The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 9

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER Wedncday, June 9, 1993 A-9 Walls mul sraft taut-. mm "'-1 mi) -'V-: r-W'-m- If EXAMINER CRAIG LEE Timothy Bindner, pictured in his lawyer's office, clears the decks for a federal civil-rights suit against Fairfield. figure asks for millions Bindner, suspect in missing-girl case, cites Fairfield cops By Don Martinez and Larry D. Hatfield OF THE EXAMINER STAFF An Oakland man police say is their primary suspect in the kidnapping of a still-missing 4-year-old filed a $25 million claim against the Fairfield Police Department on Wednesday, claiming the accusation has made his life hell. Timothy Bindner, 44, said he has been called a murderer by taunting children, kicked out of public places and otherwise suffered since being named publicly as a suspect.

Referring to a recent Sonora case in which a distraught mother shot and killed a man accused of molesting her son, Bindner said, "I think about the Ellie Nesler case. There are a lot of angry people out there and I've got to be apprehensive and careful." While he does not fear for his life, Bindner said, he has to keep looking over his shoulder. The damage claim, which also names the police sergeant Bindner said slandered him by calling him the leading suspect, is a prelude to a federal lawsuit claiming his civil rights have been denied, said Bind-her's Oakland attorney, John Burns. Bindner remains the prime suspect in the December 1991 pearance of Amanda "Nikki" Campbell, of Fairfield, police reasserted Wednesday. A dozen arrested in Oakland welfare sit-in pptol Local leaders say the governor's revenue plan will endanger public By Tupper Hull and Erin McConnick EXAMINER SACRAMENTO BUREAU SACRAMENTO Local government officials, including police chiefs, sheriffs and district attorneys from around the state, stepped up their campaign to pressure Gov.

Wilson and state lawmakers to abandon a plan to use property tax revenues to help balance the state budget The law enforcement officials spent most of Tuesday telling lawmakers the public's safety will be imperiled if they approve a plan to cut $2.6 billion from property tax revenues now used to pay for local government services such as police and fire protection. "Public protection is going to be shut down by this," said Jack Mee-han, district attorney for Alameda County. "District attorneys are the engine that makes the criminal justice system move." He said the proposed cuts will pare his office's budget by 50 percent, forcing the layoffs of 70 attorneys and making it impossible to prosecute many of the county's criminals. The property tax cut is a key element in a budget-balancing plan being hammered out between Wilson administration officials and members of the Legislature. Wilson has proposed shifting local property tax revenues to schools, a move that would permit the state to reduce its allocation to schools by a like amount.

The governor already has bowed to law enforcement pressures during the current effort to balance a $51 billion state budget that is as much as $9 billion in the red. Last week he abandoned his long-standing opposition to extending a half-cent statewide sales tax that is now set to expire June 30. Wilson said he would support legislation extending the sales tax until January as long as all revenue from the tax was earmarked for public safety uses. And he called a special election Nov. 2 for those counties that wish to ask voters to approve sales tax increases on a county-by-county basis.

It was not enough, however, for the police chiefs and sheriffs. Even with the sales tax extensions, the law enforcement representatives said many counties will be forced to close jails, cease prosecuting misdemeanors, cut the number of police on the streets and shut down homeless welfare recipients. "If you take general assistance from needy people, they become homeless. If they are already disabled, they become dead, and if they are women, they will be raped after a week on the streets," claimed Ed Barnes, an attorney for the Berkeley Community Law Center, part of a coalition of homeless and welfare groups called the Emergency Services Network. Under Lum's plan, monthly general assistance grants would be reduced from the current $327 to $308 and again to $295 if Gov.

Wilson succeeds in cutting Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits by 4.3 percent statewide. Additional grant cuts of up to 25 percent are proposed for recipients who share housing with others. The new Alameda plan would also eliminate GA after three months for people deemed "employable." Annual auto-wreck toll: 700,000 lives REUTER RABAT, Morocco More than 700,000 people are killed ery year around the world in traffic accidents, more than two-thirds of them in developing countries, a highway safety conference here was told this week. Leon Nilles, president of Road Safety International, also said between 10 million and 15 million people are maimed or injured annually. He said 500,000 of the deaths were in the developing world.

