The Times-Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • 3

THE SCRANTON TIMES, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1989. 'Sweepstakes Winner' Victim of a Hoa to be Jennifer Smith of Publishers Clearing House. The woman told the staffer that the Thomases would ent $10 million bonanza. The friend did not believe her, she claimed. A moment later, however, Mrs.

Thomas' mother called and asked if the news was true. Mrs. Thomas said it was and that the reporter who had broken the news to her was there. Schwartz, she said, got on the phone and told her mother that the paper had been notified by American Family Publishers of the $10 million win. Scrantonian Tribune executive editor Hal Lewis emphatically declined to comment on the situation Monday night.

In its editions today, however, the newspaper reported that it received a call Thursday night from a woman identifying herself as Jennifer Sea-graves of American Family Publishers, and that Ms. Seagraves informed the paper of Mrs. Thomas' apparent good fortune. A similar call was received Thursday night by a member of The Times staff from a woman claiming day night, when Schwartz called her and said the paper had been informed by American Family Publishers that she had won the annual grand prize of $10 million in the sweepstakes. "I figured the company couldn't reach me so they just notified the press," Mrs.

Thomas said, noting that she was away from her home most of Saturday. Her confidence increased Sunday when a crew from WYOU-TV arrived at her home to interview her, she said, because she assumed that the reporters for both organizations had verified her windfall. Didn't she think it odd that the company would notify the press before reaching her? "Well, you sign a form allowing them to use your name in the press and for advertising," she said. While Schwartz was at her home interviewing her, Mrs. Thomas said, she received a phone call from a friend, whom she told of the appar receive a call from Ed McMahon, the announcer on The Tonight Show, informing them of the winnings.

The Times reporter realized that McMahon fronts for American Family Publishers rather than Publishers Clearing House, and he asked for phone numbers to reach" her for verification. One was for an NBC Television production office at Bur-bank, and the other was phony. About an hour after that bogus call, a woman called The Times claiming to be Mrs. Thomas. The same reporter told her he did not believe her and asked for proof of the sweepstakes victory.

The woman said she was not interested in publicity and she hung up the phone. Mrs. Thomas said this morning that she never called The Times to claim sweepstakes winnings and that she had no idea who would Will Lot Deadline Be Missed Again? i 1 i By PATRICK McKENNA and RICK MATES Times Staff Writers Unfortunately for Wilma Thomas, things were normal today on the job at the Midvalley Diner except for her anger, her chest pains and her lost faith in journalism in general and the Scrantonian Tribune in particular. Until Monday, Mrs. Thomas thought she was the winner of $10 million in the American Family Publishers' Sweepstakes only, she said, because a reporter from the Scrantonian Tribune had informed her that it was so.

"He's a reporter. I believed him," Mrs. Thomas said this morning with reference to Matt Schwartz. "He has to have a journalism degree, I assume. Don't they tell you to check these things out?" According to Mrs.

Thomas, she has suffered chest pains since Satur Si Construction continues on the dormitory, which is expected to Angelo Rose) jt ill 41 1 I sW I John R. Gavigan Hall at the University of Scranton. The new open for the fall semester, will house 236 students. (Staff photo by 'Examscam' Work Beginning for City Deroetrate the hoax. She said she found the story plausible because she had been called earlier by a person she thought was McMahon, who advised her that her number in the sweepstakes would be among the finalists.

Two days later, she said, she received verification in the mail that her numbers still were alive in the contest. Lauire Hawley, a spokesman for American Family Publishers in Tampa, said McMahon does not call anyone to notify them of sweepstakes progress. Rather, that process is handled by registered mail. Mrs. Thomas said she did not receive any registered mail in connection with the contest.

The grand prize winner in the contest was Janice Hamblin of Wil-liamsport, Ind. "I can't believe this thing is a hoax," Mrs. Thomas said. "I'm sorry, I just don't deserve this. But it did feel good for a day." target date is the day of the annual parade, which is March 11.

