Wednesday, June 4, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
Christian boys' home
to be sold ot auction
■ FOREST HILL (AP) — A
Christian boys’ home whose di
rector is trying to avoid obtaining
aptate license has been put on the
auction block by the state attor
ney general’s office.
I Most of the buildings at Com
munity Baptist Church are sched
uled to be sold at a public auction
July 1 at the Tarrant County
Courthouse in Fort Worth.
■ The home’s director, the Rev.
W.N. Otwell, has resisted efforts
by the state to force him to obtain
ajlicense for the home. Attorney
General Jim Mattox authorized
the sale and papers from Sheriff
Don Carpenter notifying the
church were mailed last week.
H Otwell said the proposed sale
includes the home’s auditorium,
educational building, apartment
complex, residences for the chil
dren and the church office.
I “This will be the first church
building sold in a sheriffs sale for
practicing faith in Jesus Christ,”
he said. “That’s the first case I
know of in America.”
■ Otwell said $100-per-day fines
assessed against him, his wife and
seven others operating the home
without a license now total more
than $100,000. The home has
been put up for sale to pay the
fine.
Although Otwell said he would
not protest the sale, he doesn’t
plan to move.
"We’re going to stay right
here,” Otwell said. “We’re going
to see what (Mattox) is going to
do.”
Mattox has said he does not
want to force the home to close
and only is trying to make it ad
here to state requirements that it
be licensed.
A state district judge in Austin
has ruled that the home must be
licensed.
Otwell filed an appeal last
month, but it was too late to be
valid, officials said.
Mattox said he had been ha
rassed at home by late-night
phone calls. A group of Otwell
supporters took credit last week
for draping highway signs with
anti-Mattox slogans, the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Pilot killed in twin-engine plane crash
BARTLETT (AP) — A twin-en
gine airplane plunged into a rural
pasture, killing the pilot and scatter
ing wreckage across a field near this
Central Texas town.
Federal Aviation Administration
officials said the pilot, David L. Os
man, 41, of Dallas, had radioed he
was in trouble before crashing Mon
day night.
FAA spokesman Gerrie Cook
said, “Shortly after he leveled out, he
reported to approach control that he
had a possible autopilot malfunction
and was descending rapidly.
“Shortly thereafter, they lost all
radio contact with him.”
The pilot’s body was found near
the wreckage.
Martinaire Flight 245, a commeri-
cal air taxi, departed from Austin at
9:44 p.m, Cook said.
I he pilot of the Mitsubishi MU-2
turboprop reported he was alone at
the time en route to Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport, Cook
said.
Storms were in the area and some
officials said severe weather could
have caused the crash.
However, a Martinaire employee
who did not wish to be identified
said Tuesday it was not raining at
the time of the crash.
“There were not thunderstorms
at the time. Weather was not a fac
tor,” the employee said.
Witnesses said heavy thunder-
storms had not reached Bartlett
when the plane crashed around 9:45
p.m. Monday.
The crash disintegrated the plane,
said David Wells, a spokesman with
the Texas Department of Public
Safety.
“When it struck the ground, it
dug about a three-feet-deep hole, in
dicating it was on a very steep route
of decline before it crashed,” Wells
said.
A woman who witnessed the crash
reported it to Granger police, but of
ficials were unable to Find anything
because of a thunderstorm, darkness
and muddy fields.
“We saw some red flashing lights
going straight down,” said Eloise
Fuentes Corona. Corona said she
heard a loud boom, “then there was
a shadow of flames.”
Corona and her husband found
the wreckage Monday morning in a
pasture off Texas Highway 95 and
about a mile east of Bartlett, a town
about 50 miles north of Austin.
I he National Transportation
Safety Board is investigating the ac
cident, said Mitch Barker, an FAA
spokesman in Fort Worth.
Houston proposal could mean death for vicious dogs
HOUST ON (AP) — The Houston
City Council, reacting to a recent
string of attacks by vicious dogs in
the area, approved a proposal Tues
day that can mean death for a canine
that attacks someone.
The proposal allows the city to
deem a dog dangerous if the animal
inflicts serious injury during a first
offense or if they bite people twice in
a year. The proposal does not single
out a specific breed of dog.
Dr. James Haughton, director of
the city’s Health and Human Serv
ices Department, said, “Clearly,
from the complaints we’re getting,
there are people who have dogs that
are attacking people.”
Haughton said he was surprised
the final version of the proposal
drafted by city lawyers would assess
the death penalty against dogs the
first time they inflict serious injuries.
“That’s what I wanted when I
started, but I was told that was a little
too summary,” he said.
