Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 13

'fa 1 7 Michigan Dateline, Page 4 Obituaries, Page 4 Call City Desk, 1-313-222-6600 Wednesday, March 8, 1995 Detroit 4ftec 0S 1JjQXCa1Li 1a vuvT in carjack death is released jailed oman "TV) SUSAN I WATSON mid-blooded murderer." Victim family assails judge 9s decision never soueht heto for her. From the beginning, the role Nix played in Bandy's death was not clear. A jury convicted Nix's 19-year-old boyfriend, Robert Hogans, in 1991 of first-degree murder. Hogans abducted Bandy as she drove through a Pontiac car wash on the morning of Sept. 18, 1990.

He raped her, then locked her in the trunk. But Nix tdld investigators that Hogans, her boyfriend for two weeks, had convinced her he was an under- Admirer returns Young's kindness "My sister didn't get a reduction in her sentence, or her conviction overturned," said David Johns, Bandy's brother. "She's in the ground." Johns, who identified Bandy's body at the morgue, said he will never forget the bruises and torn fingernails that showed his sister for her life in the trunk. In the end, she drank windshield wiper fluid in an attempt to quench her thirst. It hastened her "Terressa Nix had ample time to I save my sister," Johns said.

"She is a BY L.L. BRASIER Free Press Staff Writer A Pontiac woman who rode around in a stolen car with her new boyfriend for five days while the car's owner was slowly dying of thirst in the trunk was released from prison Tuesday. Two weeks ago, the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned Terressa Nix's involuntary manslaughter conviction in the 1990 death of Pamela Bandy, a 43-year-old autoworker who died in the trunk of, her Cadillac. On Tuesday, despite pleas by the prosecutor that Nix stay in prison while the case is taken to the state Supreme Court, Oakland County Circuit Judge Fred Mester released her on $50,000 personal bond, pending the appeal. Before ordering her release, Mester had strong words for Nix and the dozen or so people who apparently suspected Bandy was in the trunk during the September 1990 ride but "Here's somebody locked in a trunk, and people did nothing.

They may not have a legal duty, but by God, they have a moral duty," Mester said. Nix's mother, Rosetta Bush, "Thank you, Jesus," as Mester ordered her release. Nix, dressed in burgundy colored jail garb, showed' little emotion but bowed her head briefly and wiped her eyes. Bandy's family was outraged. ogic, of course, tells us that one thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

But Monday night, as former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young See Released Page 5B i By Roddy Ray Senator wants judges to have acucea mw pr; Bitt says they should be kwyers for i years A 1 I. I tmm. I 'Sl I --v I HOW TO BE HEARD By Matthew G. Davis Free Press Lansing Staff LANSING Michigan voters may be asked to decide next year whether lawyers fresh out of law school should be allowed to become judges. To comment on Senate Joint Resolution whjch would; ask voters to chanee the'stateconsti- Photos by MARY SCHROEDERDetrolt Free Prew tiition lawyers to pfac- tfce for jvqyears before becoming judges, tall: Sen.

Virgil Smith jr D-Detroit, at 1-517-373- Rep. Michael Nye, Litchfield, at 1-517-373-1794, or the Michigan House Judiciary and Civil Rights Committee at 1-' 517-373-0554. Faxes can be sent to Janet Fonger, committee clerk, at 1- 517-373-5971. Or you can write the committee at Box 30014, Lansing 48909-7514. a bill already passed in the Senate that would "put Michigan in line other states that require lawyers to have some experience before becoming a judge-At least two Wayne County judges have been elected with little experi- ence.

In 1986, Kathleen MacDonald was elected to the circuit court a year after graduating from law school and never having tried a case. (She had, been a law clerk for another judge.) MacDonald could not be reached for comment Tuesday. In 1972, James Del Rio, a state lawmaker, was elected to Recorder's ICourt in Detroit two weeks after Above: Belinda Hines, left, was talking to her sister, Marilynn, right, when she was spooked by her caller ID machine. Below: Did Honest Abe really call? Ghosts in the machine getting his law license. He was re- jmoved from the bench five years later less than five years' experience are for judicial misconduct.

less qualified than those with more State Sen. Virgil bmitft u- lay Jemi-comatose in a hospital bed, his ljfe in serious danger, 13-year-old Crystal Shaw reached for a piece of loose-leaf paper and wrote him a letter. "I asked him if he remembered me, and I said I was sorry that he felt sick! And I said I hope he gets better beduse me and my family are praying for Ijim. I told him that God will keep His hands around him." When she finished, she gave the letter to her grandmother, Rosie Shatyj then went to her room to pray. Fighting a tumor Crystal met then-Mayor Young about 4Vi years ago.

