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police Beat
Indecent exposure sighted by the Centeq Building
Page 2
THE
Opinion
MICHAEL LANDAUER: What does a minimum drinking age
have to do with anything? It's not as if your twenty-first birthday
makes you responsible enough to drink.
Page 11
Sports
Season wrap-up of the Lady Aggie
Volleyball team.
Page 7
NESDAY
December 7, 1994
Vol. 101, No. 71 (12 pages)
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NEWS
RIEFS
linton chooses new
asury secretary
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Clinton selected Robert Rubin, who
amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune
on Wall Street before joining the
administration, to succeed Lloyd
Bentsen as Treasury secretary
Tuesday.
Bentsen’s departure will deprive the
administration of the Cabinet officer
with the most experience and respect
on Capitol Hill just as Republicans are
king control of Congress for the first
time in 40 years.
But the change is expected to have
jttle impact on policy since both men
re pro-business Democrats.
Rubin, who took a $26 million pay
jut to leave the investment banking
firm of Goldman Sachs & Co. to join
the administration, won widespread
praise as a self-effacing coordinator
ho made sure a coherent economic
rategy was developed for a president
iften criticized for an inability to reach
imely decisions.
kbortion doctor mur-
lerer to be executed
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — His
Usual bemused smile wiped off his
face, Paul Hill listened with a bored
look Tuesday as a judge sentenced
Jim to the electric chair for blowing
lout the brains of an abortion doctor
and his bodyguard.
I "May God have mercy on your
soul," Circuit Judge Frank Bell intoned.
Moments later, an abortion foe
shouted that Hill’s blood would be on
the hands of the judge, the jury and the
people of Florida.
| Shackled at his feet, the 40-year-
old Hill stood impassively in his drab
green jail jumpsuit as Bell explained
to the former minister why he had
rejected the only other sentencing
option, life in prison without parole.
Last month a jury unanimously
recommended that Hill be executed.
Bell recounted the July 29 ambush
utside a Pensacola abortion clinic, the
second anti-abortion slaying in the
Florida Panhandle city. He said Hill
paused briefly in the parking lot of the
ladies Center to contemplate the
carnage before throwing down his
ihotgun and calmly walking off.
Second execution in
Huntsville this week
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — Sandra
Rodgers is hoping a more than 17-
year ordeal ends for her family
early Wednesday when an Amarillo
meat cutter is executed for hacking
to death her pregnant daughter in a
frenzy of racial hatred.
I "It’s been such a long time,”
said Mrs. Rodgers, whose
daughter, Abbe Hamilton, was
killed May 3, 1977, by Samuel
Hawkins in the Texas
Pandlehandle community of
Borger. “We’re almost afraid to
hope this could be the end.”
Hawkins, also convicted of
killing a 12-year-old girl and
dubbed “the traveling rapist”
because he was implicated in
nearly 40 attacks in Texas,
Oklahoma and Colorado, would be
the second convicted killer put to
death in Texas in as many days.
Over $300,000 in
|computers stolen
DALLAS (AP) — Cyrix Corp. said
Tuesday it will keep armed guards at
| its headquarters round-the-clock after a
band of robbers stole hundreds of
thousands of dollars in
microprocessors from the Richardson-
based chipmaker.
Some 2,786 of the 486DX2
microprocessors were stolen in the
Sunday night heist, valued by Cyrix
at $359,360, Richardson police
Capt. Larry Zacharias said Tuesday.
Cyrix spokeswoman Katherin
iDockerill said she couldn’t confirm
I the amounts.
The number of chips stolen will not
significantly harm business at Cyrix,
which usually has tens of thousands of
B them on hand, Ms. Dockerill said.
"The value isn’t going to be
damaging. But certainly it concerns
us, and certainly it concerns us that
employees were jeopardized,”
I she said.
What's Up
Today's Ba
I I
[Classified
8
[Opinion
11
Police Beat
2
Toons
4
! Weather
4
12
Hellriegel claims he was following policy
Non-existent catering company supplied A&M employees
By Michele Brinkmann
The Battalion
A defense attorney for a Texas
A&M professor accused of dis
guising alcohol purchases as pur
chases of food and soft drinks,
said Tuesday the professor was a
victim of an unwritten policy
that has been followed by the
University for years.
Dr. Don Hellriegel, a man
agement professor, was the first
of the eight employees charged
or indicted in June on a Class A
misdemeanor charge of tamper
ing with government documents
to go to trial.
The prosecution rested its case
late Tuesday, and the trial is ex
pected to close today. The defense
will present its case beginning at
9:30 a.m. in Judge Claude Davis’
County Court at Law #1.
Defense attorney Sam Rowland
said Hellriegel was unfairly tar
geted by the prosecution and
Texas Rangers for following a
University procedure.
“Don Hellriegel is a victim of
a flawed system,” Rowland said.
