The Roanoke Times from Roanoke, Virginia • 88

Roanoke Times World News VIRGINIA DEATHS A6 PAGE A3 SATURDAY SEPT 23 1989 At Hollins trees fell squirrels flew By CHIP JONES BUSINESS WRITER Century old trees snapped a bridge cracked a roof was damaged and antique lampposts were crushed at Hollins College riday as Tropi cal Storm Hugo blew across the Ap palachians But Leigh Schilling and her roommate Tanda uller may have seen the strangest thing of all on campus lying squirrels When the wind started whip ping across the mountainside cam pus in northeast Roanoke County the students looked out their dormi tory windows at squirrels hanging onto trees for dear life Some make it squirrels started flying against the said Schilling a junior from Philadelphia Schilling and uller a sopho more from resno Calif were out in the storm and had gotten a small cage from biology class They planned to nurse two of the stunned squirrels back to health named them and Schiller said The wind did more damage than the rain at Hollins the scene of extensive water damage in 1985 Hugo bowled over some of the col biggest and most prized trees 28 in all and damaged others said grounds supervisor David Bell At an estimated $2000 per ma jor tree Bell said the tree damage alone could reach more than $56000 Though this com pare with the $5 million damage done in the 1985 flood Hugo did mug the Hollins landscape The storm blew in over the ad ministration building knocking down trees and ripping up part of the roof Then the 50 mph winds shattered an 80 foot tall century old ash tree on the front quad Looking out at its splintered re mains security chief Robert Willis observed looks like a low lev el bomb went Hugo stomped across campus kayoing a registered black locust tree in the yard of Hollins President Pau la Brownlee Bell said it was the oldest black locust in Virginia got a little scared when I heard the wood said De nise Rettinger a freshman from Richmond Around 10:30 am a woman lunged through the wind and pelting rain to turn in an English paper About 20 feet away a sizable tree fell over you see that she asked alling trees also crushed an Oriental wooden bridge in the Beale Garden behind the administration building and crunched some 19th century lampposts in the front quad Nothing could be done about the wind but building and grounds crews worked all morning to battle the rain been sandbagging all Bell said Crews put up to 4000 sandbags around buildings to PLEASE SEE HOLLINSA4 7' STEPHANIE KLEINStaff Trees that fall on homes like this one in Roanoke County are covered by most policies A'i V'v A 4 1 'v' Homeowners cut your losses By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STA WRITER If a tree fell in your yard riday forget your insurance company and find a friend with a chain saw Unless something other than the ground is under the tree responsibility for its re moval is the but Roanoke and Roanoke County officials riday were work ing on plans to help residents with tree re moval a tree falls on your fence a home policy will cover to have the tree removed from the fence but not from the premises It also will cover damage done to the said Rorence Jones customer service representative with Eads Lower Inc which represents several insurance companies Insurance companies and claim adjust ers were busy riday afternoon as Tropical Storm Hugo moved through Western Virgin ia Jones said most of her calls involved leaking roofs and trees on houses and fences She said her office was taking names and advising clients on what to do to prevent further damage She said it would be a few days before adjusters would be able to assess all the damage George Estes an adjuster with GAB Business Services said homeowners protect themselves without waiting for the insurance adjuster to show up They should take the attitude that they would if they WAYNE DEELStaff I 1 jL' v4W jji wttjirt City crew removes tree that fell into Highland Avenue Southwest have Estes said people worry that by fixing something destroy their evi dence for a claim people can document that had work done be paid for the he said Edith Hayes branch secretary for GAB said they had gotten claims from Lynchburg Amherst and Rocky Mount Nationwide central claims office in Lynchburg reported fewer than 100 claims by riday afternoon but most of PLEASE SEELOSSESA4 As the river rose so did fears By LESLIE TAYLOR and VICTORIA RATCLI STA WRITERS Teresa Roop stood next to her car in a parking lot at the Willow River apartment complex in Salem a steady rain soaking her shirt and shorts and washing against her bare feet She was loading her car with what she called the birth records marriage license and teddy bears Roop her fiance Jimmy White and her two children were heading for higher ground after Salem police advised them to evacuate their second floor apartment just before noon riday Roop did not live in the apartment complex in 1985 when some residents there lost everything as the Roanoke River filled second floor apartments seen the photos though put a bunch of stuff over kitchen cabinets and a lot on top of the said Roop who moved to Willow River three months ago waiting around to see what happens I guess go to my Nearby a rain soaked Jim King joked about having to leave the Willow River apartment he has occupied for only one month He had heard about the flood dev astation in 1985 and was taking in stride the possibility that Tropical Storm Hugo could bring a repeat of the same moved 15 times in 18 King said will I go? I know 1 guess ride around like a tourist and take in the King who works for the Haul Co said he came home Thursday evening heard about the threat of flooding and set out looking for a truck to haul his belong