She was a spunky little1 9-year-old, suffering from a malignant tumor that had buried itself deep inside her brain. She had learned to live with headaches and pain. Radiation treatments had failed, and Ihe odds were against recovery. Crystal was so ill that the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which helps the most gravely'ill, children, granted her wish jCqpt a visit to Disney World in Florida. The Florida trip was one of three wishes.

Her second wish was big birthday party. Her family tossed her a real lollapalooza of a bash. Her third wish was actually a two-parter. Crystal wanted to ride in a limousine and meet the mayor of Detroit. Young granted both wishes.

On a Wednesday in late September .1990, she rode in the mayor's midnigh blue Cadillac limousine and spertt severaTlhouTS with him. She sat behind his huge desk in the City-County Building. She barked out -orders to an amused gathering that included the mayor, various appo, intees and a sprinkling of security guards. She and the mayor capped off the visit with cheeseburgers and fries at the Checker Bar and Grill in dowjitown Detroit. Af the time, she was a seriously ill littl girl.

But her spirit matched that of tHe.man whose office she ruled for a fewjriinutes. rob Berg, Young's spokesman, remembered that visit. the mayor spent time with herno one expected her to last," Berg -said Tuesday. But Crystal defied the odds. Today, she attends classes at St.

Leo's School where she's in the eighth gracje. She is taking a full load of classes, and math is one of her favorites. Doctors still don't understand why she has made such progress, but her family is grateful whatever the reason. Crystal soon will return to the Cleveland Clinic for another regular checkup. Although she recently spent a days in a local hospital, she is irrepf essibly.upbeat about the future.

So family. That's why she wrote the letter. Shetfs, after all, living proof that anything is possible. Prospects were dim When Crystal went to sleep -Moflday night, the mayor's prospects were dim. The next morning, she got up arid headed off for school.

Shortly afternoon, her grandfather, Ray delivered the letter to Detroit Receiving Hospital. It was addressed to Mayor Young, in care of Dr. Claud Young the mayor's cousin and personal physician and Bob Berg. The letter wound up in the waiting room where Young's family and friends held their vigil. Berg saw it arotind 1:30, after he finished a brief visit with his former boss.

"I opened it it didn't have a return address and I said, 'It's from Crystal Her picture was to it, he said, and there wasn't a misspelled word in it, he said. 'fit was touching, because she said something like, 'I want you to get well like 1 Berg said. By midday Tuesday, the former mayor was said to be improving. He was more alert and reportedly was responding to medicine. He's still quite ill and doctors have yet to determine if he suffered a stroke in addition to the severe breathing problems caused by emphysema.

But on the whole, he was better after Crystal wrote that letter and it with a praye; experience. Del Kio was the only judge he could name who was elected without five years', experience. Del Rio became noted for brag doesn't think MacDonald and JJel Rio should have had the chance to run for the bench until they had J- ging in court about his sexual prow- put in five years as lawyers. He is shepherding a resolution through the ess, being rude to litigants and twice brandishing a firearm. He was re House Judiciary and Civil Rights elinda Hines groggily Ql answered her phone on fJL the first ring Thursday 1 evening.

"How you doing?" her sister, Marilynn, asked. "Sleeping," Belinda said testily. "I do work midnights." Marilynn wanted to chat. But Belinda checked her caller ID box which she's had a year and reeled. "Marilynn," she said.

"John F. Kennedy is on my box." "Quit kidding," Marilynn said. "Serious," Belinda said in the dark bedroom of her east side Detroit home, illuminated only by the TV. She was spooked JFK on your caller ID? Cordless phone in hand, she got up and turned on the light. Then she looked again at the box and noticed it said she'd received 19 calls, though except for Marilynn's, the phone hadn't rung.

Her fear waxed. "Nineteen calls?" Marilynn asked. Sitting on her bed with the box on her lap, Belinda pushed its button. Thomas Paine. She pushed it again.

