Bennington Banner from Bennington, Vermont • 3

BENNINGTON BANNER LOCALSTATE TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1990 3 Supreme Court rules on 12-member juries Vermont Constitution guarantees jury trial, not number of jurors 1987 trial, providing just one alternate, prompting the judge to ask the lawyers, out of the hearing of the defendant, if they would agree to proceed with 11 jurors if At issue in the case was whether the state Constitution guarantees a person the right to a jury of 12 people. more than one juror was unable to continue. Both lawyers agreed and when two jurors were unable to sit, the case proceeded with 1 1 In its decision, the Supreme Court said that while the right to trial by jury is nearly absolute, the right to jury by 12 is not. A stipulation to a jury of fewer than 12 persons is not treated as the equivalent of a jury waiver, said the court decision. The justices said Machias lawyers agreement to the judge to the 11-person jury was sufficient, noting that agreement was later mentioned in open court and the client did not object.

Justice John Dooley dissented from the decision, saying, The Vermont Constitution guarantees a defendant the right to a 12-person jury no more and no less. This right can be waived only by strict adherence to the constitutional waiver provision, with the same formality required for waiver of an entire jury, wrote Dooley, a reference to the written statement or statement in open court necessary for a defendant to waive trial by jury. Dooley and Justice James Morse filed a joint dissent in another case decided Monday The court divided 3 2 in the case of Jay Edward Muzzy, involving official lnnminitv. Muzzy sued the Rutland County states attorney after being arrested and detained on a drunken driving charge that the deputy states attorney had previously agreed to dismiss. The deputy states attorney who agreed to the dismissal as part of a plea agreement on another charge -neglected to secure the dismissal.

Law enforcement officials, unaware of the dismissal, arrested Muzzv. MONTPELIER A Supreme Court decision on the right to trial by a 12-person jury prompted a strong dissent from one justice, who said the Vermont concept of a jury is deeply rooted in our heritage. At issue in the case was whether the state Constitution guarantees a person the right to a jury of 12 people. The Vermont Constitution entitles every person charged with a crimimal offense to a speedy public trial by an impartial jury unless the accused in open court or by writing waives that right. In the case before the court, Ephriam Machia of Highgate was convicted of simple assault following a 1986 incident in which he struck a police officer.

Only 13 jurors were seated at his Small plane crash claims four Canadian victims A Civil Air Patrol member, James Gricci, said an investigation showed that the planes fuel tanks were empty, but police would not say whether the plane had run out of gas or had engine problems. Ken Jones, who was a masonry worker for Graham Construction, had owned the plane for about a year, friends said. The four Canadians had been in Nova Scotia for a masonry conference, a friend and coworker, Ron Winkler, told the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, a daily newspaper. Winkler said he suspects that Jones wanted to see some of the American airports instead of making a direct trip back to Saskatoon, 200 miles north of the Canadian border with Montana. The plane went down in steeply banked woods of maple and pine near the Darling Hill road, about a mile from Route 12 in a section of Berlin called Riverton.

Rescue workers had to use four-wheel-drive vehicles to get close to the crash site and built a makeshift bridge from a rocky ledge over which the bodies were carried out. One of the first on the scene was Winton Goodrich, assistant principal at the Peoples Academy in Morrisville, who lives near the crash site. The former auxiliary trooper was a member of the search party that found the plane about three hours after it went down, he said. The discovery was made on the second sweep of the mountain by the searchers, who were working in difficult terrain. It was very, very steep, Goodrich said.

Goodrich said he thought the plane was in trouble before it crashed. The plane appeared to have engine problems. Very soon I heard the impact in the trees, he told television station WCAX of Burlington. Sgt. Jim Ross of the Vermont state police said it was believed the plane was heading for the Burlington International Airport.

DAVID CRAM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BERLIN Vermont State Police have identified four Canadians killed in a weekend plane crash in Berlin as being from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The two couples were killed Saturday when their twin-engine Piper Comanche plane crashed in a heavily wooded area, authorities said. Sgt. Bruce McClure of the Middlesex State Police said autopsies have positively confirmed the identities. They were identified as Mildred Jones, 49, Ken Jones, 48, Karen Schlitt, 35, and Helmut Schlitt, 48.

Capt. Stan Warshaw of the Civil Air Patrol in Rutland said the plane disappeared from radar and began transmitting its emergency distress signal at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday. I have no information as to why the plane went down, he said. Vormont Briefs Supreme Court upholds Book Press judgment munity.

