Daily News from New York, New York • 290

DAILY NEWS, WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 21. 1977 7 ilgen ads To Ssk. mm Guilty Theft of funds nun HT Fro Athletes By EDWARD KIRKMAN Richard Sorkin, a former athletes' agent charged with stealing more than $700,000 from 32 clients and others, pleaded guilty yester day to seven counts of grand larceny in Nassau County Court, Mineola Sorkin. 37.

a former sports writer, told Judge Henderson Morrison that he lost his clients' money through foolish stock market investments, which I thought were sound at the time." Much of the money, however, went to support gambling habit that reached a S20.000 daily outlay, according to sources close to the case. In exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to only seven counts of the criminal information, the slight, baldish ex agent agreed to cooperate with District Attorney Denis Dillon's probers, who are seeking to establish links between Sorkin and bookmakers affiliated with organized crime. Sorkin. who will be sentenced on News prtoio dy Jim Mooncy Attorney Michael Kent (1.) listens Richard Sorkin talks at Mineola courthouse. Fed Funds Finally Finish Paving on West End A ve.

By JOHN LEWIS West End Ave. residents, who have been besieged all summer long by noise and congestion after the city tore up a section of the troadway which had been repaved only a year ago, can rest easily once again. The work is completed, according to the Department of No 1, faces a prison term of up to seven years. "This office will not recommend parole." said Dillon. Sorkin, who represented hockey stars Bob Nystron.

Bob Bourne. Jude Diouin and Garry Howatt of the Islanders, and Ranger ace Ron Greschner. among others, was hoping to draw a suspended sentence for his cooperation. His former clients hae filed civil suits to reclaim their funds from Sorkin, who insists he is broke. Says He Is Broke Sorkin named as bookmakers who handled hundreds of thousands of dollars of his action Gustave Weissbrot of Flusing, Queens, and Dominick Gentile of the Bronx, The News learned.

In a separate case Gentile is awaiting trial in Manhattan on charges of operating a 200 million-a-year bookmaking ring. Arrested in June Gentile, according to the Manhattan indictment, is alleged to have dispensed 335.000 to cops he thought were on the take. He also gave tickets to sporting events and Broadway plays to the undercover officers, at the time Sorkin was losing heavily to him, sources said. Weissbrot, who has a record of numerous bookmaking arrests, was described by Sorkin as an old friend in addition to a man he bet with, probers said. Sorkin was arrested in June following complaints to Dillon's office and the Brooklyn U.S.

attorney's fraud bureau by clients who said the agent had mishandled their funds. Sorkin received pay-cheeks from his clients' teams which he was su posed to invest in their behalf. In addition, the agent gave the players an allowance and paid their bills. When several players discovered their charge accounts had been canceled by department stores and Sorkin couldn't give a reasonable explanation, authorities were informed. Highways.

Hypertension Tests to Start The American Red Cross and the New York Telephone Co. will be offering a series of free tests to determine possible hyptertension cases throughout the West Side and Harlem starting today. A New York Telephone Community Service Van will be parked at 106th St. and Broadway from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

today to administer the tests. The second testing day will be on Friday in the lobby of the New York State Office Building. 163 W. 125th St. A third testing will be held next Wednesday at 72d St.

and Broadway. Medicaid experts say U.S. blacks, ami especially young black males, have a hiuh incidence of The controversial $319,000 street repair job. which began last June and covered the area from 72d to 78th was financed with federal public works money. In 1976, the city spent $25,000 repaying the same section of roadway which had been chewed up by traffic diverted from the old West Side Highway.

The residents, meanwhile, are angry over what they say is another city boondoggle, and fearful that the avenue will eventually become an extension of the federally-funded Westway above 42d St. Assistant Highway Commissioner Jailed in Rhodesia Henry Sloan said that the work was necessary because the road has not been reconstructed since 1921 when it was originally built. He said that traffic density and the incursions by utility companies left the base of the road in "bad shape." West End Ave. had been slated: for major capital reconstruction in the early 1970s, but the collapse of the West Side Highway and the city budget crunch canceled the project. "We had numerous complaints about the ripples in the road which caused noise.

Last year we resurfaced the road with asphalt to smooth it out and cut down on the noise," Sloan said. Right after the job was finished, Washington approved a public works bill to stimulate the economy. The work had to begin within 90 days to qualify, however. Since the West End Ave. project was designed and ready to go while other badly needed street repair programs were not it was given; the green light.

Sloan said that the work was the standard three on six construction three inches of asphalt on six inches of concrete and thus would not qualify it for heavy duty traffic from Westway. He said that once the final check lists are made on the road it will not be touched for another 20 to 25 years, depending, of course, on how badly the utility companies cut into it. Acts to Help Uun Kenya where she worked for seven years." The main evidence against her sister, she said, seems to be a personal diary nnd papers seized in a police raid on commission offices. "Of course, she was much more expressive there than she would have been in public. I don't think' if she expected any problems, that she would have kept a written diary." She said her sister has not been allowed to communicate with anyone except her attorney.

The family was just recently allowed to mail letters to her. If convicted. Sister Janice would face a maximum jail term of seven years. Her predecessor in the strife-torn country was expelled for his work, she said. Calls Her Courageous very idealistic, and if it requires militancy, she has the courage to do it.

She is a very courageous, very determined person. She always was. "When I asked someone what "spreading alarm and despondency' meant, they said to me, 'Oh, that must run in the Uy HOD KAPPSTATTER Efforts are being made, both through the State Department and the Vatican, to help Sister Janice McLaughlin, an American nun jailed in Rhodesia, her sister said yesterday. Sister Janice has been held without bail in a Salisbury jail since Aug. 31.

charged ith spreading alarm and despondency." Her sister. Mary Ellen, a supervisor at the- Antsel Guardian Home in Brooklyn, said the State Department has been working through the South African embassy in Rhodesia to assure that her riuhts in American citizen will be resptvied. Their family, she said, also has been in i-ontact with Fittsburyh Diocesan oii'i-iialn. whvre ihe family resides, to get help from the Vatican. Charged Police Brutality Sister Jaime.

35. a Maryfcnoll nun. was arrested with three other members of the Catholic Commission for Justice ai.d whi. has published oi police bru'aiity against blacks. her touri hearing, she told a magistrate she supported black freedom lighters iii mind and spirit." She's very committed to Africa." Miss said, "and wanted to be a part, if she ould.

of the history. believes very strongly in- "black seen it work in museum Area Named as Historic New York Public Library at 135 Second Ave. An e'ght-block area across Fifth Ave. from the Metropolitan Muscim of Art was designated yesterday as the city's 31st historic district by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Metropolitan Museum Historic District extends along Fifth Ave.

from E. 78th St. to E. 86th St. and includes portions of the side streets east to Madison Ave.

Commission Chairman Beverly Moss Spatt said the area represents "many of the unique qualities that make New York City so extraordinary." The district encompasses a number of buildings previously designated as landmarks, including the James Biddle Duke House at One E. 78th now the New York University Institute of Fine Arts. Old Slip Station, Too Under historic district designation, changes to structures within an area are permitted only when they are considered by the commission to be consistent with the preservation of the historic and architectural values of the district. In other action, the commission designated as landmarks the First Precinct police station at South St. and Old Slip and the Ottendorfer Branch of the The commission said the station is a "striking example of the neo-Italian Re-naissance style of well adapted to the functions of a municipal building." The building was used by the Police Department's First Precinct until January 1973.

The Ottendorfer building is the oldest branch library in Manhattan and is one of the earliest, built specifically as a public library. It was given to the citv in 13S4 by Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer who were German-American philanthropists. Al Miele.