Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 1

Wednesday, August peace-loving kids Page 6 Flight 123 survivor recounts jet crash Page 16 N.T.I, strikes gold in B-3 Page 11 Ukiah Daily 'Journal Mendocino County, California Vol. 125 No. 101 16 Pages 25 Cents Second spill at Carbide CHARLESTON, W.Va. (UPI) Mayor Mike Roark said today a spill of gallons of foul-smelling chemicals into the Kanawha River, the second incident at a Union Carbide plant in two days, had caused a "high anxiety level" among residents of the area. Roark, appearing on the CBS Morning News, said, however, the Kanawha Valley is "not ready to throw the towel in on Carbide" or resort to "Carbide bashing.

"But I would be less than candid if I said we were not more than a little concerned," he added. "People are skittish and there is a high anxiety level." The spill was four miles from Carbide's Institute plant, where 500 gallons of aldicarb oxime, which is used to make the pesticide Temik, spewed from a storage tank Sunday and rolled like fog over four nearby towns, sending 135 people to hospitals. Carl Beard, director of the West Virginia Air Pollution Control Commission, said on the television program also that officials will review Tuesday night's incident. "Today we just plan to fine tune out information and find out the whys," Beard said. The spill at Carbide's South Charleston plant, which released a foul odor over the North Charleston area, follows Sunday's leak of a chemical cloud from Carbide's pesticide plant hi Institute that sickened 135 people.

A woman driving near the plant Tuesday night was treated at the Kanawha Valley Hospital for throat and eye irritation and officials said 50 people called police or hospitals complaining of nausea and burning eyes. Union Carbide spokesman Mike Lipscomb said about 1,000 gallons of "Ucon," a hydraulic brake fluid, isopropanol, a solvent, and sulfuric acid were spilled into the river. Beard said isopropanol caused the "air problem. That was the foul smell." "We're saying that apparently we both became aware about the same time," he said. "As soon as we became aware of it, we made contacts with them and got them involved." Officials decided not to evacuate the area or declare an emergency after learning the chemical was not toxic.

It was the second accident at Carbide's Kanawha Valley plants in three days and it came hours after the company announced it had halted Temik production at Institute and closed much of a Woodbine, plant where aldicarb oxime the chemical that leaked into the air Sunday is stored. MENDOCINO COUNTY: Low clouds and fog at the ocean today, otherwise sunny. Highs from the 60s near the coast to the mid 80s inland. Variable winds to 15 mph. Coastal low clouds and fog tonight and Thursday, otherwise fair.

Lows upper 40s and 50s. Highs 60s at the coast to 80s inland. Variable winds to 15 mph. Yesterday 85 56 Last year 92 54 From 10 a.m. through 5 p.m.

yesterday 0.00 Year to date 00.00 Last year 00.00 Evan Johnson To the victors go the spoils Nature's Treasures added the B-3 men's softball crown to Its collection on Tuesday night at Pomollta and Dan Todd was rewarded with a big congratulatory kiss from his wife, Alice, and a pat on the back (of the leg) by his 2Vz-year-old son, Andy. (See sports, page 11, for mors details) Supreme Court denies testimony 'critical' to Marston defense By PETER PAGE Journal Staff Writer The state Supreme Court has refused to consider a plea by Thomas Marston's attorneys to allow testimony they consider vital to the accused murderer's defense. The Supreme Court Tuesday declined to review a ruling two weeks ago by Superior Court Judge Arthur Broaddus that testimony of Lora Bertorrelli "appeared contrived" and would not be heard by the jury. Bertorrelli testified that a mysterious visitor at her home boasted of making easy money for killing Jack Tomlinson and Jan Me, the two people Marston is accused of murdering. Defense attorney Joe Allen argued that the Bertorrelli testimony is "critical" to bolstering Marston's claim that he only witnessed, and did not participate in, the two killings.

District Attorney Vivian Rackauckas dismissed Bertor- relli's story as unsupported hearsay. "We very well could win this case on appeal because of (Broaddus') ruling, but I don't want it to come to that," Allen said this morning. He noted that the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the Bertorrelli testimony but only declined to review its exclusion. Bertorrelli testified that a man unknown to her but in the company of an acquaintance visited her home very late at night sometime around Labor Day 1984. The man, who she recollected to be named Hank or Shank, and the woman, known only as Dawn, were on their way permanently out of town.

Dawn needed to borrow $50. Bertorrelli sympathized with Dawn's need for money which prompted the man to say it was ''easy" to make money, she testified. He claimed to have earned said she asked him how and he replied, "You know Jan Me? I was there." Dawn eventually wrote Ber- torrelli and repaid the money but she has not heard from them other than that. Bertorrelli admitted she did not believe the man at the time. However, last May she came to the attention of Samantha Kaye, an investigator for the Marston defense team.

