Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 29

B-9 Tin region Man cleared in 1 killing, convicted of manslaughter in 2nd If -V- i nt 1 1 1 Jp A s- il -f, j4 AUf il iM By Jan Ackerman Post-Gazette Staff Writer A jury decided an Elliott man was not guilty of homicide when he shot his neighbor to death during an argument but convictedhim of a lesser charge for killing the man's nephew. Richard Beatty, 56, was acquitted yesterday of all counts of homicide in the fatal shooting of Robert Keller, 37, of Elliott. But he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Keller's nephew, Ryan Tait, 22, of Crafton. The argument between Beatty and Keller was prompted by Beatty's assertions that Keller's 9-year-old son had damaged his tomatoes a month earlier. Beatty, 56, of Herschel Street, Elliott, also was convicted of violating the uniform firearms act by a jury that deliberated about hours over two days.

That charge was filed because he put a semiautomatic handgun in his pocket when he went into his yard and confronted Keller and Tait about 9:30 a.m. Aug. 10, 1994. The jury found that he was not licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Common Pleas Judge David R.

Cashman raised Beatty's bond from $50,000 to $100,000 immediately after his conviction, prompting strong criticism from defense attorney John Elash. "I have been practicing 20 years and I never heard of a bond being increased by $50,000 after an involuntary manslaughter conviction," Elash complained to reporters. Cashman ordered Beatty back to jail and said he faced additional jail time for his conviction. The judge later told reporters that Beatty might not be safe if he returned to his old neighborhood. Sentencing is set for Oct.

26. Technically, Beatty could face a maximum sentence of five to 10 years in prison, but under state sentencing guidelines he probably would receive between one and three years because he did not have a prior record. Deputy District Attorney Janet R. Necessary called it "a difficult case for the jury." The victims' family members would not comment as they left the courtroom, crying and consoling each other. On Monday, Beatty told the jury that he shot in self-defense because he believed that Keller and Tait were going to try to kill him.

"He was the victim here. He understood that he took two people's lives Like he told the jury here, he was extremely sorry for that," Elash said. "He only did what he thought was right. The jury believed that he was right in taking the life of Robert Keller. They believed he was reckless in taking the life of Ryan Tait." In her closing, Necessary argued that Beatty's actions spoke louder than his words.

Several hours before the shooting, he loaded his pistol and set it on his kitchen table while he watched television. He hid the gun inside his pocket when he confronted the victims outside. Necessary said he never called police until after he shot the two men. Keller, a boilermaker, was shot four times and died of a bullet wound of the head. Tait, a college student, was shot through the heart.

Martha RialPost-Gazette Deputies lead Richard Beatty, 56, out of court yesterday after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. think the demand will be overwhelming. But it's not the answer to everybody's problem. Water board to meet in private on hiring another investigator ByJohnM.R. Bull Post-Gazette Staff Writer The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority board will meet in private tomorrow to discuss hiring someone to investigate bid-rigging The FBI is investigating allegations that bidding specifications for a $1.5 million authority sewer-lining contract might have been changed to give one contractor, Spiniello an unfair advantage.

City Councilman Gene Ricciardi, a member of the authority board, suggested changes in the bid specifications and had Deputy Mayor Sal Sirabella order the bid advertisement stopped. Ricciardi said contract specifications did not include the cost of digging, which had been included in prior contracts. The FBI is trying to determine whether any public officials received kickbacks from Spiniello or that firm's officials. Ricciardi has said he has done nothing wrong and supports the hiring of an independent investigator. Preston said Ricciardi probably would have to recuse himself on any vote on whom to hire.

Preston originally intended to appoint authority Solicitor Dawn Botsford to conduct the board investigation, but backed off that plan when Cannon complained that she would not be independent and he would not cooperate if she conducted the probe. Cannon had brought his concerns over the changed bid specifications to Mayor Murphy before news of the federal investigation broke. Cannon is not a target in the federal probe. charges. "We want someone with truth and honesty who is respected and who people believe is independent," said state Rep.

Joseph Preston D-East Liberty, board chairman. Preston yesterday scheduled the special session for 8:15 a.m. tomorrow. It will be followed at 9 a.m. by an open board meeting, where the board could vote on hiring an investigator.

Preston said he called the special meeting because he didn't want to wait until the board's regular meeting on Sept. 8. The matter will first be discussed in a closed meeting because the merits and costs of the candidates will be weighed by the board, he said. "It is strictly a personnel matter until we vote on it," and thus can be closed under the state's Sunshine Act, he said. Preston said that with board approval, he has screened candidates for the job.

He said that "more than two and less than five firms or individuals" are in the running. Preston "said it would be a quick meeting," said Glenn Cannon, authority executive director. Martha RialPost-Gazette photos Matt Parsons, 17, talks with optometrist Dr. Paul Freeman, (on monitor at left) while wearing his Low-Vision Enhancement System, using video cameras, tiny picture tubes and lenses to read music for playing his trumpet. Sight for the near-blind Tiny system of cameras, picture tubes and lenses shines images into eyes 'GigF finds her identity, but no welcoming arms WPiH uimw i iptli Ha By Byron Spice Science Editor, Post-Gazette It looks something like a helmet without a top and makes the wearer look like a techno-dweeb from a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" movie.

But Matt Parsons, 17, isn't concerned about being seen in it; the whole point of wearing it is to see. It's called a Low-Vision Enhancement System, or LVES (pronounced and uses video cameras, tiny picture tubes and lenses to give sight to people who are legally blind or nearly so. Parsons used the svstem to see board work during his Spanish class Tuesday at Franklin High School in Venango County. The senior will also use it to read music when he plays trumpet in the band. He's one of the first people in the area to be prescribed the vision aid by Allegheny General Hospital's low-vision clinic, at present the area's only source of the tronic goggles.

