The Danville News from Danville, Pennsylvania • 1

to nDcmnrwnto tows IVOL. 95-NO. 175 Our 95th Year DANVILLE, FRIDAY, MARCH27, 1992 PRICE 35 CENTS Search for bank gunman Turbotville bank reopens for business By STEVEN D. MOLL Senior Associate Editor The robber, as captured on the bank's security camera. returning from lunch.

She, too, called police at the nearby Turkey Hill market. All we could think about was everyones safety," said Turkey Hill manager Gelastia Prosseda. We didnt want to peek out the door and draw the robbers attention." Prosseda said a customer had been pumping gas outside the market at the time, but came back later to tell police what she had seen at the bank. Don Yoder, who operates a service station across the road from the bank, said he didnt know a robbery had occurred until a customer called him and told him to look out his window. Yoder said the customer had called the bank, got put on hold; called back and got hung up on.

The customer then called Yoder to see what was going on at the bank. Although details are still sketchy, McBride said the robber first told tellers he needed a business loan. The customer service representative took him behind the counter and that, McBride said, is when he pulled the semi-automatic and told her it was a stick-up. The customer rep cleaned out tellers drawers as he followed her, gun aimed, McBride said. He put four bankers in the vault, ordering them not to move.

Then he blasted the bank cameras, sprayed a gas into the air that troopers think is home-made, and ran. According to McBride the gas is being analyzed. Turbotville firefighters cleared the bank air, using large fans. He failed. There were no customers in the lobby when the robber entered, although two customers were waiting at the drive-through window.

I waited at the window for a minute or two and nobody came to help me, said Mary Dewire, 38, of Watsontown RD 2, an employee of the Food Rite store next to the bank. The window opens to the left of the. tellers and gives a clear view of the teller row, with the vault opposite the window, about 20 feet away. After the robbery, a window shade was drawn and hand-lettered signs were taped to the window saying, The bank is temporarily closed. I saw him put the employees in the vault but I didnt see any gun, said Dcwirc.

I didnt know what was going on. Dewire said she went back to the store as quickly as she could and alerted the store manager that Something was wrong at the bank. Store manager Fred Seiders called police. Meanwhile, another Food Rite employee, meat manager Paul Koskey was in the drive-up line behind Dewire. The money drawer was extended out from the drive-in window and it wasnt being retracted, said Koskey.

He, too, saw the tellers in the vault and a crouched man moving through the lobby. Koskey left, made sure police had been summoned and then started waving people out of the bank parking lot who intended to go into the bank. Among those were Sonya Huff, a bank teller TURBOTVILLE A lot of people here are telling police a lot of things they saw yesterday. But this morning police were still sorting out leads. And stepping up the search for a well-dressed robber, they dont think is from the area.

The robber yesterday ordered four tellers into a vault; riddled bank surveillance cameras with a hail of bullets from a 9mm semi-automatic weapon; sprayed home-made gas into the air and ran with cash from Turbotville National Bank about 1 p.m. yesterday. The bank reopened this morning but bank officials would say nothing. Milton State Police said this morning they still dont know how much cash the armed robber took. Employees in the back of the bank didnt even know a robbery was taking place until they heard gunfire.

They hid. Police described the robber as clean-shaven, unmasked, dressed in a blue outfit, including a jacket and tie. Hes about 5-feet-10; in his mid 20 or early 40s and has sandy-brown hair, We have a lot of people who saw things we just have to sort out whats connected to the case, said Milton trooper Robert McBride this morning. The robber fired off a dozen rounds at bank security cameras, apparently hoping to destroy pictures of him. i- feT" hmniuii Progress 92 in todays edition And comments on how Danvilles past shapes its future.

Youll also find historical stories about Danville's oldest and finest institutions. This years Progress Edition is much more than a gauge on local business conditions. In Danvilles very special Bicentennial year, this edition pays homage to the origins of those businesses and industries that grew along with the Danville-Riverside area Our theme look ahead, look back. Youll notice a new look to this years edition. We hope youll agree our tabloid format makes for an easy and enjoyable read.

Todays News contains something extra for our loyal readers the annual Progress Edition. Inside youll find 60 pages of stories and photos charting the history and current developments in regional commerce and industry. We hope youll take a few minutes to take a look at the report on what our enterprising friends and neighbors in the business community have been up to. And what theyre looking forward to in 1992. Not only that, there are interviews with the young turks of regional business success stories of todays top movers and shakers.

(Danville News Usa Barnes) Turbotville National Bank, shortly after the robbery. Cache of stolen loot discovered Probation officers credited By JOHN PAUL Local News Editor More Dems support Clinton NEW YORK (AP) Party leaders and power brokers are beginning to close ranks behind Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton to help him squelch the stubborn Jerry Brown challenge some believe could scar the likely nominee. The rally-around-Clinton effort took hold Thursday as former rival Tom Haikin and two major labor unions endorsed Clinton, who also got some indirect help in the tough New York primary campaign as two prominent New York political leaders lashed out against Browns flat tax plan. And Democratic national Chairman Ron Brown said candidate Brown has been following a scorched earth policy and has crossed the line in terms of inappropriate attacks on Clinton. The former California governor replied that he was not the source of controversies plaguing his rival.

