North Adams Transcript from North Adams, Massachusetts • 18

State Zhc Zmuscript 1 8 Wednesday, September 28, 1 994 rieS Attorney: Accused will be back Murder suspect suspended from school; some students protest tTIortgngo aid announced BOSTON (AP) Suie officials announced a program Tuesday that will combine federal tax credits with low-cost mortgages to help hundreds of families buy their first homes. The program, unveiled by state Treasurer Joseph Malone and Communities and Development Secretary Mary Padula, is expected to make $50 million in mortgages available to about 500 low- to middle-income home-buyers. It will couple two existing initiatives. One is the Mortgage Credit Certificate Program, which offers federal tax credits based on the amount of interest attached to the home loan. The other initiative, offered by the treasurer's office and the Federal They are losing sight of the principle here," Gerhart said.

"Stephen as a friend is overriding the fact that a young man lost his life. Until the courts decide one way or another it is our position that he should not be here." Joe McLaughlin disagreed. The 18-year-old, one of the students sus-; pended, said his best friend has been -convicted of nothing and has a right to attend classes. "I can understand their point the headline says murder and then you see a kid in school and, yeah, there's going to be a McLaughlin said. "But we just want to tell our side of the story." Taking a stand has its price, though.

McLaughlin can't make up the work he misses during the suspension, which could hurt him when he applies to colleges. "Was it worth it? I wouldn't change a thing," he said. school's integrity and maintain the quality of education here without interruption." School officials say the mere presence of an accused killer is disruptive, especially for the 40 students who testified before the grand jury that indicted DiRenzo. Over the weekend, school officials heard a group of DiRenzo's friends planned to stage a walkout to protest the suspension. MacKinley called a senior class meeting Monday morning before classes to explain the de cision.

During the assembly, someone pulled a fire alarm, emptying the school. When the students were called back inside, 25 of the 850 students refused to go and were suspended for three days each, MacKinley said. Six other students who drifted in late after the fire alarm were suspended for pne day. his friends walked. slither their way into power." DiRenzo was first suspended in April following his indictment His parents appealed the suspension to Brockton Superior Court, which refused to overturn the decision.

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals reversed the suspension Sept 1, setting the stage for DiRenzo's return to classes this fall. But the school received so many complaints from parents, teachers and students in just the first 12 days of classes that Principal A. Scott MacKinley suspended him for a second time, using a clause in the state's Education Reform Act that gives school administrators more leeway to deal with students charged with felonies. "The people of the community are very concerned. The feeling is 100-to-1 that a student indicted for murder should not be in school," Superintendent Ronald Gerhart said.

"We have had to fight to defend the Home Loan Mortgage provides mortgages with downpayments as low as 5 percent The loans are then turned into government-backed securities bought by the Massachusetts State Teachers' and Employees Retirement Systems Trust State officials said buyers must meet certain income guidelines, depending on the size of the family and where the home is being bought But typically, a buyer will have to earn at least $25,000. Husband-wife news anchors BOSTON (AP) John Marler, a news anchor at WAGA-TV-Channel 5 in Atlanta, has been named to co-anchor the nightly news at WHDH-TV-Channel7. Marler 's wife, CNN anchor Cathy Marshall, also will work as an anchor at Channel 7, though not on the same newscast The couple will be Boston's second husband and wife anchors; the others are Chet Curtis and Natalie Jacobson at WCVB-TV-Channel 5, who appear together. Marler will work with Kim Carrigan on the anchor desk at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 1 1 p.m., Monday through Friday.

He replaces R.D. Sahl, who resigned this summer. On Monday, Sahl was named to anchor the 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. broadcasts at New England Cable News.

Channel 7's Gerry Grant will return to the early morning anchor desk, Lester Strong to the 5:30 p.m. anchor desk and Jonathan Hall to the weekend anchor desk. All had been sharing anchor duties with Carrigan. Marler, 40, previously was news anchor at ABC-TV -Channel 7 in New York. Marshall, 33, an Auburn native who grew up in Beverly, was an anchor at WTNH-TV-Channel 8 in Hartford.

Escaped prisoner captured ROCKLAND, Mass. (AP) A high school senior charged with murder has been removed from the classroom for a second time, but his attorney says the teen-ager may be back in school by the week's end. Stephen DiRenzo is one of six people accused of beating 22-year-old Edward Sullivan to death outside a sandwich shop in February. Police say he threw the first punch. School officials say he has no place in Rockland High School.

Last week, the principal used a state statute to get around a court ruling that allowed the 17-year-old to attend classes while awaiting trial. DiRenzo, who is free on $25,000 bail, is appealing the suspension. He declined comment. "Stephen's going to be back in school, I'm confident. They blew it," said the teen-ager's attorney, Arthur Hensley.

