The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 31

JamesHBortJr- The Ombudsman A Matter Of Emphasis On Feb 24 The Bee reported that Superior Court Judge Hollis Best had a miniblast at the proposed abolition of plea bargaining" Best the story said told members of a service club he has basic philosophical disagreement with the idea of abolishing plea bargaining as advocated by Dist Atty William A Smith" The headline said Best Plan To Abolish Plea In view of Smith's recent declarations that the district office no longer will engage in plea bargaining the practice of negotiating pleas with a defendant prior to trial the report appeared both timely and valid 1 But the very'next day Best in letters to the ombudsman and Bee editors took exception to the story Rather than disagreeing with Smith the judge said -Best's complete letter Is In Letters From The People Page what he actually said in his speech was: believe most judges myself included are phi- losophically opposed to the con- cept of plea bargaining in criminal cases" That it would seem puts Best and Smith on the same side rather than in opposition He amplified on that statement in a subsequent telephone con- venation: disagree with Smith" he said am potherecTby the apparent mishearing of my remarks and the impression I was rapping Best did say that while he is opposed" to plea bargaining the practice sometimes is a in disposing of criminal cases He added he disagrees wholeheartedly with sentence bargaining a point made in the story But the point of this column is not to argue whether plea bargaining is an acceptable legal device It is rather to examine the accuracy and fairness of the newsreport An investigation into the circumstances surrounding pub- lication of the story indicates Best is at least partly right The reporter who covered speech said most of the talk was devoted to the of criminals-in prisons without effective rehabilitation part of the reasoning behind system of indeterminate sentences and his view that this is a dous waste of human lives and human effort and your That was the point stressed in the story as it was turned in the reporter said was more' interested in rehabilitation" the reporter went on think some Loading An A7E Corsair of Lemoore- based Attack Squadron 27 is ready for launch from a catapult on the flight deck of the nuclear- powered Enterprise as a ship takes station on the carrier during Valiant Heritage the biggest naval warfare exercise off Southern California in a decade In the lower photo ordnance men take a strain as they manhandle a bomb in place on another plane Another Lemoore unit Attack Squadron 17 also is operating from the Enterprise during the exercise Forty-one ships some 200 aircraft and-18000 officers and men are participating in the exercise which began Tuesday and will continue through next Friday Represented are the US United Kingdom Canada New Zealand and -Australia US Navy Photos of his disagreement with the story is well taken because of the emphasis which was changed after I turned the story in I present it that way (emphasizing the comments on plea bargaining) got a Further she agrees the judge went out of his way to tell her he was not disagreeing with Smith as the published verion implied After conceding he had ordered the story changed the editor commented: had it redone on the reasoning that rehabilitation of prisoners is something always being urged by judges a running story so to speak and important Plea bargaining on the other hand Is a hot issue locally and I ordered it given the top part of the story news was plea bargaining the rehab was A reasonable news judgment if it had been made plain that the 1 judge in his speech had spent most of his time dealing with rehabilitation And if the rewritten version had not made it appear that Best was taking on the district attorney over the issue of plea bargaining The judge had some other objections too mostly dealing with the exact nature of quotations attributed to him in the story In many cases his recollection of what he actually said dif- fered from the quotations Even so it appears that without the quotation marks the statements would be considered by most as a reasonable interpretation of what he believes He said Unfortunately the judge had no prepared text the reporter relied on her notes and she stands by them So a definitive judgment is not possible Nonetheless the judge is quite right when he says: officials must be prepared to accept and if necessary defend any reasonable in- terpretation placed upon their public statements by representatives of the press They should not be required to defend nor accept inaccuracies concerning such statements especially when the statements are reported as direct quotations" More often than not it is impossible to report the com- plete text of a speech or every word uttered in a public meeting The comments must be distilled but the report should accurately and fairly inform the reader of the essence of the event whether it is a speech by a judge or an item about a City Council discussion To contact the ombudsman write The Fresno Bee 1636 St Fresno Calif 83786 or call -(209) i85-8854 received to cover the expenses of the equipment I am not going to be caught in the position of issuing purchase orders based upon Poore said is going to depend upon the pledge and where it cranes from" Poore cited problems with getting the public concerned with educational television and confusion over cable and pay television proposals 18 is not cable television and it is not pay he emphasized He also said there are conflicts with qHw funds drives by charitable organizations under way this spring About $143000 is needed to match the federal grant The balance will cover the cost of inflation since tbe original construction cost estimate and $37500 will be paid to the Pace Group to raise tbe funds The Pace toe includes $20000 fundraising fee and $17500 in expenses Planners Rip Supervisors Foothi lagging ETV Drive Could Peril Project The commission had approved the safety Clement in September and sent it to the board for approval In December after a public hearing at which numerous foothill residents opposed the provisions the board referred the element back to the planning staff for revisions The revised version which deletes several specific recommendations in favor of more general policy statements regarding safety was approved by the supervisors last 'month Commission Chairman Heyward Moore was the most outspoken in crit mand He called a kind of allowing for noncompliance Commissioner Elizabeth Davis went further declaring she is up with seeing good positive statements nice words and nothing there to support them should vote to uphold the policies we approved in September" Nearly all the other commissioners had criticism of the revisions and agreed they want more time to study toe matter See Fire Flan Page D2 Census Rate The report notes a significant increase in the employment of females It singles out for special mention the minority trainee program in the Fire Department and forecasts that a similar program will a similar in the Police Department McMurry calls the results evidence of progress" The Fresno County Planning Commission has charged the Board of Supervisors the fire safety provisions of the General Plan for mountain and foothill areas by capitulating to pressure from property owners in those areas The commission at' its meeting Thursday delayed action on the safety and seismic safety element of the plan as revised by the supervisors until its March 18 meeting Jennings To Be Superior Judge McCtotchy News Service SACRAMENTO The office of Gov Edmund Brown Jr today announced the governor plans to appoint Lemoore City Attorney Charles Jennings to the recently created second Superior Court department in Kings County -Jennings a member of a Lemoore law firm has been city attorney in Lemoore for more than 20 years The other Superior Court judge in Kings County is Robert Rosson City's Minority Hiring Tops icizing the board declaring it had this policy from the foothills objected to everything that a motherhood statement and the board went along and took out everything that a motherhood statement it he said will not be a party to this kind of Commissioner Donald Thuesen saying he is in favor of a lot of specifics we ought to have flexibility" nonetheless complained of the having changed the wording frequently to substitute the permissive for the com The information is from the annual report filed with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission by Samuel McMurry director of personnel and labor relations Among newly hired employes toe per cent of minorities exceeded the proportionate share of the total population in fiscal years 1974 and 1975 i MONTH Plus Tex 833-3711 Fra the first time in the history the percentage of minorities in permanent city jobs has exceeded the per cent of minorities in the city population as shown in the 1970 federal census The figures based on 1975 fiscal year employment show minorities in 3175 per cent of jobs and minorities constituting 3132 per cent of the population County Schools Supt Ernest A Poore said be Is with progress of the fund drive for KMTF Channel 18 the educational television station scheduled to go on the air later this year Poore said about $25000 in cash and lges have been collected so far the Fresno County Board of Education hopes to raise $250000 to match a federal grant of 843050 seems to be a lagging to a degree that we are going to be faced with some very serious problems Pook said at a meeting of the Instructional Television Policy Committee Thursday Poore said the Fresno County Department of Education the licensee of the station had hoped to finish the fund drive in March so purchase orders to equip the station could be issued He said no purchase orders can be Issued until cash or pledges have been LA-Z-BOY and BARCA LOUNGER RECUNERS Over 60 styles and colors to chooM from bimiodiato 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