A national group, the League of Conservation Voters, is supporting Smith; Environmental Action, another national group, is backing Sanders. But last week, the Vermont Alliance of Conservation Voters declined to publicly back any of the candidates because its board was split between Smith and Sanders. Sanders and Smith want repeal of raise BURLINGTON (AP) Independent congressional candidate Bernard Sanders and Rep. Peter Smith, agreed yesterday they would support legislation repealing the pay raise that Congress voted for itself last year. The bill was introduced by Rep.

Andrew Jacobs, and Rep. Hank Brown, R-Colo. Generally speaking, it seems appropriate to reward people who do an excellent job with large pay increases, Sanders said. Frankly, the Congress of the United States is not doing an excellent job and does not deserve a big pay increase. Smiths campaign manager, Judy Shailor, said Smith also supports the legislation.

Shaiior noted that Smith had voted against the pay raise. and $3,000 to Smithi the incumbent who has served one term. In making the endorsement, the Sierra Club, which has the nations largest environmental political action committee, bypassed independent Bernard Sanders and Democrat Dolores Sandoval. Suzanne Martin, chair of the Vermont chapter, said the group did not interview Sandoval, but had no problem with Sanders environmental record. There were no flaws at all, Martin said of Sanders record.

However, Bill Stetson, a spokesman for the national groups political action committee, said the Sierra Clubs policy is to endorse the incumbent if he or she has a good record. Smiths record is perfect, he said. We feel its good policy to endorse a candidate whos worked for us, Stetson said. Youre just giving up too much to give up a good incumbent. The largest a candidate could receive is $5,000 before the September primary election and $5,000 before the General Election.

Both Sanders and Smith have sought environmental endorsements this year, but those endorsements have split the environmental com Welch criticizes Snelling for refusing to debate MONTPELIER (AP) Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Welch criticized his Republican opponent yesterday for refusing to participate in a televised debate on the states largest television station. Welch said Republican candidate Richard Snelling has been willing to buy advertising time on WCAX-TV, a CBS affiliate, but unwilling to appear in a debate on that station where the issues could be fully discussed. Welch said at a news conference that one issue he hoped to tackle during a debate was property tax reform. Welch has called for funding property tax reform by increasing the tax on second homes in the state. Dick Snelling does not want to talk about his proposal because there is nothing there, Welch said.

The Snelling campaigns pre-emptive purchase of TV airtime with tens of thousands of dollars while rejecting free time on the states largest station is the ultimate in cynical politics. As of earlier this week, Snelling had reserved $68,000 worth of commercial time on the states television stations to run right up to the Nov. 6 general election. Welch has taken almost $15,000 in advertising on the stations, with ads scheduled to run through early Oct. Station representatives said they expect the Welch campaign to be making additional buys shortly.

Judy Simpson, news director at Channel 22 in Burlington, said her station had also asked Snelling to participate in a live, one-hour debate to be aired in October, but Snelling had declined. Snelling campaign manager, Tom Moore, said Thursday that Snelling had agreed to appear at 21 political debates or forums with Welch. Included, Moore noted, are televised debates on two other television stations. He said Snelling had made an extraordinary effort to debate Welch. Moore added that Snellings campaign schedule had been set weeks ago and further debates could not be included.

Sierra Club endorses Peter Smith MONTPELIER (AP) Republican Peter Smith picked up another endorsement for his U.S. House bid from an environmental group yesterday. The Sierra Club gave its backing MONTPELIER (AP) A judgment against the liability insurance carrier for The Book Press of Brat-tleboro has been upheld by the Vermont Supreme Court. In a ruling released yesterday, the high court said Liberty Mutual Insurance Company was liable in a 1981 industrial accident, even though it was not directly responsible for safety at the bookmaking plant. Book Press employee Lyman Derosia severely injured his fingers on a table saw on which the protective guard had been removed.

Derosias lawyers argued in court that the insurance company conducted safety inspections at the plant in a negligent fashion and knew the table saw was being operated without the safety guard. The insurance company had sought a summary judgment, in part, on the grounds that state law prohibited actions against an employers workers compensation Karl Jacobsen, the insurance companys loss-prevention manager, had testified that he concluded in 1980 that the machines were a major source of injury at the plant, but no recommendations were made to reduce or eliminate those injuries or risks. The court said liability is not absolute for the insurer which undertakes an accident avoidance program and is negligent in administering that program. (W)e agree that there is no evidence, for example, that the defendant caused or sanctioned the removal of the saw guard, said Chief Justice Frederic Allen, writing for the court. The failures were ones of fulfillment undertaking safety reviews and inspections, and then allowing those salutary activities to abate before completion with no warning to the employer that they would not be finished.

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