Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 41

SundayMar. 30. 1980 Santa Crux Sentinel 41 Acquitted Suspect Dead, Too A Year Later, Girl Scout Murders Are Still Unsolved By GIL BROYLES jury because you don I know what's going on unless you're there." she said. Richard said acquaintances would "come up and shake my hand and tell me they 're glad to see I let an innocent man go "I just naturally told them to go to hell." he said rollert-oaster. Some said they had been bothered by casual remarks by acquaintances Mrs.

Garrett said 'a couple of people" had challenged the jury's verdict in conversations with her. "I ll never question another Gene Leroy Hart, the jury said, was innocent of the first-degree murders of Lori Farmer, Michele Gusc, 9. and Doris Milner, 10. The six-man, six-woman jury said Hart was innocent of ripping into a tent at a northeastern Oklahoma summer camp, beating the sleeping scouts, assaulting them repeatedly and dragging them 100 yards to a camp road where the bodies were discovered at dawn. The verdict vindicated Hart and his supporters, who claimed the former Locust Grove high school football star was a scapegoat, charged only because he had been a fugitive since a 1973 escape from a local jail.

Ironically, it also vindicated state and local authorities, belabored by criticism that Hart, a Cherokee Indian, could not receive a fair trial because of his race. But the verdict left un answered the major question. If Hart is innocent, who is guilty? "The case wasn't over when we returned the 'not guilty' verdict." said juror Wanda Hale, a Pryor food store assistant manager. "It isn't over to me yet." The past year has seen a few developments related to the frustrating case, perhaps the ing him not knowing, when there was a reasonable doubt." "I don't think it ought to be PRYOR, Okla. iAP) A year ago Sunday, grim jurors filed into a stifling courtroom here to announce the fate of a man charged in a case that had stunned the nation, the bludgeoning deaths of three Girl Scouts.

The largest manhunt in Oklahoma history, the most extensive criminal investigation, the most highly publicized trial all ended with one word: innocent. most startling of which was the death of the apparently healthy Hart. 35. of a heart attack while joking at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on June 4, 1979. He was serving time on earlier convictions.

Parents of two of the victims are pursuing a $3 5 million lawsuit against the Magic Empire Council of Girl Scouts, alleging negligence. Charges of harboring a fugitive filed against nursery worker Sam Pigeon, in whose shack Hart was captured April 6, 1978. are still pending. Pigeon has not been tried. 13 lira Jul! Lb Trilateral Commission Suspect iff just forgotten yet." said Ukey Shaniblin.

a welder ami pipefitter "I'm not saying the guy done it or he didn't do it. They didn't even have enough evidence to have a trial, the stuff they showed us." Some of the jurors were critical of the investigation. Richard called it "one screwed-up deal." "Several places it seemed their investigation was so slipshod. 1 mean, a layman could have done better," Mrs. Hale said.

"It tore a lot of confidence 1 had in the judicial system," said homemaker Lela Ramsey. Some said they were unconvinced by the state's comparisons of hair and sperm found on the victims' bodies with samples from Hart. Don Sharp, deputy director of the OStil, said the investigation "really hasn't moved much" since Hart's acquittal. "If someone would come up with some information, even if it was him even if it was Gene Leroy Hart we would still go out and investigate," Sharp said. "There's a tendency to pour your heart and soul into a case," he continued.

"But if you let yourself get involved too deeply you find yourself on a terribly bad emotional roller-coaster." The jurors have ridden that The rugged 410-acre camp near Locust Grove remains padlocked, unused since busloads of confused Girl Scouts were evacuated on June 13, 1977, the first day of what was to have been a two-week encampment. The commission, for its part, wonders why some candidates are so defensive about their connections to the group. "Cap Weinberger has told us to tell people that he's very conservative, that he supports Reagan, and that at the same time he's an enthusiastic member of the Trilateral Commission," Ms. Prickett said. ALL SKYLIGHTS Beautiful skylights and installation at affordable prices.

Complete stock of skylights with clear, white or bronze single and insulated lens. Specializing in Dome and Flat Skylights, Solar Roof Designs and Greenhouse Windows. relations problem," commission spokeswoman Erna Prickett said last week. Because of that image problem, Ms. Prickett said the commission will try harder to explain its goals.

