he Battalion
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ol. 89 No.26 USPS 045360 10 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, October 6,1989
akker found guilty of fleecing flock
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — PTL evan-
;elisljim Bakker was convicted Thursday
if using his television show to defraud fol-
owersof $3.7 million, money the jury fore-
nan said corrupted a minister who started
intto do good.
“He was called by God. But eventually
he money became too much for him,” said
^ oreman Ricky Hill, who said during jury
■ election that he was a Christian. “We kept
P ooking for something from the defense
ind we never saw it.”
1 Bakker faces a maximum sentence of 120
ears in prison and $5 million in fines. The
J.S. District Court jury convicted him of all
24 counts in the indictment, which charged
he oversold lodging guarantees, called “life
time partnerships,” at his Heritage USA re
ligious retreat.
“The message is you can’t lie to the peo
ple and use television and the mails to get
them to send you money,” prosecutor Deb
orah Smith said. “It doesn’t matter who you
are or how well known you are, you simply
can’t do it.”
Defense lawyer George C. Davis said the
verdict would be appealed.
Prosecutors said Bakker diverted $3.7
million in ministry funds for personal use
while knowing PTL was in financial trou
ble. He used money from PTL for vacation
homes in California and Florida, a lake-
front parsonage, a houseboat, Rolls-Royce
and Mercedes cars and more peculiar luxu
ries such as an air-conditioneu doghouse.
Bakker’s wife, Tammy Faye, said she and
her husband would return to Orlando, Fla.,
where they moved the die-hard remnants
of their ministry.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” added
Tammy Faye during a news conference af
ter the verdict. Hundreds of Bakker faith
ful and the lunchtime curious flocked
around the courthouse, and Tammy Faye
serenaded them with a hymn.
“On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All
other ground is sinking sand,” she sang.
Bakker was freed later Thursday on
$250,000 bond imposed by U.S. District
Court Judge Robert Potter. The judge set
sentencing for Oct. 24.
“I’m going to keep my faith in God and
I’m going to go see Tammy now. I feel sad
but encouraged in God,” Bakker said, smil
ing in a brief midafternoon statement to re
porters. He said he was “still innocent of the
charges against me.”
Potter said he granted bond reluctantly
because Bakker faithfuls had a “Jim Jones
mentality” and might help him flee the
country.
Davis declared the reference to the 1978
murder-suicide of 900 followers of Jim
Jones’ cult in Jonestown, Guyana, “horrible,
absolutely uncalled for.”
The jury foreman said he was unswayed
by Bakker’s testimony, in which he de
fended his earnings as reasonable for some
one who raised millions of dollars for the
work of the Lord.
“He was a man of God”. Hill said. “He
got corrupt and I feel sorry for the man.”
Hill said that in the day and a half of jury
deliberations, “The most disagreement was
when the fraud started.”
Agents secure cocaine
seized in South Texas
Hooked on horns
Dennis Brophy, a graduate student from Powell, Wyo., ad
justs one of the 10 chrome-plated horns on his late-model
Photo by Mike C. Mulvey
Chevrolet pickup. Part of the truck’s unusual name
comes from Brophy’s major — psychology.
HARLINGEN (AP) — Two heavily
guarded rental trucks Thursday hauled the
nation’s second largest cocaine seizure out of
south Texas to a more secure location in the
state capital, while agents continued to search
for the owner of a house where the nine-ton
cache was found.
Three Mexican citizens arrested at the
house Wednesday were arraigned Thursday
morning on charges of engaging in organized
criminal activity and aggravated cocaine pos
session, Justice of the Peace Leo Longoria of
Harlingen said.
Longoria said he ordered the three held
without bond in the Cameron County Jail in
Brownsville because of the magnitude of the
case and because as foreigners they are con
sidered high risks for fleeing the country.
The three arrested were identified as Her-
menegildo Rivas Sosa, 51, of Matamoros,
Mexico; Alfonso Tristan Gonzalez, 36, of San
Antonio; and Guadencio Garcia, 38, of McAl
len. All three hold resident alien status in the
United States, Longoria said.
But officials said they believe them to be
only low-level employees of the drug organi
zation.
“These are basically just the people that are
hired to repackage and transport,” said Lt.