“The real thief in the night in
this whole case is A&M’s un
written policy. It has snaked
its way through every depart
ment on that campus.
“He was chosen because he
was a long-time business friend
of Bill Mobley.”
Rowland said Hellriegel de
cided to go to trial because he
would not allow himself to be
falsely accused.
In opening arguments, Brazos
County District Attorney Bill
Turner said Hellriegel told Sabri
na Saladino, an academic busi
ness administrator at A&M, to
send false
vouchers to
A&M’s fiscal
department.
“She only
did that at the
direction of
Don Hell
riegel,” Turn
er said.
Saladino
testified Tues
day she used
Catering vouchers that alcohol
was being purchased.
“I was not allowed to show it as
alcohol,” Ruffino said.
Ruffino said he would buy
generic ticket books at an office
supply store, put ‘Ruffino Cater
ing’ at the top of the invoices and
sent them to the University.
“If the University wanted to
buy alcohol, this is how we did it,”
Ruffino said. “I never considered
she was a victim of unwritten
A&M policy that was under
stood by employees.
The policy was to pay for al
cohol with local accounts, use
the voucher sent from Ruffino
and disguise the purchase as
food and drinks.
She said Hellriegel would nev
er ask her to do anything illegal
but did tell her to use the voucher.
Saladino said she has never
tried to en
force policy
because she
thinks that is
the faculty’s
responsibility.
“I’ve never
looked at policy
and then at a
. i i r voucher to see
—Sam Rowland, defense attorney if it follows pol
icy,” she said.
Hellriegel
"Don Hellriegel is a victim of a flawed system.
The real thief in the night in this whole case is
A&M's unwritten policy. It has snaked its way
through every department on that campus."
the Ruffino Catering invoices be
cause Hellriegel told her that was
the way it was done.
Ruffino Catering is a non-ex
istent company in both a legal
and practical sense, J.J. Ruffi
no, owner of J.J.’s Package
Stores, said Tuesday.
Ruffino said A&M officials told
him not to show on the Ruffino
it a misrepresentation. I was ser
vicing my customer.”
Saladino said she never sub
mitted a voucher to the fiscal
department that said alcohol
was purchased.
Saladino said she did not do
anything wrong because she was
just doing her job.
Saladino, like Hellriegel, said
did not sign any of the vouchers
sent to the fiscal department
but his name was on one of
them.
Saladino said she was told not
to attach an itemized bill to the
voucher but to wait until a second
invoice arrived from Ruffino. The
second bill stated that food, cups
or ice were purchased.
with alcohol
Ruffino said his first sale to
Texas A&M was about 1981 and
Ruffino Catering was “set up”
about 1985. He also said A&M
purchases account for less than 1
percent of his business.
Loice White, an accounting
assistant in A&M’s fiscal de
partment, said she never knew
A&M was purchasing alcohol in
the 10 years she has been in the
department. She said her de
partment knew it was illegal to
purchase alcohol with Universi
ty funds except for the Faculty
Club and the Food Services de
partment, which uses the alco
hol for cooking purposes.
The Board of Flegents passed a
revised policy in September that
allows the University to buy alco
hol with discretionary funds.
Jimmy Hailey, a Texas Ranger,
said about 12 cases were sent to a
grand jury, and he and the FBI
were not singling out Hellriegel or
Dr. Bill Mobley, who was A&M
president at the time.
“We went after Hellriegel be
cause Saladino said Hellriegel told
her to do it that way,” Hailey said.
“Hellriegel then told us it was his
responsibility and if anyone
See Trial/ Page 1 2
Courtesy of InterNet
One of a dozen photos of a woman campus locations. These pictures
posing in front of various Texas A&M were found on the InterNet system.
InterNet users see A&M in
new light with nude photos
By Lisa Messer
The Battalion
InterNet users worldwide may recognize
Texas A&M landmarks as the backdrop to
about a dozen pictures of a nude woman pos
ing on campus.
The pictures, which are available on the
InterNet system, include one of the naked
woman performing a yell practice “hump it”
at the Administration Building and one of
her laying across the Texas A&M University
sign at the comer of FM 2818 and Raymond
Stotzer Parkway.
The pictures, which are in a news
group that the University subscribes to,
can be accessed worldwide.
Dr. Don Tomlinson, associate professor
of journalism and a communications law
specialist, said the InterNet poses a com
plex problem because no laws specifically
discuss the computer system.
“All existent laws apply to InterNet,”
Tomlinson said, “but it’s a question of le
gal rights and responsibilities. No one
owns InterNet. No one is in control of it.
There’s not a building somewhere with an
InterNet sign on the top of it.”
Tomlinson said any laws that could gov
ern the use of InterNet would have to regu
late the users, not the system.
“InterNet is a neutral transmission path
like all communication media,” Tomlinson
said. “It isn’t good or eviL It’s all a matter of
what someone puts on it. Some people wish
to do good with it, and some wish to do bad.
