Thursday, October 29, 1986 /The Battalion/Page 3
State and Local
judge mixes concern, toughness
try to treat people the way I would like
By Leigh Ann Rogers
Reporter
fhe courtroom is packed and si-
jones v
v roommaioi
(1 school, am!
ule free tin:;
a Briggs ana
mdlord.aMti
rted on the
Uiihvasf:: |en|
i i i where is die indue? Could it be
1,1111 " , (the paunchy figure in the black robe
bugs. As I tMh the good-old-boy face and en-
utoverthea .gaging laugh?
mpllsh " K ^ Philip C. Banks, 36, a Bryan attor-
ney and the College Station municip
al judge, portrays anything but the
rigid black-robed stereotype of a
walel-pou n d i n g, sentence-
pronouncim* judge,
is a senior ii.4
umnjst/orliW he J ud g e ’ vvhoaUnbutesh,s S irlh
MO a love of Mexican food, is rarely
without a smile or a handshake, but
his outgoing, eas\ mannei belies bis
courtroom toughness. The tough-
ness. however, has a core of compas-
ually enjo'
1 doesn’t reit
:.mg idea.
“You learn how to judge human nature, and you
learn the law. But it’s very hard to go strictly by the
law. You have to judge people and mix compassion,
toughness and fairness to make a decision.
— College Station municipal judge Philip C. Banks
take this into account when deciding
on a fine.
“I want to give people a fair trial in
a court of law. I don’t want to run a
kangaroo court.”
Banks, who became the College
Station city judge in 1986. says the
most frustrating aspect of being a
judge is watching people lie under
oath.
“It is very hard for me to see some
one lie about a traffic ticket,” he says. _
“In the case of the peeping
1 needs
Tom,
the individual is sick and needs help,
I will generally declare him guilty and
send him to a counselor. If I just
fined a peeping Tom, that wouldn’t
help him. I try to make the best deci
sion I can to see that both sides are
treated fairly.”
Banks’ prized case pits justice and
fairness against crime and con
spiracy.
; ‘ You learn bow to judge human
-Nfs nature, and you learn the law,” Banks
says “But it’s very hard to go strictly
by [he law. You have to judge people
and mix compassion, toughness and
ie, we declaifffairness to make a decision. I try to
lerceivciotri treat people the way I would like to be
)(I | M v treated — this is how I think it should
■ morality os Jt
■Pi feel if someone takes the time to
sings of lift' COI P e lo court and plead his case —
|M '. it’slmportant. This is his time, and I
“I can’t see the truth, but people
generally incriminate themselves.
Sometimes I feel like Zeus up there
throwing out lightning bolts. It’s
hard, you have to try to be like Solo
mon and carve out the truth.”
He says he hears all sorts of cases
ranging from peeping Toms, traffic
tickets and murders.
“Some of the most ridiculous cases
I hear concern ‘dogs at large’ or ‘mis
taken dog identity,’ ” Banks says.
The Marshall Case, 1961, involved
Banks’ friend, Danny Marshall, who
wanted his father’s death certificate
changed to read homicide instead of
suicide and planned to sue the
Bureau of Vital Statistics.
Banks says there was evidence of
conspiracy involving Lyndon B.
Johnson and Billie Sol Estes with the
Marshall man’s brutal death.
The death certificate was changed
to homicide.
vereign nano
to be treated'
This pride Banks takes in the Mar
shall case and the case’s outcome
show the strong bond he has with his
friends, and the determination he
has for seeing justice done.
Banks was the defending attorney
for John Wayne Hearn in the 1985
soap opera case involving the murder
of Sandra Black. Robert Black, a resi
dent of Bryan, was involved in an
affair with his cousin, and he wanted
to have his wife killed, Banks says.
Hearn, a hit-man, was found guilty
of murdering Sandra Black and is
now serving a life sentence in South
Carolina. Black, who hired Hearn
through an ad in Soldier of Fortune
magazine, is on death row in Hunts
ville.
Banks started his law career with
the law firm of Neeley and Stuart
Lewis, his first cousins. He opened
his own office in Bryan two years ago
and says he enjoys his own business
because he has learned a lot and can
do his own thing.
In 15 to 20 years Banks says he
would like to be the Brazos County
judge. But for now he says he would
like to change the direction of his law
practice from criminal and domestic
cases to business litigation and per
sonal injuries. He laughs and says
there is more money in these areas.
ill-time jobs
ith moral c
Texans able to stall nuclear dump
iatiomtodo»* XSH1NGTON (AP) _ chances
ul lasting thatbeaf Smith County will have the
eschoose aatipYs first high-level nuclear waste
individua dump narrowed with the passage of a
self ] m -BwiKHiced provision this summer,
^M.lovd Bentsen said Wednesday.
. »^Bentsen, D-Texas, said amend-
iseaseuiatlij’ML he attached to the Safe Drink-
hh their jng |Vater Act, signed into law in
ological diiti June, include a measure requiring
diseasedE federal agencies to comply with state
truthbv proj?'" 11 * for preventing contamina-
i tionlf water wells.
