(■
K Battalion
Friday, Septembers, 1989
The Battalion
Page 3
TATE & LOCAL
yOrganization defends death row inmate,
Jays prisoner received unjust conviction
er
ROVETON (AP) — Testimony
of a Texas inmate’s former best
friend and co-defendant, who later
Ranted, was crucial in putting the
prisoner on death row, according to
attorneys.
■But James Lee Beathard, 31, has
consistently proclaimed his inno
cence in the 1984 slayings of three
Trinity County family members.
’"""’"■Authorities who arrested and
•salcitried Beathard maintained they
iveoRresure of his guilt. But now, oth-
?ek seers insist Beathard was wrongly con-
miflf-yicied.
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right returns
to aid campaign
for Hightower
re q U J| GARFIELD (AP) — Climbing
pi onto a tree stump, former U.S.
. Rouse Speaker Jim Wright re-
itl(IL turned to politics to aid Texas
Silviculture Commissioner Jim
indou [Hightower’s re-election bid.
g toll I Wright of Fort Worth joined
; other Texas politicians Saturday
q ( . evening in a fund-raising picnic
® at a ranch outside Austin. It was
Hilled as Hightower’s “Back to the
JirRanch” party.
“I feel at home here,” Wright
” said. “It’s great to be back on the
1 |tump. Th s is what grassroots
politics is all about.”
J Wright, who left office in June
i: under the cloud of an ethics in-
heyiJyestigation, said he could not
? guarantee his campaign appear-
: antes in support of fellow Demo-
he StuH raCs would increase as next year’s
j 0 pjJ primary election nears.
on an* Tm not planning any partic-
re reltlular step up or step down” in ac-
■vity, he said. “I’m just going
Hhere I feel there’s an empathy
I’thaRnd where I feel there is a sense
ioverrlof being able to do something
al lives'good.” '
u i ' j
iey stL The former speaker has made
rovent few campaign appearances since
l ther his resignation'this summer .
The Texas Resource Center, an
organization connected with the
University of Texas School of Law in
Austin, has taken up Beathard’s de
fense.
“We’re horrified by this case,”
Eden Harrington, an attorney with
the center, told the Dallas Morning
News. “This is about as good a sce
nario for justice not being done as
you can think of.”
Prosecutors admit having no
physical evidence linking Beathard
to the shootings, which occurred
Oct. 9, 1984, in a house trailer in the
pine forest northwest of Groveton.
However, the state did have the
testimony of the other man charged
in the crime. Gene Wilford Hathorn
Jr. The victims were Hathorn’s fa
ther, stepmother and stepbrother.
The bodies of Gene Hathorn Sr.,
45, and his wife, Linda Sue Hathorn,
34, were discovered on the living
room carpet of their trailer home.
The body of their younger son, Mar
cus, 14, was on the floor of a bath
room just feet away.
Each victim had been shot several
times. Three weapons were used.
Ex-nuclear plant worker
asks for dismissal of suit
STEPHENVILLE (AP) — A fed
eral judge on Monday is scheduled
to reconvene the Nuclear Regula
tory Commission’s case against a
worker fired from his job at Coman
che Peak nuclear power plant.
But Joseph Macktal, the former
worker, has asked Judge David Be-
lew in Fort Worth to dismiss the suit
that seeks to compel him to testify
about safety allegations at the plant,
the Stephenville Empire-Tribune re
ported Sunday in a copyright story.
Macktal filed a brief Friday in
U.S. District Court that alleges collu
sion on the part of the NRC and
Texas Utilities Electric Co., the util
ity that is building the plant, in try
ing to hide safety violations.
The agency filed suit in an at
tempt to enforce a subpoena against
Macktal for what the former electri
cal foreman knows about safety
problems at the plant.
Located about 45 miles southwest
of Dallas, Comanche Peak was con
ceived in 1972 and estimated to be
finished in 1980, at a cost of $779
million.
It is scheduled to be licensed for
operation next month, and Texas
Utilities now places the plant’s con
struction cost at $9.1 billion.
Macktal claims he can document
several violations of procedure and
installation of electrical equipment at
Comanche Peak that could endan
ger the public whenever the plant
comes on line.
But he refused to elaborate on
safety allegations to the NRC in the
wake of a $10 million settlement that
dissolved the judiciary licensing
board which oversaw citizen and em
ployee concerns about the plant.
In a January 1987 agreement with
the plant’s builder, Brown & Root,
Macktal alleged that he received
$15,000 of a $35,000 settlement to
“put a lid on” his allegations and
drop a case pending before the La
bor Department regarding his em
ployment termination.
However, Macktal contended in a
new Labor Department complaint
that he agreed to the settlement un
der duress.
