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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1985)
Wednesday, April 17, 1985/The Battalion/Page 13 >mBafc SHOE by Jeff MacNelly ■SURE IT IIDNESS2 f THIS NEW TAX LAW mm Kan w f 0FC0UI&E. f C0ULP mean the end of WTREAUY MUfL 1UE3-NACTNI LUNCH. WON'T AFFECT ^ > US IN1HE NEW* \ k W5IUE5S. &UT If TUBf'MESS WITH m 3-TWINKIE UUNCM^E'PU SE IN SERIOUS TBOUSUE • JUDIES /IRE PR&UMlNAftj Igllfr Man infiltrates biker club, says group dealt in drugs lithel said hew ives to Reagans |» mething to keep lie president tki (House Speak '(•ill has put hisi- this issue,” Mi. i a ( oncerted Den against the Com lien I began as s the religious lea We see a vara, religious freedom: tgime of Nfaraji e Sandinista rejm a politically mugh it sapporc s now considered o complete totals d the SandinisU! ing to discredit hierarchy" in atts & Associated Press CORPUS CHRISTI — A govern ment informant testified Tuesday he gradually infiltrated the Bandidos motorcycle club and used govern ment money to incriminate club members in alleged drug trafficking operations, although he feared for his life. Four Bandidos club members are on trial on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamines. The four are James Lyndon Cheatham, 31; Steven Robert “Boo Boo” Barbour, 39; Patrick “Rawhi de” Ledoux, 44; and Karen Brown, 31, Government informant Robert Armstrong, who has been convicted in several states on burglary and theft charges, said he knew some motorcyle club members in Corpus Christi. Armstrong testified he first talked to U.S. Drug Enforcement Adminis tration officials about an unrelated case last May. He said that during the conversation, agent Jim Ander son asked him if he knew whether Bandidos club members were in volved in drug trafficking. Armstrong said he had to think for a few days before agreeing to be come an informant. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jesse Rodriguez asked him why he had to think about it that long. “Because I was fearing for my safety and for the safety of my fami ly,” Armstrong replied. He testified he was given money by Anderson to buy a motorcycle to entertain club members so he could gain their trust. Armstrong testified he bought methamphetamine from the three male defendants last November and December and in early January. Brown is accused of packaging the methamphetamine. Armstrong said there were times when the defendants snorted the methamphetamine and smoked marijuana, but he never did, telling them that the drugs would cause a reaction with prescription medicine he was taking. In afternoon proceedings, de fense attorneys tried to discredit Armstrong as a witness. He was on the stand for more than five hours. Cheatham is accused of conspir acy and six counts of possession with intent to distribute. The other three each are charged with conspiracy and two counts of possession with in tent to distribute. If convicted, they face 15 years in prison and a $125,000 fine on each charge, Rodriguez said. The four are among 10 arrested in Corpus Christi Feb. 21 in a na tionwide crackdown of alleged drug trafficking operations by Bandido club members. The other six are ex pected to be tried later this month. A total of 22 suspected Bandidos were arrested in Texas in February with most of the arrests in Corpus Christi and Lubbock, where an ar mored personnel carrier was used to round up the suspects. During the opening statements, one of the defense attorneys, Jose Ramos, tried to discredit Armstrong. “The evidence will show that Mr. Armstrong has taken the govern ment for a ride of $20,000,” Ramos told jury of nine men and three women. “Mr. Armstrong is a crook. That’s the person the government is going to want you to believe.” Ians, Pilgrims celebrate ‘El Nino’ ise Kohl hadimi he hoped lhal w that the U« est Germany Is ks on the atroci« able “to cementtl idship” between accepted the iit'i and that’s why Reagan said, ecision not to j »f my mistaken ha visit was out 4a.” jZ-'y'X ^ I Associated Press Jl I I IIJI y ESPINAZO, Mexico — It is said a healer once lived I ■here and that he died before his time. It is believed by many that the healer’s work contin ues, that his spirit empowers his followers to heal others as he did. Twice each year, thousands of believers gather here to celebrate the birth and death of the healer, Fidencio S. Constantino— FI Nino, or “the little boy.” On March 19, about 15,000 fedencistas jammed the main street of this isolated rural community in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, normally pop ulated by scarcely more than 200 people. They were singing “Las Mananitas,” the birthday song, to El Nino, who was legendary for his powers of healing even as an adolescent. The festival of the Nino’s birth was a mixture of i h —P^ty- con artists, food stalls and sellers of soft goods — S1,es °t 8 everything from underwear to religious memorabilia. •s of that era, From a cemetery on a hill south of Espinazo, one looks north toward town across a broad, dusty valley of ;he Sierra Madre Oriental, from the state of Coahuila into the state of Nuevo Leon. The cemetery is cine of several places in and near Es- tinazo where groups of pilgrims gather with group eaders who “take on the spirit of the Nino” to perform a multitude of healing and blessing rituals. They also lead processions of penitents, who punish , themselves in order to feel worthy of the Nino’s ume, alter Sun® “friendship,” and those who have made promises of de- n, LansingSW 1 votional acts in exchange for a favor from the Nino, ss “was much»« (ike, but it’s -e learning > rc ► 4 hours well vailing and, h< with nothing i"! cl very littk tolf The processions, which range in size from half a dozen to several hundred, make their way three times around the Pirulito, a pepper tree where, it is said, the Nino once fought a demon and where, according to the songs, the spirit of the Nino