The Daily American from Somerset, Pennsylvania • 13

Da A-mencai. Somerset, Pa, Tyesia, Scheme 12, 2006 State Six animal-welfare supporters to be sentenced i A ii ii i mi i In i i jT I fa. Gambling regulators begin hearings By MARC LEVY Associated Prt Writer -V -4 J' 1 nin.ii Vj AP Prxxo Harness racers pass the finish line at Harrah's Casino Racetrack Monday in Chester, a day after the track opened. State gambling regulators on Monday began holding two days of licensing hearings as a prelude to authorizing slot-machine gambling at horse-racing tracks later this year. their homes vandalized, and they and their families received threatening e-mails, fates and phone calls.

The defendants were not accused of directly making threats or carrying out vandalism. Instead, they were charged with animal enterprise terrorism, stalking and other offenses. The group, based in Philadelphia, maintained its actions were protected under the First Amendment. The defendants, all in their late 20s or early 30s, have been released on bail. They face three to seven years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

Fines also may be levied specifically against the organization during Tuesday's hearing. TRENTON. N.J. (AP) Sis animal-welfare supporters face up to seven jears in prison when they are sentenced in federal court Tuesday. The members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, and the organization itself, were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment and vandalism against a Britain-based company that tests drugs and household products on animals.

The government charged that the group waged a five-year campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, posting on its Web site information about the employees at its East Millstone lab and about those who do business with the company. The information included their home phone numbers, addresses and where their children attended school. Many of those people saw HARRISBURG (AP) State gambling regulators on Monday began the licensing hearings that will be a prelude to authorizing slot-machine gambling at horse-racing tracks later this year. If all goes smoothly for the racetrack owners, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs could open the first slots parlor at a makeshift center this year and Harrah's Chester Casino Racetrack could open a finished slots parlor in January. Executives from the gambling companies that would own the racetrack slots parlors came to Harrisburg for the hearings to give their pitches and answer questions from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

At times, the questions were pointed. "I have a big problem sitting here and listening to you tout your commitment to diversity," board member Sanford D. Rivers told slots licenses for racetrack owners that the board hopes to issue in two weeks to give the racetracks a head start on gambling. Further hearings are anticipated before the board votes on the permanent licenses in December. The board is authorized to issue 14 slots licenses to racetracks, resorts and standalone casinos.

Seven of those licenses are reserved for racetracks, although there are only six applicants for them. The gaming board has scheduled licensing hearings leading up to Dec. 20, when it is expected to vote on all 22 applications that have been filed. Harrah's officials after noting that only a tiny fraction of the track's construction costs through June were spent on minority-owned firms. The 2004 law that legalized slots directed the gaming board to push applicants to ensure that minorities are represented among their owners, employees and contractors.

The $500 million-plus Harrah's Chester facility opened for racing on Sunday at the site of a shuttered shipyard along the Delaware River. Harrah's officials said they had sought minority-owned firms to compete for big con tracts on jobs such as design and steel fabrication, but found none. A Harrah's senior vice president, Jan Jones, said the board members" questions made clear that applicants must take diversity issues seriously. In addition, applicants will have to plan for a nonsmoking casino, Jones said, judging by the slew of questions from board members about how the companies would react to an indoor smoking ban in Pennsylvania. The hearings in the Pennsylvania State Museum auditorium continue at least through Tuesday and are tied specifically to conditional On the Net: A http:www.shac.net Huntingdon Life Sciences: http:www.huntingdon.com Baseball coach to stand trial in bearing of disabled player Jury selection begins in fatal pier collapse PHILADELPHIA (AP) A criminal trial began Monday for two businessmen who allegedly ignored safety warnings about a pier that collapsed six years ago, sending dozens of nightclub customers into the Delaware River and killing three women.

