The Daily Oklahoman from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma • 57

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN Wednesday. May 30, 1990 Credit Card Billing Contract May Save State Money stays at a state-owned lodge and pays with a credit card, transactions are totaled at the close of the business day. That amount will be electronically transferred to the Texas company's account in the Oklahoma bank, the finance office said. The state treasurer will be notified and at the beginning of the next business day can place that money into interest-bearing were no Oklahoma bidders, the publication said. In a precontract conference after the Texas firm was awarded the contract, state officials expressed concern about allowing state funds to leave Oklahoma.

Retriever representatives said it would establish a relationship with an Oklahoma bank to handle transactions by electronic fund transfer. Under the program, if a tourist lieved the state could save money by having one contract for handling credit card transactions instead of having several different contracts, according to a publication by the finance office. After a year of discussions, the state has awarded a contract to Retriever Payment Systems of Houston, the low bidder. The firm's fee for handling electronic credit card transactions is 1.64 percent of each transaction. Its fee for credit card transactions done by hand will be 3 percent, Hayes said.

The first time the state requested bids for handling credit card transactions, all the bids were rejected for being too high or because there were no Oklahoma bidders. The Office of Public Affairs contacted Oklahoma banks and reissued bid requests, but there still the Office of State Finance. Agencies usually dealt individually with banks to process the tranasctions, he said. The credit card processing fee was sometimes as high as 6 percent because individual agencies weren't handling enough transactions to reduce the handling fee, he explained. Officials in the finance office be By John Greiner Capitol Bureau A new arrangement for state agencies to handle credit card transactions should save the state money, a budget analyst said Tuesday.

While colleges and state lodges have been authorized for years to accept credit card payments, the state had no centralized program, said H.E. Hayes, an analyst with State Briefs Bellmon Signs Workers Compensation Measure By Paul English Capitol Bureau Gov. Henry Bellmon on Monday signed a bill aimed at lowering high medical costs in workers compensation cases and ending slow payment of benefits. Bellmon also vetoed three bills, including one which would have made it a felony to write a bad check of $50 or more to pay for 9 Hjj- AP Lrarphpto ty. In signing Senate Bill 830, Bellmon said the measure "creates an ombudsman in the workers compensation court to assist injured workers who don't want lawyers and who don't want to go through the maze of laws." "The ombudsman is charged with the responsibility of making sure that employees receive their rightful disability benefits in a timely way," he said.

Bellmon said the bill protects employers by giving the Workers Compensation Court administrator "the ability to penalize health care providers who try to corrupt the system by charging higher treatment fees than they would for non-work-releated injuries." Employers also are given the right to appeal their workers compensation insurance rating before the Board of Property and Casualty Rates, he said. Bellmon also signed a bill creating a pilot program of on-site day care services for children of state employees. "To improve productivity, it's important that we alleviate our employees' concerns about safe day care by providing quality care at or near the work site," he said. "This program should help improve employee morale, reduce absenteeism, and result in better job performance." He also signed a bill establishing a computerized fingerprint identification system, saying the computer will "identify criminals who otherwise would go unpunished." "It will be boon in the fight against burglary," he said. Bellmon said about 100 bills remain to be signed or vetoed.

The governor said it Gov- Henrv Bellmon "makes no sense" for the state to pay $13,000 a year to incarcerate a person who writes a $50 bad check. "These bad check writers should be kept in the community where they can work and be required to pay restitution," he said. "If they are put into the overcrowded corrections system, the state will be forced to release a violent criminal who should be locked away from society." Another of the vetoed bills would have created a task force which Bellmon said "would be duplicative" of the Planning Council on Development Disabilities, created in 1989, and the Advisory Committee on Mental Retardation Services, created in 1963. Bellmon also vetoed a bill which he said would grant a 26 percent pay raise to some employees of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authori Stillwater Swingtime Cari Rich of Yale makes a day of it with a sweeping ride on a Stillwater park swing. Bill to Fill Insurance Gap Awaits Governor's Pen From Staff and Wire Reports Hearing Set for Reynolds A preliminary hearing has been set for Aug.

22 and 23 for Oklahoma City physician Joe Bills Reynolds, charged with second-degree murder in his wife's death after liposuction surgery. Reynolds, 54, is accused of criminal recklessness in the handling of his wife's surgery last Sept. 7. He denies any wrongdoing. Sharon Rose Reynolds, 43, stopped breathing during a five-hour surgery for fat removal at the doctor's office.

She was pronounced dead at South Community Hospital. Oklahoma County Special Judge Wendell Smith will determine at the hearing whether the prosecution has sufficient evidence for a trial. The doctor is free on bail. His medical license has been suspended. Healdton Manager Moving HEALDTON Opportunity has lured Healdton city manager Bill Rowton into a similar position at Antlers in Pushmataha County.

