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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1987)
Thursday, June 11, 1987/The Battalion/Page 3 State and Local iCfwaco lawyer offers testimony against Feazell in bribery trial ' BUSTIN' (AP) — A Waco lawyer / Bied Wednesday that his law nfili .H' s business prospered after an i™B en,ent was mac * e with District nenipli ^ttlrney Vic Feazell to share lees on ielintjuuffis dismissed. the “Our business seemed to continue rraphenj increase,” said Dick Kettler, who ippeared as a government witness in Josesn m eWs racketeering and bribery i m ^®*Hettler said Tuesday that he and ‘’ , l! iis partner, Don Hall, made an ■asy ^Sement with the McLennan' v'ews/Siffcunty prosecutor in May 1984 that Had! would get one-third of the le ns to Of ees paid for cases that Feazell rnmnl.‘^died-” ' Feazell, 35, who is still district at- )uth ; orney, is being tried in U.S. District 1, hasbt^oui i on charges he accepted bribes iedclo 3r illegal campaign contributions in African ;xchange for his influence over ghis |itrtinai cases. laps, tli| Feazell has denied the charges. Kettler said Wednesday he never actually saw Feazell receive any money but he and Hall talked fre quently about amounts to give Fea zell for help in certain cases. Under questioning Wednesday, Kettler said he had a written agreement with the government to plead guilty to a felony charge of tax evasion in return for his testimony. He said his attorney was still nego tiating with U.S. attorneys over the punishment. The jury heard an hour-long tape recording Wednesday made in Kettler’s office on Sept. 12, 1986 of a conversation between him and Fea zell. The district attorney did not know the recording was being made. Most of tbe conversation concerned the grand jury investigation in Aus tin into Feazell’s office. At one point in the tape, which was arranged by the FBI, Kettler told Feazell: “I don’t know of any thing that can connect you and us.” He was asked what he meant. “At that time I did not know they had any records to connect Don Hall and me making payments to Fea zell,” Kettler replied. At another point in the tape, Fea zell reminded Kettler that “you have the privilege.” Kettler said this meant “I didn’t have to divulge anything between me and my attorney.” Kettler said when the agreement was made with Feazell in May 1984, the firm’s standard fee for handling DWI or drug cases was $200 to $300 if the client wanted to plead guilty or accept a probated term. If there was a chance the DWI charge might be dismissed for lack of evidence or decreased to public intoxication, the fee would be $1,500 to $2,000, Kettler said. But after the agreement with Feazell, he said, the fee in such cases was increased to $3,000-$3,500. “Feazell’s share was generally one- third,” Kettler said. “Hall would tell me how much money to get out of the office safe, and I would give that amount to him. I did not ever see Hall give the money to Feazell.” Kettler was questioned about a number of individual cases. In one case, a client was charged with delivery of drugs while still on probation from another charge. “We agreed to pay one-third of the $6,500 in cash minus 20 percent we would have to pay for income tax,” Kettler said. “Feazell was paid.” ur pres: tave loin rlunte! i ;inee alls andite Appeals court rules in favor of AT&T over charge of discrimination by PUC saying, is even that tie on ncredll if stale.: etaryof! etaiyol iw could )eeSii :ation.je of defet up the tteeond ifkUSTIN (AP) — The 3rd Court of Appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Public Utility Commission discriminated against AT&T Com munications of the Southwest, Inc., and certain other long-distance telephone companies by lev eling “access charges” on them but not Southwes tern Bell. H\n access charge, as defined by the court, is a fee paid by AT&T and other long-distance com mon carriers. ■The charge pays for the carrier’s “access” to lo cal telephone exchanges operated by Southwes tern Bell and small independent telephone com panies, or “local exchange carriers.” i|Access to the local telephone exchange is nec essary to originate and complete customers’ long distance calls, Chief Justice Bob Shannon of the appeals court noted. jlkccording to Shannon. AT&T and others complained that an Austin district court had erred in sustaining PUC orders “which imposed access charges on them but not on SWB and other similarly situated telephone companies, even though SWB and the others use the same telephone exchange facilities for the same pur pose” as AT&T. The problem originated with the federal court decree ordering divestiture of the Bell Tele phone System, Shannon said. Texas was divided into districts known as “Lo cal Access and Transport Areas” — or LATAs. Local exchange carriers — and Southwestern Bell — provide long-distance service intra- LATA. AT&T also may compete for that long-dis tance business. The PUC, it was noted, leveled access charges against AT&T and the other long-distance car riers whether they were providing intra-LATA or inter-LATA service. “In contrast, the commission’s