The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 20

B2 City Region The Boston Globe TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2003 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ii ii nil mi iiiiii 1 1 1 1 1 1 iintiiiniii in ii 1 1 1 ii 1 1 1 1 ml ll ii 1 1 1 1 1 iiiiiiii ll li i ii in ttiiiiiiini 'eto threat revived on legislative raise New England in brief turn back an earlier version of the bill, the Senate approved the bill with Menard's amendment last Thursday. House leaders sought to do likewise yesterday, but Demakis and a handful of other rank-and-file members kept it from being considered. The House will debate the measure Thursday. Backers of the change would face a difficult task in overriding Romney's veto if they stand by the bill as currently written. Republican House leaders say most of the body's 23 Republicans will back Romney and they'll be joined by at least 17 Democrats who consistently oppose Finneran.

In addition, about 15 Democrats in the House Democratic Council will stand up against the move, said Representative Michael E. a Melrose Democrat Because gubernatorial vetoes must be overridden by a two-thirds majority, 54 members in the 160-seat House can uphold a veto. This is not what our constituents expect of us," Festa said. "This is the wrong time and the wrong message." governor was very clear that he does not want to sign away the right of future governors to review compensation matters." The Senate Democratic whip, Joan M. Menard, said on the Senate floor Thursday that the amendment she was offering would "sunset" the bill at the end of 2004.

However, only the legislative rules would be phased out after next year; when the Legislature reconvenes in January 2005, House and Senate members would retain the power to set extra pay without the governor's input "This change changed absolutely nothing," said state Representative Paul C. Demakis, a Back Bay Democrat who opposes increasing legislative leaders' ability to hand out pay raises. "If this passes, the governor will be giving up his power now and into the future to review legislation that gives extra compensation for leadership positions. The notion that this last-minute amendment makes any substantive change in the bill is the biggest con job I have seen anyone try to perpetrate in GLOBE STAFF Mitt Romney is $gaia threatening to veto a bill tBaTwould give legislative leaders tnore flexibflity to grant pay increases to their lieutenants, saying change inserted by the state Sen-te does not answer his objections. 253tomney indicated late last Jieek that he was leaning toward -Signing the measure, based on lawmakers' description of the ajnended bill as one that would give them the expanded power to set leadership pay only through the end of next year.

But a review of that language reveals that it would make a per-. manent legal change allowing leg-; islative rules which are not reviewed by the governor to dictate extra pay for members of House and Senate leadership. Romney also opposes a provision of the bill that would make pay increases retroactive to the beginning of the year, said Shawn Fed-deman, Romney's press secretary, 'It appears to have a few fatal features," said Feddeman. "The BOSTON Mother of slain student sues school The mother of James H. Cassidy, the Northeastern University student killed in his off-campus apartment last month, has filed a $25 million lawsuit against the school and the building's owners and managers.

Susan Healey sued last week in Suffolk Superior Court, charging that the Hemenway Street apartment building where her son lived did not have adequate security. Northeastern leased some apartments in the building for students. A gang of assailants forced their way into the apartment May 12, tied up four other residents, and shot and killed Cassidy. A spokesman for Northeastern said school officials hadnt yet been served with the lawsuit but would defend themselves aggressively. Mass.

to get $llm transportation funds Massachusetts will receive $11 million in federal transportation funding, US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced yesterday. Grants include $4.4 million for Route 2 improvements in Orange and Erving, 1 million for South wick North Central and Canalside bike trails, and $831,942 for a New Bedford port information center. (AP) Project to explore physician diversity Drawing a link between the lack of minority doctors and disparities in health care, a Boston-based nonprofit group plans to use a $1.2 million grant to investigate ways to boost the number of black and Hispanic my nine years as a state representative." Menard acknowledged yesterday that her amendment would have little legal impact, saying it was mostly designed to reassure the public. Since legislative rules must be endorsed at the beginning of every new session of the Legislature, bad ideas regarding pay increases can be undone, she said. "If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and we can change it," said Menard, a Somerset Democrat.

"It makes sense for the House and Senate to be able to organize themselves." House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran is pushing the bill as a way to award new chairmen and vice chairmen with pay raises on top of their $53,381 annual base salary. The speaker's lieutenants have said he wants six to eight House members to share about $50,000 in extra money. Finneran critics say they fear the speaker would use the posts as rewards and to tighten his control on the legislative process. After Romney said he would u- 1 i 46 years later, a family mystery lingers GLOBE STAFF PHOTOTOM HERDE physicians.

