The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 167

FLORIDA WEDNESDAY JANUARY 27 1993 QM THE MIAMI HERALD INTERNATIONAL EDITION QH Prosecutor: No deals in burning case FRED GRIMM attempted murder armed kidnapping and armed robbery The three are accused of abducting Christopher Wilson 31 a vacationing brokerage clerk from New York City and forcing him at gunpoint to drive to a remote area where he was robbed taunted with racial slurs doused with gasoline and set ablaze on New morning pledge not to cut any deals was challenged by Mark A Ober a court-appointed lawyer for Pellett just fathom right now that the state would not need Mr Pellett if they are to prove the case against Kohut and Rourk who are the most Ober said According to police testimony at a Jan 1 1 court hearing the victim was unable to pick out his attackers when shown packs of photographs containing the pictures Detectives and prosecutors say whether he since has been able to identify the men Wilson remains in serious but stable condition recovering from burns to 40 percent of his body in Tampa General Hospital a nursing supervisor said Pellett has given police an account of the attack in which he denied participating in the abduction or burning of Wilson But Ober said such a statement would be considered hearsay and could not be used as evidence against Kohut and Rourk Pellett faces arraignment Friday Kohut and Rourk have pleaded innocent and are being held without bond isolation awaiting trial set for April Some evidence investigators have gathered against the suspects was collected at the Lincoln Mobile Home Park near Lakeland Kohut and Rourk lived there after moving from Illinois last summer The trailer has been cleaned out repaired and readied for new tenants The landlord evicted the pair for nonpayment of rent Residents say there has been little police activity since Jan 7 the day following the arrests of Kohut and Rourk when investigators searched the trailer and seized truck weapons and pet pit bull Caesar The next day deputies arrived with metal detectors and shovels to search the area around the trailer said a neighbor Rodney Stewart 17 getting back to LAKELAND (AP) The state attorney prosecuting three white men charged with setting fire to a black tourist said there be any deals leading to reduced charges or lighter sentences in the case will be no plea with said Hillsborough County State Attorney Harry Lee Coe III Coe a circuit judge elected to the top job in November ran on a get-tough platform including fewer plea bargains In cases with multiple defendants prosecutors often drop or reduce charges against one defendant in return for testimony against others Lakeland residents Mark Kohut 26 and Charles Rourk 33 and Jeff Pellett 17 of Plant City face identical charges of Justice served 9 years late in Purvis case IN FLORIDA Teen admits guilt in fatal carjacking A ROUNDUP OF NEWS IN THE SUNSHINE STATE i'k armed carjacking statute where death has Attorney Robert Genzman said In his plea agreement Henderson claims that Jerrmne Foster 19 was the lone triggerman while he Alf Catholic 21 and Gerard Booker 22 were armed but did not shoot federal charges the thefts of two vehicles and the slayings of two people and the wounding of a third in November indictment represents the first national prosecution in which defendants are charged with a violation of the federal ORLANDO (AP) Leondre Henderson 17 agreed to plead guilty and testify against three other youths in the nation's first carjacking-murder case prosecutors said Monday All four are in jail on state and 4-i- 1 4 44 1 I I 'Y- A Eljc iltiami Heratfl TILe Museum Of Florida History Florida Department of state eineiHla Historical Resources invite the general public to TEN CONTEMPORARY FLORIDA CARTOONISTS TRAVELING EXHIBIT illustrations and video y'vf OPTICAL CARTCDNINf kinn 4 NORTH FLORIDA LIQUOR VOTE: Santa Rosa County voters will decide today whether to go wet 60 years after national prohibition ended in 1933 residents six times since 1937 have opted to remain dry SETTLEMENT OKD: A federal judge approved a $105 million settlement described as the largest of its type in a racial discrimination suit filed Pensacola against Inc by nine black former employees GULF COAST ABUSE CHARGED: A Pmi- las Park father charged with trying to drown his 3-year-old son in a bathtub and choking his 6-year-old daughter with a broom handle is being held without bail TALLAHASSEE BUDGET WATCH: Florida TaxWatch praised Gov Lawton Chiles for recommending $202 million in cuts in his $35 billion budget proposal but added that the spending level remains too high END OF THE LINE ALL ABOUT TOWN: May- oral candidate Harry Wick-liffe Jr is running on a platform to dissolve Shalimar population 341 the Panhandle town named for the famed oriental gardens of Pakistan Said Wickliffe: think we need the city because not all that big tired of being double-taxed a lot of people not happy with 1 1 Associated Press TWO-YEAR STUDY: Alan Sundberg headed commission Curb litigators panel says TALLAHASSEE (AP) Florida judges should have performance reviews by their peers and litigators" should lie restrained a statewide panel said Monday After a two-year study a 34-member Florida Bench-Bar Commission recommended 47 changes to improve and lawyers' performances and the administration of the legal system Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Alan Sundberg who chaired the commission said that as the board held hearings around the state common thread was lack of A frequent complaint was attorneys who abuse pretrial discovery procedures have been used really simply as a burdensome device to keep the other side busy to bankrupt in some Sundberg said is what is euphemistically referred to as the whose aim seems to be win at all costs that litigation is war rather than the search for the Courts should do more to curb such disputes which delay cases Sundberg said "That is very costly and the client that pays for that" 4 V- i An innocent man did nine years of hard time A policeman explained were Mistakes? The case against John Purvis was shocking in its emptiness It turned completely on responses coaxed from a mentally ill man a 42-year-old schizophrenic never stable enough to hold a job never able to live away from his mother Purvis the crazed fool would have confessed to the Kennedy assassination Anything to get back to his mother But it was more convenient