Kaye showed Bertorrelli four composite sketches that had been drawn based on Marston's description to police of the two men he alleges gunned down Me and Tomlinson in January 1984. Kaye testified that Bertorrelli identified one of the sketches as that of the man who had visited her home. She then indicated where the man was missing two teeth, an identifing mark that had never been made public. Apple maggot help sought ByAAISSYCHESSHER Journal Staff Writer Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and a full house of farmers combined their talents Tuesday to send the most effective resolution asking for Gov. George Deukmejian to intervene in the halted appple maggot eradication program.

Supervisors agreed unanimously to send a resolution composed by the County Farm Bureau that calls for the governor to use his emergency powers to order the Department of Food and Agriculture to resume the eradication program. However, a spokesperson from the governor's office said that Deukmejian would prefer to seek legislation to continue the program, rather than use his emergency powers. The program to eliminate the pest reached a stumbling block when a Humboldt County Superior Court limited the range of the state's $2.6 million spraying operations in Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, Shasta and Siskiyou counties. County Counsel Peter Klein said lawyers for the Department of Food and Agriculture would be deciding Tuesday whether or not to appeal the decision. "In all probability this decision will not be appealed," Klein told supervisors.

The suit was filed by two environmental roups who charged that the epartment failed to consider aternatives to spraying the chemical Imidan and entered private property without permission. "The Farm Bureau has two requests of the supervisors," Steve Thomas, president of the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, said. "One, to jump on Deukmejian for an emergency program; and two, to jump on the state legislature to continue the program. David Drell, a Willits resident, told the board that southern Oregon has a $5 million spraying program for backyard and abandoned orchards. Drell was one of two residents who attended the supervisors' meeting to criticize the spraying of trees.

"I object to spraying," Drell said. "There's never been a pest that has ever been eliminated on the face of the earth." The apple maggot is a prolific fruit fly which lays its eggs inside fruit. Even though the pest's preference is apples, it also enjoys grapes, cherries, pears, peaches, plums and prunes. Accused killer to stand trial By PETER PAGE Journal Staff Wrlt.r Robert Wayne Danielson was ordered this morning to stand trial for the murder of two vacationing retirees near Manchester in 1982. Danielson, 38, already in custody because of a grand jury indictment for the killings of Benjamin and Edith Shaffer, of Yuma, heard against him during a preliminary hearing that ended this morning.

The cornerstone of the prosecution's case is the testimony of Lenora Hart Johnson, who accompanied the suspect in the alleged murder and robbery spree that spanned several western states. She described the murders of the two Shaffers and another elderly man at a state park in Oregon. Johnson, now 18, was a 14-year old runaway when she met Danielson in a Springfield, municipal park. She described there relationship as a "common law marriage." Johnson is now married and pregnant. She was clearly nervous while presenting testimony and several times came near to tears under questioning by defense attorney George McClure.

The execution style killings of the Shaffers in July 1982 were preceded about a month earlier by the killing of Arthur Gray, 62, in Oregon, Johnson said. Johnson admitted she bound the hands of the Shaffers with twine. She then left the scene on orders of Danielson to walk their dog and then heard several shots, some of which were muffled by a pillow. She returned to the scene and saw the slumped and bloody bodies, she said. "Bob told me to get away and go back to walking the dog," Johnson said.

When Johnson came back shortly after she said Danielson was walking up from a roadside embankment and the bodies were gone. "He kicked dirt over the bloodstains," she said. "He had her purse and all her stuff. We got into the camper and began going through their stuff." Johnson appeared to be upset Robert Wayne Danielson by the McClure's vigorous cross examination. He asked her to give, her home address, a request that brought immediate objections from prosecutor Cliff Harris and Public Defender Susan Massini, who is representing Johnson.

Johnson has been granted immunity from prosecution in return for her testimony.Massini advised Johnson not to answer the question. She said Johnson has received death threats because she is testifing against Danielson. Harris, who left his position as chief deputy prosecutor last spring, has returned from his home in Arkansas under contract to prosecute the Danielson case. At another point McClure pressed Johnson to give a graphic description of the two head wounds on Benjamin Shaffer. She came near to crying and asked for a break.

"He's trying to scare me," she complained to Massini as she left the courtroom. Danielson could be sent to the gas chamber if found guilty. His trial for the Oregon murder is bogged down pending a review of that state's homicide statute. He additionally faces two charges of attempted murder in Arizona and is reportedly a suspect in three other murders there. Johnson is charged as an accomplice to the two Arizona at- temped murders.

It is alleged that she injected a potent tranquilizer into two vacationing retirees..