Thursday, June 6 1985/The Battalion/Page 3 Judge says job includes educating community ¥ kf: C become I must readl it across tit journalm e Battalion encc uard By RICKY TELG Reporter Judge Carolyn Ruffino, Brazos County court-at-law judge, says be ing a judge can be like teaching in side a fishbowl. ■ “Everything I say and do is watched, which I don’t like,” she says. B A judge’s life is quite different from most people’s lives, Ruffino says, because everything a judge does or says is watched and heard by the courtroom audience. | But, she says, a judge must put this feeling aside and do a job many people don’t associate with a judge — teaching. ■ “Sometimes my role as judge is to be an educator to those in the com munity who need to understand what that position really means,” Ruffino says. Ruffino, 39, always wears a self- confident expression, but the 5-foot- 1-inch woman does not look like a judge by conventional standards. ■ "If people see me out on the street in plain clothes, and find out I’m a judge, they’re suprised, shocked,” she says. “They’ll look and say, ‘You don’t look like a judge.’ I guess they feel that way because of my being small in stature. Or, some people might not be accustomed to seeing a woman as a judge.” 1 A court-at-law handles civil cases involving money disputes between $500 to $10,000. It also handles spe- dal areas including criminal misde- meiinors, probate and juvenile cases. Ruffino, a lifetime Bryan resi dent, has responsibilities incorporat ing two different jobs: an adminis trator and a law enforcer. * In her office, she works on admin istrative problems concerning ^guardianship or juveniles. In the courtroom, she presides over the bench and over the court-at-law cases. Clements says Gramm acting like Democrat Associated Press AUSTIN — Former Gov. Bill Clements says U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm should stay out of the 1986 Republi can primary race for governor, as Clements says he plans to do. Clements told reporters Tuesday that Gramm’s endorsement of Kent Hance as a Repiiblican gubernato rial candidate could be divisive to the state party. "An endorsement by a senior per son, such as Senator Gramm or my self with the position I’ve had, really is divisive and causes a polarization in the Republican Party,” Clements said. “It could cause some hard feelings and we would have some wounds and scars from it that wouldn’t be helpful at election time.” Clements added that “this is more of a Democratic way of acting and maybe Sen. Gramm just hasn’t got used to being in the Republican Party yet.” Gramm, who switched parties in 1982, said in a newspaper interview over the weekend that he would en dorse Hance if the former congress man runs for governor because he personally recruited Hance for the GOP. Clements said he had told Gramm “that in my judgment, it would be better not to endorse any candi date.” Clements said he has told all eight potential candidates for governor who have visited him that he would help them equally. Photo by ANTHONY S. CASPER Judge Carolyn Ruffino sits in her “classroom,” Ruffino says the toughest part of her job is making decisions that will hurt one or both parties, but such decisions “come with the territory.” “I find people are irresponsible in accepting the consequences of their actions,” she says. “And sometimes, I have to be the one to make them toe- the-line or make parameters and say: ‘This is a game, and don’t cross that line, because if you do, you lose.’ They may not understand it then, but hopefully, they will later in their life.” Ruffino became interested in law when she was in high school. She says her height was a factor in the decision. “I always liked to fight for the un derdog,” she says. “Being a small person, I learned to fight.” Ruffino says the mechanics of her job can be monotonous at times. Each time someone comes before her in the courtroom, she has to read him his rights. If she doesn’t, she can be brought to trial through the appeals process. “I’ve got to watch what I say,” she says. “If I do not sufficiently advise them of their rights, it can come back later on another appeal.” Ruffino says her main goal as a judge is to be fair. “Sometimes I come across to peo ple as being unconcerned or hard,” she says. “It’s not that at all. I’m looking through closed eyes, so that I am not biased by what I see or who I see before me. That’s very hdrd to do, but it’s the way I’ve trained my self to be a judge.” Ruffino says she has only one goal in life: to learn. “My goal is to learn as much as I can,” she says. “When I get bored, I’ll just leave the house and go to the park or pick up a book that I haven’t read. To me, that’s the challenge of life: always looking for