But whether the city can line up a busing contractor to provide shuttle service to and from the lot to the downtown and get the necessary council approval by that date is questionable. The mayor said the city will not advertise for bids from busing contractors until next week and the legislation authorizing the city to enter a lease for the land is not yet on council's agenda. The mayor did say he would discuss the program with council Wednesday. An ordinance requires three weeks to be adopted unless both the mayor and controller certify that an emergency exists and it must be passed immediately. Even if the authorization comes in the form of a resolution, it would take two weeks to be adopted without a suspension of council's rules.

The original plan was to have the County of Lackawanna Transit System provide the shuttle service to the downtown, Wenzel said, but it was determined that the service could be obtained more cheaply from a private bus firm. The city also has scrapped plans to put in temporary lighting at the site because so much time has (Continued on Page 13) other candidates hpfnrp hp ramp back to town, McNulty said he has been "pleasantly surprised" by the support he has been getting. "And that's not from Democrats," he said. "A lot of Republicans have said they will support me if I run again." McNulty said one of the reasons he has kept a low profile lately was a flu bug that kept him confined to home. It is known that McNulty's original intention was to portray a race against Wenzel as a rematch, much the way former champions in boxing often are give another chance to win back their crowns.

But when Wenzel decided not to run, that knocked out the "rematch" scenario for McNulty. Despite that, McNulty reportedly has decided that, because the local Democratic organization has decided not to endorse any of the candidates for mayor, he can win the nomination. Asked if that was what he would be saying at the birthday party, McNulty said: "Why don't you come? You're invited." Joseph X. Flannery Story of a Boy And His Dream This is a story for which I have no explanation. It is about the 1982 recovery of a 7-year-old Philadelphia child who was written off by medical people as beyond hope.

It is also about St. John Neumann, an immigrant priest who served over a century ago as head of the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese when it embraced this area. Frank Rossi, a former Scran-tonian, wrote the story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. I called and got his permission to re-tell it. To make certain none of the elements of the story had changed, I talked to the boy's mother.

Also, I checked with a priest in charge of the St. John Neumann Shrine in Philadelphia to make sure the secular newspaper story matched the ecclesiasti cal version. All agreed: Rossi had done his work well. The story is about Charles "Chucky" McGivern, now a 14-year-old eighth-grader in St. Martin of Tours School in Philadelphia's Oxford Circle area.

When Chucky was 6, he was stricken with chicken pox and was put to bed at home. Two days later, he drifted into unconsciousness. Taken to a hospital, he was diagnosed as having Reye's syndrome, an often-fatal disease of the nervous system, brain and liver. Chucky was white and cold to the touch. There were tubes leading to his liver, kidneys and stomach.

A machine monitored his heart. And there was a bolt-like device in his skull, inserted to relieve pressure on his brain. He appeared dead. Advised To Pray Chucky's father, Charles McGiv ern, a bus driver, and mother, Nancy, were told that medical science had done all it could. The advice they were given was: pray.

Mrs. McGivern, who at that point was not going tb church regularly, recalled visiting the John Neumann Shrine when she was a child. A Neumann medal was among those she found at home. She took them to the hospi tal and pinned them to Chucky's pillow along with a scrap of St. John Neumann's robe that a relative had loaned her.

Even while praying, the McGiv- erns who began staying tull-time at the hospital felt they were about to lose Chucky, one of their two children. As various 1 parts of his body malfunctioned, they signed papers to donate his organs to other patients. One evening, as the parents sat in a waiting room, a boy of 11 or 12 walked in, looked at Mr. McGivern and then left. The youth wore a shabby plaid jacket, had rumpled hair and wore black- rimmed glasses.

They assumed he -I'll 1 1 was a pour sireei cnua ana uis-missed the episode. Then there was that crazy thing that began happening with the Neumann medal. Every time Chucky's parents went into his room, they found his medal turned face-down. They kept turn ing it up. They asked nurses and visitors if they were doing it.