In a May Senate subcommittee
hearing, sources said documents
showed that the agreement barred
Macktal from testifying to the NRC
regarding his concerns about condi
tions at the plant.
An attorney who represented
Macktal, Billie Garde, told the Em
pire-Tribune on Saturday Macktal
agreed to and accepted the $15,000
with the understanding that the re
maining money would go toward at
torneys’ fees and cost's related to his
labor suit.
Saying the killings stemmed from
a longstanding hatred of his father,
Hathorn confessed and claimed
Beathard helped him.
But, one year after he was found
guilty of capital murder and sen
tenced to die, Hathorn recanted his
earlier testimony, saying he alone
killed the three.
In December 1986, a state district
judge who said he didn’t believe the
recantation rejected Beathard’s re
quest for a new trial. His attorneys
say they’ll pursue the case because of
questions about Beathard’s guilt.
Trinity County Sheriff Kenneth
Moore, who led the investigation,
said the two men committed the
murders together.
“I’ll tell you right now, Beathard is
a killer,” Moore said. “I’ve thought
about it night after night, day after
day, and there’s just no other way it
could’ve happened.”
Beathard says it may be hard now
to find the truth in the case.
“I just got caught up in something
I shouldn’t have been in,” Beathard
told the newspaper in an interview.
Deadly infection claims
lives of two inmates, jail
sends 9 others to hospital
HOUSTON (AP) — Two more
Harris County Jail inmates were
hospitalized Sunday — one in
critical condition with the same
bacterial infection that claimed
the lives of two other prisoners,
officials said.
Both inmates were taken to
Ben Taub Hospital on Sunday,
and three others were admitted
the night before, hospital spokes
man Nora Shire said.
Four of the inmates are listed
in fair condition with flu-like
symptoms and have not been di
agnosed with the infection, Shire
said.
Also, four other inmates hospi
talized late last week remained at
Ben Taub. One prisoner had the
same deadly bacterial infection,
but his condition had improved
from critical to fair, Shire said.
The others had mild infections
and were in fair condition.
None of the inmates hospital
ized at Ben Taub were identified.
Inmates Rene Fuentes, 21, and
Ricky LaBreck, 30, died Thurs
day. Each man had his spleen re
moved in past operations, and
that is believed to be a contribut
ing factor in each man’s death.
Removing the spleen can impair
the immune system.
Preliminary autopsy results in
dicated that LaBreck and Fuentes
had contracted pneumococcus or
pneumococcal sepsis, a bacterial
infection that affects the lungs.
Harris County authorities said
they have uncovered no common
source of the infection.
LaBreck and Fuentes were
housed in separate cellblocks on
the ninth floor, officials said.
About 594 inmates are housed on
the same floor.
“To my knowledge, they (the
nine ill prisoners) came from dif
ferent areas of the jail,” Shire
said.
She said doctors were still run
ning tests in an effort to deter
mine if any of the other hospital
ized inmates had the same
infection.
Construction of international bridge
may aid growth of border community
LOS INDIOS (AP) — Plans for an international
bridge in this community north of the Mexican border
may bring some growth to the unincorporated commu
nity, which was stung by the recent closing of its el
ementary school.
The school served an important role as the center of
Los Indios and many houses were constructed near it.
But the school’s front gate, locked to prevent vandal
ism, now also prevents children from using the area’s
only playground.
Margarita Moody, owner and operator of a conve
nience store at the edge of town, said the school had
been a source of public pride.
“A lot of people are very mad about it,” Moody said.
“I don’t think there was anyone here who wanted it
closed. We feel instead of growing, we are going down.”
But Harlingen attorney Randy Whittington, who has
worked on the bridge project for 16 years, said local
and county officials expect much growth when the
bridge is built.
“The impetus for the bridge project has been Co build
an industrial park on this side and develop a maquila
dora operation on the other side,” Whittington, an at
torney for the San Benito Bridge Co., said.
“Any time you have industrial development, you will
have an increase in population,” he said.
Work on the bridge, which has been in the planning
stage for 30 years, should begin by the year’s end and
finish in 12 to 18 months, Whittington said.
But some residents are skeptical.
“Mostly, what I hear from people is that it has been
going on for 30 years and it will be another 30 years be
fore we get a bridge built,” Janie Saldivar, who runs the
one-room post office, said. “When we get a bridge is
anyone’s guess.”
“Our people are for it,” Moody said. “It will attract
more businesses and more people. I don’t know why,
but a lot of people are very excited about it; you’d be
surprised.”
“I think just the mention of Los Indios and having
sonrething that’s ours is what does it to them,” she said.
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Sept. 26
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