"The Constitution is there to protect people like DiRenzo from small-minded bureaucrats who Poverty BOSTON (AP) The number of children living in poverty is going up faster in suburbia, once a world of prosperity and promise, than it is in big cities or rural areas, researchers say. For the population as a whole, the proportion of children living below the poverty line rose 49 percent from 1973 to 1992, say researchers at the Tufts University Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy, who examined Census Bureau data. In rural areas, the share of children in poverty grew 36 percent, and in the inner city, 56 percent, they said. But in the suburbs, the increase was 76 percent "There's been a wholesale transformation of the American economy," Tufts researcher J. Larry Brown said.

"Half of our families are experiencing declining wages, and the other half are those who have always been struggling near pover-ty." Brown and co-author John T. Amherst police challenge girl's allegations of racial harassment AMHERST, Mass. (AP) Authorities say a 13-year-old schoolgirl concocted accounts of racial abuse that touched off a wave of sympathy in this community. Police Chief Donald N. Maia said Tuesday he has asked a clerk-magistrate at the Northampton District Court to file a criminal complaint against the girl for knowingly making false reports to police.

He withheld her name because of her age. The girl, who is black, is among 29 minority pupils at Amherst Regional Junior High School, which has 950 pupils. She reported that she had found racist, threatening notes in her locker and backpack on three days earlier this month. She also said she was assaulted in a bathroom on Sept 12 by two white girls who tried to choke her with a veil she wears as a Muslim, according to school officials. But the chief, who called a news conference on her case, said there was no sign of injury.

He said the girl wrote the threatening notes her suburbs statistics branch of the Census Bureau. Arloc Sherman, a researcher at the Children's Defense Fund, cautioned that the increase in poverty among suburban children was not caused by more minorities moving out from the inner city. Of poor suburban children in 1992, 70 percent were white, he said. "The broader message," Sherman said, "is there is child poverty everywhere in this country, and yet one more group we thought was safe from child poverty is not, if it ever was." Poverty seems to have reached even well-to-do suburbs. Concord, a Boston suburb of has a town trust that provides money for struggling families.

Trust administer Peg Purcell said that over the past six years she has been given more aid to single mothers. "These are people who maybe have a nice home in town and all of a sudden, there's only one income," she said. ers said school officials had failed to effectively combat racism. The principal said school officials were subjected to more than five hours of "hostility and abuse" when they met with demonstrators. In response to worries about the girl's safety, school officials arranged for a personal guard to accompany her throughout the school day.

One supporter of the girl's cause, Reynolds Winslow, the local president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, declined comment on the legal case against the girl. But he defended community members who rushed to her support. He said some people "get emotional because they don't feel they're being heard or don't feel sensitivity to the needs of persons of color. "They may express it in a way that's not easily understood by people who are of the majority," he added. story library, which houses Du Bois' personal papers, has officially remained nameless.

In backing the Du Bois proposal, Chancellor Scott said Monday that, "He is one of the major intellectuals of this century." Previously, university leaders were publicly wary of the idea. In December, trustees adopted a policy to name buildings generally for major contributors. Scott later confirmed that the intent was "to try as far as "possible to use naming of buildings to raise money." But Scott has since appointed a committee that is looking into ways to raise money in conjunction with the Du Bois name." Historian and educator Du Bois, who was bom 1868 in Great Barring-ton and died in 1963, helped found a group that later developed into the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. this to rest? brother's victory." Romney ended his silence about the Mormon Church's practice, until 1978, of barring blacks from becoming priests, saying the change was "one of the most emotional and hap py days of my life. But Romney who until this year was president of the Boston area stake, the equivalent of a diocese refused to say how he felt about the church ban on female priests.

grows in Cook cited three reasons for the increase in poverty among children in the suburbs: declining real wages; families moving from inner cities to suburbs; and larger suburbs, extending out into what previously had been rural areas. In 1973, about 8 percent of suburban children were members of families below the poverty line, defined then as $4,540 for a family of four. In 1992, when the poverty line had risen to $15,355 for a family of four, that had risen to 13.8 percent The poverty rate overall is higher for children than adults, according to census figures. In the United States, 15 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, but 25 percent of children are poor. In suburbs, 9.7 percent of people are poor, compared with 13.8 percent of the children.

"Children are just bad off in our country. It could be single-parent households, it could be lower wages over time," said Kathleen Short, chief of the poverty and wealth self. He said investigators who seized her backpack found a notebook inside with paper that carried "clear imprints" of the menacing notes. Police could not explain why the girl lied. The clerk-magistrate must now set a date for a hearing to decide whether to issue a complaint The girl would face a juvenile court judge.