He'll be returning to near his hometown of Boswell in far southeastern Oklahoma. The resignation will be official June 30, and because Antlers does not have a charter form of government, Rowton, 53, will serve as an administrator, While at Healdton the past seven years, Row-ton listed the development and placement of the town's landfill and sanitation service, and the acquisition of an inmate work center as his biggest accomplishments. "I love the people here. They are fantastic. My wife and family and I were accepted from day one," Rowton said.

"The thought of leaving is almost unbearable." He previously was city manager in Waurika and Choctaw. Teen's Bond Set in Deaths TULSA A Tulsa judge set bond at $100,000 Tuesday for a 13-year-old charged with second-degree murder for allegedly driving a stolen van involved in a car accident that killed three people. The teen-ager did not enter a plea. District Judge Thomas S. Crewson entered a denial of the allegations for him.

District Attorney David Moss said Tuesday's hearing in Juvenile Court was similar to an arraignment for adults in District Court. The teen's attorney, Fred Schraeder, said the $100,000 bond was "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard." The teen is charged with three counts of second-degree murder for the May 6 accident in which the van he was allegedly driving collided with another car, police said. Steven Lewis Munson, 39, Annette Trigalet, 35, and Constance Trigalet, 32, died from injuries suffered in the collision, police said. Moss said he will attempt to try the 13-year-old as an adult, and he said he will try to prosecute three teen-age passengers in the van as adults on charges ranging from auto theft to of a motor vehicle. The other three face jbjarings later this week, Moss said.

Ruling Defended Despite Conviction the employee would pay $30 a month. Lewis said various private insurance carriers would be eligible to underwrite group insurance plans under the state-subsidized program. Rep. Charles Key, an insurance agent, questioned why the state is getting involved. The Oklahoma City Republican contended that there are plenty of insurance policies available in the private sector.

But Lewis said many workers cannot afford the insurance, so the state plan is intended to pay half of the cost. The tax credit would continue for a maximum of two years. "This is a completely voluntary program; no employer is required" to provide it, he said. The majority of those uninsured workers fall into the categories of retail trade and ecuted Cheatham for the Sept. 3, 1986 killing.

Prosecutors claimed Cheatham beat Witherspoon with a police flashlight, then robbed the man of a portable TV-radio, a shotgun and a By Mick Hinton Capital Bureau Nearly 400,000 employed Oklaho-mans cannot afford health insurance, according to Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation statistics. A measure intended to fill that insurance gap is awaiting the governor's signature after both houses passed the bill in the final hours of the legislative session Friday. House Speaker Steve Lewis said Senate Bill 346 was designed to help the "working poor who have a job, but on that job they are not provided insurance." Lewis said the working poor do not have insurance either because their salaries are too low and they cannot afford the premiums, or, in some cases, because the employers have so few workers that they cannot afford such a program. According to the bill, the state would give employers a tax credit equal to $15 a month per employee, which would amount to $180 a year per employee. The employer would pay another $15 per month, and Larry Balding, investigator with the Wilma P.

Manklller Cherokee Chief Given Yale Honor Lewis said the state is subsidizing health insurance for the "medically indigent" at a rate of $40 million a year. Opponents have estimated SB 346 could cost the state $72 million in tax credits. Pornography Charge Dropped NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) Wilma P. Mankiller, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, was among 12 people who were awarded honorary degrees as Yale University held its 289th commencement.

Yale president Ben-no C. Schmidt Jr. praised Mankiller for making her tribe "a model for others" and keeping alive "a spirit of community." Mankiller, of Tahle- 3uah, was awarded a octor of humane letters. She was honored during graduation ceremonies for about 2,800 seniors. By Tim Farley Staff Writer An Oklahoma County judge said he still believes he was correct when he ruled in 1986 that Charles Leon Cheatham should not stand trial for the beating death of a 65-year-old Oklahoma City man.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals overruled that decision, and last Wednes-day jurors found Cheatham guilty of killing William "Bud" Witherspoon. A day later the jury set Cheatham's punishment at death by drug injection. Special District Judge Niles Jackson, presiding magistrate during Cheatham's preliminary hearing in 1986, said he would repeat his decision not to bind Cheatham over for trial. "I would not change my mind," he said. "He may well have done it, but was there proof? I didn't think so, and I still don't.

"The fact that he had two pieces of property from the victim and the blood spatters on his car did not link him to the murder of the victim. Obviously, they (jurors) disagreed with me and I certainly respect them for that." Jackson said a pre-liminary hearing judge must base his decision on facts, while jurors have the ability to combine "facts with feelings." "I can't decide on emotion or gut feelings," the judge said. "A jury can use their head for the facts, and their heart to decide how they feel about the facts' Jackson is seeking election to a district judge post that soon will be vacated by retiring district judge 80 before he got out," Albert said. Gregg, 56, was charged with child rape and molestation and child pornography after police searched his home in Nichols Hills last August. His preliminary hearing on the child pornography charge was set for June 15 in Oklahoma County District Court.

