Friday, December 2,1983/The Battalion/Page 11
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11-year-old arsonist
learn prevention
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United Press International
OUSTON — An 11-year-
old Michigan boy, responsible
.\G[.\tbf ( j rsett i n g fj ve fi res i n the Grand
ikwxxl'ja aT ea, has enrobed in a
■ique fire prevention program
ill be offetsin 1 louston to avoid spending a
ter6yptef«« in a detention home,
e course. BThe boy was responsible for
■ting a fire last June 27 which
■ised $175,000 worth of dam-
Wt. His mother, fearing ajudge
... ■ght send her child to a deten-
■n home, contacted Houston
. Be officials who run the Juve-
, aft nile Firesetters Prevention
AKiogram.
s A&M . ■^f ter t he last fire, I didn’t
———know what to do,” the mother
said. “But I made up my mind
my son needed help very badly.”
Because her son has already
been labeled a “firebug” by his
schoolmates, she asked that
theii names not be used.
Houston Fire Marshall Eddie
Corral agreed to accept the
fifth-grader into the 12-week
program. However, mental
Jalth professionals associated
with the program are giving the
youngster a reduced 4-day
Ifogram, with the rest of the
ifeessary counseling to be con
tinued in Grand Rapids.
IThe mother said her son has
“always been fascinated with
fites, since he could walk.”
jWhen he was younger, he set
paper fires in the home. Last
year, though, a neighbor’s gar
age was burned and about
$20,000 damage was reported.
There were three other small
fires before the June blaze which
leveled a paint warehouse.
The mother says her
son has been fascin
ated with fires since
he could walk.
The boy initially denied in
volvement, but later admitted
his guilt to his mother and local
fire officials. A judge is sche
duled to sentence the boy later
this month on an arson charge.
Corral said arson accounts na
tionally for $11 billion worth of
damage. Half of the fires in the
United States are purposely
started, he said, and juveniles
are responsible for half of them.
The Houston program, de
signed free-of-charge to help
children in the area, has
attracted 180 youths since its be
ginning in August 1982. Only
one child who has been through
the counseling program has re
verted back to fire-setting.
Psychologist Don McKinney
said he treats the cause rather
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United Press International
MILWAUKEE — Two disc
jockeys who told listeners that a
B-29 bomber planned to drop
hundreds of hard-to-get Cab
bage Patch dolls over a Mil
waukee stadium said Thursday
they thought the story was so
outrageous no one would be
lieve it.
They were wrong. The ton
gue-in-cheek broadcast led two
dozen frustrated shoppers to
brave freezing winds and wait
for the dolls to fall from the sky.
Disc jockeys Bob Reitman
and Gene Mueller told listeners
that 1,500 to 2,000 of the home
ly, squishy dolls would be drop
ped over Central Stadium,
home of the Brewers baseball
team.
They said would-be doll own
ers should bring catcher’s mitts
and their American Express
cards. When the dolls came
tumbling down, they said, shop
pers were to hold the credit
cards up in the air so an aerial
photo could be taken of the card
number for later billing.
The two announcers said
they thought everyone would
know they were just kidding.
“We thought we had made it
outrageous enough so that peo
ple would laugh,” Mueller said.
But two dozen people
showed up at the stadium Tues
day, waiting for the drop while
gusty winds brought the wind-
chill down to 7 below zero.
“When I heard it on the radio
I thought ‘far out,”’ said one
man who wanted a doll for a
Christmas gift for his 2-year-old
daughter. “I thought some rich
guy wanted to give them away.”
He added that the idea was
not far-fetched, and someone
could have dropped the dolls for
publicity.
In another joke — which
apparently got no takers —
Mueller and Reitman embel
lished Wednesday’s story with
an even more far-fetched angle.
They announced that a
rented barge containing the
dolls was anchored eight miles
out in Lake Michigan with
Popeye aboard. Shoppers were
instructed to swim out to the
barge with cans of spinach to ex
change for the dolls.
To keep the dolls from get
ting wet on the return trip, peo
ple were told to bring along plas-,
tic bags.
Judge says to
turn over tape
than the symptoms of a fire-
setter.
McKinney said the Michigan
boy’s problem is caused by his
home situation where his
mother placed too much re
sponsibility on the child, making
him the “man of the house. ” The
mother has also been counseled
to accept more of the responsi
bility.
“He has been in a double
bind,” McKinney said. “He
needs to be man of the house
and a child all at once. He has
been frustrated.”
He explained that the boy —
who is not very different from
other young fire-setters — was
able to get angry, but he vented
his anger by setting blazes.
Corral said that it initially cost
$197,000 to set up the program,
which was funded with federal
money and contributions. Now,
the state of Texas has agreed to
fund it for the next five years,
with a non-profit organization,
The Cease Fire Club, Inc., oper
ating the program.
Corral said he is hoping other
communities will set up similar
programs. He estimated the
program has saved the City of
Houston $8 million in property
damage, fire-fighting hours,
and insurance increases.
United Press International
BROWNSVILLE — A judge
has ordered the prosecution in a
capital murder case to turn over
copies of surveillance tapes to
the attorney of a man accused of
being the hit man in a killing last
year.
District Judge Darrell Hester
said court-appointed attorney
Mike McNamara should have
access to the tapes to prepare for
Wavil Lewis’ defense against the
charge. Lewis is charged with
pumping eight bullets into
Brownsville physician Dr. Nar-
ciso Cortez on Aug. 31, 1982.
Police charge that the 23-
year-old Lewis was part of a
murder-for-hire plot conceived
by Cortez’s brother-in-law after
a dispute over 600 acres of prop
erty in neighboring Willacy
County.
Enrique G. Chapa, accused of
paying Lewis $15,000 for the
killing, is free on $300,000 cash
bond, but Lewis has been jailed
in lieu of $750,000 bond since he
was extradited from Ohio last
September.
McNamara said he would file
a motion seeking to reduce
Lewis’ bond.
Prosecutors said the tapes in
question were obtained by
Frank Lofds, who was wearing a
concealed electronic transmit
ting device when he met with
Lewis in an Ohio motel room.
Loftis will appear as a state
witness in Lewis’ trial, set for
Jan. 16.
Also charged with capital
murder in the case is Hobert
Breeding, who was recently
arrested in Enon, Ohio. Breed
ing has been released from an
Ohio jail on $300,000 bond and
District Attorney Rey Cantu said
extradition proceedings are
under way.
Prosecutors say Breeding was
the contact man between Lewis
and Chapa.
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