Page 14/The Battalion/Friday, January 30, 1987
Bartender charged with arson,
96 counts of murder in hotel fire
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) —
Police on Thursday arrested a Du
pont Plaza Hotel bartender on
charges of arson and 96 counts of
murder. He was the third person ac
cused of involvement in the New
Year’s Eve fire at the hotel.
Jose Francisco Rivera Lopez, 40,
of Carolina, Puerto Rico, was held
Thursday night at the Rio Piedras
State Penitentiary in San Juan when
he was unable to post $2.4 million
bail set by San Juan Superior Court
Judge Carlos Rivera Martinez.
He was arrested while driving
through a working-class section of
the capital.
The Dupont Plaza blaze, the sec
ond-worst hotel fire in U.S. history,
killed 96 people and injured 140.
Rivera Lopez was indicted by a
federal grand jury, whose sealed in
dictment was opened Thursday in
U.S. District Court in San Juan.
The federal indictment alleges
Rivera Lopez “did knowingly pro
cure” the setting of the blaze, but
does not elaborate on the charge.
Puerto Rico and U.S. officials had
previously charged hotel mainte
nance worker Hector Escudero
Aponte, 35, and bartender’s assis
tant Armando Jimenez Rivera, 29,
both of Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
According to federal court docu
ments, Escudero Aponte has con
fessed he set the blaze. Jimenez Riv
era is charged with aiding and
abetting Escudero.
U.S. Attorney Daniel Lopez Romo
said Thursday he asked the federal
court to deny bail to Rivera Lopez.
U.S. Magistrate Justo Arena den
ied bail to Escudero Aponte and Ji
menez Rivera when they appeared
in federal court oh arson charges.
Bail on each had been set at more
than $2 million in commonwealth
court.
All three suspects were members
of Teamsters Union Local 901,
which was in the midst of bitter con
tract negotiations with management
Error
(Continued from page 1)
Eleven store on Southwest Parkway
and Wellborn during an attempted
robbery. Three hostages were taken
and the suspects used one hostage to
shield themselves from police in an
attempt to escape.
Elvis Frank Tejera, 21, of Bryan,
was killed as police fired several
shots to stop the suspects, who were
armed with a machete and shotgun.
Vance and Robert Orozco, Orta’s
defense attorney, said they would
appeal.
of the Dupont Plaza, which is owned
by a Texas corporation.
The union, which has not been
implicated by authorities in the fire,
had threatened a midnight strike.
The fire broke out in the first-
floor ballroom minutes after more
than 200 Teamster union members
met and rejected a management
contract proposal. It quickly spread
to the second-floor casino, where 91
of the victims died.
A few days before the New Year’s
Eve fire, there were three small fires
at the hotel, none of which caused
any injuries.
If a reversal is granted from an
appellate court, this court decision
would be set aside and the case
would be re-tried, Vance said.
“The problem with an appeal is
that it will take one or two years,”
Vance said. “The defendants will be
incarcerated in the meantime.”
Judge Delaney said he had three
options in the handling of the mis
take. One was to do nothing and
hope an appellate court would disre
gard the mistake in the charge. It is
Puerto Rican officials on Thurs
day charged another hotel em
ployee, Luis Elias Vega Rios, with
setting a fire on the ninth floor of
the hotel Dec. 27. That smoky fire
caused an estimated $500 damage.
Vega Rios was released on $1,000
personal recognizance Thursday.
Neither police nor federal officials
will say if Vega Rios is still under in
vestigation for the Dec. 31 fire.
Lawyers for injured victims and
relatives of the dead and injured
have filed suits seeking more than
$200 million in damages from the
hotel owners.
very unlikely an appellate court
would do so, he said.
Delaney could have declared a
mistrial, but he said declaring a mis
trial on his own motion could be
called double jeopardy by an appel
late court.
Delaney chose to write a new
charge with the neccessary language
and send the jury out to reconsider
the case under the corrected
charges.
Report
(Continued from page 1)
private citizens, and Secord, a re
tired Air Force major general, re
fused to testify to congressional pan
els, citing his Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination.
The report said this information
“was based on sources of unknown
reliability” and the committee was
unable to verify it.
In addition, the committee re
ceived testimony that “private fund
ing for the Nicaraguan resistance
generally was funneled through off
shore bank accounts in the Cayman
Islands and Panama controlled by
(Contra leader Adolpho) Calero.
“However, the committee re
ceived no direct testimony regarding
the actual receipt of specific
amounts of money by the Nicara
guan resistance. According to testi
mony by the CIA task force chief
who was responsible for monitoring
the financial status of the Nicara
guan resistance, there was no un
usual infusion of funds to the Nica
raguan resistance in 1986.”
Reacting to the release of the re
port, David Abshire, Reagan’s spe
cial counselor on the Iran-Contra
problem, said: “The president has
consistently urged the release by the
Senate Select Committee on Intelli
gence of its report on the Iran mat
ter and the alleged diversion of
funds to the anti-Sandinista forces
and is pleased that this has now oc
curred.”
The statement said: “The commit
tee’s report is an important step to
ward getting to the bottom of this
matter, as the president has prom
ised.”
Phi Kappa Tai
presents
Sheik Yerboul
come celebrate !
• beautiful Arabian nights
• romantic Sheiks
• low oil prices
• peace in the Middle East
• the death of Khadafi
• sexual awareness
Tonight! Friday, Jan. 30
8:00 p.m. at
The Phi Tau House
1912 S. College
C<
I'
sei
be
nit
sio
lat
tec
in
at
*
Phi
Tau
Villa Maria
University
Skaggs
Call The House
822-3281
or
Steve-Rush Chaim
693-2872
arc
pt
no
eve
Call Battalion
Classified 845-
DRYCLEANUSA
'Hill
Mm
Skaggs Center
846-2155
MIX ‘N MATCH
Dryclean any 4 garments, pay for 3-
NO LIMIT
coupon must be presented with incoming order
lowest priced garment cleaned free
* one coupon per visit
Expires 3/31/87
*
Automotive Service
1108 S. Coulter
Bryan
775-3413
Look for the
complete Auto & Truck Service
Foreign & Domestic ^
Gas & Diesel 4
!i§
•COATS
•CLUBHOUSE
THREE DAYS ONLY!
F Rl DAY/SATU RDAY/S U N DAY!
P/otp
evvure stock
oU l. ea dy reduced
deavarvee
df\•
» . turmure. eWctrarwcs. men’s and women's
. c \ude (urntttire, e\ecuon\cs, men's and women'
£>oes 0 ° l \ s S u\ts, sport coats and dress s\acVs. \ntermed\ate
or toe ma vV.downs have been taken.
YAuto/—some puanutes are Y\m\ted\
shoe^
SHOP DILLARD S MONDAY THRU SATURDAY 10-9. SUNDAY 12-6: POST OAK MALL. HARVEY ROAD AT HIGHWAY 6 BYPASS. COLLEGE STATION 76VOOH
AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD WELCOMK