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 4. 1982 15 IAN MENKES 3 doctors censured on Hussain letters A By Ellie Weber Contributing Reporter i A 4 Si nounced yesterday that three Brighant and Women's Hospital doctors who wrote laudatory letters of recommendation for Dr. Arif Hussain days after he was convicted of rape, have been censured by the society and placed on a year probation. And in a separate action, a Harvard Medical School committee yesterday issued "golden rule" guidelines for doctors writing letters of recommendation for colleagues or students.

Included in the guidelines was that doctors should mention personal character when writing lettere and not just professional ability. The action against Drs. Benjair'n G. Covino, Aaron J. Gissen and Job' Wark "in no way impugns their ability to practice medicine," said Society President Dr.

Stanley M. Wyman. The three doctors wrote letters Dr. Hussain used to obtain a job at the Children's Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y. The letters praised Dr.

Hussain's ability as a doctor but did not mention the rape conviction. Hussain, 31, was convicted along with two other doctors last June of raping a Brigham and Women's Hospital nurse. He currently is awaiting trial on charges of sexual assault and rape of two women patients at Waltham Hospital in 1978. "We feel the doctors have made an error of judgment in writing the letters by failing to reveal a deficiency in a fellow physician's character," Dr. Wyman said.

The action which was decided by the society's committee on ethics and discipline, "is not a slap on the wrist. It is a severe punishment telling them we think, they've done the wrong thing." he said. The society is required to report the ac tion to the state Board of Registration in Medicine, Dr. Wyman said. He added that ,1 X) Fire destroys Salem church Salem firefighter hands comrade a crucifix found in ruins of St.

Anne's Church after fire leveled wooden structure yesterday. At right, Rev. Louis Bourgeois, pastor of Salem parish, surveys shell of building. No one was injured in four-alarm blaze which was fought by firefighters from Salem and five surrounding communities. Fr.

Bourgeois said he was awakened by a bell. He looked out a rectory window and saw flames pouring from rear of building. Tolling of bell, a fire official said, could only have been done by the "sick joker" who is believed to have set blaze. Page 32. GLOBE PHOTOS BY JOHN TLUMACKI the society would 'urge them (the board) not to take any action to restrict their ability to practice." This is because the doctors'actions were "not intentional, they did not mean to harm people," Dr.

Wyman said. Officials at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston previously have stated that the doctors wrote the letters on advice they received from legal counsel. "We all receive advice." Dr. Wyman said. "We either accept it orreject it.

We in -the final analysis have to be responsible Must it be a ivay of life? Is It possible that public officials in Massachustts are no more corrupt than those in other states? It would be nice to think so. But who does? For one thing, there is the record a succession of bribery and extortion trials, leading to the conviction of two state senators, a Boston school committeeman, a state secretary of transportation and lesser state and city officials. The case of another former state senator is in limbo, the result of a mistrial. And an accusatory finger has been repeatedly pointed at other high state and municipal officials during the course of these trials. Nor has the record been closed.

A former Fall River mayor is now on trial on bribery charges, two Boston city employees will be in court shortly and prosecutions will continue in the MBTA corruption scandal. And it was ust over a year ago that the final 2500-page, 12-volume report of the special commission probing state and county building contracts was made public. The parting words of the commission chairman, John William Ward, are not easily forgotten. "'Corruption," said Ward, "has been a way of life in Massachusetts." It was hardly an off-the-cuff remark. Ward and his commission spent almost two and a half years probing the state's political-contract spoils system.

Then, on Tuesday, at the conclusion of the trial of suspended state secretary of transportation Barry M. Locke, the prosecutor. Assistant Atty. Gen. Stephen R.

Delinsky, said he hoped the guilty verdict would send a "shock wave" throughout Massachusetts state government, adding: "I hope this verdict notice that the people of Massachusetts are fed up with corruption and will deal with it firmly" Perhaps, as Delinsky suggests, the people of Massachusetts are finally fed up with corruption, but the record shows a remarkable level of toleration, of accep-' tance rather than righteous indignation. Even the question of ethics the avoidance of conflict-of-interest doesn't arouse any great public passion, yet such conflicts can lead all too easily to corruption. Despite the massive evidence that corruption is an integral part of public life in Massachusetts, elected and appointed officials still seem reluctant to clean up their act, to behave as Caesar's wife. For instance, why are 29 selectmen in Massachusetts still wearing two hats, drawing two salaries, occupying in their home towns both the job of schoolteacher and selectman? This is in direct conflict-with Chapter 268A of the Acts of 1962, which says that a selectman can't be on two town payrolls at one and the same time have a financial interest in a contract made by an agency of the same town. So why do voters elect them, or school superintendents and school committees hire them? And why doesn't the State Ethics Commission, founded in 1978 to administer the state's much-flouted conflict-of-interest law, crack One reason has been the filing of recurring bills that would weaken the conflict-of-interest law, making it legal for a town employee to hold two full-time municipal jobs.

Maureen McGee, executive director of the commission, and Robert V. Greco, general counsel, say they held off taking enforcement action on the selectman-teacher issue last year while these corrective bills were pending. "But," they say, "if the Legislature does not act on these refiled bills by May 31, we will institute enforcement procedures under our statute," a move that Rep. Robert A. Cerasoli, chairman of the Committee on Ethics, has been urging for some time.

