The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 25

MetroRegion News Lottery B2 New England News Briefs B7 THE BOSTON GLOBE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1996 Judge raps Spattered blood and speculation i Curve, just around the bend on what is now Route 2A. Mixed in, perhaps, are the frantic steps of Joan Risch, running through the weeds -running from an attacker, or maybe from a life she no longer wanted. It has been 35 years since Risch a wealthy, 31-year-old homemaker and mother of two vanished from her white, Cape-style home here. She left behind a spattering of blood and a trail of speculation. Today the stagnant case file is yellow with the years.

All but one of the investigators who obsessed over it have died. Even the house where Joan Risch lived is gone, moved to a lot in nearby Lexington. Her husband, who lives quietly in town, declines to discuss the case. But Risch's specter haunts this community. Coming less than a year before the Boston Strangler first struck, her disappearance foreshadowed the end of a brief, idyllic time in suburban America, before laser sensors and dead-bolted doors.

Most people believe that Joan Risch is dead and has been since that October afternoon in 1961. Some say her body lies under the asphalt of Route 128. Others speculate that she is living out her days somewhere, MYSTERY, Page B7 to school blues JOAN RISCH Disappeared in 1961 Scondras ayictimof gay-bashing, friend says Former city councilor to file countercharge 1 1: 'one-sided' coverage of trial Says reports favored Houlihan prosecution By Paul Langner and Matt Bai GLOBE STAFF In unusually blunt criticism from the bench, the federal judge who presided over the first murder trial of James (Jimma) Houlihan decried "one-sided" press coverage of the case yesterday and said it may prejudiced future jurors. US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner said that defense lawyers in the trial, which ended in a hung jury last month, presented "credible" evidence that someone other than; Houlihan killed Patrick Nee, but that media reports focused only on the prosecution's cfjse. Gertner said she was tempted to delays the start of a second trial because she felt' the jury pool had been "tainted." Nevertheless, the judge scheduled a new trial Sept.

24. She also denied bail for Houlihan, citing public safety. Houlihan, 22, is accused of slashing Nee's throat because, in part, Nee's stepmother and sister Veronica Boyden and Marie Boyden Connors testified against Houlihan's uncle in the 'I just wanted to let people know that there were two sides to the JUDGE NANCY GERTNER infamous "Code of Silence" murder case last year. That case, which ended in the convictions of five men for murder and drug trafficking, had been hailed by prosecutors as the end to the intimidation of witnesses in Charlestown. Gertner said: "I have done a press analysis of this trial and have concluded that if you read only the coverage in the two papers, the Globe and the Herald, you would be surprised that the jury could not agree on a verdict.

"If I count the number of pages given to the prosecution's case and those given to the defense, I find the coverage very one-sided. Some articles gave only the prosecution's side." Gertner also said Houlihan's testimony under questioning by his own lawyer had not been covered. In fact, there was such coverage. Gertner cited what she said were uv stances in which the newspapers reported testimony favorable to prosecutors, but downplayed or omitted testimony that undercut their case. The most dramatic testimony in the case came from Eleanor Nelson, who said the dying Patrick Nee told her Houlihan had stabbed him.

Nelson's testimony under questioning from prosecutors was reported prominently; her testimony under cross-ex-' amination was not reported in the Globe. Another important witness in the case, John Shurko, testified that Houlihan made incriminating statements at the murder scene. His cross-examination, during which defense attorneys sought to portray him as TRIAL, Page B3 situation rents, but I know very little about them," said Taunton Capt: Richard Pimental. "I know the Taunton P.D. doesn't have any of our own, but after yesterday's chase, who knows? I might go out and buy some." From a distance the sticks look like rolled-up 3-foot posters.

When a car runs over one of the sticks, its tires crush the laminated paper coating, and the concealed spikes puncture the tires. The spikes, hollow quills with tips on both ends, give the driver about 30 seconds before the tires go completely flat In yesterdays chase, which topped out at about 100 m.p.h., State Police said the car stopped about five minutes after the sticks CHASE. Pare BR Year after year, people disappear, ships sink, valuables vanhsh and strange objects appear in the sky often without plausible explanation. This is the twelfth and final installment of a summer series about unsolved mysteries around New England. ByMattBai GLOBE STAFF INCOLN There are ghosts rustling in the hallowed woods off the old Battle Road here.

The.foot-steps of British soldiers echo through time, winding their way toward the ambush at Bloody Back and whites spur new era of classroom style for Lawrence By Kate Zernike GLOBE STAFF LAWRENCE This city of frayed edges and tattered streets is hoping that a fresh set of blue and white public-school uniforms will dress up its image and get students to buckle down. Of course, in the hands of teenagers, the uniforms are anything but uniform. True, as public schools here opened yesterday, the uniform plaid jumpers or blue pants and white tops did mean knee socks and pleated skirts to some. But to others, it meant white lace spandex bodysuits and blue jeans. A white belly-baring halter top.