Speakers at the conference, due to end Thursday, said the main culprit was neither the state of the roads nor vehicles but human error and ignorance. Edited crime labs used to prosecute rapists, arsonists and other criminals. "July 1 is going to be 'Apocalypse Now unless the Legislature does something to avert this," said Gary Yancey, district attorney for Contra Costa County. Wilson spokesman Dan Schnur said the governor sympathizes with the police and sheriffs officials but has few options left to balance the budget "We extended the sales tax for six months for law enforcement purposes because we are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the public safety of the people of California. If they are willing to come up with cuts that don't impact public safety or public education, we are happy to discuss it," Schnur said.

In a preliminary blow to efforts to strike a compromise, the state Senate Tuesday defeated one measure that would have extended the sales tax for two years. But the bill's author, Sen. Alfred Alquist, D-San Jose, was granted permission to bring the bill up later. Traditionally, the Legislature postpones deciding major issues such as tax increases and the most severe cuts in programs until late in budget negotiations. Alternatives requested Elsewhere Tuesday, a joint task force of the Assembly and Senate local government committees asked the law enforcement officials to provide alternatives to cutting property tax revenues for local government.

After hours of testimony about the dire consequences the cuts would produce, lawmakers had few alternatives from which to choose. "The testimony we have heard here has been sobering," said Assemblyman Mike Gotch, D-San Diego. "But we have not had an avalanche of solutions." While the law enforcement representatives were lobbying legislators, the entire five-member Board of Supervisors from Los Angeles County met privately with Wilson to voice their complaints about the property tax shift. Aides to Wilson said the politically powerful supervisors made it clear they adamantly opposed the proposal. "They believe the property tax transfer severely impacts them and the governor understands them.

He pointed to the steps he has taken to make it easier to bear. But there is still a lot of disagreement," said Schnur. The meeting prompted a tense standoff between Schnur, state police officers assigned to Wilson's security staff and reporters who demanded to be admitted. Oakland Palo Alto (510) 834-2833 327-3711 460-0200 441-1780 244-1015 938-0800 .415 Pleasanlon (510) Santa Clara Walnut 916 408 '510) 635 1533 232 42 706-2772 492 033 IttHoMfat rfll- 1107 2IUS" (Rl UnwnWrlAI (116)125555 1644 1521 iIO) 417 I22J Campbell of Fairfield. They also raided his locker where he works at the East Bay Municipal Utilities District Police, who invited the press to go along on the raids, recovered 25 boxes of material that included personal writings, a logbooks on visits to cemeteries, including one where a kidnapped girl is buried, dog tags with the names of missing girls on them and a Barbie Doll pouch.

A court affidavit said the search warrant was requested because Nikki Campbell's scent had been found in Bindner's Toyota station wagon in early 1992 and at the grave of Angela Bugay, an Antioch child who was raped and murdered in 1983. Three months later, Bindner was arrested for drunken driving by Oakland police near the Mountain View Cemetery, where Angela is buried, after a woman visiting the graveyard with her small daughter recognized him and called police. Concern for girls Bindner acknowledged he was a frequent visitor to Angela's grave, as well as other cemeteries, but has maintained that his visits and his searches for another missing girl, Amber Schwarz, of Pinole, were motivated by concern for the dead and missing girls and nothing else. The charge of driving under the influence was dismissed on Monday by visiting Municipal Judge Joseph Orr of Mendocino County. Orr agreed with Burris' claim that police had no probable cause to stop him.

Burris said at the time of the arrest that the woman overreacted, saying, "This is part of the ongoing level of damage suffered by my client as a result of a search warrant issued and served publicly by Fairfield police." The harassment continued three days later when Oakland police briefly detained Bindner at Mountain View where he was working as a volunteer maintenance worker, Burris said. In February, Bindner, who has never been charged in any of the cases, faced off on the "Jane Whitney Show" with the mothers of three missing Bay Area girls. Among them were Ann Campbell, Nikki's mother; Kim Swartz, mother of Amber Swartz, who was kidnapped in June 1988, and Sharon Nemeth, mother of Michaela Garecht, a Hayward girl who disappeared in November 1988. Kim Swartz, who was a friend of Bindner for nearly four years, claimed on the syndicated televi sion show that her daughter's scent also had been found by a bloodhound in Bindner's van. Police would not confirm that.

