Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 4

4 POST-CAZETTEi Wednesday, March 25, 1987 CityArea urn ii i ii il II I Hi III nil II I. iim yy 2 guilty in try to bilk woman Tom Hritz tStl mm You can't fool Mother Nature By Jan Ackerman Pott-Gazette Staff Writer Two personal care boarding home operators yesterday were convicted of trying to use a forged document to illegally withdraw $43,666 from the bank accounts of an elderly woman in their care. Georgia O. Hopkins, 70, of 74 Mil Forest Ben Avon, and Diane Taylor, 41, who also uses the last name, Nolder, formerly of Ben Avon, showed no emotion when the verdict of seven women and five men was read. i it John BealePost-Ctaette Virginia Nemec of Irwin surveys the site of yesterday's bus accident.

Nemec drives a school bus for a different school I I A. tL. uisiuci ana was cunuus iu see we damage. 40 hurt when school bus crashes The electric wires remained in place after the impact Besides Crabtree, others treated in Westmoreland Hospital were John Anthony, Frank Ur-banic, Trent Brown, and Theresa Barlock, all 17; Jennifer Mognet, David Batton, James Rose-bosky, Brian Covalesky, Joe Drag, and Homer Tinkey, all 16. Those treated in Frick Community Health Center in Mount Pleasant were John Bowser, 17, and Terry Groh and William Pospisil, both 16.

Those taken to Jeannette District Memorial Hospital were Ron Ohler, Bob Dean, Eric Ne-drow, Sam Riggs, Keith Alinsic, and Scott Boy-tim, all 16; Greg Mansfield, Jay Dee Povlik, both 16; Mike Brinker, Crystal Piper, Terry Menzie, Brian Stiltenpole, Marcus Blaine, and James Overly, all 15. Monsour Medical Center, Jeannette, treated Tyler Hawkins, Andy Yuhas, Rodney Kenneer, Thomas Adamrovich, Tim Minerd, all 15; Anessa Fry, Scott Lesinak, David Margarcill, Jack Mathews, all 16; and Chris Stefl, 17. Donna Swope, 17, was treated by the school nurse. The students, all from Mount Pleasant Area Senior High School, were on their way to classes when the crash occurred. They were treated for minor injuries in four hospitals after they exited the bus from the rear emergency door.

One studentwas treated by the school nurse. The accident occurred shortly after 8 a.m. Owned by the Mark Lines of Latrobe, the bus was contracted for by the Mount Pleasant School District. Mark Gunkle, terminal manager for Mark Lines, said the bus was "in excellent shape" and Fisher has worked as a driver for 14 years without an accident. Ambulances from the New Stanton-Young-wood area took the students to hospitals in Greensburg, Jeannette and Mount Pleasant.

One student, Bob Crabtree, 16, was flown to Westmoreland Hospital by Angel II helicopter. Greensburg Fire Chief Edward Hutchinson, who assisted in the rescue operations, said the accident "could have been worse" had it not been for the wooden utility pole which snapped in two. The pole stopped the bus from rolling over onto its roof in the stream bed, Hutchinson explained. Students and driver sent to 4 hospitals ByWashGjebre Post-Gazette Staff Writer Thirty-nine high school students from Westmoreland County escaped serious injuries yesterday morning when their bus crashed into a creek several thousand feet from their destination. The bus driver, Glendell Fisher, 45, of Hunker, suffered internal injuries and was admitted to Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg, where she was listed in fair condition.

The 65-passenger bus was en route to Central Westmoreland Vocational Technical School, near New Stanton, when it went out of control on a bend on Arona Road and careened over a six-foot embankment It then slammed into a utility pole and came to a stop in an upright position straddling two concrete culvert supports on the sides of the stream. The Jury deliberated about seven-and-a-half hours over a two-day period before deciding that the two women did not have the right to try to remove money from the bank accounts of Mary Stadnick, who was 76 when she lived at Taylor's personal care home at 6802 Perrysville Ave. The money was never withdrawn because officials at Bell Federal Savings Loan Association questioned Taylor's attempt to remove the money with a fraudulent power of attorney signed by Hopkins. The jury listened to much confusing and contradictory testimony during the weeklong trial. Stadnick, now 79 and living in a Canonsburg nursing home since last April, was confused about dates during her testimony.

Her recollections were much clearer in a deposition taken last month as part of a civil suit that accuses Hopkins, Taylor and others of engaging in a widespread conspiracy to defraud the elderly. In the deposition, Stadnick tells how she was kept a virtual prisoner at Taylor's home from the time she went to visit it and was arbitrarily moved to other locations, including a home in Burgettstown, Washington i County. While in Burgettstown, Stadnick said, Taylor sometimes would try to choke her while she was in bed and on one occasion "grabbed me by the hair and threw me out of the bed across the floor." Once, after she was taken into court-appointed guardianship, Stadnick said that Taylor threatened to knock her eyes out because "I was making a lot of trouble for her." Taylor moved to Florida, but currently lives with her sister in Washington, Washington County. Taylor and Hopkins could face a maximum of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Reynolds Hay, who prosecuted the case.