A blue and white floral sundress. And at least one red-and-black Chicago Bulls cap, worn predictably and defiantly backwards. Karyz Rodriguez tied her hair in a blue and white bandanna to individualize her uniform of khaki shorts, white shirt and blue vest which she unbuttoned by lunchtime. "I'm only wearing it because my mother said I had to," she grumbled. "It makes me look too preppy." This week, Lawrence becomes the first public, school system in Massachusetts to require its 11,500 students to wear uniforms, going one step further than schools in Chelsea, Hol-yoke and Randolph that have recently tried voluntary uniforms.

Many officials, from President Clinton to Gov. William F. Weld and state and city legislators, are pushing for other schools to follow suit. The enthusiasm is based largely on the experience of Long Beach, which saw students' F's become A's and the juvenile crime rate drop drastically when it instituted uniforms two years ago. Lawrence had a dress code until 1968, when coats and ties gave way to the ripped jeans and halters of the '70s and, eventually, the spandex shorts UNIFORMS, Page B5 High-speed ByMattVillano GLOBE CORRESPONDENT A high-speed chase near Taunton ended early yesterday morning when State Police officers pulled their cruiser some distance ahead of the speeding suspects, stopped, reached into their trunk and threw of all things a dozen white paper sticks onto the highway.

But these sticks, called "Stop Sticks," are more than meets the eye. Hidden beneath the paper are 36 metal spikes, specially designed to puncture a vehicle's tires during a high-speed chase and bring it to a rapid, yet controlled, stop. The sticks did the trick about 12:30 a.m. By Geeta Anand and John Ellement GLOBE STAFF David Scondras, a former Boston city councilor accused of making sexual advances toward a teen-age boy last weekend, was not the perpetrator of a crime but the victim of brutal gay-bashing, a friend of Scondras' said yesterday. Larry Bresslour, who said he was speaking for Scondras who remained hospitalized with a broken jaw wired shut said the 16-year-old boy punched and kicked Scondras so viciously that the former councilor's jaw was left broken in three places, his nose and a bone near his eye cracked, his left kidney swollen and his stomach bleeding.

"This was a murderous attack on David Scondras in a public place," Scondras' lawyer, David Duncan, said. "If this young man as-serts unwanted advances in a public movie theater; why didn't he just get up and walk out? How do you justify beating someone to within an. inch of their life?" Scondras, 50, who is gay, was defeated for reelection to the council in 1993. He remained hospitalized under an assumed name at a Boston hospital yesterday, Bresslour said, adding that the former councilor would file a counter--' charge against the teen-ager as soon as he is released from the hospital. Boston police and the 16-year-old boy, a native of Washington, filed an application for a criminal complaint against Scondras in Boston Municipal Court, on Monday in which Scondras wasaccused of indecent assault and battery.

But because Scondras was hospitalized and could not give testimony in court on Monday, a clerk-magistrate continued the probable cause hearing to Oct. 25. Yesterday neither of Scondras' spokesmen would say how the former councilor met the teen-ager, but a source close to the case said the teen-ager reported that a man approached him in "the lobby of the Sheraton Boston, where he was staying, and offered to get him into movie theater for free. The teen-ager knew the man only as "David," who said he was a former "city commissioner," information that led authorities to Scondras. According to the source, the teen-ager reported sitting in the rear of the theater with SCONDRAS, Page B3 1 I is I 1: GLOBE STAFF PHOTO BILL GREENE Sixth graders in their blue and white public-school uniforms line up yesterday after recess at the Oliver Elementary School in Lawrence.

chase becomes a sticky New device flattens tires of 2 sought in robbery, kidnapping in Taunton More Metro News Protest Members of advocacy groups for the disabled protested against assisted suicide as a way to end the lives of severely ill people such as Pembroke resident Judith Cur-ren, who was helped to commit suicide two weeks ago by Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Page C9. Voters speak out Fitchburg partici- pants People's Voice" project focus group discuss their concerns as residents of an aging industrial city that lags behind in creating new jobs. Page Eileen McNarnara is on vacatwi Aug.

14. The two were also charged with a number of vehicular offenses, police said. Though Stop Sticks are new to Massachusetts, they have been used by police in other states since 1992, when the device was invented. The cruiser that responded to the chase was the only one from the Middlebor-ough barracks with the devices stored. None of the local police in the chase from Taunton, Lakeville, Bridgewater and Raynham -were equipped with them.

"I hear they're incredible chase deter- yesterday, forcing to a stop a car occupied by two men wanted in Taunton for an alleged kidnapping almost two weeks ago. Once their car was stopped, the suspects fled into nearby woods where they were captured by a Raynham canine patrol two hours later. Joaquim M. Grace, 22, of New Bedford, and Steven Andrade, 21, of Taunton, were arrested on outstanding warrants in connection with the alleged robbing, kidnapping, and pistol-whipping of a Taunton man on.