order did not require the local carriers and SWB to pay access charges or to reflect an access charge as an el ement of their intra-LATA toll rate,” Shannon said. AT&T and others argued that through access charges which, for certain distances, are higher than the entire retail price of the local exchange carrier’s or Southwestern Bell’s toll call, “they are being forced to subsidize their competitor’s toll business,” Shannon said. The 3rd Court of Appeals reversed the Austin trial court judgments, whicl had affirmed the PUC order. The trial court was instructed to re mand the issues to the PUC “for further pro ceedings” consistent with the appeals court opin ion. me whoi vay ii"T alism for Hu oetzwln piny Veymai 1 irnerc mn Ik lay and e Mae. im,and floor. Mae, : scene ian,I ledher Two hurt sailors from USS Stark get medals ■ SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Two sailors injured when Iraqi missies struck the USS Stark received Purple Hearts in ceremonies Wednesday at the hospital where they are recovering from exten sive burns. I Ray Dery, a spokesman for Brooke Army Medical Center, said the families of the two Navy peity officers were present when they received the medals from ■ear Adm. David R. Morris. (Lawrence Mark Bareford, 23, of Fredericksburg, Va., and James R. Wheeler, 28, of Fd Paso, were among the injured aboard the Stark when it was hit in the May 17 Persian Gulf attack. I They arrived at Brooke, which has the U.S. military’s only burn center, on May 20 and are now in satisfactory condition and doing well, Dery said. ■ Dery said Bareford’s mother and father, Beale and Nancy Bareford, attended the ceremo nies, along with Wheeler’s mother, Nan, and two brothers, Army Specialist 4th Class Walter W heeler and Jonathan Wheeler. St Morris is chief of naval air training at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi. ‘Master forger’ victimizes sellers; is wanted by police in six states DALLAS (AP) — A convicted counterfeiter who wrote a book called “Nation’s Master Forger” while in prison is being sought by au thorities in six states in connection with a scheme to rip off people hold ing garage sales. Police say James S. Jennings, 49, an escapee from a federal prison in Big Spring, uses counterfeit cashier’s checks to buy goods at garage sales or from people selling valuable mer chandise such as electronic equip ment, cameras or computers through classified ads. “He’s able to accomplish this not because his cashier’s checks look so good but because he gains these peo ple’s confidence,” Dallas Police forg ery investigator Ricky Smith said. He has filed two cases against Jen nings in the past five months. Smith said Jennings usually passes checks ranging from $800 to $4,000 and tries to conduct business after banking hours so verification of the check cannot be made. Some of the checks have been drawn on banks in Houston and a defunct bank in Plainview. Jennings allows the sellers to take information from his driver’s license when they accept the authentic- looking checks, authorities say. But they say he is apparently ca pable of making phony driver’s li censes. U.S. Marshal Clint Peoples said Jennings’ record includes five prison sentences in three states for forgery and counterfeiting. He has used as many as 30 aliases, Peoples said. “We have not been able to estab lish a pattern in Jennings’ movements, other than the fact that he seems to make sure he follows no patterns,” Peoples said. Authorities in Houston are “It’s going to take some citizen who’s a little bit le ery to catch him. He’s very paranoid about things, and the smallest thing not seeming right can make him go on somewhere else. ” —Jack W. Lisano, investigator among the most interested in catch ing Jennings. “We’ve got him indicted on three, but we’ve got 15 or 20 more cases,” said Jack. W. Lisano, an investigator with the Harris County district attor ney’s office. “There isn’t any use in dicting him on any more because he’s already wanted by so many agencies. “It’s going to take some citizen who’s a little bit leery to catch him. He’s very paranoid about things, and the smallest thing not seeming right can make him go on some where else.” Lisano said Jennings has used phony credentials at times indicating he was either a pilot for Delta Air Lines or Continental Airlines. He said Jennings apparently faked the airline identification himself. Authorities say Jennings was serv ing a second prison term in 1973 when he wrote a book called “Na tion’s Master Forger” about his ex ploits. He vowed to give up his life of crime. The book didn’t sell well, and Jennings made the rounds of tele vision talk shows before returning to the profession that brought him no toriety. He was sent to prison three more times after that, the last time in Feb ruary 1986, for possessing and cash ing counterfeit cashier’s checks. He escaped later that year. In addition to Dallas and Hous ton, Jennings is wanted by Texas au thorities in College Station, Port Ar thur, El Paso, Odessa, San Antonio, Amarillo, Austin, Waco, Canyon and Temple. 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