The maximum penalties were reduced because Senior U.S. District Judge Barron P. McCune consolidated a six-count indictment into a single charge. McCune has not set a sentencing date. Mislabeling brings recall Rite Aid, Gray Drug Fair or Peoples Drug 2-ounce bottles of "castor oil" with the lot number A19A on the label may have been mislabeled and contain camphor spirits, according to the Federal Drug Administration.

The agency is urging customers with bottles with that lot number to return them to the store. If taken internally, the FDA said, the mislabeled spirits of camphor could result In convulsions, coma, respiratory arrest and death. Pennex Products Co. Inc. of Verona, which distributed the product to 22 states under the three drug company labels, notified the FDA of the mix-up and is recalling the lot.

The two products have distinct differences. Spirits of camphor, a liniment has a strong scent, and a thin, watery consistency. Castor oil, a laxative, is thick and viscous. Boy awarded $250,000 in damages I was driving borne the other evening when I turned right and suddenly found myself headed directly into a setting sun. A full-blown ball of fire.

So I did all the things you do when you suddenly find yourself driving directly into a blinding setting sun. First, I tried to shield my eyes by making a visor out of my left hand. Then I used my entire arm. Neither worked. Then I pulled down the car's sun visor and began to fumble in the glove compartment for a pair of sunglasses which I was pretty sure weren't there.

I was right And then I started using bad language. "What are you complaining about?" my wife snapped. sun is killing me," I snapped back. "For God's sake, don't curse it," she snapped some more. "Be grateful for it.

Worship it How often do you have an opportunity to be blinded by the sun in Pittsburgh at this time of the year?" It took all the snapping right out of me. She had a good point. I can't remember a Pittsburgh winter when we've had as much sunshine as we've had this year. Almost 11 hours worth. It even happened on a couple of days in February.

To make matters even better, it's also been one of the mildest, unsnowiest winters I can remember around this town in a long, long time. It's anybody's guess why winter this year was the piece of cake that it has been. It's my guess that it's all because of me. See, I bought a new set of snow tires this year. In early October.

When we were having balmy weath- er in the mid-70s. That's a radical departure from the way I do things. Normally, I wait until four feet of snow are on the ground before having the old snow tires put on. And that's only after sitting around Sears' garage for eight or 10 hours waiting until all the rest of the procrastinators ahead of me have been taken care of. But not this year.

This year, I figured I'd pull a fast one on old Mother Nature. I figured that because we had a relatively mild winter last year, we'd have a killer this year. I ignored the long-range weather forecasts that called for a less than harsh winter. I don't put much more stock in long-range weather forecasts than I do in stuff like the Farmers' Almanac and groundhogs and woolly bear caterpillars or even in what Joe says. I mean, I go by my own gut feelings.

My gut feeling this year was that we'd be up to our ear lobes in snow by the end of October, and that we'd stay that way until the first Sunday of May when we'd be suddenly thawed out by a 96-degree heat wave that would get here just in time for the running of the Pittsburgh Marathon III. Let's face it. The idea of two consecutive mild winters in Pittsburgh defies reason. Of course, a lot of things in Pittsburgh defy reason. I should have remembered that on the beautiful Indian summer day last October when I drove to Sears to buy my new snow tires and get the upper hand on mean old Mother Nature.

There are only two days in the year when Sears isn't having a tire sale. That day was one of them. The salesman hinted that I could probably save a nice little piece of change if I waited for the next tire sale. But I said, no, do it now because we were going to have a white Halloween. And I didn't stop there.

Right after they installed the new snow tires on my car, I drove directly to the nearest landscapers where I bought two 50-pound bags of sand. I placed the sandbags in my trunk to give rear of the car the added traction it would need when it snowed on Halloween. Of course, it didn't And I don't mind admitting that it irked me a little. I mean, there I was, fully prepared for any snow emergency. But no snow.

It's funny. When you get something new, you want to use it. And as much as I hate snow, I had this secret wish to have a reason to use my new snow tires. We didn't have a white Thanksgiving either. Nor a white Christmas.

Nor even a white New Year. Sure, we had a few dustings here and there. But nothing to really test the traction of my new sandbag-supplemented snow tires. With all the beautiful, sunshiny weather we've been having lately, I suppose what I ought to do is get rid of those sandbags and drive over to Sears to have my snow tires removed. But I'm afraid to do that, too.

Because on the way home, I'd probably drive right into a blinding oowstorm. child. He refused comment on the jury's unanimous verdict. The mother, who was home when the accident occurred, was assessed $100,000 in damages. The driver, Conrad Guenzel of 2379 Saunders Station Road, Monroeville, was found 25 percent negligent and ordered to pay $62,500.

Guenzel sued the boys' parents, neighbors and Monroeville. His attorney, Lisle A. Zehner, said the mother was negligent in leaving her child unattended. The neighbors were negligent, Zehner argued, because they allowed shrubbery and trees to screen their driveway. The borough was negligent for failing to enforce laws on tree and shrub growth.

