Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

how you can call us rtwut Jfete lottery extra Tuesday's number, 984, has been drawn twice on 8-7-78 and 11-3-83. Lottery line 1-976-2020 Circulation Dept. Classified Gold Ads Insurance Dept. City News All other calls For delivery 222-6500 222-5000 222-6470 222-6600 222-6400 222-6500 Section Page 3 SECOND FRONT PAGE Thursday, December 12, 1985 9 Mother's hopes for family died with slaying IluUfl HcDiarmid politics Debate in Senate sure wasn pretty By ERIC KINKOPF Free Press Staff Writer At night, when the mother of Shaun Gates could not sleep because of the pains of her cancer and fears for her eight children, she would turn on a tape recorder and pray. "Just please, God, keep my family together," begged Brenda Gates, 28, in one of four tapes she made about a month before her death from cervical cancer Oct.

23, 1983. "Lord, please keep my family together, please, please Brenda Gates, who became a mother at 15 and had eight children before she died, made plans during that last month to keep her children together by placing them with relatives and good friends of the family. In the end, her plans, carried out by her husband, Edwin, turned tragic when Shaun Gates, four, the Gates' youngest child, was found dead in a trash dumpster last week. Police charged Shaun's legal guardian, Robin Ryan, and her husband, Jerry Ryan, who was a close friend of the family, in connection with the slaying. On one of the tapes played for the Free Press by relatives Wednesday, Brenda Gates assigned custody of each child to either a friend or a relative.

"I talked to Shirley today, and I told her I wanted her to take Shaun," Brenda Gates said on one tape. "God, please let this work out for me. Give my children what they need if they can't have Mama at home, please Let them be good children, Lord. Please lead my kids with the Bible. I want my kids to grow up to be beautiful people, something I've never been, Lord." Shaun was one of the last Gates children to be placed by Edwin Gates, who told Wayne County officials he was unable to care for them.

Becky Troutt, Brenda Gates' sister, identified "Shirley" as a relative but said that Shirley never took custody of Shaun. Instead, Shaun was placed with a family friend, and then another, before being given to the Ryans. At one point, ending a litany of her children's names, Brenda Gates said, "Shaun, I love you very much." Troutt said that Brenda Gates carried the tape recorder around "like a purse." "She wanted to leave us something," her sister said. "She was also afraid of the state, taking her children." Brenda Gates said on one of the tapes: "Don't let anyone take my babies from Edwin. I've, really got faith in Edwin.

So much faith in him. I really believe that man is one heckuva good man Give him a good wife." I At one point, Brenda Gates, who died six months after being diagnosed as having cervical; cancer, pleaded: "Let me live for my children, God. Please let me live for my children." I In a tape made Oct. 16, 1983, a week before she died, Brenda Gates sang "Jesus Loves Me" with her son, Christopher, then four, before having the following conversation with the little boy: "Mama's going to heaven "How come? I want to go with you." be a nice little boy; go to church; go to school." "Can I bring my Big Wheel (to heaven)?" "(In heaven) there ain't no way you'll even, get hurt nobody cries And finally: "You know, Mama loves all you babies." Grandstanding? Of course. But so what? At least the state Senate was doing something.

We refer to the Senate resolution, approved Tuesday, declaring a crime "emergency" in Detroit and proposing that Michigan State Police troopers be used to help serve outstanding warrants on alleged felons. It wasn't very pretty. Or very practical. Debate on the Senate floor was '2-- Brenda Gates, deceased mother of Shaun Gates, whose body was found in a trash dumpster last week. accompanied by all sorts of quibbling and politicking; senators on both sides, especially the prime sponsor, John Kelly, D-Detroit, were accused (not Technicality halts changes in auto rates law wholly without merit) of grandstanding; the resolution was considered unlikely to win needed support in the House; even if it did, it would lack the force of law, and, finally, hnth houses, dp- Fry guilty of murder in slaying of psychologist i By TIM JONES Lansing Bureau Chief LANSING Proposed changes in the law regulating auto insurance rates in Michigan were rumbling toward Senate approval Wednesday but were halted by a small but powerful legal technicality.

Unless a majority of the Senate agrees to overturn the' technical ruling by Sen. Harry DeMaso, R-Battle Creek, the. Senate's president pro tempore, the insurance companies'; push to remodel the state's five-year old Essential Insurance' Act before Christmas will be delayed until at least mid-. January. "It's a crushing defeat and you really hate to lose on procedural motion when you don't have an opportunity to debate the issue," said James Hadden, manager of government affairs for the, Automobile Club of Michigan.