So, by May 31, it seems that 29 Massachusetts selectmen cum schoolteachers will have to take off one hat or the other or face a $1000 fine $2000 if amendments to the conflict-of-interest law, proposed by the commission and filed by Reps. Andrew Card and Larry Alexander, are approved this year. The proposed amendments are described by McGee and Greco as "a fine-tuning following three and a half years of opinions and enforcement," a loosening of those sections considered unworkable and a tightening of others. There may be those who feel that acceptance and enforcement of the state's ethics law is hardly in the same courtroom as sensational corruption trials, but in a state where corruption is perceived as a way of life, dare we tolerate even a hint of conflict? ior our own acis. Covino, head of the department of anesthesiology at Brigham and Women's' Hospital and a prolessor at Harvard Medi asks 15-cent fare cut and improvements if advisory panel votes more cal School, sought a court injunction last December to stop the Medical Society from investigating his conduct.

At the time, Covino said the society's actions were endangering his ability t6 earn a livelihood and his "professional Career and reputation in the medical com-, munity as well as with the public at large." James King, a spokesman for Brigham and Women's Hospital, said last night he did not want to comment until he read the report. Approximately 8000 of 20,000 practicing physicians in Massachusetts are members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Dr. Wyman said. The society is devoted to. DOCTORS, Page 44 noon that the supplementary budget would be forwarded to the Advisory Board next Tuesday.

But Philip Shapiro, the Advisory Board's executive director, said yesterday that, although the MBTA's proposals represent "progress," he did not believe the fare rollback should be tied into a supplemental budget. "By law, the Advisory Board must vote on a supplemental budget within 30 days," he said, "but I think that until the Legislature guarantees that the supplemental budget will not add to the MBTA's assessment on the cities and towns in its district, it will have a hard time passing." The Advisory Board, made up of representatives from the 79 cities and towns receiving MBTA service (the communities are responsible for paying half of the transit system's annual deficit), approved a $344 million budget In December for the current year. That figure was $36 million below the MBTA's budget request for 1982. At the same time, Chelsea Mayor Joel Pressman, chairman of the MBTA Advisory Board Executive Committee, said his MQTA, Page 16 By Marvin Pave Globe Staff The MBTA, faced with declining rider-ship, yesterday proposed a rollback in rapid transit fares from 75 to 60 centsas well as various service improvements. However, both MBTA General Manager James O'Leary and State Transportation Secretary James Carlin said the rollback and service improvements are contingent upon approval of a supplementary budget of $16 million to $20 million by the MBTA Advisory Board.

Carlin, who also is MBTA chairman, said at a press conference yesterday after wm rh r- 1 -i I If Some King-O'Neill unity vs. Dukakis 1 estimony 01 an 'implied affair' By Dianne Dumanoski Globe Staff NEWPORT Claus von Bulow admitted to his stepdaughter that he was having an affair with another woman, his stepson, Alexander von Auersperg, testified yesterday. At about the time the conversation took place in the library of the family's Fifth avenue apartment in New York, von Bulow's wife, Martha' (Sunny) von Bulow. was being transferred from Boston to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where she still lingers in an Ir- reversible coma. "My sister asked my stepfather." saying that "she had heard a rumor he was having an affair with another woman." von Auersperg said, referring to his sister, 23-year-old Annie Laurie Kneissl, who is called Ala.

Von Bulow had answered the question indirectly, his stepson said. "My stepfather said that, after my younger sister was born my mother was unable to have sex, so he looked toward other women." Von Bulow mentioned the name of Alexandra Isles, a New York socialite, his stepson testified, whom he referred to as "the woman next door." Did he describe the relationship. Prosecutor Ste- ments saying "Mike Needs You" appeared this week in Quincy, Brockton and other communities. Yesterday, a Dukakis radio commercial began to broadcast on 10 radio stations throughout the state. The campaign purchased $15,000 worth of radio time to air the 60-second spot for four days, said Gerald Fitzgerald.

Dukakis spokesman. The ad directly responds to King's current $200,000 media campaign which criticizes the 7.5 percent state income surtax imposed during the Dukakis Administration. King has proposed repeal of the "Dukakis" surtax. The commercial chides King for waiting until election year to advocate repeal of the surtax. "We have learned before that Ed King will say one thing at election time and just about anything else all the rest of the time.

In Massachusetts, you don'jt need a calendar to know when election year rolls around; all you have to CAUCUS. Page 35 By Chris Black Globe Staff Supporters of Gov. Edward J. King and Lt. Gov.

Thomas P. O'Neill 3d are beginning to forge alliances in an effort to counter the superior campaign organization of former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis at this weekend's Democratic caucuses. AJthough King and O'Neill have been estranged throughout King's term in office, some of their supporters are now working together to elect "unity slates" or slates of uncommitted delegates to be divided between the candidates.

Democrats will caucus this weekend in 596 wards and towns to elect 3273 delegates to the May 22 state party convention in Springfield. At the convention the delegates will endorse candidates for US Senate and state constitutional offices. To protect and fortify the Dukakis lead, meanwhile, the Dukakis campaign has stepped up its own activity. Newspaper advertise Alexander von Auersperg tells jury syringe and medicine he holds were among items he found in mansion which was home of his mother and stepfather. Mar "He implied an affair," von Auersperg replied.

"He was not exact." tha and Claus von Bulow. pool photo via upi VON BULOW, Page 20.