The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 21

THE BOSTON GLOBE MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1988 21 Comics 24,25 TV Radio 27 Gains seen for BU, Chelsea in school proposal .4. it BELLA ENGLISH By Dana Fulham Globe Staff As urban school systems struggle to lift themselves out of failure, Boston University's proposal to run the Chelsea schools has captured the interest of educators and school officials across the country. If a deal is cemented and the university moves into the tiny city north of Boston Harbor, both sides stand to gain a great deal. For financially strapped Chelsea, BU's promise to raise millions of dollars to reform the impoverished school system Is a gift too great to pass up, despite BU's requirement that the city forgo some local control. For BU, the chance to conduct what is seen as a na tional experiment is certain to boost its prestige.

On Tuesday, the Chelsea School Committee tentatively awarded BU a management contract to run the schools for the next 10 years. The contract, which requires legislation from the State House, would mark the first time In the history of the United States that a private university managed a public school system. Senate President William Bulger said he could not predict how the proposal would fare in the Legislature. "Sometimes by suggesting, for example, that it has a good chance of passage, I might jeopardize it," Bulger said. He added that although he has not read the details of the contract, he favors the idea: "I believe we should encourage anyone who wants to step in and roll up their sleeves as the president of BU has done." Approval could come as soon as January, allowing BU to take control before this school year ends.

"Boston University has a chance to enhance its reputation at the same time it's of service," said BU president John Silber, whose offers to run the Boston public schools have been rejected twice in recent years. "It certainly should make a difference to the BU School of Education," said Peter Greer, the university's dean of education. If the program succeeds, Greer said, "BU and the School of Education will become a leader in the field of education." CHELSEA, Page 51 Facing the unthinkable 1 Scientists sued over drug firm stock sale By Peter G. Gosselin Globe Staff A Milton man has filed a class-action lawsuit against scientists involved in controversial drug experiments several years ago at a hospital affiliated with Harvard University. Lynn C.

Bartley alleged in the suit, filed Friday in US District Court in Boston, that the scientists, from Harvard and Johns Hopkins University, defraud- ed him and others by selling millions of dollars of stock in a company that the researchers set up to make the drug, which has proved largely ineffective. A look at the problems in the Investigation of the drug research at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Sci-Tech, Page 29. "We're alleging that they had an obligation to disclose that all was not right with the one product on which they were staking the company's future," said Bartley's lawyer, Norman Berman. "They did not make good on that" obligation, Berman said. Named as defendants are former Harvard researcher Scheffer C.G.

Tseng: his supervisor, Kenneth R. Kenyon, a Harvard associate professor; and A. Edward Maumenee, a world-renowned scientist at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Also named are the drug company. Spectra Pharmaceutical Services Inc.

of Hanover; two Spectra officials, James A. Hannan and James P. Loden; and Cha-pin, Davis the Baltimore brokerage firm that organized the sale of Spec- LAWSUIT, Page 22 I Iff 0 It was business as usual at the Cambridge Country Store. Yuppies lingered over 24 kinds of coffee, an array of imported cheeses and designer chocolates. A Christmas display offered stockings and ornaments, including one that said: "Baby's First Christmas." There will be no first Christmas for Geneva Azar.

From cradle to grave was a four-month journey. Her father, David, who owns the store, has been charged with murdering her. The day after he was released from jail, his attorney said, he was back at work. The newspapers have been filled with the obligatory quotes: "Good father." "Happily married." "Loved his kids." Until he was arrested, Azar lived with his wife and three children in a nice house in the nice suburb of Sudbury. We know all about him now.

He's 34 years old. He was a top gymnast. He attended the University of Massachusetts. Lives in a $500,000 home. Married three years ago, has a 22-month-old son, after whom came twins Geneva and Brendon.

He doted on the kids, had their pictures taped to the cash register in his chic shop. He could not possibly have killed his baby, some say. After all, he wasn't a single mother struggling on welfare with six kids in a fifth-floor walkup with no heat and not so much as a box of Cheerios to soothe rumbling tummies. When a middle-class suburban parent is accused of killing his or her child, our disbelief goes into overdrive. We look at the Image of the happy home, the yard, the dog, the kids, and say: What's wrong with this picture? Although there is a strong correlation between poverty and adult homicides, the same is not true for murders of children.

Certainly, every parent has felt rage toward a child at one time or another. Parenting is the most difficult job in the world. It doesn't come with a master's degree or even an owner's manual. But when anger flares, most of us count to 10 or leave the room or send the kid to her room or explode orally. We may slap a hand or even a backside.

That's it. To cross the line into violence of such intensity that it results in the killing of someone we brought into the world is unthinkable. But police say It happened twice last week In Sudbury, and in Way-land, where a man from Wellesley was charged with slitting the throat of his son. I asked Loretta Kowal, director of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, what went wrong. She took issue with the question.

"The public makes the assumption that poor people are inferior parents to educated, well-off people," Kowal said. "The difference is that poor people are more likely to be reported because they live in more congested housing, there are more people who intrude on their lives and they're less likely to know their rights. "In the suburbs, abuse often doesn't come out until the kids are adolescents and begin to rebel or report. A middle-class family is more likely to have a private doctor who is more reluctant to report because 'he is one of It's true. We don't want to believe people with an education and a good job -people who "should know better" can also harm their children.

