Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

FEBRUARY 1988 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1Q 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 etroit Jftee 3Pte lottery extra Monday's number, 714, has been drawn five times before: on 4-6-81, 7-9-81, 10-28-83, 4-6-85 and 6-12-86. Lottery line 1-976-2020 Section Page 3 SECOND FRONT PAGE Tuesday, February 9, 1988 0 Guilty plea in serial rape case FC II I f) fl Hugh McDiarmid I' 1 Suspect offers to assist police find other Oakland Co. rapist Bonhomie aside, Dems look blue by maryanne George Free Press Staff Writer Michael Masters, who had a long list of what police believe were potential rape victims, pleaded guilty Monday to five assaults and offered to help authorities capture whoever is responsible for nine sex attacks in the Birmingham area. A plea bargain permitted Masters, 30, of Royal Oak, to plead guilty to four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in exchange for dismissal of larceny and breaking and entering charges connected to the assaults. Masters' trial in the rape of a 26-year-old Royal Oak woman in August 1986 was to have begun Monday but Masters' attorney, James Lawson, said ichigan Democrats met Saturday in Grand Rapids and, frankly despite upbeat stuff from chairman Rick Wiener and a lot of Bloomfield townships and Farmington Hills.

The last was Jan. 26. Lawson said of Masters, "even though he's done this he has followed newspaper accounts of the Birmingham rapist. He would certainly know how this guy works and is willing to help authorities to catch this fellow." Bloomfield Township Police Lt. Jeffrey Werner said: "We would consider his offer." Werner said Masters is not a suspect in the latest series of attacks Masters agreed to the plea deal because it would be "a waste of time to put the victims through this." Masters, who kept a list of 83 names of what police believe were potential victims, is to stand trial in Ann Arbor March 28 in two 1985 rapes.

Outside the courtroom, Lawson said Masters wants to apologize to his victims, and is offering to help police apprehend whoever is responsible for nine sexual assaults since last April in Birmingham, Bloomfield and West because "our evidence. with evidence obtained in the Masters cases." Several victims in the Birmingham-area assaults were surprised while alone in their garage or driveway in the dark. Police say they may have attacked by the same slender white" man, about six feet tall, wearing a ski mask and wielding a knife. In court Monday, Masters told Oakland County Circuit Judge Norman Lippitt that he assaulted five women in Oak Park, Berkley, Femdale and Royal Oak after breaking into their homes. The maximum penalty for first-degree criminal sexual conduct is life, second-degree criminal sexual conduct carries a 15-year maximum penalty.

Sentencing was set for March 2L Data bank still blank; state's out Michael Masters offered to help police with rape cases. i million $3 1 i Kiwanis-like unity and bonhomie from others there was a sense of malaise, even dread. It was understandable. For openers, rank and file Democrats are being left on their own this year in the matter of presidential preference. There will be no enforcers from Solidarity House or the governor's office or at least for now the Manoogian Mansion, and nobody will be clearing his throat, cracking his knuckles and making pointed suggestions about whom "we" prefer for the presidential nomination.

Also, word's out that the party's March 26 caucus maze the one that's been so controversial in the past is being designed to be fair and rational. Even secret ballotting will be available for those who insist. This means, of course, that party regulars will be able to think and choose for themselves this year, a substantial break with the past, yet one that, given the lackluster nature of the field, may turn out to be quite a burden. Of course, party leaders are putting the best possible face on it. The official line Saturday at the meeting of the Democratic State Central Committee was that all contenders save perhaps for the philandering Gary Hart are satisfactory, if not electrifying, and that someone will surely break out following Monday's activity in Iowa or the Feb.

16 primary in New Hampshire. And Wiener, ignoring the nominative gridlock, announced vi BY Dawson Bell Free Press Staff Writer 1 1 LANSING The State of Michigan may have wasted more than $3 million over the last three years on a so-far failed effort to develop a unified com-! puter system for the retirement records of state employes and public school teachers. Much of the money, was paid to the accounting firm Price, Waterhouse, which had the project for 28 months before the Department of Management and Budget terminated the firm's contract last April 1. The state spent more than $1 million with another firm to develop computer programs that were to be used in conjunction with the Price Waterhouse system. State officials acknowledge other costs that have pushed the total beyond $3 million, but declined to release complete spending figures for the project because of a lawsuit that Price Waterhouse filed in March 1987, contending it had not been paid for more than $776,000 worth of work.