descends from heaven to earth. The processions end at La Tumba, where Con stantino is buried in a large building that once was his hospital but now is a shrine filled with memorabilia and testimonies from those who claim they have been healed by the Nino. Adjacent to the shrine is the mudhole where pilgrims bathe with muddy, mineral-laden water said to have healing qualities. The Nino created the mudhole for use by hospital patients. During his lifetime, Constantino was besieged by supplicants. The details of his life are a hazy blend of myth and history, but detractors and adherents agree that he was an extraordinary man. Those who knew him say he was melancholy and self-effacing, that he lived simply in spite of his fame, that he went hatless and shoeless, spending hours and days at a time in solitude and prayer in nearby moun tain caves and at the Pirulito, where he would await the twice-daily train that runs through Espinazo between Monterrey and Monclova. Constantino came to Espinazo from Guanajuato to be a houseboy in the hacienda of the Von Berlich fam ily. There is disagreement about the year of his birth, but all agree he was a relatively young man when he died in 1938. Men picked up in police sting fear for careers aturday .pedal kk Dinner 4.99 -omplete Associated Press HOUSTON — Attorneys rep resenting men arrested in a Houston police prostitution sting operation say the experience has left their clients fearing for their marriages and careers. All but one of the 1 19 arrests made in the month-long opera tion late last year have resulted in pleas of no contest or guilty, po lice vice squad Capt. Jack Full- bright said. But the lone man to go to trial — Jim Faizi, 23 — was found in nocent last week by County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Ragan on charges of soliciting prostitu tion. “Their (the police’s) objective is good,” the judge said. “Their tac tics just exceeded what’s permis sible.” Defense attorneys polled by The Houston Post said the ruling means many of the men also could have been found innocent if their cases had gone to trial. But attorneys said their clients preferred to quietly admit guilt to the Class B misdemeanor rather than admit in open court that they visited the model studio, where policewomen posed as prostitutes. “If I were not married and if I didn’t have a good job, I could al most laugh this off,” said one of the arrested men. He spoke with The Post only under the conditions he would remain anonymous. “But because of my marriage and my job, I have everything to lose,” he said. Attorney David Berg said one man who pleaded guilty to the charge received a notice in the mail despite efforts to ensure that such a thing did not happen. “He has a wife who cried for two or three days” after reading the notice, Berg said. Another attorney, Travis John son, said a 20-year-old client has had to postpone a job search be cause or the charge. In some professions, even a misdemeanor could make a per son ineligible for employment, Johnson said. “It’s almost like you’ve got the plague,” said the attorney, who is trying to arrange for the man’s record to be wiped clean if proba tion is successfully completed. Attorneys said the people caught in the sting, which ran from late November through late December, included doctors, law yers and business executives. But Ragan said he believed it constituted entrapment. Berg agreed. LITMUS The New Student Literary Magazine ON SALE NOW! Monday, April 15 through Friday, April 19 in the MSC 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily Price $2.00 MSC Literary Arts If* Wanted... Fun-loving Students in search of the fine arts. Become a member of MSC OPAS -The opera and performing arts society. Pick up an application at an orientation session. -April 15 or 17 -401 Rudder -7 p.m. If unable to attend call Jody 260-3563 Mike 260-7069 Center for Retailing Studies INVITED LECTURE SERIES Donald /. Stone, Vice Chairman Federated Department Stores, Inc. Thursday, April 18,11:00 p.m. Room 165, John R. Blocker Building Students, Faculty, and Members of the Community are invited Department of Marketing Texas A&M University College Station,Texas 77843-4112 (409)845-0325 Residents shocked by deaths Associated Press ANSON — An hour after he talked to a priest about his daugh ter’s marital problems, Abel Flores, Sr. and his daughter apparently were gunned down by her dis traught husband. Authorities say Flores’ son-in-law, Roy Herrera, shot Flores, his daugh ter Sonia and then turned the gun on himself near St. Michael’s Catho lic Church Sunday afternoon. On Monday, many of the 2,700 residents of the West Texas city near Abilene were in shock. Anson High School, where the couple had at tended school, was quiet. “The whole school is stunned,” said Donella Spurgin, who taught English to Sonia during her sopho more and junior years. An hour before the shooting, the Rev. Frank Nelan talked to Flores. “He said, ‘We’ve got trouble,’ ” Nelan said Monday. “I said, ‘What are we going to do about it?’ ” Authorities §ay Herrera, 21, went to some storage buildings near the church about 3:30 p.m. and shot Flores in the head with a .38-caliber pistol. He then shot his 19-year-old wife, from whom he was separated Saturday. He then turned the gun on him self, sheriffs officers said. Herrera and his wife died at the scene, and Flores, 37, was pro nounced dead on arrival at Flen- drick Medical Center in Abilene, about 20 miles from Anson. THE LOAFER'S LOAFERS. If it’s the weekend, then it’s Timberland time. With jeans and an old shirt for kicking around the yard. Or with slacks and a blazer for Sunday brunch. Handsewn premium leathers. Long-lasting construction. And enough comfort to keep you going all week long, until it’s time for your Timberlands again. 20% OFF entire stock Timberland casuals. Through April 27only at shellenbergers Fine Men’s and Women's Apparel 520 University Drive East