They could be our neighbors, our friends or us. Their refrigerators are full, their homes warm, their bills paid, their marriages intact, their children planned, their nurseries perfect. The usual excuses, or explanations, don't work. Kowal believes there is something that helps explain the unexplainable: substance abuse. "People do things under the influence of drugs and alcohol that they would never otherwise do," she said.

"In 10 minutes, cocaine or crack can strip away a millen-ium of civilization. It isn't Just in the ghettos; it's on Wall Street, too, and those men also have wives and babies." She blames a skyrocketing child abuse rate including an increase in severe injuries and deaths of small children on substance abuse. And the holiday season is a particularly worrisome time. The newspapers have been filled with the, storjf of Hedda Nussbaum, testifying against a former lover accused of killing their 6-year-old adopted daughter In New York. Nussbaum said Joel Steinberg suggested they free-base cocaine as the girl lay comatose In the bathroom.

Steinberg Is a former criminal attorney, not a ghetto Junkie, and he stands accused of an unspeakable crime. The quote of the week comes from Rob'-ert George, an attorney representing Azar, who has denied the murder charges. "The family Is shocked and devastated," George told reporters. "At this point, they are Interested In getting him out of jail and back Inlo the family business. They want to get on with I heir lives." And whfl little Geneva, whos? Iile liisled oiW brief season? How Is she lb gel on wilh her life? I Globe photoYunghi Kim tion of successful transplants yesterday at the Omni Parker House.

Both children have received transplants. Alicia Snellings, 2, of Georgia, hugs Mickey Devlin, 21 months, of Lowell, during the Liver Foundation's celebra- United for hope An 'alliance of bankers and bar owners' sponsors a liver-disease benefit Ex-official from Lowell goes on trial Tully extortion case is set to start today By Elizabeth Neuffer Globe Staff LOWELL Holiday lights now shine in storefront windows that only a decade ago were shuttered. Workers once unemployed now bustle to their jobs. The rejuvenation that has transformed this former mill town now seems complete. However, the man behind the city's renaissance is now on trial for corruption.

The trial of B. Joseph Tully. the former city manager charged with mail fraud and attempted extortion, Is scheduled to begin today in US District Court in Boston. And for many in Lowell, the trial coming after a two-year federal corruption probe prompts a mixture of sadness and relief. Some are certain the trial will clear Tully's and Lowell's name.

A few question whether the gruff, powerful, backroom politician was corrupt. But most are concerned that a man so pivotal to the city's restoration now finds himself on trial. "There Is a sense of regretting what is happening, but respect for what he did," said former Sen. Paul Tsongas, who described Tully as a key figure In Lowell's reemergence. "There is a kind of sadness about the whole thing." Peter J.

Aucclla. executive director of the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, said, "It's been bad news in a city that finally got good news." TULL.Page33 By Gloria Negri Globe Staff When he was asked last year to consider a donation to the American Liver Foundation, Frank Viola, chairman and president of Haymarket Cooperative Bank of Boston, said his first instinct was to joke, "I don't know who would want my liver." He had just survived a two-week stay at New England Deaconess Hospital, where he was treated for an enlarged liver, an enlarged spleen and two bleeding ulcers. "Dr. Charles Trey saved my life," Viola, 45, said the other day in reference to the chief of gastroenterology at Deaconess. That was compelling enough reason for Viola to bring together what he calls an "alliance of bankers and bar owners," who tonight will host a $100-per-person affair at The Citi to raise funds to support the work of the American Liver Foundation and Its New England chapter, and to establish the Dr.

Charles Trey Research Fellowship Award. Cosponsors are Robert J. Splller, chairman of the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank and a Deaconess trustee, and Patrick T. Lyons, the bar and restaurant owner whose Boston properties include The Citi, Zanzibar, the Paradise and Fynn's. The alliance between bankers and bar owners in the cause of combating liver disease popularly mlspercelved as mainly an alcohol-Induced ailment is not as unlikely as It may seem.

The Idea caught fire because Viola, the father of two daugh ters, Is not the only patient Trey has saved in his long career, 19 years of which have been at Deaconess. "When word got out we were going to honor him, everyone wanted to attend," Viola said. "This was Frank's brainchild, and an interesting mixture for a fund-raiser," Lyons said, adding that he was happy to donate the use of The Citi, along with a portion of the proceeds, for tonight's event. Lyons said he spoke to about 15 other major club and restaurant operators who will attend "for the excitement, as well as for an occasion to see their banker and to make a contribution." Five hundred tickets already have been sold for the event, which will feature casino gambling, a gourmet buffet and dancing. "This Is a party people don't want to miss, the bash to attend," said Splller.

He was the first banker Viola approached with his Idea for the fund-raiser. "Charlie Trey is one of the gurus in the field of liver disease. When Frank called me, I couldn't say no." Splller In turn tapped his banker friends none of whom turned him down, he said. Viola got his brother Anthony, a banker on Cape Cod, to mobilize bankers and bar owners there in the cause. LIVER.

Page 51 MetroRegion news on pages 21-23, 26, 33, 51.