Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1989)
YES! WE HAVE STUDENT AIRFARES! ¥ LONDON $229 PARIS $269 MADRID $269 ROME $269 TOKYO $508 RIO $380 One way from Houston ALSO TEACHER FARES! BOOK NOW FOR THE HOUDA YS Council Travel 'Your student traveCcenter! 3300 W. Mockingbird Dallas, Tx. 75235 1-214-350-6166 1-800-777-2874 Page 14 The Battalion Thursday, October 5,19S; Sheriff says papers linked him to drugs, files suit against five LEARN TO FLY/ CHECK OUT OUR PRICES: CESSNA 150 - $30/hr INSTRUCTION - $ 1 5/hr FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE LOCALLY OWNED TAILDRAGGER INSTRUCTION AVAILABLE BRYAN AERO AT COULTER FIELD 778-6120 & 'Cz Chicken & Dumplings Are Back!! All Day Thursday All You Can Eat Served with Black Eyed Peas, Cole Slaw, and Cornbread Culpepper Plaza 693-4054 EDINBURG (AP) — Hidalgo County Sheriff Brigido Marmolejo Jr. filed a deceptive trade practices lawsuit Wednesday against five newspapers that the sheriff said un fairly linked him to drug trafficking. The papers defamed him by printing “false, misleading and de ceptive headlines that were not sub stantiated by the corresponding story,” according to the lawsuit filed in the 93rd District Court. Most of the headlines accompa nied articles published last March, saying the FBI had the record of a phone call to Marmolejo’s home from the residence of Antonio Franco, who’s now in federal prison in Texarkana on drug trafficking and racketeering convictions. Marmolejo also accuses the five newspapers of conspiring with the federal government and the Repub lican Party “to politically assassinate (Marmolejo), a member in good standing of the Democratic party.” It is not a libel suit, his attorneys said. He is seeking more than $2 mil lion in damages from theMomtor, in McAllen; theBrownsville Herald; Valley Morning Star, in Har lingen, Corpus Christ! Caller-Times and San Antonio Light. Marmolejo also is seeking an in junction to prevent the newspapers from engaging in deceptive trade practices by printing misleading headlines. A hearing on the injunction was set for Nov. 3. Douglas Hardie, executive editor of the McAllen, Brownsville and Harlingen newspapers, all part of the Freedom Newspapers chain, said he could not comment on the suit because he had not seen it. “It sounds to me like Marmolejo wants to be an editor in addition to being a sheriff,” Hardie, who also is publisher of the Brownsville Herald said. Ed Rademaekers, executive editor of the San Antonio Light, and Larry Rose, executive editor of the Corpus Christ! Caller-Times, declined com ment because they had not seen the suit. FBI agents used a pen register de vice in 1987 to record 1,765 phone calls from Franco’s McAllen resi dence, “including numerous calls to narcotics traffickers in Illinois and South Texas,” according to an FBI affidavit cited in all of the news sto ries except the San Antonio Light’s. The register recorded a call from Franco’s home to Marmolejo’s resi dence in Edinburg, according to the affidavit cited in the stories. Marmolejo’s lawsuit said that at the time of the alleged phone call, the sheriff was not home and he has no knowledge of such a call. Marmo lejo has said he knows Franco and once sold him a tractor, but was not involved in drug trafficking. “It is my job to know people,” Marmolejo said Wednesday. His attorney, Dan Rutherford of San Antonio, said the stories were not libelous, but that the headlines written “to sell newspapers” were de ceptive. “The newspaper tricked him (the sheriff) into buying that newspaper with a false, misleading headline,” Rutherford said. The McAllen, Harlingen and Brownsville headlines accompanied an article written by a Brownsville Herald reporter. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times on March 22 published an Asso ciated Press article based on the Brownsville Herald report. Academic pursuits Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhti Industrial engineering professor Guy Curry attempts to steal the ball from mathematics professor Billy Rundell (left) during a soc cer game at Simpson Drill Field Monday. Several Texas A&M professors gather to play soccer during their lunch breaks. Dallas papers continue bitter legal battle 1 DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Times Herald turned to federal regulators Tuesday in its war with rival Dallas Morning News, asking them to revoke the license of a television station owned by the parent company of the Morning News. T he Times Herald asked the Federal Commu nications Commission to revoke WFAA-TV’s li cense because of A.H. Belo Corp.’s “naked and unjustifiable” actions in stripping the Times Herald of 26 popular features it had been pur chasing from Universal Press Syndicate. Belo officials did not immediately return calls Wednesday and could not be reached for com- “unusual.” As part of a joint venture between Belo and Universal Press, the larger Morning News won exclusive right in the Dallas market to the syndi cate’s features, which include Doonesbury, Erma Bombeck and Dear Abby. The Times Herald has lost previous attempts in federal and state court to block the action, and most of the features have begun appearing in the Morning News. A trial on the Times Herald’s anti-trust suit against Belo and Universal is pen ding in state District Court. “Belo has used its newspaper-television combi nation to engage in conduct that severely under- News and the Dallas Times Herald,” says the pe tition to the FCC, which outlawed joint newspa per-television ownership since 1975, but allowed such ownership to continue in Dallas and other cities where it already was in place. WFAA is the leading television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Under the joint venture announced in August Belo and Universal agreed to explore televisiot programming possibilities for some of thesyndi cate’s features. H Dei jus! Herald’s FCC petition said the joint venture “is nothing more than a sham to only competitor.” SHOP DILLARD’S MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY lfr-9; SUNDAY 12-6; POST OAK MALL, HARVEY ROAD AT HIGHWAY 6 BYPASS, COLLEGE STATION. MASTERCARD, VISA, DINERS CLUB, CARTE BLANCHE, AMERICAN EXPRESS AND DILLARD'S CHARGE CARDS WELCOME.