The jury found the neighbors 35 percent responsible. Ordinarily, they would pay $87,500 in damages. But, Zehner said, the neighbors settled out of court with the boys' parents for $175,000. The borough of Monroeville also settled out of court for $75,000. The jury, while finding the borough negligent, did not order it to pay any damages.

Common Pleas Judge I. Martin Wekselman said yesterday that the decision to settle is a gamble. "They took their chance and they paid their money," Wekselman said. In a decision last month, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court found that defendants who don't settle may not receive credit for overpayment of damages made by parties who settle before a case is tried. The judge said it is "pretty unusual" for a jury to find a mother 40 percent negligent for her son's injuries.

"I've never experienced it," Wekselman said. "I wouldn't second-guess a jury on it. They must have had a basis for finding she didn't properly supervise her kids." Zehner said he will appeal, calling the accident "a classic dart-out case" in which the boy darted out from behind bushes screening the neighbors' driveway. By Marylynne Pitz Post-Gazette Staff Writer A jury yesterday awarded $250,000 to an 8-year-old boy whose testicles were crushed in a car accident. The panel also determined the boy's mother was 40 percent negligent.

In July of 1984, the Monroeville boy was leaving a neighbor's driveway to cross a cul-de-sac when he was struck by the driver of a Chevrolet van. The boy, then 5, also suffered a skull fracture and third-degree burns. The boy's attorney, Joseph Zoffer, told the jury that his client has a less than 5 percent chance of fathering a Woman tells of events leading to killing of ex-mate "When I got in the car, I handed Ernie the letter harrassment complaint I said, 'What's this woman trying to do to I said, 'Please, Ernie, tell me the He said, 'Betty, I told you. I don't go with the She reached into a purse and pulled out a pistol. "I wanted to frighten him into telling me the truth." She said he grabbed her wrist and the gun went off.

The non-jury trial before Common Pleas Judge Alan Penkower is pected to continue today. Betty Legg insists she loved her husband even when he cheated on her in 1960, even when he divorced her in 1985 and even when she shot and killed him last summer. Legg, 60, a former dispatcher for the city Public Safety Department who lives at 604 W. North North Side, is on trial in the Aug. 8, 1986, death of Ernest Legg, 61, of 125 Carrington North Side.

The Leggs had divorced in 1985 after a five-year seperation. After the divorce, the two continued to see each other, sometimes romantically, she testified. But Ernest Legg also was dating Amy Stephenson, of 102 E. Jefferson North Side, a self-employed seamstress with whom he had had an affair in 1960, Betty Legg said. She said she started calling Stephenson.

On Aug. 8, she received a notice that Stephenson had filed suit charging her with harrassment by communication. Betty Legg said she drove to the South Side to ask her ex-husband if he had been seeing Stephenson. Troops kill 591 in northern Burma RANGOON, Burma (AP) Gov- retaken positions in northern Burma, ernment troops have killed 591 Ka- the Working Peoples Daily reported chin and Communist rebels and have yesterday. Schenley Farms residents jam hotel zoning hearing 1 tfOP Sililiii -piii i wmmmm iiiiilp: iiaii'i iiir -r- By Tom Barnes Post-Gazette Staff Writer "Schenley Farms is a gem in the crown of this most liveable city.

If you build an edifice such as a hotel, you simply destroy the quality of life in our neighborhood." So said Caryl Kline of Tennyson Avenue, one of 45 Schenley Farms residents who jammed a city Planning Commission meeting yesterday to oppose a controversial hotel project in Oakland. They said the hotel, proposed for a lot behind the Masonic Temple on Fifth Avenue, would worsen traffic "gridlock," and remove already scarce parking spaces. "We are not just a bunch of wild people pushing the panic button ahead of time," said Kenneth Beh-rend, president of the Schenley Farms Civic Association. "It's common knowledge that the parking situation in Oakland has been and remains extremely strained," said Jack Paradise of Bigelow Boulevard. The Masonic Tern le Fund is proposing to lease tht parking area behind its temple Oakland to National Developiro it which has proposed a nine- tory, 199-suite hotel on the site.

National Develop nent officials who attended the learing didn't speak yesterday. But John Yeager, University of Pittsburgh official, lupported the proposed hotel. He sai I the growth of hospitals, universities and museums in Oakland in recent earshas led to an increasing need for places for visitors to stay. The Planning Commission doesn't have to rule on the hotel project per se, but it must rule on a subdivision plan for the Masonic Temple land. The commission yesterday delayed its decision for at least two weeks.

If approved, the rear two-thirds of the block bounded by Fifth, Lytton and Tennyson avenues and Bigelow Boulevard would be set off as a separate parcel for development The temple would remain as it is. Bank camera photo of suspect A Mellon Bank camera shows a man who the FBI says got away with an undetermined amount of cash at 12:30 p.m. Monday when he robbed the Mellon Bank branch at 301 Fifth Downtown. The man was described as about 65 years old, 5 feet 7 Inches tall and weighing 155 pounds and wearing a green and red plaid coat, dark rimmed eyeglasses and a tassle cap. The FBI said the robber fit the description of a man who two weeks ago held up Bell Federal Savings and Loan, 200 N.

Craig Oakland. 15.