Harry Truman. And again. John Hancock. Then Ulysses S. Grant, Samuel Clemens and a host of others ending with Ronald Reagan.

Each had a phone number area codes varied. plagued with calls for Abe Lincoln and that Ameritech in Madison told him they were investigating. Real Life contacted the box manufacturer, CIDCO of Morgan Hill, Calif. Company president Paul Locklin whose name and number were among those on Belinda's box did not return phone calls. An Ameritech spokeswoman in Detroit said Tuesday that Belinda's box probably was a preprogrammed demonstration model, but Dave Glowacz, a private telecommunications consultant in Chicago, suspected the work of a phone network hacker whose exploits, if publicized, could hurt the booming caller ID business.

i "I'm on my way," Marilynn said. When she hung up, Belinda looked under her bed and in her closet, then called for her mother, Jannie, and daughter, Antoinette. "Look at these calls," she told them, "and tell me I'm not crazy." They, too, were astounded. Soon Marilynn showed up with their brother, Sammy. "Amazing!" they said.

With everybody sitting on her bed, Belinda finally began to feel safer. Real Life phoned some of the numbers on the caller ID box. Most were nonworking, but some led to actual people Ryan Biermann, an English student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said Tuesday he's been moved in 1977 by the state Judicial Tenure Commission. One judge critical of the bill pointed out that five years is not a magic number. Michigan's last nonlawyer judge, Odell Carlisle, a probate judge in iKalkaska, has been on the bench for 134 years.

He was elected before the '1963 Constitution required judges to members of the bar. "Iflwasabadjudge.Idon'tthinkI would have gotten through all these elections," Carlisle said. "I don't see how you can be a bad judge and stay in office, that's what the election process is all about." Refusing to name names, Smith said some people have been elected as judges because they have.a name held by xrther; judges or can run expensive campaigns. "This just trying to provide protection the public and a minimum base of qualifications," Smith said. Committee that would require lawyers to belong to the state bar for at least five years before serving as a judge.

v. "I think that if you want to serve as a member of the judiciary you should have some experience," said Smith, a lawyer. The change would apply to all judges, including members of the state supreme court, court of appeals and trial courts. Currently, the only requirement for any Michigan court is membership in the state bar. Voters would be asked to decide the issue in the November 1996 general election.

Michigan is behind many states in prerequisites fir judges. California and Florida require lawyers to have 10 years' membership in the state bar before serving on appellate courts. Ohio requires six years' practice for serving on appellate courts. Smith said he had "no hard and fast numbers" to prove judges with A LIFE STORY? CALL 3 1 3 2 2 2 2 6 5 9 AN I GOT A RE Judge considers Internet writer's bond today to hear from us," Mullkoff said, adding, "I'm always optimistic." But Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenneth Chadwell and Christopher Yates have argued that Baker must be kept in jail to prevent him from actually committing rape and murder.

Chadwell and Yates cited a psychologist's findings that Baker "shows a minimal capacity to delay impulses." Susan McGee, executive director of the Domestic Violence Project in Ann Arbor, said she was upset at the possibility of Baker's Mullkoff of Ann Arbor, said Tuesday. Mullkoff has argued Baker, a sophomore, has a free-speech protection for his writings on the Internet. In the past, Cohn has ruled in favor of free-speech issues. In a landmark 1989 decision also involving U-M, Cohn knocked down the university's policy against verbal and physical abuse. He found the policy too broad and a violation of free speech and due process.

Mullkoff has argued that the Internet story was more than words floating in space" and that Baker has harmed no one. "I'm glad to know that Judge Cohn is ready BY DAVID MCKAY AND JIM SCHAEFER Free Press Staff Writers Jake Baker, the accused Internet user, could be freed on bond today after a hearing before a judge in Detroit. U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn will review whether Baker, accused of naming a female classmate at the University of Michigan in a sexual torture fantasy he posted on the global computer system, should be released until his trial. The hearing comes after a federal appeals court threw the issue of bond back to Cohn.

"There's a strong possibility that he will walk tomorrow," Baker's attorney, Douglas A Jake t4" I Baker See INTERNET Page 5B GOP legislators reject core curriculum, Page, 4B, Indians rally today for tuition waiver, Page 5ff.