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■Mpmw TexasA&M _ « A
The Battalion
Serving the University community
Vol 78 No. 186 C1SPS 045360 8 pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, August 10, 1984
Whiling the day away
Elado Rivera (in tree) and Perez German near the MarriedStudent Apartment com
used some shopping carts as a ladder so both plex where both live,
could enjoy the shade of a sycamore tree
1.9million gallon oilspillprompts lawsuit
Texas sueing ship’s owners,
\
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9
Cleanup continues
on Galveston island
United Press International
GALVESTON — Almost 250
dump truck loads of oil and
soiled sand from an oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico were hauled from
nest end beaches in 24 hours, a
Coast Guard spokesman said
Thursday.
Workers cleaning up the
beaches hauled 160 25-cubic-yard
loads of liquid oil and heavily
oiled sand to a Hitchcock firm
from noon Wednesday to noon
Thursday, Chief Warrant Officer
Dale Puckett said.
Another 86 loads of sand
mixed with oil were hauled to
dump sites, he said. Three dump
truck loads of oil also were hauled
from the state beaches on the
western end of the island, Puckett
said.
Tourist beaches on the east
end of the island were clean, with
city workers scooping up the oc
cassional tar ball, he said.
Puckett warned tourists not to
deliberately swim or surf in any
remaining patches of oil for
health reasons.
He said people swimming in
patches of oil on purpose could
accidentally swallow the sub
stance.
United Press International
AUSTIN — The state of Texas
Thursday asked a federal court to
assess damages and cleanup costs
against the owners and operators of
a British tanker that spilled 1.9 mil
lion gallons of crude oil in the Gulf
of Mexico.
The complaint filed in U.S. Dis
trict Court in Galveston did not spec
ify the amount of damages, but the
owners of the tanker Alvenus have
asked the court to limit to $3.8 mil
lion their liability for damaged
caused by the oil washing ashore in
Texas.
In announcing the filing of the
state’s suit, Texas Attorney General
Jim Mattox said there was “no way”
to specify damages caused y spill and
the cost of cleaning up the 26 miles
of beach on Galveston Island that
were seriously affected.
But he said Galveston officials re
port the oil spill is costing the coastal
town up to $2.5 million per day in
lost revenues from the tourist trade.
“Our primary concern now is to
get as much fnds as we can get to
make sure this cleanup effort takes
place,” said Mattox.
Owners of blackened beachfront
properties in Texas Wednesday fled
a class action suit to recover as much
as $100 million from the ship owners
and operators.
The bow of the Alvenus ruptured
July 30 while it was in the channel
leading into the Port of Calcasieu,
La. Winds and currents carried the
oil to the Texas Gulf Coast, forcing a
massive cleanup effort in the Galves
ton area.
Defendants in the state’s suit in-
Six charged
with assault
By SARAH OATES
Staff Writer
Six Texas A&M students were re
leased on bond Thursday night after
being charged with criminal assault
and false imprisonment for an attack
Monday on a student in their dormi
tory on campus.
John S. McDonald, 18; Evalegos
Lorentzatos, 19; Jason Bailey, 18;
Ernesto Rodriguez, 17; Manuel Gar-
dea Jr., 21, and Philip E. Shaw, 21
had been arrested for what one Uni
versity Police official termed a “mali
cious attack” on a student.
“Apparently, these boys just
didn’t like the victim,” said Bob
Wiatt, director of security and traffic
for the University Police Depart
ment.
Bailey refused to comment and
the other men were not available for
comment. The men are residents of
Underwood Hall.
The victim, who was found by
College Station Police as he walked
down Texas Avenue wearing only
his underwear and covered in mo
lasses and feathers, told police he
was invited to another student’s
room to share a pizza.
When he entered the room, police
said, he was stripped to his under
wear and bound and gagged. Police
said he then was carried outside to a
pickup where he was struck several
times and blanketed with molasses
and feathers.
Police said the student was driven
to Tinsley’s Restaurant in College
Station, where he was left after un
successful attempts to chain him to a
light post in front of the restaurant.
He was discovered by College Sta
tion police, who notified the Univer
sity Police Department.
University Police found a pickup
truck in Parking Annex 24 that
matched the description given by the
victim. A jar containing either honey
or molasses and the remains of a
feather pillow were in the back of
the pickup, police said.
Pay
fees
today
Today is the last day to pay fees
to avoid preregistration cancella
tion.
