The Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin • 9

Friday, Nov. 6, 1992 The Capital Times IB Jury finds tro men guilty of defrauding 67 area farmers Working out of his Fitchburg workshop, Karl Lechten is reviving an artform that most people assume died with the Renaissance; he's making suits of armor. Not the imitation kind, but the real stuff of kings and knights. same time they built its debt by selling notes to the farmers, prosecutors charged. The nine-day trial, which generated 185 evidence exhibits, posed a real challenge in deciphering, organizing and presenting the complicated relationships between FLS and DAS, said Frank.

Defense attorneys countered that the notes did not fit the legal description of securities and that FLS officers had nothing to hide about the companys finances because the company was turning a profit. If anybody wanted information, all they had to do was ask," John Markson told the jury. Defense attorneys told the jury that FLS experienced only a cash flow problem in 1985, until its three auction managers jumped ship to start a competing business. The company filed for bankruptcy the following year and eventually was liquidated. Defense attorney Stephen Hurley accused prosecutors of doing what the defendants were charged with omitting and misrepresenting information.

He claimed the prosecution manipulated evidence of FLS financial condition and told the jury that Mueller and Stopple must have known that the company was beginning to slip. That doesnt cut it, Hurley said. Youd better prove it. Defense attorneys have asked Circuit Judge Daniel Moeser to rule that the statute of limitations on the offense the last alleged instance of which was in May 1985 had expired by the time the state brought charges in 1991. No hearing date on that motion was set.

By Pat Schneider The Capital Times The operators of a bankrupt farm auction company each face 10 years in prison after a jury Thursday convicted them of defrauding 67 area farmers of $1.5 million. Mark W. Mueller, 48, of Edger-ton, and James I. Stopple, 47, of Fitchburg, were convicted of racketeering in Dane County Circuit Court following 3VS hours of deliberation. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank had argued that Mueller and Stopple schemed in 1984 and 1985 to sell farmers securities notes for the proceeds from auctions on farm property even though they knew that Farm Loan Service was increasingly unable to pay off the notes.

Farmers from Middleton, Sun Prairie, Windsor, Pardeeville, and other rural communities testified that Farm Services longstanding reputation had assured them that the money was safe. Farm Loan Service had a powerful reputation in the farming community, Frank told the jury. These farmers were unsophisticated investors, used to doing things on a handshake. They didnt have a clue about what was going on. What was going on, Frank said, was that Farm Loan was withholding information about the companys precarious financial condition as it pressed farmers to buy notes to provide cash to pay off old notes.

Mueller and Stopple also transferred assets between Farm Loan and its parent company, Diversified Agricultural Services, to funnel assets away from FLS at the I ore than most, Karl Lechten actually has something to throw when he I throws down the gauntlet. Asked to prove his claim that his is the only bona fide plattner shop on the American continent, the 49-year-old tailor of cold-forged steel thrusts a beefy arm impatiently toward a finely etched suit of armor. Forget about a certificate. Thats just a piece of paper, Lechten says, still with a trace of his native German accent. Look at my work.

I dare anyone to make something like that. What Lechten, of Madison, makes are original suits of armor. Not the imitation kind you can rent for Halloween, but the real stuff of i ii kings and knights, Stretch of U.S. 51 nearly set to reopen said. The reconstruction of U.S.

51 from the Beltline to Stoughton began in April and is about a month behind schedule. Business owners in McFarland have complained about the delays, saying the roadwork has caused business to drop by as much as 40 percent. The Dairy Queen between Burma Road and the Yahara Bridge, which also is under construction, is one of the many businesses that has seriously been affected by the roadwork. Our sales have decreased by as much as 30 percent every month, owner Ted Mosso said. It seems like theres a lot of delays.

We were told the highway was going to open for sure by Oct. 25 and it still isnt open yet. Well definitely be increasing our sales once its opened up. The Kwik Trip at the intersection of Farwell Street and U.S. 51 saw an opportunity to remodel during the construction and reopened its doors two weeks ago.

Im hoping to see things getting back to normal. It makes my customers happy and if theyre happy, Im happy, Manager Charley Hutchinson said. By Jorge L. Carbajosa Correspondent for The Capital Tunes McFARLAND Although the bulk of reconstruction of U.S. 51 in McFarland will not be over until late December, the flow of traffic will be safer and smoother by the end of next week.

