Battalion
Thursday, July 26, 1979
College Station, Texas
UPSP 045 360
Phone 845-2611
Weather
Shower & thundershowers today. Flash flood
watch remains throughout today. 60 percent
chance of rain today. 40 percent tomorrow. High in
the upper 80’s today and in low 70’s this afternoon.
A view from Kyle Field
Sodney George, a constuction worker originally from the Virgin Islands,
nade his way carefully along the edge of the new stadium Wednesday at
kyle Field. Work continued yesterday despite the rain, but Project Di-
fector Bill Hall explained why it is often necessary to shut down in bad
weather: “For safety reasons. When steel gets wet it get slick, and when
toil fall from any height over 30 feet you usually fall only once.”
•80 census center established
NASA will cover 14 states
.Jli
United Press International
EW ORLEANS — One thing the fed-
|government does on time is count
Is, and a center has been set up at a
|er NASA assembly plant to catalogue
• the 1980 census — the whereabouts
he-third of the United States’ popula-
bncy computers convince visitors to
ttlichoud Assembly Facility in eastern
r Orleans that the government’s quest
in accurate, updated count is as con-
Jrated as its construction of rockets
j a decade ago.
center is one of three around the
Ltry set up to compile the names and
lesses of the nation’s residents. The
irs are in Jeffersonville, Ind., and
}ma Niguel, Calif.
—
I
TOWN
a i
A $7.3 million modular dorm will be constructed on the site of the
former home of the Texas A&M board of Regents. The house was de-
Houston police acquitted
in throw-down gun case
United Press International
HOUSTON — A federal judge, shocked
by testimony that two fired policemen
planted a pistol on a teen-age theft suspect
to justify his slaying, Wednesday acquitted
the officers, saying the government failed
to prove its civil rights charges.
During six days of testimony, U.S. Dis
trict Judge John V. Singleton heard three
witnesses — including a police lieutenant
— identify one or both of the defendants
as the officers who produced or planted
the “throwTdown” .25-caliber pistol in the
car of Billy Keith Joyvies, 18, in July 1975.
But with final arguments ready and the
case nearing the jury, Singleton an
nounced a directed verdict of acquittal for
defendants Walter E. Plaster 53, and John
Stephen White, 28.
“Their conduct — improper, shocking
— does not constitute a violation of the
charge brought against them,” Singleton
said. “There is no evidence from which the
reasonable mind could draw the inference
that at the time these men could have had
the intent to violate any civil right that
Billy Keith Joyvies had.
“If any reasonable jury must have some
reasonable doubts, then it is my duty to
direct a verdict of not guilty.”
Plaster and White — neither of whom
testified — were elated by the decision,
which only added to the recent frus
trations of government prosecutors who
tried a series of similar cases.
“This is an unpopular decision for the
judge to make and I think it shows great
courage on his part to make it,” said de
fense lawyer Don Lambright. “The falsify
ing of evidence was not what these men
were charged with.”
White said that although he had faith in
his attorneys, “you can’t help feeling the
guillotine could drop at any time. When a
witness takes the stand, you don’t know
what he’s going to say.”
Asked if he wanted to resume his law
enforcement career, he replied: “Never.”
Plaster said he had waited 450 days for
the resolution of the case.
“When I went to the police academy, I
heard stories (about throw-down guns),
but we were never really instructed on
how to handle the problem,” he said. “It
should be brought up and shown to offi
cers the consequences of this kind of ac
tion.” . -
Plaster said he would seek reinstate
ment.'
“I naturally disagree with the judge’s
findings,” said assistant U.S. attorney Cal
vin Botley. “His findings were that the de
fendants’ conduct was shocking but that
their purpose in planting the gun was to
cover themselves and protect the police
department, not to violate Joyvies’ civil
rights.
“Of course we feel Joyvies’ civil rights
were violated but we didn’t have a chance
to argue that before the jury.”
In April, a federal jury convicted two
other fired officers of perjury and conspi
racy in a throw-down gun case but the
presiding judge granted each five years’
probation.
Last month, another federal jury acquit
ted a former suburban police chief and two
of his officers of civil rights cases in the
torture of two murder suspects.
And last year, a federal judge sentenced
three Houston officers to light terms for
civil rights convictions in the beating and
drowning death of a Mexican-American
prisoner. The Justice Department has ap
pealed that decision, saying the judge was
required to assess longer penalties.
Battalion photo by Clay CockHU
Longer cars:
one answer to
energy crisis
The work involves numbers — lots of
numbers — covering 30 million families.
The numbers are due at President Car
ter’s office by December 1980.
The centers will operate for another
year after that, finishing details and pre
paring statistical breakdowns.
Tons of paper and computer tape will
pass through the Michoud center before
the job is done. About 1,000 trucks carry
ing 65,000 boxes of addresses are expected
to arrive during the next year, said Bob
Allen, who heads the Michoud facility.
The addresses, covering families in 14
states — from Pennsylvania to Texas —
will be fed into computer terminals for
transmission to Washington. There, they
will be placed on census forms for mailing
to the 30 million families.
United Press International
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Comedian
Pat Paulsen says he has come up with a
simple answer to the energy crisis and just
might use it as a springboard for another
run at the presidency.
Paulsen, a co-owner of the Cherry
County Playhouse, said Tuesday all gov
ernment needs to do to curb U.S. gasoline
consumption is persuade automakers to
make cars 16 feet longer so drivers will
“get there quicker.”
He also suggested those who can’t afford
a conventional swimming pool heater sim
ply invite 600 neighborhood kids over to
warm things up.
Paulsen, known for his semi-serious
editorials on the old Smothers Brothers
television show, answered questions about
a possible presidential bid by saying his
candidacy was a “definite maybe.”