Community Catalyst launched the Physician Diversity Project yesterday at a Parkman House ceremony hosted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino and attended by other elected officials. The 15-month project will include a public information campaign, lobbying, and the forging of strategies to increase minorities in the medical ranks. Roughly 3 percent of Massachusetts doctors are black or Latino, even though the minorities make up nearly 13 percent of the state's population. Convicted Bulger tipster seeks new trial The lawyer for a retired State Police lieutenant convicted of tipping off William Bulger in 1999 to telephone surveillance by FBI agents hunting his fugitive brother filed a motion yesterday for a new trial.

Richard J. Schneiderhan, who faces up to 15 years in federal prison, couldnt have compromised government surveillance of the University of Massachusetts president, wrote lawyer James P. Duggan, because Bulger already knew that his telephone was being monitored. Duggan said he learned only after Schneiderhan was convicted in March that a federal prosecutor had told Bulger's lawyer of the phone monitoring in 1998. ROSLINDALE Water main worker rescued after fall A 47-year-old city worker was trapped in an underground hole for two hours late Sunday after he fell while working on a water main.

Michael Tower, a 16-year veteran of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, was on a crew flushing water mains at Newburg and Cornell streets in Roslindale at about 1 1 :30 p.m. when he slipped and fell, according to Eugenia Rutherford, of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. Firefighters from Engine 30, Ladder 25, in West Roxbury and Rescue 2 in Roxbury found Tower slumped over in a 4V-foot deep hole with his hands at his sides, unable to free himself, said Boston Fire Lieutenant Richard Powers. They used a jackhammer to break the pavement and dug him out with their hands. Tower was treated and released at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

FLORIDA Suspect in 2002 Hub slaying is arrested A 26-year-old Dorchester man was arrested last Friday night by police in Miami-Dade County, Florida John P. Gomes, who allegedly shot and killed 45-year-old Ildebrando Correia in Dorchester in August 2002, was pulled over by North Bay Village police during a routine traffic stop. Gomes, who has a history of gun possession charges, will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court for these and other charges upon return to Boston. No date has yet been set HAVERHILL Police seek information on body in river Authorities are asking the public for information about a man whose body was found in the Merrimack River by two fishermen at 1 1 :30 a.m. yesterday.

The man was described as Hispanic, between 20 and 30 years old, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 165 pounds, with an athletic build. He was wearing white, slip-on Nike sneakers, brown corduroy pants, a brown T-shirt, and a maroon, long-sleeved shirt with a collar. Anyone with information is asked to call the Haverhill police at 978-373-1212. In a symbol of hope, Joyce Balint (left) and Raquel Razbeau tossed yellow flowers yesterday into the water at the rocky beach in Plymouth where their brothers disappeared nearly 46 years ago. By Steve Eder GLOBE CORRESPONDENT PLYMOUTH Among a tumble of jagged and smooth rocks lining Plymouth Harbor, Joyce Ba-lint and Raquel Razbeau easily spotted Flat Rock yesterday.

Nicknamed for its tabletop flat surface, the rock has served in the past as a shelf where area children who swim in the harbor stored their belongings. But for Balint and Razbeau, the rock is the last known whereabouts of their teenage brothers who disappeared nearly 46 years ago. On the night of Sept 9, 1957, the neatly folded clothing of Ba-lint's brother, Robert Rasmussen, and Razbeau's brother, Gerald Montrio, was found atop Flat Rock. It was as if the two boys had vanished no bodies were ever recovered and neither was heard from again. Such was the mystery that death certificates were never issued for Rasmussen, then 13, and Montrio, then 15, said one of Ras-mussen's relatives.

"The ultimate hope is that somewhere out there, we will have two brothers that well get to see and touch," Balint said. Newspaper accounts at the time offered differing theories from law enforcement and family members about the fate of the missing teenagers from drowning to a hoax. Yesterday, though, the boys' sisters said they believed their brothers had enacted a careful plan to run away from troubled homes where each had been physically abused by their fathers, who died about 20 years ago. Gerald's mother died in the mid-1970s. Robert's mother, Charlotte Rasmussen, 80, of Plymouth, last night disputed the abuse allegations.

"The truth is, my husband never hit those children," she said by phone. Balint, 54, who now lives in Bronxville, N.Y., and Razbeau, 59, of Edinburgh, Scotland, had not been in contact in the decades since their brothers disappeared. They were brought together for an informal news conference yesterday, in part because of genealogy work by a relative, who stumbled across the story of a missing teenager and became intrigued. The women were also united in their belief that their brothers might still be alive. They spoke to reporters and camera crews near the harbor about what happened I years ago in hopes of sending a 3 message to their older siblings, even as they straggle with doubts that continue to haunt them.

