The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 19

CityRegion Bl-6, 8, C16 Lottery B2 New England News Briefs B2 Deaths C14 Weather B8 Q1DD The Boston Globe Friday, June 9, 2006 Brian McGrory Taken west at 96, widower met his death Justice overturned Police see scam link in case of Cape retiree By RajaMishra GLOBE STAFF Relatives were flabbergasted when Fred Downie, a 96-year-old West Harwich retiree, announced in 2000 that he was taking off for California with a shapely 30-something woman he barely knew. "No one could figure it out," said Downie's niece, Mildred Holman, 83, of Plymouth. "We wondered why she would take in such an old man. Why take that responsibility?" Within eight months of moving out west, Downie was struck by a car while in a Santa Monica crosswalk and fatally injured. His family simply thought it a strange tragedy, until they were approached recently by reporters for the Los Angeles Times and told that his female companion, Kecia Golay, is the daughter of one of the so-called hit-and-run grannies suspected of a lethal insurance scam targeting elderly and transient men in the Golden State.

Kecia Golay's mother, Helen Golay, 75, and her alleged accomplice, Olga Rutterschmidt, 72, are accused of befriending and taking out lucrative insurance policies on two transient men who were killed in hit-and-run accidents INSURANCE, Page B6 How terrific, even Hi Calif, authorities accuse Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt of preying on elderly and transient men in a lethal insurance scam. heart-warming, that the state Court of Appeals is sticking up for young thugs in Dorchester. Just last week, it tossed 74 out the conviction of a guy who was caught red-handed with a handgun jammed into Fount of futility finally runs dry City Hall Plaza eyesore gets a concrete solution Teens' use of condoms increases Survey finds use grew since ruling rem 1 1 TO uses 8i 1 'i 1 ft DAVID L. RYANGLOBE STAFFFILE 2004 ELIZABETH JONESTHE BOSTON GLOBEFILE 1970 Visitors enjoyed the fountain in its early days. Eventually the water and crowds stopped flowing.

1 1 S3 3 23 13 By Maria Sacchetti GLOBE STAFF More Massachusetts teenagers who are sexually active are using condoms, according to a state survey released yesterday, 1 1 years after a landmark court ruling said schools could make them available to students. The state survey, given to 3,500 teenagers in 51 high schools last year, shows that condom use has increased steadily since the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that schools could hand out condoms without parental consent. "We're really happy to see that," said Sophie Godley, deputy director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. "It gives me tremendous faith that young people in this state are hearing this message and taking care of themselves. They're taking the risks and dangers of sexual activity very seriously, and they should." Sexual activity among teenagers has increased as the Bay State battles over how to teach students about sex.

About 45 percent of teenagers said they had had sexual intercourse at least once, up from 41 percent in 2003, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a poll of student health and safety given every two years here and nationwide. Sixty-five percent of sexually active students said they used condoms, similar to the national average and up from 57 percent in 2003. Two months ago, Governor Mitt Romney, who is weighing a bid for the presidency, announced that the state would spend nearly $1 million in B8 2. 5 -sr- his jacket. The judges ruled that the convict's civil rights were violated by the gutsy Boston cops who intuitively knew, from the rigid way the suspect was walking down a crime-plagued street, that he was probably carrying a weapon.

The judges decided the officers lacked sufficient cause to search. It didn't matter that the cops happened to be correct. "The officers had neither observed nor received any report of criminal activity, a firearm being brandished, or shots being fired," Justice Joseph Grasso wrote in his majority opinion. Thank you, Justice Grasso. So what would actually count as sufficient cause? An actual murder, or would a mere maiming be good enough? All of which raises a few other questions: If these judges are protecting the civil rights of hoodlums, then who's protecting the civil rights of working families you know, those people on virtually every block of Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury who go to bed at night listening to the sounds of gunshots? Who's protecting the civil rights of the young mothers who won't let their kids play outside on even the hottest summer days because they're afraid they'll be caught in the crossfire of rival gangs? Who's protecting the civil rights of the elderly residents who would never dare venture outside after dark? The teenagers who can't shoot baskets in area parks because they're too dangerous? The young adults who aren't ever really told that there might be a better way? In the abstract, the state Appeals Court is absolutely right.

Civil rights are critical in a society like ours, and a criminal's rights are no less important than those of the most God-fearing citizens. But this isn't so abstract, not anymore. In the most crime-addled sections of Boston, people are being shot at a clip of more than one a night and killed at a rate of better than one a week. Shootings are up 79 percent this year over last year. We are in the midst of a surge.

