Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

Saturday, August 15, 1998 Page 3A "They murdered a 79-year-old woman in this my nephew to a pulp and IVIaced a woman in a house, beat wheelchair." JEANNETTE BROWN, victim's granddaughter Fieger digs up files on Engler's divorce, goes on radio attack By Dawson Bell Free Press litnsinK Bureau Stung by reports published this week on turmoil in his personal and professional life, Geoffrey Fieger responded Friday by suggesting additional scrutiny of Gov. John Kngler. Fieger said Friday on WWJ radio that Engler was found in bed with a woman who was not his wife a charge an Kngler spokesman quickly denied. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate said Kngler and his supporters are responsible for media accounts of his 1987 drunken-driving conviction, and reports that he physically assaulted his wife in 199S. More attention should be paid to Engler's marital history, be has said.

Kngler spokesman John Truscott said Friday that Fieger "flat-out made up the allegation of adultery. Truscott accused Fieger of "lashing out because he's being held accountable for the first time in his life. The Republican governor and his first wife, Colleen House, divorced in 1987. House said in her divorce com- Novi woman files lawsuit over Tonight' routine Ex-capital intern didnt like Lends joke Family members firicve and express outrage Friday, a day after Cora Bell Jones was fatally shot by a Detroit police Jones' daughter, are three of Jones' great-grandchildren. From left: Christine Browder, 1 Michael Grimes, 1 0, 0 roiice Tr' But grieving family members, who denied that Jones lunged at officers with the knife, said police could have defused the situation without killing her.

Ruby Grimes' daughter Jeannette Brown said: 'They murdered a 79-year-old woman in this house, beat my nephew to a pulp and Maced a woman in a wheelchair," Ruby Grimes. Family friend Donald Hampton, 44, said, "You have all these officers armed with 9-millimeters against a 79-year-old woman? It's not that much of a threat that they had to kill her." Jones' son Johnny Ferguson, 53, who witnessed the shooting, said he implored officers to let him calm his mother down. "My mom's old and she's not all there and she's not going to hurt anyone," Ferguson said. "The Only 1 a tbreaf smfyivofs angry plaint that Kngler, then a state senator, "may have engaged in a relationship with a Election CU! member of the opposite sex and has given this person checks" from the couple's joint account. WWJ employees said Friday afternoon they could not provide a tape of their Fieger interview, which was broadcast earlier in the day.

Truscott said the radio station acted irresponsibly in broadcasting the report without contacting the governor's office. He acknowledged the accuracy of the reference to the Knglers' divorce complaint, but said: "There was a divorce. By their very nature, they're unpleasant. In an interview in 199(i. Colleen House said she didn't know whether John Kngler had been unfaithful.

Dawson Hell can be reached at 1-313-222-6609. JayLenoandVI)IV-TV are named in the lawsuit. what it's like," he said. Since the monologue was clearly in jest, the lawsuit "is going nowhere" predicted Michigan Press Association attorney Dawn Phillips Hertz. Hertz said the First Amendment to the Constitution "recognizes freedom of expression," including humor.

"Humor flourishes in freedom. Totalitarianism has no sense of Colovos, said the woman's right to privacy overrides lino's first Amendment rights. "Carrie didn't ask for this," he said Friday. field. One winner from Canada and two others from the United States are being determined at tournaments this weekend.

"People need to come out and watch some games these kids can play," said Bzura, a retired banker. The first game is Monday at 5 p.m. The championship is scheduled for Saturday at 5 p.m. Mayor Greg Pitoniak said the tourney has become a major event. "It has grown to be a tradition that the community looks forward to and is a major source of excitement," he said.

Bzura got involved 3(1 years ago when his sons were Little Leaguers. When they grew up, he stayed active in youth baseball. When a separate league lor 13-year-okls was formed in 1979, Bzura and Taylor officials offered the city as a site for the world series. The city hosted the first tournament in 1981 won by I'oardman, Ohio and the best baseball-playing 13-year-olds have been coming back to Taylor every summer since. In preparation for the tournament, volunteers resodded the field this summer and flowers around the press box.

Most have Please see Toi RWMIAT, Page 4 A Mr iri. '-v .1 i a ia.i.j Y' rV 'T' ten 23-year-old Steven Grimes into the house. Grimes told family members he grabbed the gun for protection after the shooting. His family said Grimes was trying to protect his grandmother, Cora Bel! Jones Kuby Grimes, 63, when he began to tussle with the officers. Jones, who is Ruby Grimes' mother, advanced at them with a knife, officers said.

When Jones refused orders to drop the knife she was shot, officials said. The officer "was protecting his life and the life of his partner," said homicide Inspector William Rice. "A shot was fired and it went where it was directed." on Friday. Napier was nicknamed Hamster Man by police because of his movement in small spaces. He had been jailed since Aug.