Waylon Bvillard, with file NJarcotics Service of
the Texas Department of Public Safety in
Harlingen.
Armando Ramirez, resident agent in
charge of the Drug Enforcement Administra
tion office in Brownsville, said Thursday that
federal charges probably would be filed in the
case. Charges could include conspiracy to im
port, possess and distribute the drug, Ramirez
said.
The 17,950 pounds of cocaine taken
Wednesday west of Harlingen with an esti
mated street value of $1 billion brought to 35
tons the total cache of the drug in three raids
in five days.
Earlier Wednesday, the Coast Guard made
what it called the largest cocaine seizure at sea
and the third largest in U.S. history when it
boarded a Panamanian supply vessel and un
covered 11,500 pounds of cocaine worth an
estimated $525 million.
The two hauls came just five days after
agents entered a suburban Los Angeles ware
house and found 20 tons of cocaine — the
world’s largest seizure — worth between $2
billion and $20 billion, depending on the
In Harlingen, agents late Wednesday night
said they were nervous at having $1 billion
worth of cocaine parked in two large Ryder
trucks behind their local office.
“This, according to our headquarters in
Austin, is the largest cocaine
See Cocaine/Page 6
lorida court eases abortion regulations
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A
jaw requiring pregnant girls to get
parental consent before having an
Ibortion was struck down by the
Itate Supreme Court on Thursday,
(istfive days before lawmakers were
)consider restricting access to abor-
lions.
The split decision said Florida’s
Constitutional guarantee of privacy
lutweighed the 1988 statute requir
ing consent of a parent, guardian or
Budge for a minor’s abortion.
Attorney General Bob Butter-
|vorth immediately said his office
would petition the court tor a re
hearing.
“The challenged statute fails be
cause it intrudes upon the privacy of
the pregnant minor from concep
tion to birth,” the court wrote. “Such
a substantial invasion of a pregnant
female’s privacy by the state for the
full term of the pregnancy is not
necessary for the preservation of
maternal health or the potentiality
of life.”
The court heard the case of a 15-
year-old Lake County girl, identified
in court records only as “T.W.” She
was denied permission for an abor
tion by a local judge, but her appeal
wound its way to the U.S. Supreme
Court, which returned the case with
out comment to the Florida Su
preme Court.
In the decision, the Florida court
noted the U.S. Supreme Court “has
made it clear that the states, not the
federal government, are the final
guarantors of personal privacy.”
“We can conceive of few more
personal or private decisions con
cerning one’s body that one can
make in the course of a lifetime,” the
Culture center in L. A. provides
cholarship for study in Japan
3y Melissa Naumann
! The Battalion Staff
You don’t have to dig a hole ’to get to the Orient to
[tudy.
Instead, the U.S. - Japan Cross Culture Center in Los
ngeles is offering scholarships to study Japanese at
he Inter-Cultural Institute of Japan.
Applicants for the scholarship must be U.S. or Ca-
ladian citizens, but the Inter-Cultural Institute, located
tear Tokyo, has students of all nationalities, Greg Gol-
education director for the Center, said.
In fact, most students are college students and busi-
lessmen, who recognize the advantage of learning Jap-
mese, Golley said.
The institute’s program, taught by Japanese instruc-
ors, is accelerated, teaching all three Japanese writing
ystems: katakana, hiragana and kanji, he said. Kanji,
ne system that consists of pictographs, originated in
^hina and is the most difficult of the three, but is nec
essary for mastering Japanese, Golley said.
“In order to read a newspaper, you need to know at
least 3,000 characters,” he said. “It’s kind of fun to learn
because there’s little pictures. Plus the calligraphy be
hind them is an art.”
Golley said three different scholarships are offered
— one covering tuition for a full year, one covering
two-thirds of the tuition and one covering one-third of
the tuition.
He estimated that a full year at the Institute, without
a scholarship, would cost $10,800, including tuition,
housing and other living expenses.
The Institute, which has about 800 students, spon
sors students for cultural visas, allowing them to work
about 20 hours a week to alleviate the financial stress.
Golley said many American students tutor Japanese
students in English.
Applications for the term starting in October 1990
are due April 31. For more information, contact the
Center at (213)617-2039.
court determined in upholding a 5th
District Court of Appeals decision.