The measure would completely rewrite the Essential Insurance Act, removing restraints on insurance rates iji outstate Michigan, placing a cap on insurance rate hikes In Detroit, and allowing insurance companies who don't operate in Detroit to raise their rates comparable to other Detroit-writers. DESIGNED TO increase the profitability of insurance companies particularly those that sell to customers in Detroit the measure was enthusiastically backed by most insurance companies. Insurers want the bill passed before the end of the year and warn it will not be possible to address the issue in the 1986 election year. Sen. Richard Posthumus, R-Lowell, who accused Gov.

Blanchard of "stalling" the issue, said he will try to have the vote on DeMaso's ruling reconsidered next week, before the Senate adjourns for the holidays. Steve Weiss, Blanchard's deputy chief of staff, called Posthumus charge "baloney" and said Posthumus and insurance companies are rushing the bill because "they See INSURANCE, Page 13A By JOE SWICKARD Free Press Staff Writer John (Lucky Johnny) Fry was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and mutilating a corpse for the July baseball bat slaying and dismemberment of Grosse Pointe Park psychologist W. Alan Canty. A Recorder's Court jury deliberated two hours and 45 minutes after hearing five days of testimony detailing the bizarre two-year relationship of ex-convict Fry, 38, a tattooed pimp; Canty, 51, a respected clinician and son of a prominent family, and Dawn Spens, 20, a drug-addicted Cass Corridor prostitute. Fry, wearing the borrowed tweed suit he had worn throughout the trial, showed no emotion when the verdict was announced.

Defense attorney Jay Nolan, noting that first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole, asked Judge Michael Sapala to sentence Fry immediately. The standard two-week pre-sentence investigation would be a "frivolous gesture at best," Nolan said. SAPALA, SAYING the investigation would help prison authorities in their handling of Fry, refused Nolan's request and scheduled sentencing for Dec. 23. Sapala also ordered Fry to See FRY, Page 15A John Kelly spite senatorial disclaimers, would have to be persuaded to approve an accompanying appropriation in order to make it work.

Still even in its half-baked form the resolution managed to focus attention, however briefly, on a wretched and embarrassing lapse in criminal law enforcement in Detroit, to wit, officialdom's unwillingness (or inability) to address the city's huge backlog of unserved felony warrants. It also shed light on Mayor Young's knee-jerk defensiveness about crime in the city. For example, a few hours after the resolution's approval, the mayor, who was in Lansing, accused sponsor Kelly and other Senate supporters of demonstrating "ignorance or opportunism or both." And he suggested that Wayne County Prosecutor John O'Hair the only Detroit official aside from Kelly seeking to address the problem was "a partner to this deception." (O'Hair, just for the record, has been trying to get help from federal sources, but he had nothing to do with Kelly's Senate resolution.) The mayor also used a non sequitur to wit, prison overcrowding as the rationale for officialdom's refusal to do something about the huge backlog of unserved felony warrants. "Our problem," he said, "is not the ability to arrest them. The problem is where are you going to put 'em." Or, as seen from the felon's perspective, freedom by default.

5 AP Photo Storm damaged This house on the Lake Superior shore in Marquette is one of several in Marquette County that have been declared unsafe for occupancy after a Nov. 30-Dec. 1 storm. Damages still are being assessed. County officials say many homes and camps along the lake are in danger of damage should another storm bring high waves along the shore.

Gas station owners sue state over seizure Auburn Hills topping Dome in arena battle 4H VAX CJ" 1 Mayor Young says dope case 'stinks' Mayor Young visited his old colleague (and onetime Lansing roommate), state Sen. Basil Brown, D-High-land Park, Tuesday in the Capitol and, l1 By KEVIN T. McGEE Free Press Staff Writer An overture from Pontiac Silver-dome officials to lure a proposed new arena away from neighboring Auburn Hills has been rejected, Silverdome chairman James Clarkson said Wednesday. Troy developer Robert Sosnick, who hopes to persuade the Detroit Pistons basketball team to move from the Silverdome to an seat arena four miles away, confirmed the overture from Silverdome officials, but said, "Our decision is really firm" to build in Auburn Hills. afterward, had this to say about the marijuana and co-caine charges Brown faces as a result of a joint investigative effort by local law officers and Attorney General Frank Kel- An artist's conception of the proposed Auburn Hills arena.