Which brings me to Felix Arroyo, the Boston city councilor. To know Arroyo is to like and respect him, tireless worker that he's been on behalf of people who aren't given enough opportunity. He'll make an interesting and viable mayoral candidate someday. But this is the wrong time to be pushing for an independent police review board the way he's been. In a guest column on the Globe's op-ed page this week, he wrote, "Simply put, growing community mistrust of the police is hindering joint efforts to ensure that crime is both prevented and reported." Police misconduct is not the issue here.

In fact, the two Boston cops who made the overturned gun arrest, John Conway and Dean Bickerton, should have been applauded by the justices and commended by the neighborhood. They could have simply looked the other way, but they stopped, put themselves at risk, and put a gun-toting hoodlum (temporarily) behind bars. It would be nice to devote all our energy to the root causes of inner-city crime -the bad schools, the out-of-wedlock births, the racist attitudes that foster cycles of hopelessness. It would be nice to get every needy kid a summer job in the mailroom of State Street Bank. It would be nice to have beard-stroking discussions over the proper way to protect criminals' rights in crime-plagued neighborhoods.

But people are dying. Families are suffering. Entire blocks are overcome by fear. It's not the cops who are the problem, not even close. It's young thugs shooting at young thugs, a reality that the minority communities must confront.

Protect thugs' rights? In a perfect world, sure. But never at the expense of every law-abiding man and woman imprisoned after dark in their own homes, listening to the crackle of gunfire, afraid to step outside. Where's the outrage for them? WENDY MAEDAGLOBE STAFF Possibilities for the new slab include concerts, tables with umbrellas, and vendors selling food. ByMattVIser GLOBE STAFF was to be a fountain that would soothe the soul, draw crowds, and serve as a paean to the great public space brought by urban renewal. Set in the brick tundra of City Hall Plaza, it never seemed to work quite as planned.

Filters failed, motors didn't work, profit group Project for Public Spaces), has been more often the butt of jokes than a public gathering place. Barely a week after the fountain was first turned on in 1969, the filtration system malfunctioned and, according to one writer, the fountain spewed "brown and green foam that no duck would wet his feathers in." Problems flowed, and officials have tested their wits against its fickle 90-horsepower motors and the 61 nozzles that have been choked with everything from beer cans to brassieres. At one point, in a fit of mayoral determination, Menino ordered a garden hose with a sprinkler installed to make it look as if it were operating correctly. That idea was dropped after water leaked into the subway tunnel. Against such a backdrop, the latest attempt has been greeted with something like relief, and zealous backing at City Hall.

"People are saying what a breath of fresh air this is and that the plaza looks just fantastic," said Michael Galvin, FOUNTAIN, Page B4 Mihos taps Winchester moderator for ticket water leaked into the subway tunnel below. For nearly four decades, it's been little more than a headache to mayors and the city maintenance crews who tried to fix it or otherwise put it to use. Now comes the latest solution. It has been paved over. A gray concrete slab the size of a baseball infield has been laid over the sunken terraces meant to flow with rippling water, and city officials couldn't be happier.

"I think it's great," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday. "That thing was a boondoggle from day one." The fountain, like the plaza that is its home (once chosen as the worst public space in the world by the non By Frank Phillips GLOBE STAFF SHIP AHOY! Vowing to be a voice for municipalities, John J. Sullivan of Winchester joined independent gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos yesterday as his running mate. Sullivan, a veteran town official who has a low public profile beyond his hometown, said he met Mihos in March and switched his registration from SULLIVAN Democrat to inde Prisoner seeks sex surgery Transsexual Michelle Lynn Kosilek, testifying in court, wept as he described what life would be like if a judge does not order the state to pay for a sex change.

B2 Friends honor slain man Gregory Josey was one of two men slain Wednesday in Dorchester. Yesterday, his teacher and classmates placed mementos at the slayings scene. B5 Police officer suspended A Boston police officer, accused of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman he met while working at a Faneuil Hall bar, will be suspended without pay for one year, according to police. C16 i frj'Ttf V' pendent, just in time to meet the legal qualification to run for lieutenant governor. He said he immediately offered himself as a potential running mate.

Sullivan, who initially had trouble pronouncing Mihos's name at a press conference yesterday, said that he left the Democratic Party because he felt Mihos's gubernatorial candidacy represented the first serious "opportunity to shake up the system" in more than three decades. He said the Republican Party is "not relevant" and that the Democrats MIHOS, Pag B6 JONATHAN WtGGSGLOBE STAFF Navy Petty Officer Third Class Karl Martin greeted his son Aidan, 3, aboard the USS Underwood after the frigate arrived in Boston for Navy Week. Tours will be conducted today through Sunday. Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgroryglobe.com..