The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 29

Trryvrrryrr yyrwfyyyrrrnnnnryyyy rvyryyMry 'yyy'yyyyyyyyrYYy ryryy Try? yTTTnr Cl ijwjRw it oc-w-- ww K4V Editorials i6 The Sacramento Bee Friday May 1 5 1987 Carquinez Bridge boosters twit its younger sisters By John Robin Witt Bee Staff Writer CROCKETT With a flick of 1500 borrowed flashlights Carquinez Bridge boosters bathed the underside of their venerable lady in light Thursday night turning the 60-year-old span into a moonlit birthday cake to itself At precisely 8 45 pm the revelers gathered underneath the westbound span of the bridge turned their flashlights upward lighting the undercarriage of the span with spheres of white Only minutes later the nearby Sugar refinery flipped on its massive multicolored logo the first time the sign has been lit since 1974 the middle of energy crisis The tongue-in-cheek salute switched on a three-day tribute to the six decades of life initiated in 1927 when two Crockett grocers financed the span as a means of transporting produce Erected by the American Toll Bridge Co a decade ahead of those Bay area immortalized in word and song it closed the last gap in the Lincoln Highway now Interstate 80 between San Francisco and New York City "It opened the Bay area to Northern boasted Gene Pedrotti chairman of the anniversary committee and a third-generation owner of Pedrotti Hardware which sold some of the original equipment for the bridge the bridge Lake Tahoe would still be a wilderness area There would be no gambling no skiing Before 1927 there any access to any of those Pedrotti said Celebration officials were frankly aston ished at the turnout underestimating the 2000-strong crowd considerably "I think I'd ever see anything like said Sam Taccom 79 a lifelong resident of Crockett these people sure surprised Marge Taccom an anniversary committee member said just had another thousand flashlights donated this morning We had no idea we were going to have this many It has just Visitors packing children on their backs with dogs in tow and beer in hand crammed under the bridge from spots all over North ern California Some said they want to miss history in the making I saw the other one all said San Franciscan Ernest Morris referring to last Bay Bridge celebration this was like a piece of American history The first of the bridges around here event though I hate to admit All of this homespun babbittry compares starkly with the more patrician but some would say less important celebration at the Bay Bridge last autumn and the planned See CARQUINEZ page B2 Moment of terror set free More RT trouble with rules Light rail could lose $1 5 million By Dale Vargas Bee Staff Writer Regional Transit deliberately violated federal regulations and a legal agreement with the government and will lose an estimated $1 5 million federal funds for light-rail project according to federal transportation officials In a harshly worded letter to the district Joseph A LaSala Jr chief counsel for the Urban Mass Transportation Administration said he was to learn" that RT had been running two train cars that were in violation of federal manufacturing regulations The severity of the violation was compounded because RT previously violated so-called Buy America requirements and was operating under a compliance plan worked out with UMTA An RT spokesman Thursday acknowledged the cars were used but argued the district did nothing improper Buy America regulations specify that the majority of work on manufactured items purchased with federal funds must be done in this country In early 1986 UMTA found that light-rail cars did not meet the requirement and threatened to withhold $11 million in federal money- The $11 million problem was averted by the compliance plan essentially a legal settlement that allowed RT to use 15 mostly foreign-made trolley cars as long as a remaining 11 cars were brought into compliance RT however needed 17 cars to get the trolley system running in March so it used two cars that were out of compliance Those two cars were used for about a month beginning March 16 said John Ketelsen RT's chief attorney Late last month those two vehicles were retrofitted with domestic-made parts and now are in compliance Ketelsen said But use of the two cars was knowing and willful violation" according to LaSala and that means federal money cannot be used to pay for those vehicles The letter also was notification that UMTA will amend its grant agreement with RT to exclude the cost of the cars about $1 5 million The original grant agreement for $88 million in federal money was is- See RAIL page B6 Prosecution admits -evidence withheld By Wayne Wilson Bee Staff Writer A judge Thursday ordered the immediate release of Reginald Harrison Samuels the target of a costly and controversial investigation that led to several burglaries in 1985 Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Long granted a defense motion to free Samuels after prosecutor Michael Virga admitted in court that his office had failed to turn over required evidence to the defense Samuels who had been imprisoned at the California 1 Colony near San Luis Obispo until the current pro- 1 ceedings began walked out of County Jail later Thursday as a free man Virga blamed a lack of communication in his office for the failure to provide all the law-required evidence to the defense He said he was unaware when Samuels was being 1 prosecuted that his informant in the case Philip Scherr was meeting secretly with Supervising Deputy District Attorney Dale Kitching and police Lt John Kane And Virga said he was not aware when he accepted negotiated guilty plea to a charge of receiving stolen property that Scherr was the object of a