A box is set up outside the
cashiers’ office to ease fee pay
ment. Students who want to avoid
standing in line can place their
money in the provided envelopes
and drop them in the box. A paid
fee receipt, I.D. card, and sched
ule will be mailed to the student's
permanent address.
Students who have lost their
fee slips can obtain a copy from
the cashiers in the Coke Building.
Students who are recipients of
scholarships, grants, or loans (in
cluding the Guaranteed Student
Loan) through the office of Stu
dent Financial Aid may pay fees
from Aug. 20-27.
Prison reforms approved
United Press International
AUSTIN — Gov. Mark White and
state prison officials, searching for
ways to quell a rash of inmate vio
lence, agreed Thursday to increase
incentives for good behavior, step
up efforts to prosecute violent pris
oners and speed the training of new
guards.
White met for nearly three hours
with prison Director Ray Procunier
and members of the Texas Depart
ment of Corrections board following
reports of increased violence that
has left nine inmates dead from stab-
bings so far this year.
The governor emerged from the
meeting and said Procunier had sug
gested several ways to deal with the
violence, including efforts to in
crease incentives for good behavior.
Once such incentive would
change “good time” provisions,
which give well-behaved inmates as
much as three days credit for every
day served, so it no longer can be re
instated after it is lost for discipli
nary reasons.
White said the state would pro
vide financial or legal help to coun
ties with jurisdiction over prison
units so prison assault cases can be
“vigorously prosecuted.”
A new classificatin system pro
posed by Procunier will be initiated
to group inmates according to the
risk they present to others and hir
ing and training of new guards also
will be stepped up. The state is con
sidering a $300,000 grant to TDC
Man, girl killed in heavy rain
United Press International
EL PASO — Officials in West
Texas, southern New Mexico and
northern Mexico Thursday were
bracing for additional heavy rains
which already claimed two lives, at
least one injury, the destruction of
20 homes and thousands of dollars
damage to city streets.
Killed were Morayma Acosta, a
10-year-old Juarez, Mexico, girl
whose house collapsed in Wednes
day night’s storms when a wall from
a neighboring house fell down un
der the heavy rein and hit the Acosta
house below.
Police said a Juarez man who ap
peared to be 35 years old was
drowned in a flash fllood as he tried
to cross a usually-dry viaduct in the
western part of the border city. Offi
cers said the victim, not yet identi
fied, was first thought to have been a
woman.
A temporary shelter was set up by
firemen in Juarez to house 20 fami
lies left homeless when their adobe
homes crumbled under the heavy
rains. El Paso firemen assisted a
number of residents of low-lying
areas, but there were no injuries or
displacements there due to the
floods.
City of El Paso officials estimated
the rain did $20,000 damage to city
streets. A number of thoroughfares
remain closed becaue of flooding.
West Texas ranchers, suffering
from a severe drought, welcomed
the rain on parched grazing lands,.
others
elude the ship’s owners, Lloyd’s
Leasing Ltd.; the charterers, Alve
nus Shipping Co., Ltd., and the ship
builder, Cammell Laird Shipbuild
ers, Ltd.
The complaint asks for authority
to take immediate depositions from
the ship’s crew members before they
disband, said Mattox. The attorney
general said his office is “working
closely” with the Coast Guard in tak
ing statements from the crew.
“We have had attorneys in touch
with Coast Guard officials hourly in
a joint effort to get to the truth of
what actually happened to cause this
terribly destructive oil spill,” he said.
The cause of the spill is still being
investigated, but Mattox said, “It ei
ther had to be their negligence or
the failure of the ship itself.”
Mattox said he was concerned
about the danger posed by the
300,000 gallons of oil that remained
aboard the disabled tanker.
“That vessel is a time bomb wait
ing to go off as long as it sits in the
Gulf with all that oil aboard,” he
said. “At this time, we understand
that approximately half of the re
maining barrels of oil have been off
loaded, but we are anxious for the
rest of it to be removed.”
In Today’s Battalion
Local
• Summer orientation sessions have been attended by
5,000 freshmen so far. See story page 4.
• Local Democrats and Republicans speak out. See story
page 5.
State
• Texas GOP Party Chairman George Strake called pro
testers expected for the Republican National Convention
“hippies, Yippies and Dykes on Bikes.” See story page 4.
National
• The space shuttle Discovery will be given a third try
Aug. 29. See story page 3.
World
• Iraqi warplanes set an Iranian oil platform on fire. See
story page 6.