"We're trying to put together a public relations packet that goes into questions people have about us. We hope to distribute it to various organizations and groups, Rotary Clubs and so forth, that are interested in international affairs," she said. "It's time to say emphatically that no, we're not a tool of CONTRACTORS CHECK OUR PRICES! SKYOTCQ. N.C. Policeman Found Guilty this or that conspiracy.

2630 SOQUEL SANTA CRUZ, CA. 462-3144 Most recently, the commission's role came up Qt MOnSlOUflntOr during a Republican campaign national security chief, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was director of the commission from 1973 through 1976. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Defense Secretary Harold Brown, Vice President Walter Mondale, former Treasury Secretary Michael Blumen-thal and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young were all commission members. Henry Kissinger, also a member, has been said by some to have access to these foreign policy makers of the Carter administration.

Some Bay that he, with David Rockefeller, helped persuade Carter to allow the deposed shah of Iran to come to America for medical treatment. Both have denied it. The commission has been a topic of discussion in the current presidential primary battles. Republican candidate George Bush has faced tough questioning, especially in southern states, regarding his membership in the commission from 1977 through 1978. Several Southern newspapers have received anti-commission letters-to-the-editor scoring Bush for belonging to the organization.

Some of the letters accused the commission of being leftist. GOP presidential contender Rep. John Anderson of Illinois has been a member since 1973. "We do have a bit of a public By LEE MITGANG NEW YORK (AP) The Trilateral Commission was set up six years ago by banker David Rockefeller because he felt communication was breaking down between North America, Western Europe and Japan. Since then, the 250-member commission has brought together some of the most powerful citizens from those three regions of the world.

It has produced studies and held meetings on subjects of common concern, such as energy and agriculture. Last week the commission men bers, including its founder, David Rockefeller, held talks for three days in London on questions of global security, particularly the crises in Afghanistan and Iran. But the commission also has found itself to be the center of controversy at times, with some critics maintaining it represents a conspiracy of the mighty. The commission's influence and its vulnerability to popular suspicion may lie in its bringing powerful people together aided by the prestige of its founder, David Rockefeller. The commission has and has had some of the most powerful men in the world as members.

Jimmy Carter was a member until he became president. His And the triple-murder remains an open case in Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation files, officially unsolved. There appears little chance it will gain any other designation. The jurors still wonder, but none regrets the a poll of panelists indicated. "I'm 99 percent sure he (Hart) is innocent," said Mrs.

Hale. "I wasn't even close to saying guilty." "If he done it, they didn't have the evidence," said Lawrence Berry, an aircraft mechanic from Adair. "You look at the facts and make a decision," said George Kelly, a plant manager who was jury foreman. "We felt that the evidence did not show that he was guilty. He might have been guilty, but the case they presented was not enough to convict him or anyone else." Housewife Sandra Garrett said she has "no second thoughts" but admitted the case still troubles her: "It's very seldom that any week goes by that I don't think about it some.

It's part of my life now." Hart's death shocked many of the jurors, who indicated they hoped questions about the case might somehow have been resolved if Hart had lived. "I thought maybe divine justice a higher court got him," said Jack Mitchell an Adair High School teacher. Really, I kind of thought he did it, but there's no way I could feel right about convict- debate between Ronald Reagan and Bush in New Hampshire last month. A questioner mentioned Bush's former membership on the commission and asked whether that meant Bush would "be pressured to appoint cabinet members from that commission and would be influenced in the same manner as Carter was to bring the shah into the United States." Bush admitted having taken some flak over his commission membership but then proceeded to name two other prominent Republicans who were members: Bill Brock, head of the Republican National Committee, and Casper Weinberger, former HEW secretary and now serving the Reagan campaign. Reagan quickly responded that "Cap Weinberger told me he's never attended a of the Trilateral CHARLOTTE, N.C.

(AP) -A city policeman was sentenced to one to three years in prison after a Mecklenburg County jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three persons in a collision last year. Charlotte patrolman Michael Flaherty, 26, remained free under $20,000 bond, pending an appeal of the conviction. The jury deliberated three hours before reaching its verdict Friday. The conviction marked the first time a North Carolina police officer has been convicted of vehicular- manslaughter arising from a wreck while the officer was on duty, according to the prosecution. The prosecution said Flaherty, who was answering another officer's call for help drove at an average speed of 84 mph and ran through two red lights before crashing into a vehicle at an intersection.

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