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See page 4
Vol 80 Mo. 12 USPS 045360 12 pages
Canada aims for
a Swede sweep
See page 11
Aggies stomp TLC in
three straight games
See page 9
Battalion
Serving the University community
College Station, Texas Tuesday, September 18, 1984
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United Press International
HOUSTON — A federal judge,
calling grand jury testimony a citi
zen’s obligation, Monday denied an
appeal by a Houston couple held in
jail on contempt charges for ref us
ing to testify in a murder investiga
tion focusing on their son.
U.S. Judge James DeAnda said he
found no legal grounds supporting
the claim by Bernard and Odette
Port that they should be granted im
munity from being forced to testify
against their son. DeAnda’s ruling
upheld a state district judge’s order
that the couple be jailed for con
tempt ofgrand jury.
The Ports have ref used to answer
questions concerning the alleged in
volvement of their son, David, in the
June 7 death of letter carrier Debora
Sue Schatz.
Schatz disappeared while deliv
ering mail in the Ports’ west Houston
neighborhood. Her body was found
June 9, a day after Port, 17, was ar
rested on murder charges.
He is free on $20,000 bond while
his parents are in jail.
The Ports were ordered jailed last
Wednesday by District Judge I.D.
McMaster af ter the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals refused to over
turn his ruling holding the couple in
contempt.
The Ports have refused to answer
questions before two separate grand
juries, claiming it violates a constitu
tional right to parent-child privilege
similar to that given spouses under
state law.
The couple also cites Jewish law
prohibits them from testifying
against a relative and that by testify
ing, they risk incriminating them
selves, a violation of their 5th
Amendment rights.
Though they have been granted
immunity from prosecution, defense
attorney Randy Schaffer questions
whether a state judge has the right to
grant such immunity.
DeAnda, in his 25-page ruling,
called arguments for a parent-child
privilege “aberrations.”
“Traditionally parents have borne
the responsibility for disciplining
waywarcl children in various ways,
the judge wrote, “so that it cannot be
reasonably said that parents should
lie shielded from giving testimony
against children accused of criminal
behavior...
“Citizens are not constitutionally
immune from grand jury subpoe-
naes and the duty to testify reflects
basic obligations which every citizen
owes to his or her government and
to society at large,” DeAnda wrote.
Schaffer said he was encouraged
by the mere length of the judge’s de
cision and said he had already begun
steps to appeal the contempt case to
the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals in New Orleans.
“We have to keep the train on the
tracks,” he said. “In light of logic and
reason, the arguments make good
sense and ought to be the law.”
He said he is preparing to appeal
the case to the Supreme Court if the
appellate court in New Orleans re
fuses to grant bond for the Ports or
upholds the previous rulings.
Of the Ports, he said they are in
good spirits and “making new
f riends” in the Harris County Jail.
“They are getting letters from in
mates who tell them to hang in
there. I can’t say they are enjoying
their stay, but it isn’t as bad as they
feared,” he said.
Meanwhile, m a dramatic devel
opment to the investigation, the
Harris County district attorney’s of
fice said a prosecutor and a homi
cide detective had gone to Frank
furt, Germany, to try to find a
possible witness in the case.
Prosecutors believe there was a
woman with Mrs. Port when she re
turned to her house June 7 and
found blood stains and bulletholes in
her house. A district attorney’s
spokeswoman would not identify the
possible witness, who reportedly was
transferred to Germany by her com
puter company.
A candlelight vigil in support of
the victim’s mother, Barbara Schatz,
was planned Monday night by Par
ents of Murdered Children and Sur
vivors, a spokeswoman said.
“It is something we have been
planning for a month,” said
spokeswoman Joyce Knoll. “It is only
a coincidence that the Ports are back
in the news today. We cleared it
through the district attorney’s office
to be sure it would not disrupt the
case.”
Mrs. Schatz has filed a $5 million
suit against the Ports, claiming neg
ligence in the death of her daughter
and the subsequent death of her hus
band from heart disease. Relatives
said the shock of the death of the
daughter contributed to her father’s
death.