The court’s ruling came just five
days before a special session of the
Legislature called by Gov. Bob Mar
tinez to consider further abortion re
strictions.
“I’m going to work to make cer
tain that somehow parental consent
comes back,” Martinez said. He also
is seeking fetal viability tests; a ban
on use of public funds, personnel
and facilities for abortions; tougher
abortion clinic standards; and a no
tice to women seeking abortions on
the development of their fetuses.
“If the Florida Supreme Court
will not protect children, and par
ents cannot, then the Legislature
must, by passing new abortion clinic
regulations.” Martinez said.
Senate President Bob Crawford
said he planned to ask Martinez to
postpone the special session in wake
of the court’s decision.
“I hope the Florida Legislature
will look to this ruling next week and
understand the implications in re
gard to the govenor’s ill-conceived
plan to restrict access to abortion,”
said Janis Compton-Carr of the Flor
ida Abortion Rights Action League.
Trump submits buyout bid
for American’s parent firm
DALLAS (AP) — Developer Don
ald Trump stunned the airline world
Thursday by offering a record $7
billion for the parent of American
Airlines, capping weeks of takeover
speculation about the nation’s big
gest carrier and a wave of buyouts in
the industry.
Stock in AMR Corp. shot higher
after the company disclosed a letter
from the flashy tycoon to Chairman
Robert L. Crandall, offering $120
cash for each of AMR’s 58.9 million
outstanding common shares.
If completed, it would be the big-
? est airline buyout in history.
rump said his offer expires Oct.
20.
AMR rose $17 to $100 in heavy
trading on the the New York Stock
Exchange. Other airline stocks also
jumped in related speculation.
AMR also said its board would
consider the proposal “in due
course,” but indicated probable re
jection.
“There has been no change in
(AMR’s) policy and belief that AMR
and its shareholders will be best
served by AMR remaining an inde
pendent company and continuing
the strong partnership among
American Airlines, its employees,
the communities it serves and the
public,” the company stated.
AMR spokesmen declined to com
ment furtner.
In the letter, released by Trump’s
office in New York, Trump said he
had made a “substantial investment”
in AMR and was prepared to com
mit at least $ 1 billion of equity to the
transaction.
The letter did not disclose the size
of Trump’s stake, although Trump
officials noted he has filed no docu
ments with the federal Securities
and Exchange Commission, indicat
ing his holdings are below 5 percent
of AMR’s outstanding shares.
Susan Heilbron, executive vice
president of the Trump Organiza
tion, said further financing details
would be discussed with AMR offi
cials when they meet with Trump,
See Trump/Page 6
STS conference to come to Rudder
tyMia B. Moody
The Battalion Staff
■ A five-day national Science-Tech-
I ology-Society (STS) Conference
^ wsted by Texas A&M will show
aders from five states ways to dis-
Uss topics such as world hunger,
rar technology and water contami-
ation to students in kindergarten
5 bough high school.
Dr. Bob James, a science educa-
0n professor, said the conference
Rudder Tower will feature spe-
[ialists from across the country who
teach STS concepts to represen
tatives from state education agencies
and school districts.
“We need to prepare our children
to become informed decision-mak
ers,” James said, “because many of
today’s problems can only be solved
through informed decision-making
at the ballot box, workplace and
home.”
James said after participants learn
STS concepts on issues such as acid
rain, hazardous waste disposal and
consumer safety after genetic mod
ification of food animals and plants,
they will teach these methods to sci
ence and social studies teachers in
their school districts.
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New
Mexico and Louisiana will be rep
resented at the conference, James
said.
Dr. Paul Thompson, an associate
professor of philosophy and human
ities, will speak on biotechnology
and risk management.
Dr. Anthony Stranges, an asso
ciate professor of history, will discuss
historical perspectives on science,
technology ana human values from
1850 to 1900.
Dr. Carol Stuessey, assistant pro
fessor of science education, will
speak on infusing concepts across
the curriculum.
Camping Out
(Counterclockwise) Thomas Deeny, Pete
Gamez, Mike Thomason, Larry Hubbard,
Christina Kessie and Alan Riley camp out for
Photo by Mike C. Mulvev
R.E.M. concert tickets that go on sale Saturday
morning. Riley is the first person in line.