Everyone said no. And there was the equally puzzling episode involving a picture of Neumann that was found taped unevenly and low on the wall of Chucky's room like a child might have hung it. Then the cloth relic disappeared. And no one knewwhere it went. Youthful Visitor That same day, a nurse told the McGiverns that a young boy was found in Chucky's room by two physicians.

They asked what he wanted. He said: "I came to visit Chucky." The room had been closed to visitors and the physicians both Jewish turned him away. They called the people in building security. But the boy could not be lound. The nurse described the boy to the McGiverns.

They were certain he was the same one who had come into the waiting room. An hour later, a priest gave Chucky the last rites of the church. Not long after that, an excited nurse located the McGiverns and took them to the room. She said Chucky had moved. As they looked at him with wonder, he raised his hand and touched the bolt in his head.

A short time later, he was nodding yes and no to their questions and his white body was pink again. Cnucky's recovery was quick after that. A week to the day he went into the hospital he was dis charged in perfect health. Chucky told his parents that while he was sick he had dreamed of a group of children visiting him. He said an older boy witn the group was his best friend.

Shortly after Chuckv went home, his parents took him to the Neumann Shrine. While there, he saw a picture on the wall of John iseumann as a child. Chucky was siaraea. "That was my best friend in my dream," he said. By THOAAAS K.

STAFF Times Staff Writer The new target date for opening a satellite parking lot to serve the downtown is St. Patrick's Parade day, but unless the city moves quickly, that goal will be missed as have several others. City officials once planned to have the satellite parking program in place in time for the Christmas shopping season but that goal was beyond their reach. And soon after that deadline was missed, Paul Peterson, the man charged with putting the program together, resigned. Satellite parking is the first major initiative to be undertaken by the city as part of its state-funded Enterprise Development Zone program that has been stalled for various reasons for several years.

Mayor David Wenzel announced on Jan. 20 that the city had finally received a state grant for $45,000 and the funding would be used to establish the parking lot on a tract of land off North 6th Avenue between Lackawanna Avenue and Linden Street. Although he said at that time the program designed to alleviate a downtown parking crunch would be opening soon, he said today the quick to note that there will be no similarities in the parties. "This will be a simple affair, by my standards," he said, explaining that news media representatives will be welcome to drop by to hear his announcement. So far, the Democratic race has attracted four major announced candidates: Council President Thomas Comerford, Councilman Thomas Gil-hooley, county administrative executive Jerry Stanvitch and county Register of Wills Jerry Notarianni.

While McNulty refused to give a clue about his decision, the expectation is that there would be no program on his birthday unless he already has decided to seek the mayoral nomination. McNulty, who lost a bid for a second term to Republican David Wenzel four years ago by just 121 votes, spent most of the past four years serving as executive director of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors. He resigned that post last month and came home, presumably to make another try for mayor. While conceding that some of his former backers signed on to help The mysterious on-again, off-again street lights along the Spruce Street Complex are off again at least some of them and city officials once again are trying to determine why. The fickle lights have been on and off since 1 973, when the complex was built as a replacement for the Spruce Street Bridge.

They had been functioning without problems since undergoing repairs last summer, but have been dark for the past three days. (Staff Photo by Johnson Bachman) Friends To Honor Him at Hilton McNulty Still Mum but He Hints Party ceived a two-year prison term, all but six months of which was suspended. Former Police Lt. William (Cookie) Thomas and former Commission Secretary Catherine Sheridan were convicted following a trial that focused almost exclusively on the entry-level police test. Thomas was sentenced to serve two years in prison and Miss Sheridan received a sentence identical to O'Hara's.

