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COLLEGE STATION • TX
MONDAY • MARCH 30 • 1998
westigation probes stolen campaign signs
"
*y Robert Smith
City editor
Student Election Commission (SEC)
led a special meeting late last night
s of determining who is responsible
ipaign signs that were stolen and re-
1 on,, Saturday.
roximately 20 student election cam-
igns were returned to the SEC Satur-
nmoon.
/ersity Police Department officials
mday they are investigating the
signs issue but would not com
ment on any details of the investigation
until today.
Alice Gonzales, speaker of the senate
and a junior agricultural development
major, said the “sandwich-board” signs,
which are four-foot wooden signs, be
longed to 11 students running for junior
and senior yell leaders, all of whom are not
in the Corps of Cadets.
Only five of the 18 students running for the
leader positions are in the Corps of Cadets.
Three seniors and two juniors will be
elected as yell leaders by the student body
Wednesday and Thursday.
“Someone called me at 12 (noon) on Sat
urday ... and I was told that the signs had been
recovered,” Gonzales said. “Some of the signs
were found on the side of the road on 2818.”
She said the signs are now sitting in her
back yard and they will be returned to the
candidates.
The signs were stolen from all four of
the locations where signs are allowed by
the election commission — West Cam
pus, Sbisa Dining Hall, the Commons and
the MSC.
Gonzales estimated the signs were stolen
between 2 a.m to 6 a.m. Saturday morning.
Murray Van Eman, the student elections
commissioner, said in a telephone inter
view before the meeting he did not know
who stole the signs or what motives the per
petrators may have had.
“I’m going to talk to the yell leader can
didates in the Corps first before I talk to any
one else,” he said. “They are the first ones
we will be looking at. We want to find out if
they know anything about it.”
Van Eman, a senior animal science major,
said he was attending a conference in Mid
land when he found out the signs were stolen.
Van Eman said he would not release the
names of the individuals who returned the
signs until after last night’s meeting.
“If we disclose incomplete informa
tion, it makes it easier for rumors to be
spread,” he said. “But if we wait until after
we make a complete investigation, it will
be much harder for people to make gen
eral assumptions.
“We’re not trying to cover it up, we’re just
trying to get to the bottom of this. I took an
early flight so we could have this meeting
tonight,” he said.
Student election campaign signs have
been on campus for a week.
>aking up the sun
CORY WILLIS/The Battalion
»tina Haugaard, a junior business analysis major, participates in the Phi Beta Lambda Pledge Car Wash on Sunday afternoon.
Pledge cries foul
UTfraternity faces hazing allegation, pledge says
he will not press charges, but will file civil suit
AUSTIN (U-Wire) — University of Texas
officials are investigating hazing allega
tions against the Kappa Alpha fraternity af
ter a UT freshman alleged he was spat
upon, urinated on and thrown against a
wall by members of the group.
Tim Hesselsweet, a freshman, said he
suffered bruises and a concussion after fra
ternity members grabbed him by the
shoulders and threw him against a wall
during a pledge meeting Feb. 15.
According to Hesselsweet and his attor
ney, Bill Whitehurst, Hesselsweet was hos
pitalized for at least three days in Bracken-
ridge Hospital following the incident.
Hesselsweet said the alleged hazing oc
curred at the UT Kappa Alpha house and
that about six students were present, most
of them fellow pledge brothers.
“He was taken into the basement of the
fraternity house and beat upon and spat on
and urinated on and pushed up against a
wall with such force that it cracked his
skull,” Whitehurst said.
Whitehurst said no criminal charges
will be filed against members of the group,
but said he will file civil complaints against
fraternity members.
Sherri Sanders, associate dean of stu
dents, said the university is beginning to in
vestigate the matter and could not comment
further, but she added that the university will
investigate both the individuals involved in
the incident and the group as a whole.
UT officials were informed March 16
about the situation by a letter from the na
tional office of the Kappa Alpha Fraterni
ty, she said.
“The real tragedy is that we’ve had so
many things like this at the University of
Texas and the fraternities don’t get the mes
sage,” Whitehurst, an Austin attorney with
the firm ofWhitehurst, Harkness, Ozmun
and Archuleta, added, “This could have
been a death, very easily.”
He added that doctors have advised
Hesselsweet to drop all but one of his class
es and not to drive due to his injuries.
Jim Ewbank, an Austin attorney repre
senting the fraternity, refused to talk about
the matter Thursday.
For other members of Austin’s Greek
community, news of the Kappa Alpha in
vestigation was disheartening.
Briefs
Republic of Texas couple have day in court
econference
discuss alcohol
national teleconference, “Solu-
for Reducing High-Risk Alcohol
n the College Community,” is
jiuled today in room 292 of the
nrial Student Center from 1 p.m.
i.ml to discuss alcohol abuse on
■ ;e campuses.
11 open forum for discussion will
diately follow until 4 p.m.
e national teleconference is spon-
I byfthe University of Vermont,
irticipants include experts in al-
i abuse research and alcohol
a prevention programs,
istin Sayre, Alcohol Abuse Task
: chair and associate director of
lep^rtment of student life, said
10I can keep students from be-
uccessful.
t Dennis Reardon, senior coordi-
' for alcohol and drug education
ams at Texas A&M, said the pur-
of the teleconference is to gather
nation both locally and nationally.