Dr. Paul Freeman, an optometrist who specializes in treating people with low vision, said yesterday that on the basis of several months of experience with Parsons and an elderly patient, he was ready to begin prescribing the goggles more widely. "I think the demand will be overwhelming," Freeman said, though he added quickly, "It's not the answer to everybody's problem." People with vision that cannot be corrected with standard eyeglasses or contact lenses can often perform such tasks as reading or watching television with special microscopic or telescopic lenses. LVES has the advantage of being able to enhance vision for both distance viewing and close work, Freeman said. Using image-processing technology developed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, LVES has three small video cameras.

Images from the cam- castle, led to her identification. Her parents, Stanley and Carolyn Lin or Edinboro, Erie County, learned in February that their daughter had disappeared, Lear said. "Her father said he'd like to find out what happened to her, but he said the oldest child of the family needs to take responsibility She was 31 years old, and if she wanted to skip out she'd skip out, and he didn't notify the police." The Lins did not answer repeated phone calls to their home A step-aunt, who would not give her name, declined comment. Lear said Lin was depressed and angry after talking to her parents. Her father, in an interview with' The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans, said, "I would like to find out what happened to her that was so terrible that she decided she had to forget everything." The newspaper quoted Stanley Lin, a Presbyterian minister, as saying, "I'm not going to spend the money to go down there if she does not remember us.

She is of legal age, and I don't know if I want to bring her home when there are such emotional problems." Still unclear is what caused her amnesia, and how or why she came to New Orleans. Lin still hasn't fully accepted her name, Lear said. "This morning, I said 'Do I call you Belinda she recalled, "and she said, 'No way. My name is By The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS It's not the happy ending everyone had anticipated for "Gigi," a young amnesia victim who spent six months searching for her identity. After months of frustration and false leads, Gigi has finally learned she is Belinda Lin, 31, a medical secretary from Wilmington, Del.

Dental records confirmed her identity this week. But her Erie County family hasn't decided if they want her back; she still can't remember anything about herself, and she's just as unsure about her future as when she was known only as Gigi. "I feel like after all this, now we know who she is and there's still no closure to it," said Cheryl Lear, patient advocate at Southeast Louisiana Hospital, where Gigi lived for months. "What she's going to do now, I have no idea." She said Wednesday that Lin was in seclusion at a friend's home and did not want to be interviewed. Nothing has jogged her memory about her past life.

Lear said nothing explained the loss of memory, although Lin had been diagnosed as schizophrenic at age 18 and has not been taking antipsychotic medication for years. Gigi was found wandering in New Orleans' Audubon Park on Feb. 18. She spent six weeks in a charity hospital, then four months in the suburban New Orleans clinic, trying to establish her identity. When the TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" broadcast her story last week, a call from a former coworker, Nancy Lawrence of New Matt Parsons, one of the first people in the area to be prescribed the vision aid.

said the units cost about $5,200 arid required training that can cost an average of $1,100. The cost is a limiting factor for some people, as is the bulky headpiece, which weighs about two pounds. For now, it's recommended for people with vision between 20100 and 20800. Legal blindness is defined as 20200; people with such vision can see and identify characters as small as 3V4 inches at a distance of 20 feet. People with 20800 vision can see only 14-inch characters at the same distance.

eras are processed to increase their contrast and then sent to a pair of cathode ray tubes, one on each side of the head. Light from the cathode ray tubes passes through a series of magnifying lenses and then to the eyes. The wearers sees black-and-white images. Freeman said the unit could also be attached directly to a VCR for viewing videotapes. LVES was developed by NASA, Johns Hopkins University and the Veterans Affairs Department and is manufactured by Visionics Corp.

of Minneapolis. Freeman APS staff ready for first-time privatization experiment at Turner APS FROM PAGE B-l on younger minds. Academic autonomy was the attraction for Connie Wolford, 24, of Plum, who has taught as a substitute in several districts in the area. "We're given guidelines as to what we teach but we're allowed to teach it any way we can," she said. "Our success is totally based on our decisions in the classroom, our employment is based on our decisions in the classroom.

We are held 100 percent responsible, but it's so good to have that responsibility," she said. that's meant to be." For Kimmel, 25, a Mount Washington resident who recently earned her master's degree, Turner is an opportunity to put into action the education theories she been taught. "It's everything I've studied, everything I've thought about, written papers about as a student," Kimmel said, As a music therapist in a prison, she met a lot of men who were illiterate, men who dropped out of the education system. Kimmel, who will serve as special education director for kindergarten through second grade, hopes to have a greater impact "I'm tired of kids getting killed and 13-and 14-year-olds packing Uzis." Pipkin, who lives in Oakland, has a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh and 30 credits toward a master's degree in secondary education. He taught for three years at Brashear but became disillusioned with a public school system that he said is not set up for children to succeed.

"This is an opportunity for all kids to excel," he said of the Turner plan. "I strongly do believe that this is something arguments in the case Sept. 18. Depending on what the courts ultimately decide, it's possible that the school board will have to bring back the furloughed teachers and scrap the Turner Initiative, which includes individualized education plans, a 212-day school year and a before-school and after-school program. Yet the teachers who signed on to be part of the WilMnsburg School Board's grand education experiment are taking that "I took a chance because I care about kids," said Pipkin, 26, who managed a Red Lobster before the Turner proposal lured him back to teaching.

Friedman ordered the district on March 30 to halt its plans to hire APS and barred it from furlougning teachers until courts resolved the issue of whether a district can turn its schools over to private management. But the district went ahead with the contract, contending that its appeals to higher courts brought about an automatic stay of Friedman's order. A flurry of legal maneuvering last week ended with the high court staying all previous court orders and agreeing to hear.