Young ley's office: By JOHN DUNPHY Free Press Staff Writer Seven Detroit area gasoline station owners filed a $5 million damage suit Wednesday charging state officials with abuse of authority for seizing their gasoline pumps and equipment during raids at 15 area stations being investigated for allegedly overcharging customers. State Police officers and investigators from the Michigan Department of Agriculture were ordered to appear before Wayne County Circuit Judge Henry Szymanski on Friday to show cause why the station owners' equipment should not be returned, said Southfield lawyer Warren Siegel. Siegel, who represents seven of the gasoline dealers whose stations were raided Tuesday by police and state investigators, said the state acted in a discriminatory manner against the station owners. "This is a vendetta against the stations. These are all Arabic-owned stations," Siegel said.

The dealers who filed suit are Gas Service, Gas Service, Zippy Sales Camel Sales Desert Sands Nancy Sales Inc. and Bunny's Sales Inc. The dealers operate nine stations in Detroit. A similar suit filed Tuesday on behalf of Froggy's Fill-Up was assigned to Judge Lucile Watts. DURING A press conference in Detroit after the raids Tuesday, Paul Kindinger, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, charged that the station owners, by rigging meters on self-service pumps, were cheating motorists out of six to 76 percent of the gasoline they paid for.

He said the station owners could net $260,000 to $880,000 a year through such a scheme. Kindinger said investigators using undercover state cars with specially fitted gasoline tanks found wide discrepancies between the arnount of gasoline they paid for and the amount that actually was pumped into the tanks. Siegel accused state officials of using "Gestapo-like tactics" for what could amount to misdemeanor charges against the station owners. Siegel said state officials overstepped their authority by using search warrants as "padlock orders." The stations were closed by their owners Wednesday after the pumps were seized, Siegel said. Because the search warrants were too broad and were invalid, Siegel said, the station owners are entitled to a return of their equipment.

No charges have been filed against the station owners in the yearlong investigation by Kin-dinger's department, which enforces Michigan weights and measures laws. Siegel said the investigators are limited to filing misdemeanor criminal charges because no purchase of gasoline was more than $100. "From where I sit, it stinks to high heaven. I'm shocked at Frank Kelley's role It seems to me and I'm no lawyer like a frame." And, referring to the prosecution's principal witness, Oakland County, where, according to studies, they must play to draw enough people to make money. "The Silverdome, as a facility for playing basketball, is not the best accommodation," Feldman added.

"The proposed arena is more conducive to playing basketball." The Silverdome opened 10 years ago, primarily to house pro football's Detroit Lions. The Pistons moved there from downtown Detroit and last season led the National Basketball Association in attendance, playing in a configuration created by dropping a curtain across the stadium. But Feldman said, "we did not lead the league in dollars at the gate. There, we were only number seven or eight" because many tickets were given away or sold at discounts for promotions. Sosnick released a drawing of the Auburn Hills Entertainment Center on Wednesday.

Construction costs are estimated at between $35 million and $40 million. Clarkson said he believed Silver-dome officials were turned down because they could not offer Sosnick a 50 percent tax abatement, which Sosnick expects will be approved Monday night by the Auburn Hills City Council. Sosnick said he would reconsider building in Auburn Hills if the tax abatement is not granted, but added that "the primary reasons for me turning the (Silverdome) of fer down is that conflicting events held at the same time (in the two facilities) could really cause a traffic problem." "The other reason is that we'll have an arena where we can control the events as opposed to someone telling me," Sosnick said. PISTONS' co-owner and legal counsel Oscar Feldman described the team Wednesday as "captive tenants" of the Silverdome because the stadium is the only arena capable of accommodating their games in CLARKSON SAID the Silverdome will be "devastated" if the Pistons leave. The team moved from Detroit to Pontiac in 1978.

The stadium would lose $1 million a year in revenue, plus invaluable news media exposure, he said. "If we don't do something in the next 90 days, we are going to lose the Pistons," Clarkson added. The team's lease at the Silverdome is up in 1988, when Sosnick hopes to have his new arena open. Clarkson revealed Wednesday that intermediaries for the Silverdome had tried to land the new arena. He made the disclosure after the regular meeting of the Pontiac Stadium Authority, the Silverdome's governing board.

He said Sosnick was approached about a Silverdome plan to build a new arena as part of a hotel and convention complex on what now is parking space next to the stadium. Brown an acknowledged prostitute and drug user named Katherine Roberts, the mayor said: "I've had a longtime concern about the accuracy of testimony of paid stool pigeons. Not only is she a whore, but an addict. I suppose they're doing the same thing they're accusing him (Brown) of doing conveying dope to her.".