Pier-owner Michael Asbell and nightclub operator Eli Karetny ignored expert warnings that the pier was in imminent danger of collapse, and instead hid cracks in the decks with a rug and flowerpots, prosecutors say. The state Supreme Court ruled last year that prosecutors could' pursue felony charges of risking a catastrophe and conspiracy against Asbell By MICHAEL COWDEN Associated Press Writer PITTSBURGH (AP) A T-ball coach accused of offering an 8-year-old boy $25 to bean a disabled teammate is unlikely to receive a fair trial because of intense media Downs offered him $25 to make sure Bowers wouldn't be able to play. League rules require each player to. play at least three innings. Prosecutors did not return several phone calls from The Associated Press seking Philadelphia, with opening statements expected later this week.

The trial could last a month or more. The defense unsuccessfully tried to move the trial outside the city, where Pier 34 collapsed on May 18, 2000. Jean Marie Ferraro, 27; Monica Rodriguez, 2 1 and De Ann White, 25, were killed. The three women worked at the New Jersey State Aquarium, across the river in Camden. The women's families were awarded $7.4 million each in civil damages from Asbell, Karetny and others, while millions more went to the 47 injured victims.

Asbell, 64, of Merion, and Karetny, 65, of Cherry Hill, Monday, citing a gag order issued by Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper. ovefagfrrhe-mansawyeinromrhent on the start of the "ana Karetny. said. Jury selection began Monday in Common Pleas Court in Woman embezzles $1.5 million on tickets, trips PHILADELPHIA (AP) An office manager at a small business admitted on Monday that she embezzled $1.5 million, money she used to cover Super Bowl tickets, island trips and $150,000 in cash advances. Judith Campellone, 49, of Blackwood, N.J., skimmed the money from Pyramid Sheet Metal Co.

over a seven-year period ending in January 2005, prosecutors said. She faces an estimated37 to 57 Bowl in 2005 and buying Jimmy Buffett concert tickets for 50 friends. Campellone apologized in court Monday for her actions, Markman said. She pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud. Public defender Rossman Dewitt Thompson Jr.

did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. The company has sued its outside lines when she is sentenced on Dec. 20, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Markman said. The theft was not discovered until Campellone was on vacation and someone else handled the Philadelphia company's banking matters, according to the plea agreement.

Campellone told co-workers she had inherited money. She bragged of extravagances such as renting a beachfront house when the accountant over the theft. accountant over tne inert. months in prison under federal guide montns in prison under reerai Philadelphia Eagles played in the Super Philadelphia fcagles played in the Super guide- Once stabbed by suspect, Pennsylvania trial. Shaffer said Downs had joked at another game about paying players to hit an umpire with a ball.

His words were later taken out of context and used against him by Reese, Shaffer said. Bowers was hit because he misplayed balls while warming up with Reese, Shaffer said. "(Bowers) was terrible. It's not like he got blinded-sided," Shaffer said. "He put his glove up, he missed it and it went off his glove and hit him." The Falcons, the team Downs coached, are part of the R.W.

Clark Youth Baseball League. Bowers was hurt before a game in North Union Township, about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. League officials have said they investigated the matter and could not confirm whether Downs had done anything wrong; But they -said he wouldn't be allowed to coach again if he were convicted of criminal charges. "He didn't ask to return, which was a good thing," said Eric Forsythe, president of the league. ''I'm just curious to see what comes out in Mark R.

Downs 29, of Dunbar, was scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in Fayette County on a string of charges, including solicitation, corruption of minors and reckless endangerment. He refused a plea agreement in December. The charges against Downs drew the attention of media 'outlets around the world. Many columnists expressed disgust at what they considered adult corruption of a child's sport. "We feel he's been persecuted by the media," defense attorney Thomas Shaffer said.

"(The case) was on from the nightly news in Japan to every syndicated network broadcast across the country." Prosecutors have argued that Downs did not want Harry Bowers then 9, to play in a June 2005 T-ball playoff game because the boy wasn't as good as his teammates. Bowers has autism and mild mental retardation, Keith Reese, 8 at the time, testified at a preliminary hearing that he hit Bowers with baseballs first in the groin and later in the ear. Reese said he did it because woman plans to watch N.H. trial MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) A Pennsylvania woman nearly killed by a man more than a decade ago plans to be in the courtroom when he faces charges of murdering another woman.