I "I believe they are alive," Raz- r-rr Task i Robert Rasmussen (left) and Gerald Montrio vanished in September 1 957. Their bodies were never recovered. IIMMIIIIIIMHIIMIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIMIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIUIIMMIIMMIIIIIIMMIIMIIIMIIIMHIIIIItlllllllMMMIIMIIIIIiniMIIIMIIIIHIIIIIMMIHtlll ic Boston 25lobe Directory News Desks Local NationalForeign Business LivingArts Sports Editorial Page Switchboard (617)929-3100 (617)929-3125 (617)929-2903 (617)929-2800 (617)929-3235 (617)929-3025 (617)929-2000 beau said. "If they still wanted to be apart from the family, I respect that." Then she lapsed into a personal plea, adding, "But we still love you and we miss you." As she spoke about her brother, describing him as strong and independent, like a "frontiersman," Razbeau wore the ring that he gave her several weeks before his disappearance. She said her brother told her at the time, "Just in case, you keep it" Three days after the teenagers disappeared, headlines in the Old Colony Memorial newspaper read, "Police Not Wholly Sold On Theory of Drowning," and "Montrio Boy Had Spoken of Plan To Go Out West." A three-day water search followed the disappearance, but investigators didnt turn up any significant clues, according to the newspaper account "My brother was so independent, so able to take care of himself," said Balint.

"The thought that the two of them came out here and drowned just doesn't make sense." For months, the boys had talked about running away, the two women said, adding that their brothers had spoken to each of them about relationships with parents that made them want to leave. Lenny Sullivan, 70, a retired Plymouth firefighter who took part in the search, joined the sisters yesterday to talk about the disappearance. Until recently, Sul- Authorities were questioning individuals who knew the woman, Traub said. He said a motorist had alerted police at 4: 20 p.m. yesterday that a woman had been asleep inside a car that had been sitting off the shoulder of South Street since 6 a.m.

in Braintree Highlands. Police said they found the woman's body inside the dark sedan, parked less than a quarter mile south of the specialty hospital, where Traub said she had been seen leaving Sunday after 11 p.m. Yesterday, helicopters hovered overhead as state and local police surveyed the wooded area for pos LOTTERY Monday number 1021 MONDAY PAYOFFS (based on $1 bet) EXACT ORDER All 4 digits First or last 3 Any 2 digits Any 1 digit ANY ORDER All 4 digits First 3 digits Last 3 digits 3,421 $479 $41 $4 $285 $80 $80 MASS MILLIONS June 16 1 7 19 20 21 39 (Bonus ball 45) Jackpot: $21,416,020 PREVIOUS DRAWINGS Sunday 2544 Saturday 4392 Friday 6127 Thursday 4914 Wednesday 0106 MONDAY NUMBERS AROUND NEW ENGLAND Maine, N.H., Vermont 3-digit 938 4-digit 4105 Rhode Island 0392 Connecticut 3-digit 327 4-digit 6592 livan said, he had "forgotten all about it." He said he "assumed they were in the water," but went out to the harbor yesterday after a call renewed his interest "There's been a lot of people lost out here and never found again," said Sullivan, who was a firefighter for 32 years. The meeting of Balint and Razbeau yesterday was prompted by the curiosity of Alex Cheimets, 39, a distant relative of the Rasmussen family. When Cheimets came across an unexplained disappearance in his family tree project, he began contacting members of the Rasmussen family to learn about Robert.

After hearing about the case, he urged the sisters to try to find answers. "The ultimate hope is that we find the two men alive," said Cheimets. in Braintree sible clues. K-9 units were brought in to seek the scent of the assailant, who may have fled through the woods, Traub said. "Nobody in their right mind would go near those woods," said local resident Ron Johnson, 67.

"If a dangerous place to park because of the high volume of traffic during the day and because it's pitch dark at night" Local residents said cars sometimes parked for hours along the wooded area. "Who knows what they would be doing in there," said Pat Rup-precht. "There used to be trails, but now they're all overgrown." Home Delivery TOLL FREE: For delivery by 6 a.m. weekdays 8 a.m. weekends and holidays (888) MY GLOBE (888)694-5623 Delivery by US mail (617)929-2215 Subscriber Assistance Hours: Mon-Fri 6 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat-Sun 8 a.m.-noon.

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