The state has counter-sued, and an assis- See SYSTEM, Page 13A 4 i grandly: We are 3 indeed well on -Jm MANNY CRISOSTOMODetrolt Free Press f9 our way to achieving our goals for 1988." Still, there were signs of uneasiness. Party FOX LOOKS BRIGHTER Ronald Addison vacuums ornamentation in the grand lobby of the this week. Work is expected to be completed by the fall. A Fox Theatre in Detroit Monday. Major restoration of the theater, photostory is on 8D.

one of the world's largest and most opulent, kicked into high gear I treasurer hi- It tram fcuMfcianni Laurence Deitch, for example, Wiener Fugitive couple had prepared to move on offered this observation: "I can't figure it out. I don't know how I feel. I can make a case for all of them except Gary Hart." And UAW official Jim Ramey remarked, "I don't think the nominee has surfaced yet." And so on. An issue that was not addressed because there was no way to address it was what happens if Democrats show up on March 26 and still don't have a choice? Or, put another way, where are the bosses when you need 'em? Staebler's tribute heartfelt Surely one of the most poignant tributes to G. Mermen Williams came from 82-year-old Neil Staebler, who Friends and the neighbors said they were shocked by the arrests.

They said Strickland, Munday, and their one-year-old son Jamie seemed to be a quiet family. They were "nice people" said Marjorie Ro-mine, manager of the building where Strickland and Munday lived. "I can't believe it," she said of the arrests. Romine said the couple didn't go out much, and spent evenings at home playing cards or watching television. Romine said Munday, who originally was from Boonsboro, and Strickland, who had lived in nearby Hagerstown, were heading to West See COUPLE, Page 13A who recognized Strickland, 26, and Munday, his pregnant girlfriend.

Strickland, one of Michigan's 10 most wanted fugitives, and Munday are accused of murder, armed robbery and fraud in the slaying of Elmer DeBoer, a gas station courier who picked up cash from a Waterford Township station where Munday worked. Strickland, who has told officials that he will fight extradition to Michigan, is being held without bond in the Grant County Jail awaiting arraignment on a fugitive charge. Munday, at a hearing Monday, said she would not fight extradition to Michigan. She is expected to be brought to Michigan next week, according to the Grant County Prosecutor's Office. BY Georgea kovanis Free Press Staff Writer MOSES LAKE, Wash.

The day before they were arrested, Jerry Strickland and Melissa Mun-day sold furniture at a yard sale, telling friends they were raising money to leave town. A few days earlier, Munday, 17, gave notice that she would be quitting her job as a hotel maid to prepare for a March 1 move with Strickland to West Virginia. They never got there. About 5:30 a.m. Saturday after an NBC-TV broadcast of "Unsolved Mysteries" Moses Lake police arrested the couple and charged them with the May 1987 and murder of a gas station courier in Waterford Township.

Police said they got about 20 calls from viewers The Free Press corrects all errors of fact. If you know of an error, please call Joe Grimm, assistant to the executive editor, at 222-6415 anytime. Or write him at 321 W. Lafayette, Detroit 48231. A Monday article should have said that 100 Audi dealers attended a meeting in San Francisco and that a significant number of them warned that they would quit their franchises if the automaker didn't take drastic action to improve sales.

A Sunday article should have said Chrysler Motors Corp. said it lowered prices an average of one percent among all its models on a comparably equipped basis at the start of the 1988 model year. The story incorrectly said prices rose on a comparably equipped basis. A Saturday HomesReal Estate article credited the wrong company with the aquarium at McDonald's in Ferndale. Richard Perrin of Romulus, under the business name Tropicorium, designed and built the aquarium in 1978.

I fe I SEVENMILERD- spent 30 minutes Saturday recounting "Mennen's memorials" to a rapt Central Committee audience clean politics and clean government, civil rights, highways, MT. OUVET Newspapers and guild discuss JO A 1 1 CEMETERY Behavior of judge is upheld DAVISON cNICHOLSI Staebler education, mental health, the Mackinac Bridge, etc. BY JACQUELYNN BOYLE Oakland Bureau Chief A judge threw out misconduct charges against Oakland County Circuit Judge Alice Gilbert, saying she had acted properly in a 1985 medical mal LYNCH NgOUTERDR. Jl Eu FRENCH GRINNELL RD- -0 1 j2jfe Derail I McNichols closed between French Rd. and Conner Alternate routes practice case in- VJ" BY John Spelich Free Press Business Writer Bargainers for the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News and the Newspaper Guild of Detroit apparently made little progress Monday in talks aimed at persuading Detroit's second largest newspaper union to drop its opposition to a proposed joint operating agreement between the newspapers.

The companies also have been seeking support from labor unions at both papers that did not officially oppose the JOA. In exchange, the company has offered those union members a special severance package in case the newspaper closes. Knight-Ridder parent company of the Free Press, and then, concluding, broke down. "But the biggest memorial of all the biggest memorial of all Unable to continue, Staebler sat down in tears, whispering the rest of it to state chairman Rick Wiener, who'd embraced him. Announced Wiener: "He told me, 'The biggest memorial to Mennen Williams will be in our A Clarification This column should have made it clear last Tuesday that Elaine Donnelly's selection as GOP national committeewoman during a rump convention in Grand Rapids that was chaired by Harry Veryser was conclusive despite the absence of a roll call vote.

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French Road and Conner themselves remain open. the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission after she reduced a jury's $7 See GILBERT, Page 13A See JOA, Page 13A i.