Damage claims such as Bindner's are almost routinely denied. But such claims must be filed against city and county agencies before they can be pursued in federal courts. St, San Rafael VISA, MC AMEX, DISCOVER WE SHIP A-a i mm Protest staged after Alameda supervisors approve tentative plan for $33 million social-spending cut By Don Martinez OF THE EXAMINER STAFF OAKLAND A dozen people were arrested Tuesday after more than 100 welfare recipients and their advocates appeared before Alameda County supervisors to protest severe cuts in social spending that they said will drive many more poor families into homeless-ness. Following a heated hearing Tuesday, more than 20 of the demonstrators filed out of the supervisors' chambers in the County Administration Building and staged a hallway sit-in that ended two hours later with the arrests. A waiting Sheriffs Department bus took those arrested to the Oakland city jail, where they were cited for failure to disperse and released.

Despite emotional arguments against $33 million in proposed cuts to the county Social Services Agency, supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to adopt an initial reading of the proposal by Social Services Director Dr. Rodger Lum. The second and final vote will come June 29 when supervisors are expected to adopt the countywide budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. As Lum outlined the grim financial situation, he confirmed reports that the Alameda County district attorney's office is ready to file criminal charges against two eligibility workers who allegedly paid themselves more than $1,000 in homeless benefit checks. Chief Assistant District Attorney Tom Orloff said that charges may be filed against additional social service workers pending further investigation.

Lum's budget slashing is part of an overall belt-tightening plan in all county departments as officials brace for a budget shortfall of up to $212 million next fiscal year. Welfare advocates claimed that a slashed social services budget could add 5,000 more to the ranks of the county's estimated 1,000 BEING SUED? POSSIBLE LITIGATION? LOSING YOUR BUSINESS? You don't have to go to court and lose your moneyl We guarantee many ways to win by protecting yourself against law suits. We use instruments and strategies that will always you, instead of expensive lawyers! housands have won with us. Multi millions have been savedl Let us show you howl Call lor a free ona hour audio tape on "Asset Protection, Wins Every Time." NO OBLIGATION! CHASE INDEX America's largest and most successful asset and Income protector. Call Now! 1-800-995-9395 PAGER SPECIAL- $19 93 Limited Supply 900 MHZ STATEWIDE COVERAGE LOW AIRTIME RATES CALL TODAY INTERNATIONAL PAQINQ CORPORATION (800) 272-4396 553 Ngriffl B1, Ft City.

CA M404 (4151 34MIM 'Still prime suspect' "Nothing has changed since last December," said Sgt. Chuck Timm, spokesman for the Fairfield Police Department. "He's still our prime suspect." Timm declined, however, to say if or when charges would be filed. The claim called statements made by Fairfield police detective Harold Sagan unprofessional and said they had caused irreparable harm to Bindner. Sagan said he would not comment on the civil-rights claim, adding, "Nothing has changed.

He's still the prime suspect." Bindner and his wife of five years, Sandra, appeared at a press conference at Bums' Oakland office. She said the aftermath of her husband being named a suspect "has been devastating to my family." Her 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter have been taunted at school, she said, adding: "They don't even like to walk to the store anymore." She also said the stress has aggravated her ulcer condition and has forced her to take strong medication. Burris said unchecked harassment of his client had continued since a highly publicized raid on his home in December. Bowling alley Incident "Kids have been throwing rocks at Mr. Bindner and yelling epithets at him," Burris said He said Bindner was thrown out an Oakland bowling alley when he was recognized.

"He and his family have been the object of constant harassment, derision, ridicule and public condemnation," Burris said. Bindner's North Oakland home was raided last Dec. 9 by Fairfield officers looking for evidence to tie him to the kidnapping of Nikki ni 925 4th PkI 1 aji 'Wusajsa American Express Travel Agency Just Made Your Hours Our Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, Sat-S lun 10am-4pm. You know you can always call or visit any of our 26 Bay Area travel offices during regular business hours. And now, we're extending our calling hours so you can reach us on our local, toll-free hotline.

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