Photo by DEAN SAITO
Governor Mark White and his wife Sarah the “Roast” Monday night at the Brazos
meet with Calvin and Jenna Guest prior to Center.
Democrats honor Guest
with humor, testimony
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First offshore well tapped
in basin off Chinese coast
United Press International
PEKING — An American-led
consortium has tapped the first
offshore oil well in the South
China Sea, (Chinese state oil offi
cials announced Monday.
The well, producing 429 tons
of crude oil per day, is in the
Pearl River Mouth Basin of the
South China Sea, one of the last
frontiers for offshore oil, the offi
cials said.
Esso-China Ltd., a subsidiary
of Exxon Corp. of the United
States, drilled the well with Nan-
hai Western Petroleum, a division
of the state-run China National
Offshore Oil Corp.
Exxon and its partner, the
Royal Dutch Shell Group, won
the right to search for oil in the
area when it signed a contract
with CNOOC last year. The com
mercial value will not be known
until further drilling is com
pleted.
“This latest breakthrough is
very inspiring,” CNOOC. “We
believe that with the ongoing ex-
loration, more oil reserves will
e discovered.”
The discovery is the only
bright news to come from the
South China Sea basin since dril
ling began this year. Ten other
wells have been dry and overseas
concerns no longer are predicting
a quick oil bonanza.
Twenty-seven foreign compa
nies have signed contracts with
China to explore the South China
and Yellow Seas. T hey are com
mitted to spend $800 million to
$ 1 billion.
Despite the lack of success,
China is planning a second round
of bidding this fall for additional
offshore lots.
The Pearl River Basin, about
$63 miles south of Hong Kong, is
considered the South China Sea’s
most potential area.
By JAMES WALKER
Staff Writer
Democrats from Bryan-College
Station and throughout the state
were entertained Monday night at
the Calvin Guest Roast put on by the
Texas Democratic Party.
The former party chairman, 56,
has had a hand in the selection of
virtually every Democratic party
candidate and appointee for top
state office in the last decade includ
ing State Treasurer Ann Richards
and Railroad Commissioner Buddy
Temple.
Guest was head of Dolph Briscoe’s
campaign in 1972 when he selected
Mark White as an assistant. He jok
ingly boasts that any Democrat seek
ing office in Texas must first come
and kiss his diamond ring.
With such influence, Guest has
become involved in the lives of many
Democrats. More than 800 of whom
took the time to honor the “father of
the party” in last night’s roast at the
Brazos Center.
Those more intimately aquainted —
with Guest addressed the audience
for nearly two hours with humorous
recollections of past experiences and
personal testimonies of Guest’s char
acter.
Before the barrage of friendly
barbs, Dan Kubiak, warned his fel
low Democrats, “thou shall not ever
make f un of the godfather.”
Gov. Mark White instigated the
verbal barbeque, saying, “Calvin, I
told them that we were going to tell
the truth, and they said that was the
ground rule that I had to follow, and
I guess that’s the reason this thing
has turned into a roast rather than a
tribute.”
Dwayne Holman, executive direc
tor of the Texas Democratic Party
and White’s campaign manager in
the gubernatorial race, remembered
a comment made at the time Guest
was selected to be the state party
chairman. “The party always needs
money and Calvin Guest is a man of
untold wealth,” Holman said. “He
has never told the IRS how much he
has.”
The Democrats did allow one Re
publican, Henry Seale to share some
of his experiences with the audience.
“I don’t mind telling you that I
feel out of place here tonight,” Seale
said.
Seale, did not appear to be intim
idated at the roast when he referred
to Guest’s use of the English lan
guage calling him a demon deacon
“who works on those little short
words. He adds a whole new flavor
to their vocabulary.”
State Treasurer Ann Richards,
the first woman to be elected to a
state office in 50 years, had some
very choice words for Guest.
“Calvin, I’m sure that all of these
people here are bound to be cred
itors of BrazosBanc, because I know
damn well you don’t have this many
friends.”