Meanwhile, the girl has not been going to school and faces an eventual disciplinary hearing there, according to Principal Jon Beurruto. "It is a very regrettable incident," he said. "And we also regret that some members of our community were not as careful as they should have been in assigning blame and in provoking high levels of emotion." The girl's accounts prompted at least two demonstrations of support by students and residents in this liberal-minded town, which is home to the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College. The girl's support Bois. The university trustees are expected to consider his recommendation at a campus meeting next Wednesday.

"This is the first academic build-' ing that is going to be named after a person of color or an African American," said Shymala Ivatury, another student leader of the Du Bois coalition. "I think it will send a signal to students of color here and in the rest of the world that they may come." Only about 3 percent of this campus' 23,000 students are black, and campus activists have often faulted Scott and his predecessors for failing to attract more minorities to campus. The activists have also contended that the campus is often unfriendly to Some minority students were rankled by the campus' failure to adopt Du Bois name for the library, a proposal that dales from the first days of the 20-year-old building. The 26- faith. Noting that in 1960 John F.

Kennedy dispelled questions about his religion to become the nation's first Catholic president, Romney said: "The victory that John Kennedy won was not just for 40 million Americans who were born Catholics, it was for all Americans of all faiths. I'm sad to see that Ted Kennedy is trying to take away his FisliiiE! Closing one place could lead to overfishing at other places BOSTON (AP) Closing George's Bank may not do much to protect groundfish stocks and could lead, to overfishing in other areas, fisheries officials and environmentalists said. "The problem is that there are quite a lot of vessels that fish out there, mostly large, mostly very ef ficient vessels, said Douglas Marshallexecutive director of the New England Fishery Management Council. Closing Georges Bank could "push boats into other areas where the resources are also not in very good shape," he said. We may, in fact, end up clos ing Georges Bank and some other areas as well," Marshall said Tues day.

Maine fishermen already have become concerned that boats from southern New England could invade their waters, threatening their own groundfish. Closing Georges Bank is an op tion being discussed by the council after an August report from federal scientists called for drastically re ducing fishing for cod, haddock. and yellowtail flounder. Steven Murawski, a marine sci entist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said strict regulations approved earlier this year weren enough, despite their goal of cut ting fishing in hall over the next five to seven years. "It's too little, too late," he said.

Murawski said stocks of haddock and yellowtail flounder had "collapsed" and cod was in a state of "impending collapse." Haddock is being brought in at a rate of 800 tons a year, compared with catches that once were as large as 130,000 tons. Yellowtail flounder is down to 3,000 to 4,000 tons, compared with catches in the past of 30,000 to 40,000 tons. About 20,000 tons of cod will be brought in, compared with 45,000 to 50,000 in past years. Murawski spoke before giving a talk to environmentalists in Boston on the history of the groundfish industry. Ellie Dorsey, staff scientist for the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group, said closing Georges Bank and setting quotas for fish in other areas could be the answer.

"What a shame," she said. "And now we've got to figure out how to deal with the social and economic impacts of closing a major fishery." But she also said that, if the fish are left alone for some years, they could bounce back. ni.w An estimated 20,000 people tre employed in fishing in New Eng land. Georges Bank, located in the Atlantic Ocean beginning some 40 milej east of Cape Cod, is considered one of the world's most pro ductive fised one of the world most productive fishing grounds. The fishery management coun cil, which has 17 voting members.

includes state and federal officials and fishing industry representa tives. Its recommendations on fish-ing policy are usually adopted by the Commerce Department It could vote at the end of next month on whether to close Georges Hank or take other steps. Tony Verga, executive director of the Gloucester Fisheries Com mission, said, "We've got problems out there, there's no doubt about that We can't solve it by creating another one." Verga suggested a buyout plan for boat owners is well as help for pcopic pui oui ex me industry. RAYNHAM, Mass. (AP) An escaped prisoner who held a woman hostage for three days and said he wouldn't be taken alive was captured this morning in Middleboro following a massive manhunt Guy Cummings, 30, of Brockton, was caught in Percy's restaurant on Route 44.

He was immediately taken to the Raynham police station for booking. Officials said Cummings made a run for it, but was caught by a police dog. Cummings had been missing from the Dedham House of Correction since late August, said Officer Mario Bettencourt He was convicted in 1986 of assault with intent to kill, disorderly conduct and assault and battery on a police officer, police said. "He said he wouldn't be taken alive," said Raynham Sgt Paul Jordan. "He wouldn't be-taken back." Raynham Police Chief Peter King said Cummings allegedly took a woman hostage.