A/e’re trying to get a collaboration
brmation from those in the field,
ents and staff from all over the
try as well as locally,” he said.
emo reiterates
ection policies
ampaigning for student body
tions has begun. A memorandum
i Vice President for Student Af-
Malon Southerland reminds the
1 community that any type of cam-
ning in classrooms is prohibited,
includes T-shirts, buttons, stick-
flyers, backpack tags, marking
chalkboards or speaking to the
s about the elections. The first
3d of campaigning ends Tuesday
midnight. Students will vote
Inesday and Thursday, and re-
s will be announced Thursday
it.If runoffs are needed, runoff
ipaigning begins after results and
tinues through April 7, when it
s at midnight. Students will vote
in April 8 and 9, and runoff results
oe announced the night of April 9.
EL PASO (AP) — Outlandish objections and
repeated ejections are not expected to be a
part of the next trial for Republic of Texas
members who engaged police in a weeklong
armed standoff.
Attorneys anticipate a normal day in court
Monday when jury selection begins in the case
of Gregg and Karen Paulson, not a repeat of the
bizarre spectacle that was separatist leader
Richard McLaren’s trial last fall.
Defense lawyers say the Paulsons still cling
to the Republic’s beliefs that Texas is an inde
pendent nation. But they are prepared to
mount a defense even if they do not acknowl
edge the authority of the state district court
where they will be tried in Fort Stockton.
“Up to now, they have still let the lawyers
handle the show. They’re putting in a lot of in
put but so far it’s been as the judge, and I think
everyone else, had hoped,” said Ben Buecker,
Karen Paulson’s attorney.
The husband and wife each are charged
with one count of burglary with intent to com
mit a felony for their role in storming a neigh
bor’s home in the isolated Davis Mountains Re
sort, 175 miles southeast of El Paso.
The April 27 abduction of Joe and M A. Rowe
touched off a standoff between Republic mem
bers and scores of state troopers that only end
ed after McLaren and most of his group agreed
to lay down their weapons a week later.
McLaren and his chief aide, Robert “White
Eagle” Otto, were convicted Oct. 31 on orga
nized crime charges stemming from the siege.
The Paulsons and another group member,
Richard Keyes III, who also was involved in the
hostage situation, originally faced the same
’Up till now, they have
still let the lawyers
handle the show.”
Ben Buecker
Attorney for Karen Paulson
charge but were re-indicted on the burglary
count earlier this year.
Both charges carry the same penalty: five to
99 years or life in prison and a maximum
$10,000 fine.
District Attorney Albert Valadez said prose
cutors could not have proved the organized
crime charge without the testimony of
McLaren and Otto, something that was unlike
ly to happen given case histoiy.
McLaren and Otto represented themselves
during their trial and spent most of the time ar
guing the court was a sham and insisting they
were foreign nationals.
Attorneys say the Paulsons have indicated
they will follow court rules.
“It will make it a little more orthodox for me
because I will be dealing with lawyers who un
derstand the rules.... It will make our presenta
tion of evidence much easier,” said Valadez.
Clearing the stage
****>«>».
BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion
The lead singer of Sixteen Deluxe, performs outside of Fitzwilly’s Friday
evening as part of the North by Northgate music festival.
See Page 3 for a wrap up of the weekend's events.
Despite law, castration
still not allowed on inmate
DALLAS (AP) — Months after a
Texas law permitting voluntary
castration of repeat sex offenders
took effect, state prison officials
have not approved or scheduled
anyone’s operation.
The child molester who in
spired the law — and the one who
has requested the surgery — is eli
gible for parole this year.
Larry Don McQuay, who made
headlines by begging the state to
castrate him so his sex drive would
be reduced, says he has molested
more than 200 children.
He says he applied for the
surgery in hopes of controlling his
pedophilic impulses, but is eligible
for parole in November.
Although state officials have
called parole for McQuay extreme
ly unlikely, he wrote The Dallas
Morning News that “I will be walk
ing the streets of your city, your
community, your neighborhoods.
“And without a doubt, there will
be children around,” he wrote.
“You tell me what is likely to hap
pen if I am not castrated before I
am released.”
A law permitting voluntary cas
tration of repeat sex offenders was
approved by the Texas Legislature
in 1997 and took effect in May.
But Glen Castlebury, spokesper
son for the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice, said no castra
tions are scheduled because offi
cials are still working out the details
of implementing the new law.
Castlebury said the corrections
department has drafted a contract
with the University of Texas Med
ical Branch at Galveston to per
form surgical castrations.
The medical branch is one of
two university hospitals — Texas
Tech University Health Sciences
Center is the other — that provide
prison health care.
Until that contract is finalized,
the Board of Criminal Justice that
governs the prison system is not
going to consider any rules or pro
cedures for carrying out the cas
tration law, said Castlebury.
“The contract is the only pa
perwork in progress,” he said.
“Until that’s done, we’ll have no
process in place to accommodate
Mr. McQuay. He can file his re
quest. Any offender can. But it’s
meaningless. He might as well file
his laundry list.”
INSIDE
— aggie! iff —
Martin: Meet the Deedles
embodies a film for individuals
who do not like to think.
See Page 4
sports
Aggie baseball team sweeps
KSU to earn first place tie in
Big 12 standings.
See Page 7
opinion
Ferguson: Proposed tax on
junk food violates Americans’
right to feed on fat.
See Page 9
online
http: / / battalion, tamu.edu
Hook up with state and na
tional news through The
Wire, AP’s 24-hour online
news service.