for our justice system that he confess to his unsolved murder Police with a confession from one of the hit men now think Susan ex-husband hired killers to come to Fort Lauderdale and murder her Purvis has been freed But in 1983 the police had no easy clues to the stabbing murder of Hamwi whose 18-month-old child died in her crib before the body was discovered It was an outrageous killing The community demanded justice It settled for John Gordon Purvis No physical evidence linked Purvis to the crime No matter A convenient suspect Purvis was simply too convenient He was after all a particularly suspicious character a ranting crazy man who bothered neighbors scared children frightened Hamwi He was mentally ill and that was reason enough to forsake a presumption of innocence An investigation became a fabrication The confession the cops finally extracted from Purvis included important details about the murder and the crime scene that were wrong stuff competent cops use to separate nut confessors fiom real killers 1 go home now?" he asked hopefully after giving interrogators what they wanted Judge Thomas Coker didn't allow his confession to police into the trial But he did allow the peculiar testimony of another neighbor who happened by the home around the time of the murder and heard she said voices But her memory provided few details until the trial five months later The memories were enhanced she said with help from a policeman moonlighting as a hypnotist It was the voice of John Purvis she finally remembered Prosecutor Rob Carney suggested that the other voice heard by the witness belonged to mother who he said had come to the house to help her son cover up the woman's killing No proof of this of course But Emma Joe Bartlett was smeared as a monster a woman who not only lied for her murderous son but who abandoned a baby to slowly starve Never substantiated Carney made other unsubstantiated statements implicating Bartlett Of course she charged Only relegated to years of infamy The psychiatrist who testified that Purvis told him about the killings now says he was so stunned by the lack of corroborating evidence he has since shunned police work The media failed to notice the injustice prefering instead to indulge in ludicrous parallels between Purvis and the fictitious Norman Bates of the movie Psycho The only redemption in this tawdry exercise came at sentencing Coker resisted sending Purvis to the electric chair A cop talked of but that intimates that John Purvis went to prison because of a few unfortunate passive errors No These were astounding shameful transgressions by cops and court abetted by the press A character was snared in an angry community And justice was suspended for nine years to give us a comforting illusion of law and order Officer has surgery JACKSONVILLE (AP) Officer Mark Larson 28 who fatally shot a suspect underwent surgery Monday for serious injuries suffered as he was dragged by the vehicle The best of both early and midcentury styles from the present generation of the best Florida cartoonists Repertoire of humor and caricature without losing the anger of the previous generation There are more cartoonists now practicing in Florida than ever and they are considered among the best in the nation Featuring: School violence targeted Ralph Dumgan Clay Bennett Patrick Crowley Bruce Beattie Channmg Lowe Ed Gamble im Morin school superintendents and administrators An new is needed to deal with increasing violence in schools Castor said Sometimes students are suspended from schools and local police have no idea she said got to open up those lines of she said Tim Moore commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was on hand to lend support to Castor In the last seven years he said crime in our state has continued to increase and increase He called for programs that would separate hard-core offenders from the rest of the student population The state been ignoring the issue of school safety Castor said She pointed out that lawmakers set aside $95 million to help 22 school districts work on safer schools this year Associated Press Education Commissioner Betty Castor urged more cooperation and communication Monday to help schools cope with rising student violence Police educators and social service workers must work together she said Schools have the resources to deal with violent teens who get into trouble frequently and teachers are becoming increasingly worried about their safety efforts today I think are an admission that we feel somewhat Castor said as she outlined proposals for increasing public awareness building partnerships at the local level and implementing a uniform reporting system Sixty of 67 school districts reported 30573 assaults and 3850 weapon seizures in the 1991-92 school year according to a survey released last fall by two teacher unions and organizations representing Wayne Stayskal Dana Summers Also A SPECIAL SELECTION FROM OUR POLITICAL CARTOONISTS spotted on liner Free admission open till January 29th Monday-Friday 7 am-5 pm The Miami Herald Main Lobby One Herald Plaza Miami Florida Group and Students Reservations: (305) 376-2906 Mercy Miranda Community Relations titute left the country and took her client list with her She is said to have had liaisons with the highest echelons of British society and Parliament and is threatening to name names David Richardson foreign editor of the British tabloid Daily Express said his paper carried a picture of St Clair aboard the Canberra sitting there in a deck Richardson said Local authorities caught a glimpse of the notorious whore never even laid eyes on Broward sheriffs spokesman Ott Cefkin said you find her please let me said a Fort Lauderdale police spokeswoman officer Robyn Christophers By CHARLES HECKER Herald Staff Writer As mysteriously as she whipped into Fort Lauderdale the London hooker with a penchant for punishment has disappeared According to the British press also know as Lindi St Clair was spotted in Port Everglades Sunday aboard the ocean liner Canberra lazing about on a deck chair Early Monday the Canberra steamed out of port for points unknown tabloids in pursuit A frenzy erupted Friday when British police said St Clair had been spotted in Fort Lauderdale She is fleeing British tax authorities who claim she owes pounds of money But the sadomasochistic pros- POLITICAL CARTOONING -Lin FLORIDA 1901-1987 Male mannequin courtesy of Burdines I.