^ would apply to the Panhan-
L’titton.b dlesitein Deaf Smith Countv because
Re Dgallala aquifer lies above die
giant salt deposit that is being studied
by the Department of Energy as one
of three possible nuclear dump sites
in the country.
At a press briefing in his Washing
ton office, Bentsen said he hadn’t
announced the measure until now
because he was busy working on cut
ting funding for the waste repository
project, which was accomplished in
the final hours of the 99th Congress
earlier this month.
Max Woodfin, environmental
coordinator for the Texas Water
Commission in Austin, said a water
code measure passed by the state in
1983 could be used to stall the DOE
project by requiring the government
to obtain a state permit.
DOE spokeswoman Ginger King
said Wednesday the department was
looking into the ramifications of the
Bentsen provision on its nuclear
waste program.
The senator said DOE raised his
ire earlier this year by indefinitely
postponing the search for a second
waste dump site in the eastern United
States on the same day it named three
finalist sites for the western dump.
“The General Accounting Office
later advised me the department’s de
cision to suspend the search for an
eastern site violates the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act,” Bentsen said.
“We need two nuclear waste re
positories in this country—one in the
East and one in the West,” Bentsen
said. “That’s what Congress called
for.”
Deaf Smith is one of three sites
across the country being considered
by the government as repositories for
high level nuclear wastes. The other
two sites are in Washington state and
Nevada.
In Advance
RHAIIoween party to start at 7
The Residence Hall Association
will sponsor a Halloween party to
day at The Grove from 7 p.m. to 1
a.m.
RHA president David
McDowell said the predominant
reasons RHA isn’t sponsoring
trick-or-treating between dormi
tories this year — as it has for the
past several years — are because of
damage caused by Halloween re
velers and problems that arose
with underage students receiving
alcoholic beverages.
Thursday’s festivities will start
Speaker to discuss
A former representative of the
Arab States League will speak on
Middle East issues, including U.S.-
Arab relations, Arab-Israeli rela
tions and the Lebanese situation
tonight at 7 in 410 Rudder.
Dr. Mounir Bayyoud headed
the Dallas office of the Arab States
League from 1978 to 1982. Born
in Lebanon, Bayyoud lived in
Palestine from 1933 to 1948,
teaching mathematics and work
ing for the British government
there.
Brazos Valley sky to
The sky in Brazos Valley will
glow with a new light Friday night
when the Brazos Valley Museum,
Cepheid Variable and KKYS-FM
sponsor “Lite Nite: A Laser Fan
tasy” at the Brazos Center on 3232
Briarcrest Drive.
Three shows are planned, be
ginning at 8 p.m., 10 p.m. and
midnight. Tickets are on sale at
the museum, located in the center,
and on campus at the Rudder Box
Office. They also will be available
in the parking lot at Sears prior to
the shows. Adult tickets are $5.50,
children age 12 and under are
$2.50 and infants get in free.
The first two shows feature a
Halloween theme with laser im
ages synchronized to nre-
with yell practice for the Texas
A&M-Southern Methodist Uni
versity football game, followed by
a dance, a movie and several other
activities.
RHA will provide refreshments
at the party, McDowell said.
A professional disc jockey is
bringing a $ 1,000 music and light
show to highlight the dance, he
said, and at 11 p.m., the horror
movie “What Ever Happened to
Baby Jane?” will be shown.
Other activities will include cos
tume and scream contests, he said.
Mideast issues
Bayyoud worked for the oil in
dustry in Lebanon and in the Per
sian Gulf state of Qatar until he
moved to the United States in
1954. He earned his master’s de
gree in mathematics at Southern
Methodist University where he
taught as an assistant professor for
15 years.
Titled The Middle East; Past,
Present and Future, the talk is
sponsored by the Arab Student
Association in cooperation with
the International Student Asso
ciation.
be lit by lasers
recorded rock music. The last
show features music from Pink
Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”
album. Each show will last about
50 minutes.
Parking is available at Sears at
Post Oak Mall. Buses, at no extra
charge, will run continually start
ing at 7 p.m. from the mall to the
center. Parking will not be avail
able at the center.
The shows are produced by
Tim Walsh of Laser Spectacles
Inc., who has designed shows for
the Houston Museum of Natural
Science planetarium.
The laser, synchronized to
music, will bounce off the wall,
through fog and off mirrors.
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Make time for the
mystical, musical
Festival of India
1986!
MSC OPAS will present Festival of India 1986 in Rudder Auditorium,
Hovember, 3. Celebrate the extraordinary artistic heritage of India —
mesmerizing music, masked dance-dramas, sculpturesque love dances,
and a religious 12th century martial art called Kalaripayyatu.
Experience the intensity, the rich diversity of colors, costumes and
dances, the haunting tones of flutes and the exotic sitars and percus
sion of a fascinating and vibrant culture. For tickets, call the MSC Box
Office, 845-1234.
'lemorial Student ( enter • Texas VY'I l nlversitx • Box I I • (olle<te station I\ 7TH44 l #iHI