Although the trial centered primarily on the entry-level test, testimony in the case indicated answers also were distributed for promotional exams. Seven officers were promoted on the basis of the tests, including Thomas, who was removed from the force in the wake of his conviction. During the course of the trial, several officers also admitted they received what they understood to be answers to the test but the answers turned out to be wrong. They also insisted they did not cheat on the test. At the same time, the officers also admitted they did not inform anyone in authority of what appeared to be widespread fraud in connection with the case, despite their standing in the community as law enforcement officers.

The federal trial concluded in May 1988 but it was several months be fore the government formally closed the case. City officials said the ongoing probe and the Duffy-Reid-miller suit prevented them from taking action against the 26 officers, all of whom remain on the force. Meanwhile, two brothers filed suit against city police, alleging their civil rights were violated. David and Todd Dixon subsequently were awarded over $120,000 by a federal jury in a case in which "examscam" figured prominently. The jury, citing police for lack of training, supervision and discipline, found the city, along with several "examscam" figures, used excessive force and unlawfully arrested the brothers.

The city has filed an. appeal in the case. Although the Duffy-Reidmiller suit is pending, the Civil Service Commission recently acknowledged that the promotional tests are not a part the the suit challenging the appointments of the 20 officers. As a result, the commission has scheduled hearings into the promotions of the six officers still on the force. The hearings are due to be conducted in April, the commission has announced.

The commission, however, may be asked to make a determination before that on an agreement recently hammered out between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police, the policemen's union. In return for concessions on (Continued on Page 13) By JOHN MURPHY Times Staff Writer While the federal government has concluded its "examscam" investigation, the city government's work on the case is just beginning. After landing convictions against three people, federal prosecutors have closed the books on the widely-publicized Civil Service scandal, according to informed sources. The decision, however, merely serves to clear the way for city officials, who now must decide what, if any, action is to be taken against 26 policemen caught up in the scandal. The first step in the process apparently will come in April, when the recently appointed Municipal Civil Service Commission convenes hearings on the promotion of six "examscam" officers: The commission, however, may be faced with an even earlier decision in a case that promises to persist for months if not years before the fallout finally settles.

The scandal centers around Civil Service tests for police, administered in December 1985, in the dying days of former Mayor James Barrett McNulty's administration. Problems with the exams first came to light in March 1986, when two former reserve officers, who failed to gain appointment to the police force after taking an entry-level test, filed a civil suit. George Reidmiller and Michael Duffy, who asked to be appointed to regular positions on the force, cited a host of procedural violations and other irregularities in the entry-level testing. A visiting judge who heard the case eventually ruled in their favor. He ordered the test voided, the appointments of 20 policemen vacated and a new test given.

The order was stayed, however, pending an appeal which eventually led to the case being sent back to Lackawanna County Court, where it is to be re-heard with the 20 "examscam" officers scheduled to give testimony. On Oct. 21, 1986, three days after the judge's decision, The Times reported that the FBI was probing allegations of widespread cheating in connection with the the entry-level exam as well as promotion tests administered at about the same time. The investigation eventually led to mail fraud charges against two former Civil Service officials and a police lieutenant, all three of whom were sentenced to prison. Former Commission Chairman Thomas O'Hara pleaded guilty for the role he played in the conspiracy to rig the test by providing certain candidates with answers and re May Be Setting for an Announcement By JOSEPH X.

FLANNERY Times Political Writer Since coming back from Washington, D.C., more than one month ago, former Mayor James Barrett McNulty has kept people guessing about whether he will seek to again become the city's chief executive. While nomination petitions for McNulty have been in circulation for a week, his long silence since coming home had triggered rumors that he might be having second thoughts about getting into the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor. However, McNulty will observe his 44th birthday on Monday and he conceded that he will make his plans known at that time. "Some friends and family are planning to buy a cake and a few balloons and any friends who want to drop by will be welcome," McNulty said of the gathering that will occur at 5 p.m. at the Hilton at Lackawanna Station.

Four years ago, McNulty's 40th birthday party was a lavish fundraiser at Bentley's. However, he was.