7 when he was captured in a stolen van after a short chase, police said. He was charged with breaking and entering at a Canton pizzeria, fleeing police and possessing a stolen vehicle. A hearing is scheduled Friday in 35th District Court in Plymouth. The jail area was being remodeled and rewired at the time, Canton Police Officer U'onard Schemanske said Friday. Napier will be charged next week for the jailbreak, Schemanske said.

"It's the first escape here," he said. "We're not a prison with armed guards at the gate." Dennis Niemiec can be reached at 1-734-432-6503. BY SIEGEL ANDJOESWICKARI) I-'rei' Press Staff Wrilers A Detroit police officer who shot and killed a 79-year-old Kreat-greal-grandmother with a mental illness was defended by his superiors Friday, but enraged family members said the killing was unnecessary. Cora Bell Jones described by her family as a frail woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease was shot once in the chest Thursday night by a 9th (Gratiot) Precinct police officer, officials and witnesses said. Police declined to identify the officer.

Police came to the house at about 7 p.m. after it was hit by more than a dozen bullets in a drive-by shooting. Police say that officers chased a man armed with an assault rifle believed to be Jones' great-grandson, HUGH GRANNUMDetroil Free Press officer. With Ruby Grimes, and Darren Bartholomew, 9. thing my momma seen in her mind was that someone was hurting her daughter and great-grandson." Ruby Grimes, who uses a wheelchair after having a leg and a fool amputated, accused the police of "storm-trooping" the house on the 14000 block of Glcnficld, on the east side.

Homicide detectives will turn over their findings to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, which will decide whether charges are to be filed. A police review board also will investigate. Assistant Police Chief Charles Wilson said "there is no indication that this was not a proper use of force." Suzanne Siegel can be rearhed at 1-313-222-6672 or by E-mail at i Players from a German team in the Friday. The tourney will play out in the Taylor tourney. The team beaten in the finals by Guadalupe Mis- sion Viejo, Cal.

could also be in Taylor. By Hi gh McDiarmid Jr. l-'l-ee Press Staff Writer Jay Ix'no's show is no joke to a Novi woman whose picture with President Bill Clinton was the butt of late night laughs. Carrie Photsios, a former federal intern, is seeking more than $75,000 from from the "Tonight" show host and three other defendants, including WDIV-TV (Channel 4), in a lawsuit filed last month in Wayne County Circuit Court. The photo, of Photsios standing next to Clinton, was taken while she was an intern at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

It was used in a recruitment brochure for Albion College, and the wording boasted of students' opportunities for "hands-on experience which Jamio read on his Feb. 9 show. "Dtok! Go to this school and you could become a college intern," Icno said, while displaying the photo, according to court documenls. "And your dad gels to pay for it!" Photsios, 24, a 1996 Albion honors graduate, contends in the suit that she suffered "embarrassment, humiliation and indignity" after the joke. She endured numerous phone calls and jokes about the I.cno spot after it appeared, said her attorney, Bill Colovos.

"Unless you or your family has been through it, you can't understand 5. 0 KIRTHMON F. DOZIERDetiott Free Press Junior League World Series rest Taylor's Heritage Park next week. Teams from Arroyo, Puerto Rico; Kaiserslautern, Germany; Ft. Wayne, and Waco, Texas, also have qualified for the eight-team i 'H TAYLOR TEAM EFFORT Suspect in a different jail after escaping in Canton At least he was honest about his intentions by dan Shine I'tee Press Staff Writer How important the Junior league World Series is to Taylor was in evidence 10 years ago.

About three months before the city was to host the 1988 tournament for lS-year-old baseball players, the press box and dugouts burned to the ground. Residents and city workers scrambled to raise money, install sewer lines and pour a new foundation. Volunteers started work on a three-story press box only 29 days before the tournament. "If you could lift a cement block, you were put to work," said Greg Bzura, who has run the tournament since its inception in 1981. "We had 13-year-olds mixing cement in the parking lot.

We were laying blocks under the lights right up until the first game." Next week, many of those volunteers about 200 in all will be at the city's Heritage Park for the tournament, considered the big brother of the better-known Kittle league World Series, which is for 12-year-olds and held each year in Williams-port, Pa. The 1997 Williamsport championship team, from Guadalupe, Mexico, will be in Taylor trying to win back-to-back titles. It is the first time a Little league champion will play in BY DENN IS I EM I EC Free Press Staff Writer The Hamster Man of the Canton Township Jail is behind bars. Again. On Monday morning.

Hoy Napier, 39, of Ypsilanti, who was being held on several charges, was discovered in a space above the ceiling of his cell. When asked by police what he was doing, police said he replied: "I'm trying to escape." Police confiscated his belt. Five hours later, he was at it again, and this time he made it out after dropping into an open area near the front desk, hopping over the desk and out the door. An officer leaped over the desk and gave chase but Napier made it into a nearby subdivision. Several officers surrounded the streets and within about 15 minutes found him behind a tree.

He was in the Wayne County Jail COLUMNIST HUGH McDIARMID IS ON VACATION.