Olivia Williams still bears the scars from when Robert Lopez stabbed her 13 times in the head, face, arms, hand and neck in 1994 in Bethlehem. Half of the 7-inch kitchen knife snapped off in her skull and had to be surgically removed. Lopez, 36, served 1 1 years in prison in Pennsylvania and moved to Manchester soon after his release in January 2005. Six months later, he was charged with beating his new girlfriend to death. Brandi Bernard, 19, of Manchester, was pregnant with Lopez's child.

She was beaten to death with a hammer at her mother's home. Williams, now 32 and the mother of a 19-month-oId girl. plans to attend the first days of the first-degree murder trial to support Bernard's family. Jury selection begins Tuesday in Hillsborough County Superior Court, and the trial is expected to start Sept. 18.

"I know how hard this is going to be because I went through it," Williams told the New Hampshire Union Leader. Williams said she hopes her presence sends a message to Lopez. "Your time is up," she said. "There is a time for him to understand this isn't a game no more this isn't a world of taking lives. We're not God and we're not here to take lives." Williams said she was 19 when Lopez locked her into his grandparents' kitchen and accused her of seeing someone else when he was in jail.

She told him she didn't want to see him anymore. He took out a knife and started stabbing her, Elderly woman on trial for killing neighbor with hammer '1-v. aiicr sne pusnca ncr mcaicai alert button, testified that he saw MacClcllan coming out of Eyer's house, covered jn blood. He went inside and i i Tuesday, September 26, 2006 6-8 p.m. Somerset Oncology Center Pre-registration required.

1 Sponsored by Somerset Hospital and the Somerset Oncology Center 0 ik2 By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Prsss Writer EASTON (AP) A 73-ycar-old woman accused of killing her 84-year-old neighbor with a hammer went on trial for homicide Monday after a judge refused to accept her guilty pica. Kathy MacClcllan, a gaunt-looking woman with a shock of white hair, was charged with attacking Marguerite "Tuddy" Eycr with the claw end of a ham-mcr on Feb. 7, 2005, in Hickory Hills, a mobile home community north of Bethlehem that is popular with retirees. Eyerdicd 13 minutes after being rushed to the emergency room; the coroner said she had been struck in the head 37 times. MacClcllan had been scheduled to plead guilty Monday to third-degree murder In exchange for a sen- 1VUIIU lJTbl IJTIM 111 pUVM VI blood, He said Eyer told him, "Kathy hit me with a hammer" Another neighbor, Dale Hartell, got to Eyer's house a few minutes later.

He said MacClcllan told him. "I didn't do nothing." Hartell said he replied. "You're not going anywhere until the police come," and she sank into a fetal position in the driveway. MacClcllan allegedly told police that she went to Eyer's house with cookies and a photo album and found her on the floor in a pool of blood. She said she got on top of Eycr and moved her arm around because she thought that would comfort her, and Screening Includes educational materials, blood lest, and physician examination.

This screening la not Intended for patients who have been previously diagnosed with prostata cancer or those patients undef 40 years of age. Pre-register by calling the Somerset Oncology Center at 444-1424 APPhoio Marguerite Eyer tence of 17 to 39 years In prison. But when MacClcllan was asked to agree to the facts of the case as laid out by Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, she refused, leading Judge Emit Giordano to order a trial. MacClcllan had earlier waived her right to a jury trial when prosecutors dropped their plan to seek the death AP Photo Kathy MocClellan pcnulty. She would have been one of the oldest defendants in modern times to stand trial on a capital murder charge.

Police investigators testified Monday they found Eyer's wallet, checkbook and other items in MacClellan's house and that MacClellan's face, hair and clothing were covered In Eyer's blood. James Dicking, a neighbor who went to check on Eycr got Lycr wood on her, according to police.