Guest was president of Brazos
Banc until June oflast year.
Students excavate sunken city
to create picture of life in 1600s
By MARY ANGELA LEBLANC
Reporter
Off the south coast of Jamaica lies
a sunken city named Port Royal.
And in June, six Texas A&M stu
dents explored the underwater city.
Every summer since 1981, a
Texas A&M archaeology class under
the direction of Dr. D.L. Hamilton,
assistant professor in anthropology,
has been excavating a large six-room
brick building in the sunken city.
In a disastrous earthquake on
June 7, 1692, two-thirds of the city
sank into Kingston Harbour in just a
matter of minutes killing 2,000 peo
ple.
Hamilton showed the project’s
progress during the past four years
in a slide presentation Thursday
sponsored by the Texas A&M An
thropology Society.
“Any success we achieve at Port
Royal is based on the students,”
Hamilton said. “They should have
all the credit for all the accomplish
ments we’ve achieved at Port Royal.
They do an awful lot of work, very
strenuous work. Archaeology is ex
citing, it’s challenging but it’s really
very hard work.”
Hamilton said the underwater ar
chaeology class is a graduate level
course that lasts from six to 11
weeks. Hamilton said that the June
students paid a $500 lab fee and
paid for their transportation. Food
and housing was provided.
He said the project was supported
by the Institute of Nautical Archaeo
logy, Texas A&M and the Jamaican
government. Most of the students,
Hamilton said, came from other uni
versities. The June class had a total
of 18 students, six were from A&M.
“We dive with no stops,” Hamil
ton said. “Somebody is diving
through lunch also, because we
found we lost too much time if we
stop everything and shut down for
lunch.”
While diving, the students found
many artifacts, Hamilton said, in
cluding a table leg, corked bottles,
hundreds of smoking pipes, a fish
basket, leather shoes, pewter mugs,
silverware, a couple of foot bones
and a finger bone. Hamilton said
finding artifacts was not the project’s
purpose.
“What we are actually trying to do
is reconstruct everyday life, what ev
eryday existence was for different
stratas of the social class,” Hamilton
said.
Prior to the earthquake, Port
Royal was a British trade center
which looked like a typical English
town, Hamilton said.
“We are constantly recording all
the architectural details in each one
of the rooms so that we can probably
draw a fairly accurate reconstruction
of what this house would look like,”
Hamilton said.
The house excavated was chosen
from the location calculated from
maps, he said.
“The excavation of this house was
the first time that archaeologically
we’ve been able to conduct an exca
vation when we know exactly where
the location is,” Hamilton said. “We
know exactly how it is positioned in
reference to the streets.”
Hamilton said even though the
city is 10 feet below the surface,
there is no difference from land ex
cavation.
“Overall, the excavations at Port
Royal are no different than a normal
excavation of a historic town sight,”
Hamilton said. “We just have to
make allowances for being under
water, but other than that, we are
doing the same thing.”
Hamilton is an expert in the con
servation of archaeological materials
from under water sites. He is an ad
junct professor with the Institute of
Nautical Archaeology and is the con
servator of the Conservation Re
search Laboratory at Texas A&M.
He has been active in nautical ar
chaeology for 10 years and has been
the director of the Port Royal project
for the past four years.
• A unique flea collar is on the market, but Texas A&M
entomologists doubt that the ultrasonic device will be effec
tive in controlling insects.
See story page 5.
• Texas A&M Debate Forum holds debate on the recogni
tion of Gay Student Services Organization. See story page
3.
• The Brazos County Democrats are officially opening
their party headquarters. See story page 5.
State
• The coral snake in the Houston Zoo may look deadly,
but the poor dummy isn’t really as bad as he seems. See
story page 7.
• A 12-year-old Fort Worth girl has been charged in the
shooting death of her 11-year-old playmate. See story page
6.
• Texas Secretary of State Myra McDaniel announces a
voter registration drive. The goal is 1,000 new registered
voters. See story page 8.