As president, however, Paulsen said
one of his first acts would be to eliminate
the office of vice president.
“It appears to be a dangerous position,”
Paulsen said, noting people occupying that
post tend to disappear.
Ship picks up 19 ‘boat people’
Navy rescues first group of
refugees under Carters order
United Press International
The U.S. Navy Wednesday rescued its first Vietnamese
refugees under President Carter’s new campaign to save
the boat people.
A Navy spokesman said the 7th Fleet oiler Wabash
picked up 19 Vietnamese in an open boat Tuesday about
100 miles west of the Philippines.
It was the first group to be rescued since President
Carter ordered the Navy to be “particularly alert for
refugees and to render all possible assistance to vessels in
distress.” U.S.-owned ships previously had picked up
about 1,000 Vietnamese.
Tn Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 261 Vietnamese refugees,
including a newborn baby, left a West German cargo ship
Wednesday on their way to a new life in West Germany.
They had been rescued from their sinking vessel.
Two Italian warships and a support vessel left Singa
pore for the South China Sea in a search and rescue
mission. Adm. Sergio Agostinelli said his vessels would
provide medical aid and food but would pick up refugees
only if necessary to save their lives.
The stepped-up rescue effort by Western nations fol
lowed their pledges at the U.N. refugee conference in
Geneva last week to take more in than 260,000 In
dochinese refugees for resettlement.
I The U.S. Navy spokesman in Manila declined to say
how many American ships were in the South China Sea,
citing Navy policy not to disclose its ship movements.
Vice President Walter Mondale told the Geneva con
ference that four more American ships would be dis
patched to the area to help provide assistance and trans
port to refugees.
More than 250,000 Vietnamese are believed to have
perished at sea.
In Washington, the State Department said Tuesday it
plans to send U.S. consular officers to Vietnam to process
refugees there for entry into the United States.
Vietnamese authorities have agreed in principle to allow
the Americans into Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.
Despite the Western pledges to accept the
Vietnamese, Malaysia said it remains unconvinced and
will not lift its naval blockade against the boat people
“until we get a firm guarantee that we will not be bur
dened with the problem forever.’
Prime Minister Datuk Hussein Onn also said the
mobilization of the U.S. 7th Fleet “does not affect us one
way or the other. Their ships will only pick up the boat
people who sink their boats at sea.”
In addition to the ships, the Navy spokesman said
antisubmarine P-3 Orion turbo-prop planes were scour
ing the sea for refugees. The 7th Fleet also set up a
command information center at subic Bay to monitor the
rescue operations.
CS to discuss annexations
Three seperate petitions for annexation
are scheduled to be presented to the Col
lege Station City Council tonight.
Two of the petitions request annexation
for tracts of land north of Highway 30 and
the east of the Highway 6 by-pass.
The first, submitted by Texas Instru
ments, Inc., (TI) of Dallas, requests anne
xation for 250 acres.
City Planner Al Mayo said TI has dis
cussed anexation with the city ever since
buying the land.
“We’re perfectly happy about it, ” he
said. “If they hadn’t requested it, we’d
have been asking them.”
A TI spokesman in Dallas, Dick Perdue,
said Wednesday the land is planned as a
future factory site.
TI is requesting the annexation, another
company representative said, to get city
utilities extended to the site.
He declined to comment what type of
factory will be built, the projected opening
date or the number of people the facility
would employ.
Part of the reason for the secrecy, he
said, is that the company isn’t even sure
what the new facility is going to be.
The second petition deals with a 184.8-
acre tract owned by Bert Wheeler, Inc. of
Houston. That tract is to be included in
the Wheeler Ridge subdivision, Mayo
said.
Two years ago, Wheeler petitioned the
city of Bryan to annex land adjacent to its
corporate city limits for the same project.
In addition to Wheeler’s land, several
tracts in the Steephollow area were con
sidered for annexation. Land owners near
the Wheeler property objected to the pro
posed annexation and were subsequendy
dropped from the project.
The third petition, presented by
Southwood Valley, Inc., Area Progress
Corporation, and William D. Fitch, re
quests the annexation of a 323.2-acre tract
of land west of the Southwood Valley sub
division.
Students to get another
dorm, old regents
building will fall
Battalion photo by Robin Thompson
Plans for a medical sciences building, another modular dorm and lighting for
C. E. “Pat” Olsen Field, were approved Friday by the Texas College and Univer
sity System Coordinating Board.
At a meeting today the Texas A&M Board of Regents will consider appropriat
ing $349,000 for design of the dorm. The proposed dorm will be similar to the
modular dorms already under construction and will cost $7.3 milion.
Jerry Smith, assistant for management analysis at Texas A&M University, said
the dorms will house 500 students, although he does not know yet whether they
will be male or female.
The proposed site of the dorms is the area north of Sbisa where the remains
of the Board of Directors House stand, he said.
He said the dorms should be ready to move into by the fall semester of 1980.
However the medical sciences building will not be completed until the fall of
1982, said Elvin Smith, associate dean of medicine.
The building will cost $18.6 million and will be located on University Drive
opposite the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Smith said the building will contain classrooms, including two large lecture
rooms, laboratories, office and research space.
There will also be 300 parking spaces built near the building. Smith said.
“We are currently existing in borrowed space,” he said. “The building will
consolidate us.”
The building will be a long rectangular shape and have four stories. Smith said.
Instead of brick. Smith said, the sides of the building will be constructed of
insulated reflective glass panels.
Smith said the glass is well insulated and the building has been designed “with
energy conservation in mind.”
stroyed by fire in the spring of 1979. The dorm will house 500 students
and should be ready to move into in September of 1980.