The problem is, theres such a trail there that the media has to keep bringing Stuff out, and I think our own party does a disservice by telling everyone to somehow cover up, the candidate said. While Clinton gathered more establishment support, he began to show the wear of the persistent questions about his character. An AIDS activist interrupted a Manhattan fund raiser, questioned his commitment to curing AIDS, and said Clinton was dying oPambition to be president. Thats bull and Im tired of it, Clinton shouted. I have listened to all these attacks, attacks, attacks on me, thats just a bunch of bull.

not a matter of personal attack it is a matter of human loss. The pointed exchange came near the close of a day in which Qmton got significant hup fur Lis effort to halt any Brown momentum after the former California governors upset win Tuesday in Connecticut. Meanwhile, The New York Times published a story today saying Clinton and aides deleted a provision in a state ethics bill that would have required him and other state officials to disclose actions relating to their families businesses. Clinton said the provision was deleted after a tougher bill he authored stalled in the legislature. He said he and others decided to put portions of the bill dealing with lobby disclosures, which he described as the main feature of the bill, on the stateside ballot to circumvent the legislatures opposition.

I think it is inherently unreasonable to believe if I were trying to exempt myself that I would have introduced the idea in the first place, Clinton said in an interview early today. Judge nixes donation of babys organs FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) A judge has prevented die parents of an infant girl bom without a brain to donate her vital organs before sb? dies, but said organs that are not vital to her life can be given to other children. An attorney for the parents said today that he would appeal the ruling. Theresa Ann Campo Pearson was born Saturday with ancncephaly, a condition that stops the brain from developing beyond the stem, which controls breathing and heartbeat The infants skull is incomplete and doctors said she will die soon, but Circuit Judge Estella Moriarty ruled Thursday a state law forbids a declaration that she is brain-dead because a small portion of brain she has is working.

I cant authorize someone to take your babys life, however short however unsatisfactory, to save another child, Moriarty ruled. Death is a fact not an opinion. She said, however, that doctors can take organs not vital to Theresa Anns life, so one of her kidneys may be removed. Warned through prenatal tests that there was something wrong with their baby, Justin Pearson and the childs mother, Laura Campo, planned for her organs to be harvested. Miller arrived at the couples trailer where Brady had been living.

Because Brady was on parole, probation officers had the right to conduct a search of the residence without first obtaining a warrant. Brady wasnt there but authorities found a truck-full of items police believe were stolen in break-ins of cars, homes, cabins and businesses in iVimilUUl Llliuil and Lycoming Counties. The trio has admitted to participating in at least five break-ins, including the burglaries of the Roadhouse Cafe in Montour Countys Anthony Township and Foxxs Pizza in North-umberland Countys Turbot Township. It took authorities more than three hours to search through the room Brady and Casamo shared and a shed near the trailer. Among the items discovered were a police scanner, car and home stereos, liquor, an antique revolver, a VCR, two televisions, jewelry, clothing, archery equipment and a variety of drug para phemalia.

Also discovered were several purses police believe were snatched by the trio. And police think checkbooks and credit cards in the purses may have been used to buy merchandise at Columbia Mall. Authorities are still trying to sort through the items to determine if they are related to a string of unsolved burglaries in this region. Cops say at least one of the trio may have committed the burglaires to pay for his drug habiL Several hours after police ended the search, Brady turned himself in to authorities. Montour County Probation officers helped uncover thousands of dollars in car and home stereos, archery equipment, purses and an antique gun.

They came across the stockpile of stolen goods while hunting for two parole violators. Thanks to their ellorts, charges have been lodged by police against-three people accused of conducting a stealing spree that spans four counties, including Montour. Jailed in Lycoming County Jail are Michael Lahout, 21, whose last known address was West Mahoning Street, Danville and Charles Brady IV and Lisa Casamo, boih 19, who lived together in a Turbotville RD trailer owned by Casamos mother. The trio is accused of the Feb. 23 break-in at the Super Shoes Store in Fairfield Township, Lycoming Township.

Lahout and Casamo were captured as they tried to make their get-away, but Brady managed to elude police. Montour Probation officers Todd Remley and James Miller went out the same night looking for Brady and Lahout. Both were on parole for offenses in Montour County. Remley said the parolees had earlier turned in hot urine specimens which tested positive for illegal drugs. Lahouts specimen showed mari-' juana use and Bradys tested positive for both cocaine and marijuana, the officers said.

Accompanied by two state troopers and patrolmen from Watsontown and Milton boroughs, Remley and Sm, I J792jv992 'mkr Remembering The Past SH K- fi iwr VS PL 4 I IrrtH Resolution seeks to open JFK files jt, rnms Capitol Hill. The ability of a government in a free society to obtain the consent of the people is undermined to the degree that the people do not trust their government," an introduction to the bill said. Sen. David Boren, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters that a growing number of people no longer trust their government In the case of the Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy slaying, questions remain about whether government officials may have been involved.

Whether its speculation by writers or movies or whatever, I think speculation can sometimes be more cruel than the facts, said Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, another sponsor of the bill WASHINGTON (AP) Lawmakers introduced a 'congressional resolution to open secret files on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The resolution was proposed Thursday in both the House and Senate with bipartisan backing and support from key Bush administration officials. The resolution would begin a two-year process of declassifying mountains of files.

The measure proposes to set up a citizens review board that would decide whether to release documents held under lock and key by Congress, the CIA, FBI and other government agencies. It was clear that lawmakers were responding to public distrust of government engendered by the movie JFK and a spate of recent ethics flaps on The stone wall was about twenty feet high around the old Montour County jail when this photo was taken about 1890 at the corner of East Market and Church Streets. Damaged by a fire and condemned by the health department the building was replaced with a new jail and warden's home Lthat still serves the county today. (Photo submitted by Bob McWilliams, Danville). v.

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