The Item from Sumter, South Carolina • 1

CJEATHER FOR TUESDAY HIGH: 90 LOW: 70 Warm with partly I cloudy skies rMEfiV SEPTEMBER 21 1998 FEATURE Auto Guide '98: Get tips oi) your vehicle TT 1 SPORTS 4 Orioles' Ripken takes (V a seat streak comes to an end IB FOR DETAILS see page 10B FOUNDED OCTOBER 15" 189A INDEX Business Classified Comics Obituaries Opinion Television 7A 7B 6A 9A 8A 5A 1 UMTERiSQM3 SCENTS yQ133 EdClONSjCttf ACE QDQSjI DS By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer ing bitterness at how the Paula Jones lawsuit precipitated the criminal investigation of the Lewinsky affair by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr deplored what they were Clinton said of the Jones in November 1995 The table ends with a Dec 28 1997 meeting in which Ms Lewinsky gave Clinton Christmas gifts that included a sexually suggestive candy gag gift But what most worried Clinton's defenders was that Americans watching on TVs and computers saw their president taking the oath before a grand jury wrestling with difficult and graphic questions and trying to fall back on a technical legal defense The testimony showed Clinton reading a statement early on describing his relationship with Ms Lewinsky as involving they were tormenting and traumatizing I deplored their illegal Clinton said The material was delivered to offices this morning then made available to the public It included a two-volume set of evidence which totaled 3183 pages The evidence included a table chronicling Clinton and Ms encounters which began in August 1995 with and and led to WASHINGTON Congress laid before a wary nation today the raw footage of President Clinton's grand jury testimony and 3183 pages of evidence chronicling his relationship with Monica Lewinsky in explicit detail an embarrassing and personally painful Clinton told the grand jurors The videotape of testimony began playing unedited in households shortly before 9:30 am EDT The tape portrays Clinton as sometimes angry at questions and other times express lawsuit But he insisted that in his January testimony in the Jones case he was to walk through the minefield of this deposition without violating the law and I believe I deplored the innocent people AP photo President Clinton waves as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base Sunday AP photo Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr leaves his McLean Va home Monday On 2nd thought family watch murderer die TT By JEFF REINITZ ITEM Staff Writer ft rj si 1 1 Sit TTi car Family members of Lewis Cakley Kenneth Krause and William Spain will not be witnesses when the man convicted of their murders is put to death next week Sammy Roberts 40 of Sumter is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 pm Friday for his role in the 1980 robbery kidnapping and murder of three Lowcountry gas station attendants Under South Carolina law victims of the crime are allowed to have up to three members per family witness the execution However relatives of the three victims have declined the offer said John Barkley a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections The current sheriff and prosecutor of Berkeley County where the trial took place also are allowed by law to attend as are three media witnesses Krause 23 was working at the Port Oil gas station in North Charleston to supplement his earnings as a sailor with the US Navy and 25-yearold Spain had just retired from the Navy and was working with Krause when the store was robbed June 19 1980 Both men were taken from the store and shot on an isolated road After the murders Patricia Krause wife of Kenneth moved to Georgia to go back to her family Jt See DEATH page 9A Picture perfect i mi ioiliiiiiriT i i mnniitift i iiiiii i BRUZ CROWtOM The ITEM Cpi Mike Gardener front and deputy Dale Horton of the Sumter County Department work with the dogs at the Sumter County Animal Shelter Former Dist 17 student sets mark with urging by friends family members 8- 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Complaints 1373 1 1411 1581 fc748 3090 Doss Taken to the Pound 925 922 1037 1091 1261 Dogs Claimed or Adopted 115 154 179 280 1 236 Doas Destroyed 723 748 '810 1833 onn ft 3 a Shelter in ruin animal lover says I By SHARYH LUCAS-PARKER ITEM Staff Writer li years at the ttnEsnal shelter yfre v- Complaints pp 1250 yy By RICHARD FARMER ITEM Staff Writer Animals put to sleep in rec6rd numbers 4 Animals taken 7- to the pound up 36 i' By RICHARD FARMER ITEM Staff Writer Dogsclalmed jot adopted up 1Q5 A 1 destroyed FLORENCE There were many dreary winter days when Beth Moore wanted to stay in bed and sleep late And when spring rolled around during her senior year at Sumter High School there was the temptation to skip school -just once But perseverance along with encouragement from friends and family helped her complete 12 years of school without ever missing a day a feat few accomplish Moore was among 71 high school graduates in the state this spring who had perfect attendance records I It seems almost as if the Sumter County Animal Shelter was an Afterthought To get shelter one has to drive a narrow unpaved road beside the Public Works Department off North Main Street Behind the vehicle graveyard where old and broken public works machinery is left to bleach in the sun and inside the kudzu-covered chain link fence the shelter sits It consists of a portable office and a tin roof structure on wooden poles that seem much older than the 15 ITEM Graphic Mary Jo Ouatava something no one likes to talk about but a reality of life -and death According to statistics kept by the Sumter County Animal Shelter a dog brought to the facility off North Main Street has only about a 20 percent chance of making it out 8 live i In 1997 1261 dogs were brought to the animal shelter but of that number only 236 were either adopt- make some badly overdue repairs Council granted the request I hate to ask for any money for that facility because- really outlived its Mims said need a totally new All 71 teens were invited to participate in an essay See RECORD page 9A See PERFECT page 9A gain a new lease on life What does she get out of all her work? Only the satisfaction of knowing another life has been saved she said And she says high time Sumter County did something about the conditions of the shelter and the plight of thousands of unwanted animals roaming the county But not news to Sumter County Sheriff Tommy Mims who runs the shelter through two deputies a receptionist and a part-time worker supplied by the city of Sumter Mims recently approached Sumter County Council with a videotape of the shelter to illustrate the problems and to ask for $2000 to WAS FOUNDED OCT IS 1894 AND IS PUBLISHED DAILY BY OSTEEN PUBLISHING CO INC years But the animals that spend their final days there deserve better said Dawn Vititoe an energetic volunteer dedicated her life to rescuing animals from the shelter and the nearcertain death sentences they face And Vititoe mince words she said of conditions at the shelter inhumane To think that approaching the 21st century and we have a shelter like back in the a crusader for stray and unloved animals Vititoe unwanted uunomvw A PATCHWORK FACILITY The first thing one sees after rounding the corner behind public works is an old portable school building donated to the county The ceiling is stained where water enters through a leaky roof But the shelter itself the center of the problems The shelter is essentially a wood 20 Magnolia St Suimar 291S0 S2S 9 usn sis oo) blame the workers at the shelter who do the best they can under the circumstances But she said they need more support financial and otherwise from county leaders After she gets off work at a mobile home dealership Vititoe often heads for the animal shelter where she adopts dogs and then drives them to Columbia to be spayed or neutered After that she takes the animals to a Columbia adoption center where they Copyright 1996 Ottetn Publishing Co SOUNDOFF: 775-4923 DELIVERY: 778-4127 NEWSROOM GENERAL: 775-6331 See SHELTER page 9A 90534 00001 jt throughout Sumter County said she -yt i in.