Two teens charged in I-295 shooting
Paul Leavitt
11/12/1992
USA Today
FINAL
Page 03A
(Copyright 1992)
Two teen-age gang members were charged Wednesday with attempted murder in
one of a string of shooting incidents along Interstate 295 in Jacksonville, Fla.
The youths, not named publicly, are accused of shooting motorist Debra Lewis,
38, in the face in July. They may be connected to some of the 37 shooting and
rock throwing incidents this year that last week prompted a warning from the
American Automobile Association and forced authorities to deploy National
Guard patrols along I-295. Authorities are investigating whether the shootings
are part of a gang initiation. Sheriff Jim McMillan said other suspects were being
sought and it was ``premature to say we've solved the problem.''
FUND-RAISING REPORT: Archconservative Richard Viguerie had no
comment on a New York Times report today that says he uses scare tactics to
raise money from elderly contributors. The donors think they're giving money to
lobby for benefits, but the Times said millions of dollars are going to support
Viguerie's private companies. POLICE BEATING: Prosecutors said it will be at
least next week before they decide whether to charge seven Detroit police
officers suspended after officers beat a man to death Nov. 5. Prosecutors also
said the man, Malice Green, 35, had a record of violent confrontations with
police and drug- related offenses while living in a Chicago suburb. Also, the
Detroit Free Press quoted a person - not publicly named - who said Green
struggled while two plainclothes officers tried to seize suspected crack cocaine.
PTL BANKRUPTCY: About 116,000 ``lifetime partners'' who gave $158 million
to Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL for free lodging at the Heritage USA
Christian theme park got nothing as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Columbia,
S.C., closed the books on the case. PTL owed $130 million when it collapsed in
1987 amid a sex-and-money scandal. More than $49 million went to creditors,
mostly mortgage holders. Heritage USA, near Fort Mill, was sold in 1990.
WILDFIRE: Evacuations were ordered from a mini-mall and preschool in Santa
Clarita, Calif., where Santa Ana winds fanned a 125-acre brush fire. The 58
children at Teddy Bear University Pre-School did well getting out ahead of the
flames, which owner India Sacks, 24, said came within an arm's length of the
building. ``We had practiced our fire drills and most of them just thought it was a
practice run,'' Sacks said.
ABA MEMBERSHIP DROP: The American Bar Association's decision in
August to oppose restrictive abortion laws caused at least 3,100 members to
leave the 370,000-member group, president Michael McWilliams said. The
figure does not include those who let their memberships lapse without giving
reasons. The ABA had been neutral on abortion. BATMAN BAN: James
Bateman, 14, sent home from a Colorado City, Ariz., school for violating a dress
code, said school officials ``kept saying that I was wicked ... but I just think I'm
normal.'' The offending article of clothing: a T-shirt of actor Danny DeVito as
The Penguin in Batman. The teen's mother, Trudie Bateman, said principal
Lawrence Steed told her the shirt was a sign of devil worship. ALSO
WEDNESDAY ...
- INFANT HOSTAGE: Elverta, Calif., sheriff's deputies fatally shot a
knife-wielding man who led them on a high-speed chase while dangling his 13-
month-old daughter from a car. Arturo Buitron, 32, repeatedly had threatened to
stab the infant unless his wife returned home, officials said. The girl suffered
only minor scratches.
- FOUNDER TO JAIL: Eliot Wigginton, 49, founder of the Foxfire education
project, was sentencedto a year in prison after pleading guilty to molesting a
10-year-old boy.
- CHILD ABUSE: Members of a Grass Lake, Mich., church used candy, soda
and gifts to entice children onto a church bus where police say they sexually
assaulted the children. Two members were accused of sexually assaulting eight
children, including using a tire iron on a boy.
- FAKE BOMB: The 58 people aboard United Airlines Flight 46 from Los
Angeles to New York safely evacuated the Boeing 767-200 when it landed at
Kennedy International Airport after a bomb threat. Found: a harmless device.
- IRA BOMBS: The FBI said four men were arrested in New York on charges of
smuggling explosives obtained in Tucson, Ariz., to the Irish Republican Army.
Arrested: Gerard Brannigan and Patrick Moley of New York, Denis Leyne of
Canada and Thomas Maguire, home unknown.
Hearing today on `Ivan' evidence
A federal judge in Nashville today hears from U.S. prosecutors on whether the
Justice Department deliberately withheld evidence favorable to retired Cleveland
autoworker John Demjanjuk, deported on charges he was a Nazi death camp
guard known as ``Ivan the Terrible.''
Demjanjuk, 72, is in Israel appealing a death sentence there. He claims as far
back as 1978 the U.S. government knew he wasn't Ivan.
Today, George Parker and Martin Mendelsohn from the Office of Special
Investigations, Justice's Nazi hunting division, will tell what they knew about
Demjanjuk, and when they knew it. U.S. officials contend even if Demjanjuk
wasn't Ivan, he was a concentration camp guard and was properly deported.
A federal appeals court reopened the case after new evidence was discovered in
the files of the former Soviet Union last year, that indicated another man - Ivan
Marchenko - was really Ivan the Terrible.
Contributing: Jonathan T. Lovitt , Lori Sharn, Bruce Frankel, Carol J.
Castaneda, Sandra Sanchez, Sean McNamara and Steve Marshall
CUTLINE:McMILLAN: Other suspects sought CUTLINE:WATER DROP:
Helicopter pours water on brush fire CUTLINE:DEMJANJUK: Appealing
sentenc
PHOTO;b/w,Florida Times Union via AP;PHOTO;b/w,Reed
Saxon,AP;PHOTO;b/w,Reuters