ings even get a truck Peo ple were even taking trucks that were in the shop for Willow River resident Zora Rucker says she saw neighbors loading trucks PLEASE SEEEARSA4 DNA based murder convictions upheld Associated Press RICHMOND The first murder conviction based on the use of so called DNA fingerprinting evidence was upheld riday by the Virginia Supreme Court In a pair of unanimous rulings the court concluded that DNA tests that linked Timothy Wilson Spencer to the rape slayings of two women were scientifically reliable The court also upheld the death sentence of Douglas Buchanan Jr who was convicted in Amherst County of the September 1987 slay ings of four members of his family However the court set aside first degree murder con viction of his father The court said the conviction was technically in er ror because in effect Buchanan had been convicted of five murders when there were only four victims his father stepmother and two half brothers DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is the basic genetic material in hu man cells Scientists believe that ev eryone except for identical twins has a unique DNA pattern Spencer a 26 year old former resident of a Richmond halfway house was convicted of capital mur der and sentenced to death in sepa rate trials last year for the slayings of Susan Tucker 44 of Arlington and Debbie Dudley Davis 35 of Richmond The victims had been bound and strangled by an assailant who broke into their homes through a window At both trials evidence was of fered that semen samples found at the crime scenes and blood samples taken from Spencer had matching DNA patterns The state Supreme Court said challenge to the DNA evi dence amounted to saying we should hold off until another any decision on the reliability of such tests But a number of expert wit nesses testified that the technique is generally accepted in the scientific community The court said Spencer ac knowledged that and unable to find or produce one qualified expert to debunk either the theory of DNA printing or the statistics generated Earlier this year Spencer was convicted and sentenced to death in two other cases the rapes and mur ders of Dr Susan Elizabeth Hel lams 32 of Richmond and Diane Cho 15 of Chesterfield County PLEASE SEE DNAA6 sales put in doubt Indictment may i foil 2 TV deals i By GEORGE KEGLEY il and CHUCK MILTEER STA WRITERS Timothy Brumlik the principal! stockholder in a group that had re ceived court approval to purchase' two Roanoke Lynchburg UH tele vision stations has been indicted in! Orlando la on charges of launder ing $12 million in drug money 1 Brumlik 43 a multimillionaire'! owner of television stations hotels and real estate in lorida was ar 1 rested Sept 15 the same day purchase of Lynchburg sta tion WJPR (Channel 21) was ap proved by Judge William Anderson" in Bankruptcy Court in Lynchburg Rorida based group Nev South Virginia Inc also was! given permission to purchase" WVT (Channel 27) on Sept 13 by a Tampa Bankruptcy" Court New South plans to consolidate the two stations and operate them as? one according to testimo ny in Bankruptcy Court Since both stations are in reor ganization under bankruptcy laws' the sales required court approval' and are contingent on approval by the ederal Communications Com mission But that approval is in jeopardy because of the drug money launder ing charges 7 Caldwell Butler Roanoke lawyer for WJPR said the give many licenses to con victed drug Thomas Carney a lawyer fori the lorida owners of Channel 21' said he has heard that the New? South Virginia group has another investor standing by to replacfe'1 Brumlik The drug charges against Brum lik a surprise to Carney said riday Such allegations not good: for approval by the he saidy Brumlik bragged that he has! probably laundered $50 million irf: drug money in the last five years according to an affidavit by Thomas Altif a criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service in USi District Court in Orlando Court documents showed that Brumlik told an informant that he had laundered Colombian drug money through Panama and that he was a front man for Colombians in real estate transactions according to the Orlando Sentinel do believe this individual is a big Doyle Jourdan heat) of the Rorida Department of Law' Enforcement office in Orlando tol(k the newspaper believe an investor for drug smugglers and hq has accumulated a lot of assets This is truly the tip of the iceberg We expect a wealth of information to be from records seized from Brumlik Brumlik also was indicted on a' charge of attempting to import 660 pounds of cocaine If convicted on all charges Brumlik faces 1 0 years to life in prison and fines of more than $4 million Although Brumlik told an Or lando court he was worth $2 million James Russ his attorney put wealth at more than $20 million? Records seized from home confirmed that estimate showing that he had $218 million iri assets and $76700 in liabilities He has a helicopter pad in his back yard and he owns a Rolls Royce a Bentley and a Maserati according to the Orlando newspa i per The largest Howard hotel is managed by a' company he heads Brumlik owns or is trying to' build at least half a dozen other tele vision stations including two in Puerto Rico Carney the attorney for Chan nel 21 owners said he will not be! worried if the sale to group falls through other groups are in acquiring both the Roanoke and stations he said The financial problems that! forced WJPR and WVT into bank ruptcy stem primarily from a lack of revenue from advertising sales i In addition in December! WVT was charged by the city of Roanoke with failing to pay almost PLEASE SEE TVAQ Chesterfield sheriff assistant resign after affair revealed A6.