He said police were tipped off by some of the woman's friends, who said she had been acting strangely. King said the unidentified woman told police she had met Cummings at a nightclub, but did not know him well. He showed up at her Cranberry Ridge Apartments unannounced a few days ago, King said. The search began around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and originally focused around Massasoit State Park in Taunton and Taunton Airport Child pornographcr gets jail BOSTON (AP) A federal judge handed a 33-month prison sentence Tuesday to a man who sent, and received child pornography through his home computer.

Michael T. Chapman, 37, of Southbridge, had sent an image of a pre-pubescent girl engaged in a sexual act to a Detroit member of the computer network American On Line. The Detroit man helped the FBI investigation of Chapman, U.S. Attorney Donald Stem said. Prosecutors said a search of Chapman's home showed he had sent and received child pornography for months.

Chapman was indicted in the Eastern District of Michigan and pleaded guilty in June to one count of the transportation of child pornography. He was transferred to Massachusetts for sentencing. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said he would recommended Chapman be incarcerated at a North Carolina prison that has a treatment program for sexual offenders. Tough run regs in school SPRINGFIELD, Mass.

(AP) Saying he wants to make it clear that weapons won't be tolerated in city schools, Springfield School Superintendent Peter Negroni says a high school student found with an unloaded handgun faces a year's suspension as well as criminal charges. "I am very concerned that a youngster would bring even an unloaded gun to school," Negroni said Tuesday. He said city police were called and the 17-year-old student was arrested outside a classroom at the High School of Commerce on Tuesday morning after other students tipped off administrators. Police said the youth had the unloaded .22 caliber pistol in the waist band of his trousers. Meantime, a sweep of thousands of student lockers at another city high school Tuesday turned up two small knives, a can of pepper spray and a marijuana joint, Negroni said.

He said the youngsters with the contraband were suspended for 30 days and officials will be making more locker searches. Check stealer imprisoned BOSTON (AP) After 20 years of living off stolen U.S. Treasury checks, Conrad John Roles will continue to live off the government only this time in federal prison. The 67-year-old Roles, who claims to have no permanent home, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 14 months imprisonment for trying to cash a check he had stolen from the mail. U.S.

District Judge Rya Zobel also ordered Roles to serve an additional three-years of supervised release. Roles had pleaded guilty in June to a two-count indictment charging him with passing an altered and forged U.S. Treasury check and possessing more than 30 other stolen checks. Prosecutors said the Secret Service has been tracking this case since 1988, when they saw that someone was cashing forged checks stolen from the mail around the state. They finally linked Roles to the case in April when he tried to cash a stolen check at a bank in Paxton.

After his arrest April 5, Roles told the Secret Service that he had "essentially supported himself" for more than 20 years by stealing and cashing checks stolen around the Northeastern United States and Florida, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheila Sawyer, who prosecuted the case. Attorney jailed for extortion BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) A Birmingham attorney was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $15,000 as federal prosecutors closed an extortion case involving the late Jefferson County Judge Jack Montgomery. Attorney Tony Falletu was sentenced Monday for his conviction on several charges, including conspiring with Montgomery to extort money from clients.

He also was ordered to perform 300 hours of public service after leaving prison. U.S. District Judge William Acker allowed Falletu to remain free on bond until Oct 28. Acker ordered Falletu not to practice law between now and the time he reports to prison. 1 The judge then berated the U.S.

Justice Department for unequal application of the ux law in the case. The law requires lawyers to file a form with the Internal Revenue Service if they receive $10,000 in cash within a 12-month period for related transactions. Falletu was convicted of accepting more than that amount from drug defendant Eric Walker and from the father of drug defendant Thurmon Moore II without filing the proper forms. Acker said he had learned in recent days of a Massachusetts lawyer who had refused to file the ux forms Falletu was convicted of not filing. Chancellor wins over some critics with proposal to name library AMHERST, Mass.

(AP) Student leaders say this University of Massachusetts campus would be hanging out a welcome sign to minority students if it names its library after civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois. rI The students got backing for their proposal from Chancellor David Scott The move boosted Scott's own standing among some campus critics, even if it didn't win their enduring support "To actually go beyond the current thinking on campus and take an affirmative position with regard to the library takes leadership," Colin Cavell, a leader of the campus coalition promoting the Du Bois proposal, said Tuesday But he added, "As long as an individual is a public servant, the jury is out until they're no longer a public servant" The chancellor said Monday that the library should be named after Du Romney: Didn't JFK put BOSTON (AP) Republican Mitt Romney said he was glad when the Mormon Church lifted its ban on minorities becoming priests, but he says Sen. Edward M. Kennedy should not have asked about it As a new poll showed the 32-year senator pulling slightly ahead of Romney, the venture capitalist said Tuesday he was tired of questions and comments about his Mormon.