narcotics investigation Long granted the defense request to withdraw guilty plea He ordered release when Virga said the charges would not be reinstated against Samuels who already has served all but about five of his prison sentence Judge Long went off the record to advise a jubilant Samuels wheels of justice certainly rolled in your favor this time But I wish to admonish you that you need to carefully consider your conduct and what you now intend to do with your I According to testimony offered last summer by Lt Kane Samuels was named by 70 or 80 percent of the officers in the burglary section as a professional and became a specific target of city police in 1984 Kane and the department went to great lengths and expense to nab Samuels From the spring of 1984 until August 1985 Samuels was placed under surveillance on at least 10 occasions sometimes for a few days some would last a lot longer than a Kane told the court The police used multiple-car helicopter and airplane surveillance Kane said but Samuels was particularly adept at eluding the officers So the police enlisted the aid of Scherr a known dealer in stolen goods who was facing criminal charges of his ow to entrap Samuels the testimony showed After a lengthy hearing in June 1986 the police handling of Scherr and the investigation of Samuels was labeled as police conduct" by Judge Long Long found that only did Lt Kane instruct Scherr See SAMUELS page B2 Brianna Castillo cries for her mother while being comforted by Ruth Harris after the Elk Grove school van in which the youngster was riding collided with a pickup truck Thursday At left Louise Lee assists student Donna Holderby No students were hurt but the driver suffered head injuries Story on page B2 Frugal news vendor left $67000 behind Town residents stand behind local hero charged in slaying INSIDE Gay bathhouse B3 Sacramento officials are trying to shut down a bathhouse that caters to homosexual sex By Steve Gibson Bee Staff Writer Behind the scenes B4 In a behind-the-scenes move Rep Vic Fazio arranged a meeting between Davis Mayor Dave Rosenberg and West Sacramento developer Frank Ramos The town is totally supportive just a nice guy-51 Darlene Dunsing of Petrolia College pay cuts B6 The president vice president and deans at Sierra College have agreed to take a 4 percent pay cut to help balance next budget and to avoid layoffs pleasant greeting for his customers He was found dead in his room at the Golden Hotel when he failed to show up for work last Friday An autopsy showed that he had died of heart disease Nunes said several hundred dol- lars were found in his wallet and pockets of his shirt and trousers But the bulk of the $67504 80 found in his room consisted of $100 and $50 bills stuffed in a white paper sack on the floor next to his bed She said the discovery vealed publicly until Thursday because the public staff wanted to first complete its ini- tial inventory of posses- sions "The last time we had a case like this we had people just coming out of i the woodwork calling Nunes I said The $1865 cost of funeral services will be deducted from his estate as will any claims filed by See CASH page p2 By Ken Payton Bee Staff Writer PETROLIA In this isolated town of loggers teachers small business owners and mechanics people take care of each other Tow truck operator Dan Haywood 45 served as one of three emergency medical technicians in the Humboldt County community and was assistant chief of the volunteer fire department So many of 400 residents were shocked April 2 when he was arrested by Monterey County deputies on a homicide charge in connection with a 1970 murder Most residents said the lawmen took away a hero In the six weeks since arrest the tiny town has rallied around him in a big way A defense fund financed through raffles country dances and donations now stands at more than $8000 roughly $20 for every man woman and child in Petrolia Dozens of letters from Petrolia supporters helped get Haywood's bail reduced from $1 million to $45000 Under California law if property is put up for bail it must be worth twice the bail amount Two local men Gordon Hunt and Dean Giacomine put up property to secure Haywood's bail Hunt who owns the only car repair shop within 30 rjiles said he to pledge half of the property A man who spent quarter of a century hawking newspapers on a downtown Sacramento street corner left $67000 in cash In a paper sack in his $150-a-month hotel room when he died last week But the Sacramento County public staff said 76-year-old Charles Scheel left no known heirs and the money may end up in the state treasurer's Bureau of Unclaimed Property "If his family is located the money will be turned over to his heirs" said Ramona Nunes of the public administrator's office so far we haven't been able to find any relatives" Nunes said her office made arrangements with a funeral home for services Saturday morning A loner who kept to himself when he peddling papers at 10th and streets Scheel worked seven days a week even Christmas and New and always ho a needed only reason I got this far is because been able to help me" he said Giacomine said he put up everything he owns to cover the other half of the bail but he worried trust (Haywood) with everything he said The property put up by Hunt and Giacomine was appraised at $91000 just over the amount needed to secure Haywood's bail just barely made said Beverly Berti girlfriend were really holding our breath until the appraisals came in" In a letter posted at the Petrolia General Store Haywood wrote: is truly a humbling experience to find out that so many care so much Thank you my Petrolia people thank you" Haywood was expected to be released on bail in time See SUSPECT page B8 I.