The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 15

The Fresno Bee Tuesday April 25 1995 SECTION Local NEwSm Victims of Clovis home invasion see suspect in court JIM WASSERMAN Family fears retribution but professes faith in justice system By Pablo Lopez The Fresno Bee The family of Chai Choua Xiong embarked on its long path to justice Monday when it confronted one of five men accused of attacking them in their Clovis home on April 6 Tou Lee Xiong who is charged with 25 crimes and being held in jail on $680000 Tou Xiong 20 who is not related to the victims has pleaded innocent to the charges Police said Tou Xiong and four juveniles ages 15 16 and two 17-year-olds raped a 12-year-old girl in front of her family after breaking into their home The armed intruders also tied gagged and beat family members then ransacked the house police said They were arrested about 30 minutes after the attack Officers discovered cash jewelry and three rifles taken from the Clovis home in their car which had been stolen police said Defense lawyer Ralph Avila said Tou Xiong could face than 100 years in if convicted He asked Rodriguez for more time a motion that was not contested by prosecutor Houry Der Simonian who also needed time to solidify her case The Xiong family will confront the other defendants today at a fitness hearing The hearing will determine whether the juveniles should be tried as adults which could result in stiffer penalties if they are convicted to May 15 because lawyers needed more time to investigate the case looked at him but not that said one victim scared Chai Choua Xiong his wife Yia Lee and several family members attended the brief hearing in Judge Armando courtroom Family members said they are scared but certain they will find justice fear that they have friends who might come get the one victim said we have faith in the Fresno can take pride Tou Lee Xiong is charged with 25 crimes and is being held on $680000 bail bail was brought to Fresno Municipal Court in handcuffs and leg irons for a preliminary hearing But the hearing which will determine if there is enough evidence for a trial was continued in the Philip Levine once said about his poetry students at California State University Fresno that they were better than those at Princeton Because in Fresno they knew how to fail Fresno State you could say not a good poem but got some good things happening At Princeton say mean no Levine said our students could accept failure they could really learn a difficult art in which you fail Fail they did but some of those Fresno poets are among the best People say a lot of things about Fresno the bad always being obvious and the good sometimes hyped too much out of defensiveness but one fact is now completely beyond dispute: This metropolis of high crime and rich soil is a first-class center of American poetry Last week the literary United States of America practically anointed it so It awarded Philip Levine writing for years inside a house in Fig Garden the most highly recognized honor there is in American literature the Pulitzer Prize For poetry Unfortunately this great event was buried immediately by news in Oklahoma Perhaps this explains thundering nonreaction to its second Pulitzer Prize now in literature (William Saroyan won the first for drama in 1940) And in a Fresno that sometimes even appreciate its own greatness when it really shines you might ask: the party? The celebration? The ticker-tape parade for a hometown hero? Why all the hofbraus full toasting a great man of In step with remembrance John Walker The Fresno Bee Marchers remembering Armenians massacred earlier in the century head up the Mariposa Mall toward City We are here because of the genocide We are proud of our forefathers who survived this terrible thing The Turks are wrong and lying Our people were drowned tortured their heads cut off Datsy Ekezian 14 of Fresno Memories of genocide mark Armenian march By Jim Steinberg THe Fresno Bee Datsy Ekezian 14 and Martha Kaloyan 90 of Fresno remembered the Ottoman massacre of about 15 million Armenians 80 years ago for different reasons Monday Datsy remembered this brutal chapter of Armenian and world history as an act of observance and honor for what her ancestors suffered and endured Kaloyan remembered because she had been there Both joined the community march Genocide Without The march began in Courthouse Park under the statue of David of Sassoon the Armenian folk hero said to have rid Armenia of foreign conquerors about the 7th century AD The crowd proceeded down the Mariposa Mall to City Hall Year after year April 24 marks the most significant day in Armenian history On that day in 1915 the Ottoman Turkish government began a three-year campaign to round up leadership and intellectuals Even today Turkish government officials say that 15 million Armenian men women and children died from the ravages of war not from an organized genocide But international observers at the time and since said this was no accident of war that killed off an estimated two-thirds of the Armenian people are here because of the Please see Genocide Page B2 Hall The Kurds came and killed my uncle in front of my mother and then a second uncle My grandmother she sat there and said she was going to die right there and then And we didn see her again Martha Kaloyan 90 of Fresno Inquiry targets opening of canal Selenium from San Luis -Drain is chief concern By Mark Grossi The Fresno Bee The state is investigating the reopening of the long-closed San Luis Drain in March for floodwa-ters loaded with selenium a natural trace element known to be toxic to wildlife in high doses The drain plugged ih the 1980s after its selenium-laced water poisoned wildlife at Kest-erson Reservoir may have sent similarly tainted flows to the San Joaquin River in violation of the federal Clean Water Act Such a violation could result in thousands of dollars in fines but water officials who briefly reopened the drain said they acted responsibly in an emergency They said flooded creeks washed uncontrollable flows into the closed drain an 85-mile canal originally built to remove irrigation runoff