The child pornography charge was dropped by the prosecution Friday. "We have nothing to gain by further prosecution of Gregg," said Assistant District Attorney Barry Albert. "We just do not believe prosecuting Carroll Gregg again would be a good use of judicial time. He will be an home. Police found the magazines and videotape when they searched his house Aug.

30 and 31. Gregg's attorney. Merle Gile, has contended the search was improper. Prosecutors frequently go to trial more than once against the same defendant to ensure they stay in prison if an appeal of the first conviction is successful. In this case, a second trial would be useless, Albert said.

By Tim Farley Staff Writer A child pornography charge against child molester Carroll E. Gregg has been dropped because another trial would be a waste of time, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Jurors in March found Gregg, a former lawyer, guilty of 38 felony counts for his videotaped sexual relationship with a young girl. He was sentenced to 131 years in prison. state medical examiner's office, testified the beating was one of the worst he has investigated during seven years on the job.

Ryan said he believes Jackson tried to judge witnesses' credibility during the 1986 preliminary hearing and failed to look at the "totality of the evidence." "It's not the role of a judge to be a jury," Ryan said. "All we must show at a preliminary hearing is if a crime was committed, and is there probable cause to believe the defendant did it. In this case, we did that." Both prosecutors said Jackson was shown enough evidence at the preliminary hearing to establish that Cheatham might have killed Witherspoon. Physical evidence and testimony presented at Cheatham's trial were consistent with testimony given at the preliminary hearing four years earlier, Rogers said. The preliminary hearing was held on three separate days over a period of a week and a half, Rogers said he thinks the scattered dates of the hearing affected Jackson's decision.

"That conclusion (Jackson's ruling) could only have been reached because of all the settings," Rogers said. "Judges are human, and I think it was a human mistake. In, this case, justice Prevailed." He was accused in the por- old man oetore tie gets out Judge Nlles Jackson David Cook. When Jackson ordered the case against Cheatham dropped in 1986, prosecutors quickly appealed to District Judge James Blevins. Although Ble-vins said he did not "particularly agree with his (Jackson's) decision," he upheld the magistrate's ruling.

Prosecutors then took their case to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, which reversed Jackson's decision. Cheatham was later bound over for trial. The appeals process took more than three years, and the Witherspoon murder case was not reinstated until January, During that time, Cheatham pleaded guilty to a violent' attack on a 91-year-old Stillwater woman. Cheatham has three other felony convictions, including one for manslaughter in 1982. "It's a bitter irony," said Assistant District Attorney Greg Ryan.

"While the defendant was at large and this case on appeal, he brutally beat an elderly woman Now at 94, her life will be forever detrimentally affected by some goof-up in the system." Assistant District Attorneys Charles Rogers and Ryan pros on parole. Even if he just nography charge of keeping served th ne minimum 30 ooscene magazines anu one obscene videotape in his amount of time, he would be Boren Proposes Foreign Aid Credit Bill guarantee no long-term economic aid for the United States. "We gave, for instance, $800 million in aid to Poland. How did we give it? Mainly we gave them cash. About 80 percent of the funds were given with no strings attached.

"West Germany and Japan, on the other hand, gave over $3 billion, but 83 percent of it was in the form of credits that could only be used to buy goods produced in their own countries," He said the United States should offer American goods to developing nations who are cleaning up the environment and building transportation systems and communications networks. Uncle Sucker." Boren said that opposition could be expected from the State Department, which has traditionally been against "tied aid," as it is called, But he observed that the legislation is being pushed by three Senate committee chairmen: Bentsen (finance), Boren (intelligence), and Robert Byrd, chairman of the appropriations committee. Compared to other major foreign aid donors, the United States provides less assistance, with less return to the taxpayer, Boren said. "When we provide cash grants with absolutely no strings attached, we can afford less, and wo Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas. The legislation would affect $7.2 billion of bilateral economic aid, which is part of an overall aid package.

Boren later told an interviewer that the legislation would result in foreign purchase of oil field, telecommunications and farm equipment made in Oklahoma, He said the legislation would also benefit the Oklahoma aviation industry. "It's just crazy when we see West Germans and Japanese requiring that 70 percent of their (foreign) aid be returned in purchases, whereas we require only 6 or 7 percent, "Uncle Sam is being trefd like By Allan Cromley Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Sen. David Boren launched a drive Tuesday to tie strings to U.S. foreign aid that would result in the purchase of American goods, products and services. The Seminole Democrat was the principal sponsor of "buy America" legislation that would replace cold cash with credits that foreign governments would use for construction, design and servicing of projects such as roads, phone lines and electrical plants.

It was unveiled in a press conference; with a co-authcV, Sen..