something new and aifferent.” Ruling State ordered to place mentally ill, retarded Associated Press TYLER — A federal judge Wednesday ordered the Texas De partment of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to place 279 cli ents from three state schools in com munity homes by September 1986. U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice also ordered the state to implement an appeals process for dissatisfied parents of state school residents and to report monthly on the rate of community placement to Dr. Linda O’Neall, the expert con sultant appointed to monitor the state’s compliance with a 1983 order. The order is the result of a hear ing in April called after attorneys for residents in those three state schools filed a motion asking that the state be forced into compliance with a set tlement of the case. The plaintiffs maintained the state failed to meet required dead lines for moving the recommended number of residents into the com munity. “It is now abundantly clear that the defendants have failed — and will continue to fail, without correc tion from the court — adequately to fulfill their responsibilities with re gard to community placement,” the judge’s order stated. Justice followed recommenda tions of O’Neall in his ruling. Parent groups, which crowded Justice’s courtroom during the hear ing, showed resistance to the plan to move their children into the commu nity. Although the plaintiffs attorneys asked that members of three groups — school-aged children, non-men- tally retarded residents and those recommended by treatment teams for placement — be placed. Justice granted the order only for the last group. The order outlines a temporary appeals process for parents who ob ject to their child’s placement in the community or those parents who want to contest the treatment teams’ recommendation to leave a resident in the state school. “It was apparent throughout the hearing that parents were deeply concerned that the state would usurp them in deciding what was best for their children and leave them without recourse and their children without security,” the order stated. Justice ordered the parties to agree on a hearing officer or panel with 15 days or the court will ap point one. A more permanent proc ess will be formed later. O’Neall’s plan proposed the 279 placements, and she demonstrated in the courtroom how communities across the state could absorb the school-aged children with no major consequences. She said only six areas would be receiving more than nine students. )r s Ediwf s Editor r tor erineHurt Child sex-ring shocks community; residents disgusted with findings Anderson liter Smith it Leopold Cassavo/i ,rla Martin as nexsp > P er A0 ICIVSI rapn paper for cfeS5« 100 tvor* in w edit rtwrna" 18 ® ted and ^ P the v'"* '‘0 is are > f ,, per tall 45-2630^ , TX^ 3 - i The Texas fl 143 Associated Press HOOP-AND-HOLLER — The unraveling story of a child-sex ring and the arrest of six men have stunned 6 this small East Texas community, described by one offi- . cial as “just like something out of Li’l Abner.” Many of the 200 residents congregate daily at the ^ only grocery store in Hoop-and-Holler, a subdivision of the town Rye, to hear all they can about the investiga tion. “It’s a dirty shame,” said Joe Thompson, a retired la borer. “This place has got to be cleaned up.” Authorities learned of the child-sex ring May 8 when four girls called authorities and asked to tell “tne whole : ; story of what whs going on,” said Liberty County Con stable Paul Lognion. Investigators fear five or six other young girls may also be involved. Six men were charged last Friday with aggravated | sexual assault of the children. Arrest warrants have been issued for two other men. : Sheriffs investigators discovered that during the past I four years, the four girls, ages 9 to 13, have participated in sex acts with numerous men. They were rewarded for their favors with new f clothes, makeup, camera film and a trip to Astroworld amusement pArk in Houston, about 90 miles south. “It was like prostitution, but they didn’t know it,” said Houston Police Vice Officer Steve Andrews, who was asked to assist in the investigation. One of the girls, age 12, was found living in a camper of a pickup truck with a man, his wife and three young children. Robert Ziriax, a 47-year-old construction worker from Baytown, was charged with sexual abuse and held in the Lioerty County Jail on $50,000 bond. Ziriax contends the girl was only a baby sitter, said - Liberty County Sheriff E.W. “Sonny” Applebe. “But the girls say he has had sex with them and once even whipped his wife in an effort to force her to partic ipate,” Applebe said. Also cnarged are William Ralph Casey, 26, Lonnie Jam