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.
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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.”
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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.
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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. Outside Texas, he is
wanted by authorities in Oklahoma
City; Little Rock, Ark.; Shreveport,
La.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Phoe
nix, Ariz.
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