Before a dog would be lethally in
jected, owners would be allowed to
go before a health official to make
the city prove the animal is danger
ous, officials said.
Assistant City Attorney Paul
Bibler said the definition of serious
bodily injury singles out only the
most severe cases, involving life-
threatening or permanently disfi
guring injuries.
The ordinance exempts police
dogs and guard dogs doing their
duty.
Animal control officials say they
investigate about 2,500 animal bites
each year.
The proposal is the second get-
tough measure proposed in the
wake of several attacks by pit bull
dogs.
1 A&M prof predicts poor future for Texas shrimpers
of ' ■ - —- -
University News Service
The future looks bleak for Texas
, shrimpers who have been broadsided by
1 federal agents enforcing fishing boundaries
- between the U.S. and Mexico, says a Texas
•ii Sand: A&M sociologist studying the Gulf of Mex-
i AngoL ico shrimp wars.
he spiritoif Associate Professor Ben M. Crouch said,
ie (called ■The shrimpers are pretty w-ell beaten now,
n r | lt n()l > and they’ll tell you so. It’s a very depressing
I situation down there.”
e ! s ( Crouch said many of the shrimpers, who
> footlwi are forbidden to fish in Mexican waters, are
both G facing serious financial problems now that
n and vie the territorial limits are strictly enforced by
side, dr!:. U.S. officials.
piCompared to years past, only a few are
, attempting to break the law by shrimping in
1 1 ! Mexican waters, Crouch said,
i he sees:'
;. shabbv
- and dies;
umphstl®
course, die*
seen am
I Union si»
:ls product
plumbing,
nation/
hese tte'
ante. It' r ;
eniding/
e and slit £
uid — a
ise ends.
He is in the midst of a two-year study
funded by the Sea Grant College Program
to examine the continuing confrontation
that began in 1982 between the federal gov
ernment and the shrimpers over the Mexi
can fishing boundary.
Crouch is chronicling the history of the
dispute to determine what impact enforce
ment policies have had on the shrimpers.
He is interviewing federal officials, U.S.
Coast Guard officers and shrimpers, as well
as examining federal records for enforce
ment figures.
Crouch said he has been able to gain ac
cess to both sides of the dispute because he
is looked on as an objective observer.
Until 1976, American fishermen cvere
permitted by Mexico to fish in the Gulf up
to 12 miles off the country’s coast. That
freedom was particularly important to
T exas shrimpers, who follow the shrimp as
they swim south from their hatching are
near Galveston down toward Mexico.
When Mexico extended its fishing
boundary to 200 miles in 1976, little was
done by either U.S. or Mexican authorities
to stop the shrimpers from entering Mexi
can waters.
The situation changed dramatically,
however, in 1981 when the U.S. Congress
passed the Lacey Act, forbidding any prod
uct that was obtained illegally on foreign
territory to be inside the United States.
The law was brought to bear against the
shrimpers in 1982, when armed federal
agents began boarding fishing boats in the
Gulf to check on shrimp catches. Tensions
escalated immediately, especially because
the shrimpers refused to see that what they
were doing was illegal, Crouch said.
Far from backing down, officials of the
National Marine Fisheries Service and the
U.S. Coast Guard have toughened their en
forcement and increased the penalties in
recent years. Shrimpers caught with illegal
shrimp on board now face a $10,000 fine
and the loss of their catch, which often can
be worth as much as $10,000.
Crouch, who has interviewed shrimpers
in the Port Isabel-Brownsville area, said
fishermen told him that as late as 1984,
about 50 percent of the shrimpers were still
venturing into Mexican waters.
I his year, however, the figure dropped
to about 10 percent when the fisherman
faced the double whammy of the fine and
loss of their catch. .
Particularly odious to ftre shrimpers,
Crouch said, is that U.S. agents are enforc
ing Mexican law against American citizens.
VV orse yet in the eyes of the shrimpers —
is that most of the shrimp are hatched in
American waters and therefore could be
looked on as American products.
These were ordinarily law-abiding folks
who found that not only were they being
fined and called criminals, but their liveli
hood was being thwarted,” Crouch said.
You have the emergence of a criminal
population that is not linked with criminal
intent.”
With neither U.S. nor Mexican govern
ments showing any signs of changing
course, Crouch said the shrimpers have no
choice but to curtail their business. The
fishing limits combined with soaring in-
surance rates and suff competition among
themselves and with infand shrimp farms
will drive many to bankruptcy, he pre
dicted. 1
asm :■ siii
liift ii iiiiiii
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