“When you put this wonderful mode of
communication in front of the world, you em
power the immature at the same time you
empower the mature. It’s like putting a bowl
of candy in front of a three-year-old and
telling them not to take any. It takes a very
mature three-year-old not to.”
George Kemper, project director in
Computing and Information Services, said
pictures and text can not be forced on an
unsuspecting computer user.
“With any information on InterNet,” Kem
per said, “you have to take deliberate steps to
get it. It’s not like you walk up and open a
door and it’s there hanging on a string.
“In regards to these pictures, even if some
one sent you one by the way of E-mail, you’d
have to take several steps to view it.”
Kris Pate, a student who works in the
graphics lab in the Teague building, said
people can find any kind of information
they want through InterNet, but they
have to want access to it.
“There’s a lot of data out there,” Pate said,
“but you don’t just stumble into it.”
Dee Melton, a student who works in the
graphics lab, said that to view a picture, peo
ple would have to save the picture, download
it onto their disk and have a viewer capable
of reading the file.
Melton said most of the information avail
able through InterNet is helpful, not abusive.
“All the benefits completely outweigh the
people that use it badly,” Melton said. “You
can access a lot of information and pictures.
You can get educational information or solu
tions for problems you’re having with your
computer. There are a lot more people who
benefit from it than who abuse it.”
Regulations on happy hour to go into effect this month
TABC aims at trying to make an impact on
drunk driving and underage drinking
By Stephanie Dube
The Battalion
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage
Commission (TABC) is attempting
to crack down on underage drink
ing and intoxicated driving by
changing the rules governing hap
py hour for clubs and bars across
Texas.
These new regulations, which
will take affect Dec. 20, were
made after Mothers Against
Drunk Driving (MADD) request
ed changes to the happy hour
rules.
Rolando Garza, spokesman for
the TABC, said the amendment
is an attempt to raise clubs’ and
bars’ awareness of the number of
drinks they are selling to their
customers.
“A major point of this amend
ment is that the Commission rec
ognizes its responsibility in this
area,’ Garza said. “We will work
with different groups to address
their concerns.”
The amendment states that
only one complimentary drink
can be served to a customer dur
ing the business day and no
more than two drinks can be
served to an individual cus
tomer at one time.
This does not mean, however,
that customers cannot buy a
round of drinks for their friends.
The rule is intended to prevent
customers from buying several
drinks at once so they can get
the drinks before the happy
hour specials end.
The amendment also states
that a bar or club cannot charge a
cover charge and sell discounted
drinks. In addition, clubs and bars
cannot have happy hours after 11
p.m. any day of the week.
John Whittington, general
manager for Hurricane Harry’s,
The Tap, JD Wells, and Xtreme,
said he is excited about the new
amendment.
“I was glad this passed so we
don’t have to have the ridiculous
drink specials anymore,’ Whitting
ton said. “We didn’t make money
on them. Now we can sell the at
mosphere and service more.”
Whittington said he has not
been officially notified about the
amendment yet, but he is antici
pating the changes.
“We like to pro
mote re-
s p o n s x
^ - 7 drink-
i n g ,
and we know the quarter drinks
do not promote that at all,”
Whittington said. “However, we
will still sell the drinks at a rea
sonable and competitive price.”
The amendment was estab
lished after the TABC investi
gated the happy hour regula
tions following MADD’s request
for a change. The TABC worked
with different organizations, in
cluding the Texas Restaurant
Association and various club
and bar owners, to create the
changes, Garza said.
Dr. Kirk Brown, member of
the Texas MAUD, said he oppos
es anything that leads to exces
sive drinking.
“When there are reduced
prices, people will drink a lot to
get their money’s worth and once
the special is over, they will
leave,” Brown said. “The specials
induce drinking in excess for a
limited period of time.”
Brown said MADD had re
quested a total ban on happy
hour, but he is glad the TABC
made the change it did.
“We would have preferred a
complete ban,” Brown said. “This
is a small step, but if it saves one
life, it is worth it.”
Brown said that once propri
etors begin to try to find ways
around the new amendment,
MADD will make another re
quest for a complete ban.
Garza said the TABC has re
ceived many calls concerning the
new amendment.
“We’ve been getting calls dai
ly,” Garza said. “We’re getting
15 to 20 calls a day from different
members of the alcoholic bever
age industry, restaurants, clubs
and citizens wanting to know
how this will affect them. Most
of the calls are supportive.”
Garza said he hopes the new
happy hour miles, will make citi
zens recognize the need for re
sponsibility when consuming al
cohol. The rule is expected to im
pact both underage drinking and
intoxicated driving, he said.
“I would think that any effort
would have an impact on drink
ing and driving,” Garza said.
“This will also definitely address
the issue of underage drinking.
It will create more focus and at
tention on the issue. Anything
that casts light on these issues
can’t help but have an impact on
reducing the rates.”