A crossover between Siggel-kow Road and Taylor Road is expected to open and traffic signals will replace the three-way stop sign at the intersection of Far-well Street and U.S. 51. There will be four lanes of traffic from the crossover all the way through the village. There will be counter-directional traffic from the Beltline (in Madison) down to Siggelkow, at which point southbound traffic will cross through the median area and then pick up the newly constructed southbound lanes, said Department of Transportation Supervisor Beth Cannestra. However, the crossover will open on time only if the weather stays dry and when the traffic signals, pavement markings and beam guards are installed.

"We want it to be as safe as possible before we open it to traffic and safety will be the determining factor, Cannestra Karl Lechten says he runs the only bona fide plattner shop on the American continent The 49-year-old metal tailor works out of his Fitchburg shop, where he creates parade armor. Lechten will fashion a simple helmet for about $250. A full suit of armor starts around $800, with prices running higher for more ornate suits. hammered out of sheets of 18-gauge steel and held together by rivets and thick leather straps. Working out of his Fitchburg workshop, Lechten is reviving an art form that most people probably assume died with the Renaissance.

His suits are patterned after the exquisite designs of the late 15th and early 16th centuries i when the art reached its apex at the hands of German and Italian armorers, or plattners. Nobody has ever reached that plateau again, Lechten said. "This is exactly the thing thats driving me. For me, its the perfection. Definitely not for wearing into combat, Lechtens suits are of the so-called parade armor variety, what he calls the equivalent of your Rolex, your Mercedes, your Gucci.

They resemble fine china next to the lumbering outfits worn by the knights of the Middle Ages. Ornately etched with a latticework of vines and florets, flying eagles or knights kneeling before the crucified Christ, such suits were generally reserved for royalty and the very rich. You dont have to be nobility to own a piece of this knightly heritage today, however. Lechten will fashion a simple helmet for about $250; full suits start around $800, though there doesnt appear to be any upper limit. He quoted a particularly difficult suit of armor at $90,000, figuring 10 months labor.

The customer opted for an embossed shield instead. A native of Bremen, Germany, Lechten grew up in a world steeped in tales of castles and armor and knights. But it wasnt until his mid-40s that he decided to abandon a successful career as a hairstylist most of it spent in his adopted home town of Madison, where he moved with his wife, Mary, in 1966 to learn the trade that had fascinated him as a youth. From a television program he learned of Heinz Schneider, one of four remaining plattners in Europe. Receiving no response to his pleas to be taken on as an apprentice, Lechten flew to Germany and appeared on Schneiders doorstep.

I virtually put a gun to his head to train me, Lechten said, laughing. That was just two years ago. Only now gaining recognition as a plattner in his own right, Lechten is circumspect about Jus past, as if no one would believe that a former hairdresser is capable of such works of art. But he insists he is, above all else, a designer. And he claims to be the only one outside of Europe who has been trained by one of the true masters of the trade.

I have a family with kids going through college, Lechten said. I have risked everything without a nickel coming through the door other than this. Yet I know Im going to Continued on Page 2B Chess rating developer dies of heart attack at 89 an avid bridge player in his later years, died of a heart attack at his home. His bridge partners found him when they went to pick him up for a regular game. An adolescent Fischer played Elo in 1957 during the New Western Open national tournament at the Astor Hotel in Milwaukee.

Fischer won after the 49th move when Elo resigned. Elo wrote dozens of articles about his rating system, including its uses in the study of geriatrics to determine the peak age of a mans mental abilities. MILWAUKEE (AP) Arpad E. Elo, a retired Marquette University physics professor who developed an internationally accepted chess rating system, has died at the age of 89. Henry Meifert, a chess master who handles publicity for the Milwaukee Municipal Chess Association, which Elo helped found, noted that Elo, of suburban Brookfield, died Thursday on the day Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky in a highly publicized chess rematch in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

The chess master, who became 1 to buy Cadillac The first thing Im getting is a Cadillac, said Ostrowski, a laid-off truck driver. Ive wanted to own a Cadillac since I was a kid and now Im going to have one. Ostrowski, who purchased his ticket at Kassees Food Market in Milwaukee, is the fourth person to hit the Megabucks jackpot. His winning numbers were drawn Wednesday. Lottery winner MILWAUKEE (AP) An unemployed 47-year-old Milwaukee man received a nearly $8 million birthday present when he won Wisconsins Megabucks jackpot, the games biggest prize ever.

Robert Ostrowskis $7,984,200 prize was more than all the previous winnings combined since the game started June 21, lottery officials said Thursday. 'i.