from west San Joaquin Valley farmland the drain is full and topping over into farmland and threatening to damage the canal you have to protect the structure and the people being said Dan Nelson executive director of the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority representing many federal water districts on the west side The authority which operates the drain notified the state about the reopening state officials said However there was not enough time to obtain a permit for discharging the flow into the river The water moved from the drain to Mud Slough and into the river On March 18 water tested in the area contained more than 20 times the level of selenium normally allowed according to the state The selenium level dropped Please see Drain Page B2 Inside Mayor finds his job puts him on the freebee-receiving end Officers get due for helping keep drunks olf road National respect This is the best sort of great news a city can ask for This is true national respect When has anyone in San Jose or Sacramento or Phoenix last won a Pulitzer Prize for literature? Inside local writing circles obviously this is a proud time And since it has to do with literature have no doubt also tweaked a fine sense of irony As someone wisecracked: If Fresno basketball team made the Top 25 nationally the whole town would be off its rocker euphoric Meanwhile winning the Pulitzer in poetry has been greeted more quietly than an American Water Works Association prize for excellent sewers Now sports and poetry may certainly be apples and oranges to compare but amusing that two weeks after (which yet won one basketball game) the great one with the checkered background is already everywhere in this city on T-shirts While as of press time there are no the T-shirts in any mall Levine could get off the plane and nobody would know him And this is the great man who has already made Fresno No 1 in America In 1991 with the National Book Award And now with the Pulitzer For poetry National recognition Ah but all is not lost Over the weekend one of students Jean Janzen was reading from her work (for which she has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant) and mentioned just been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times The Times she said is preparing a story on Levine and his award-winning published prominent peers who all have one thing in common: a young growing city named Fresno Who would have known that? And how can we celebrate people like this enough? Jim Wasserman is a Bee stafl writer For a sneak preview of his column call Beeline 4432400 Ext 2160 the night before tickets valued at $160 from the Fresno Philharmonic to a barbecue and concert Patterson was paid $200 for giving a speech at the Northeast Assembly of God and $125 for a speech at the Chest-Jlm Patterson nut Avenue Baptist Academy A speech at Friends Community Church netted him $75 and he was paid $50 for a speech at Bethany Mennonite Brethren Church Patterson said he donated the speech money to favorite charities such as World Vision and the Evangel Home He said he has adopted a policy this year of donating the money back to the group that gives it to him One less headache A Fresno lawyer involved in the Dana Ewell case now has one less courtroom worry: A lawsuit against him involving Mother Teresa has been dismissed The lawyer is William Keeler who represents the executor of the estate of Dana parents Dale and Glee Ewell Dana Ewell has pleaded innocent to charges that he murdered his parents and sister Tiffany allegedly to collect the family's $75 million estate Page B2 Changes on hold Any major changes at Community Hospitals of Central California are at least several months away its top executive officer said Monday Rumors continue about possible changes in the organization as it works through a review and restructuring process The latest involves the possibility of closing Sierra Community Hospital Page B6 By Jim Boren The Fresno Bee When mayor people like to give you a lot of free stuff Mayor Jim Patterson reported receiving 14 gifts last year from individuals and organizations around the community The gifts included dinners theater tickets wine and a running suit Patterson also received $450 for giving speeches to local churches and another $100 for judging horticultural exhibits at The Big Fresno Fair The gifts and income were listed in 1994 statement of economic interest filed this month with the Fresno City Office City elected officials must file the annual statements every April Patterson was the only member of the council to receive significant gifts or honoraria last year The gifts included a $75 dinner at Harlan's in January 1994 from Joaquin Acosta who promotes waste-to-energy and recycling programs Acosta at the time was trying to get a city composting contract Patterson also received a $70 running suit from Fresno Christian Schools after a speech a $100 case of Gallo Wine and two Mothers Against Drunk Driving meet to honor law efforts By Felicia Cousart The Fresno Bee Linda Larsen stood at the podium Monday her speech still slurred 11 years after a drunken driver slammed into her car A tiny pin with the letters MADD representing Mothers Against Drunk Driving was fastened to her shirt lapel as she told this particular audience how much their work meant to her Listening were 22 law enforcement officers from different agencies They were being lauded by the Fresno-Madera counties MADD chapter for their efforts to get drunken drivers off the streets Larsen had once worked with them as a community service officer for the Fresno County Office But on July 1 1984 a drunken driver ended that career He died and Larsen was in a coma for six months very lucky that alive and Larsen said Sheriff Steve Magarian an assistant sheriff when the accident happened said Larsen now 39 Rease see Mothers Page B3 Patterson said he does not solicit speaking fees but accepts them if offered have a rate Patterson said accept speaking invitations on the basis of important in helping me do my job as statement also shows his partnership in New Life Enterprises which operates Christian radio station KIRV.