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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1984)
Tuesday, January 31, 1984/The Battalion/Page 11 awyer believes 'Silkwood' to be far from the truth leaded P ress International YorluJ I° wa — I he movie , ’ ‘Silkwood” does not give the eal story behind the death of " iaren Silkwood because the noviemakers feared a libel Hist run iU ' 1 would be filed by Kerr- ! (| ie | ( McGee Corp., a lawyer said I level # Ilda y- Llst „ et| .|| Dan Sheehan, one of the icalpi id 0I 'neys who won a $10.5 piion civil suit against Kerr hat ii ^cGeeCorp. on behalf of the leni | H iilkwood estate, told students n[ j ijj it Iowa State University that e| s 0 | he nation’s laws do not pro- ect workers like Silkwood. Bilk wood was killed in a car , , ccident in 1974, while she hroederl. , ’ • , vas on her way to meet with a ne, I 11 " eporter to discuss possible afely violations in the Kerr- 4|:Gee Cimmaron plutonium ilam at Crescent, Okla. ru , s . 0 BMarks found on her car etnuiMwed the vehicle was mslied off the road by 1 i m F Bther car. A manila folder ider Silkwood said contained evi dence of safety hazards at the plant — and that she planned to give the reporter — was never found. Particles of plutonium — a man-made radioactive subst ance considered one of the most toxic in the world — had been found earlier in her apartment. Silkwood had been contaminated by high levels of radiation before her death. Although the recently re leased movie has focused pub lic attention on Silkwood’s case, Sheehan still has a num ber of complaints about “Silk wood.” “They were extraordinarily considerate of Kerr-McGee,” Sheehan said. He said moviemakers feared a libel suit, so they blackened Silk- wood’s character and down played some of the issues to appease the company. Sheehan has never been able to press his claim that Kerr-McGee deliberately ex posed Silkwood to plutonium “They never wanted to kill her,” he said. “All they were trying to do was ‘max’ her out,” by increasing her radiation expo sure to the lifetime maximum allowed for nuclear workers under federal regula tions, “to make her leave, to get her out of their hair. ” her,” he said. “All they were trying to do was ‘max’ her out,” by increasing her radia tion exposure to the lifetime maximum allowed for nuclear workers under federal regula tions, “to make her leave, to get her out of their hair.” He also absolves the com pany of a conspiracy to mur der Silkwood, making the death look like a traffic acci dent. “They didn’t want to kill her,” Sheehan stressed. “They just wanted to run her off the road and get those documents back.” by placing it in food in her apartment — although he does not suspect the company of trying to kill her with it. “They never wanted to kill Although Sheehan lost a civil suit alleging Silkwood’s civil rights were violated by a “federal conspiracy” to pre vent her from releasing the documents, he won the dam age suit against Kerr-McGee for allowing Silkwood to be contaminated by plutonium from the plant. 4r MSC ALL-NITE FAIR PRESENTS c SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4 7:00 PIVI - 3:00 AM $1 ADM. MSC FEATURING = the Executives it 'olice murder trial starts 5rt United Press International MIAMI — An all-white jury scalled Monday to hear open- l comr ; arguments in the volatile ig presr tl of a Cuban-born policeman ocedur o killed a black youth in a scific b ltto arcade, setting off three e them :ys of racial rioting, urces; Luis Alvarez, 24, is on trial > wittaiftianslaughter for the fatal ig woul wtingofNevell Johnson Jr., a it pure:>year-old black, at a video Jeficier me arcade in the Overtown ;oumin;etto. proper Ajury of three men and three available men, one of whom is the only project'tin on the panel, plus a man ings: il woman as alternates, was numei )sen late Friday after eight receivtifs of questioning. Circuit notbeeclge David Gersten held off wo yea: earing in the jury until Mon- and pro® afternoon in case of appeals :r their selection to a higher aal weislrt. m rece No appeals developed over [ not beci weekend, during which the ifther signaled jury was seques- lutomaitfd. itemacfOne juror chosen Thursday reform ew a legal hitch into the selec- lad beenth process when he said he had ceived an anonymous idblastepeatening telephone call. (Joaj His statement, which came arlier aril before ajury was to be sworn asiersakffoiced an overnight delay ie equipH ailot her go-around in the :ction process. 'acuumirfhe juror, Guillermo Mar- igust l 0 > was scheduled to be sent- _ a j :ed Monday for contempt of i ihepasl'i rt ' Gersten cited him for con i' $687 MP 1 when he found that Mar- ohad gone to work although ictor hatl was instructed to remain at ss costii led in been used home, and had told several peo ple he was on the Alvarez jury after being ordered not to dis cuss the case with anyone. The jurors finally chosen are white middle-class citizens rang ing in age from 32 to 67. A num ber of black activists in the com munity protested the exclusion of blacks from the panel. The only four blacks considered were dismissed during the chal lenging process. Alvarez, an 18-month mem ber of the Miami police force at the time, claimed the shooting of Johnson on Dec. 28, 1982, was accidental. He told investigators he was showing his rookie part ner, Louis Gruz, the ropes in a high-crime area when he spot ted a suspicious bulge at the pit of Johnson’s back. UNDERGROUND DELI AND STORE THE DIET PLACE OPEN BREAKFAST 7:30am - 10:30am LUNCH 10:30am - 3:30pm Mon— Friday QUALITY FIRST’ owed enf is up business- ; withgoi and enfi After determining the bulge was a concealed handgun, Alvarez said he drew his service revolver and pointed it upward. As he asked Cruz to get the handgun, Alvarez said Johnson suddenly jerked around, caus ing the policeman’s gun to fire accidentally. The bullet struck Johnson in the head and the youth, a Dade County courier with no police record, died the next day. Three days of rioting ensued, during which another man died and 26 were injured. The police report on the inci dent said Alvarez was away from his assigned beat at the time of the shooting. = '\ Career Fair '84 Wed., Feb. 1 Thur., Feb. 2 8:15 - 12 noon 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. 8:15 - 12 noon 1:30 - 4:00 p.m. Meet with some of the nation’s big gest recnxiters. Over 60 companies will be represented this gear. Bring your resumes and questions. 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Talk to a savings counselor about flexible, fixed term savings. BrazosBanc lets you pick your term for guaranteed earnings. Savings Association of Texas College Station Branch Office: Texas Avenue at Southwest Parkway«696-2800