The Battalion
TfiTE
Thursday • July 30,1
Kingpin
Stephen Hodges,
a sophomore
accounting major,
bowls for a strike
Wednesday after
noon at the
Memorial Student
Center.
STEPHANIE CORI.EY/The Battalion
LAREDO (AP) — A former
Webb County sheriff's deputy
pleaded guilty Wednesday in a
criminal case-fixing conspiracy.
Robert Rodriguez pleaded
guilty before U.S. District Judge
George Kazen in Laredo Wednes
day morning, admitting to taking a
bribe from a defendant charged
with drug possession in exchange
for a promise that the outcome of
his drug case would be minimized.
Rodriguez, 32, faces up to 20
years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He admitted that from Septem
ber 1996 to April 1997 he and at
least two co-conspirators arranged
for a drug defendant to be referred
to the 49th Judicial District's pre
trial diversion program in ex
change for $2,500.
The drug defendant was a per
son arrested by the Laredo police
for possession of cocaine. The
unidentified person contacted Ro
driguez through another person.
Rodriguez conspired with an
unnamed investigator with the
district attorney's office for Webb
and Zapata Counties whom he
paid to achieve a favorable out
come, authorities said.
Authorities said Rodriguez
told the drug-case defendant that
if he cooperated, his probationary
period would be about six
months. If the defendant didn't
pay up, he could face at least two
years' probation.
The U.S. Attorney's Office filed
the criminal information against Ro
driguez on Tuesday. He is the latest
Webb County official to come under
scrutiny of federal prosecutors.
Starting on May 29, federal
agents executed search warrants on
the homes and offices of 14 Laredo
officials and others, including Dis
trict Attorney Joe Rubio and former
State District Judge Ruben Garcia.
Garcia pleaded guilty last
month to taking bribes for fixing
court cases in connection with the
federal probe.
Another sheriff's department
employee, Rosa Elias, pleaded
guilty Friday to illegally obtaining
someone s criminal record from
an FBI database and then selling
the information.
Texans cross state lines for Powerball jackpot
tr All day long, I
just kept thinking.
HOUSTON (AP) — Forget Wednesday night's Lotto
Texas drawing that dispensed a paltry $4 million to anyone
who had the six winning numbers.
Texans have been crossing into
Louisiana and New Mexico to spend $1
a ticket for a chance a t the Po werba 11 jack
pot, which offers a world record $250
million jackpot.
In Connecticut, New Yorkers were
reported to be standing in line for nine
hours to buy chances at the $250 mil
lion, Doug Orr, spokesman for the Mul-
tistate Lottery Association, told the
Houston Chronicle.
The organization runs Powerball
games in 20 states and the District of
Columbia, Orr said.
Trucker Dave Loupo drove a jet
that's a quarter of a
billion dollars."
- Dave Loupo
truck driver
fuel truck all day Monday, but decided he could put in a
couple of hundred more miles from his Houston home to
pick up tickets for himself, his boss and some friends.
"All day long I just kept thinking, thaL s a quarter of a bil
lion dollars," he said. "That is just a powerful lot of money.
If I won, neither I nor anybody in my whole family — both
sides — would ever want for anything again. And a lot of
people in Houston would never want for anything again."
The Louisiana Lottery Association reported Tuesday
that 1,800 Powerball tickets were being sold in the state
every minute.
"We had people sleeping in the parking lot last night
so they could be first in line," the manager of Tobacco Plus,
in the tiny town of Toomey, four miles inside Louisiana on
Interstate 10, said.
By early afternoon Tuesday, a line snaked out of the little
convenience store and gas station out into the parking lot.
Jane Butler, who traveled from Houston with her twin,
Jan Fontenot, said she's sure of good
luck. "1 had a dream about a green alli
gator," she said. "That must mean luck."
Officials said chances of winning the
jackpot are one in 80 million, compared
to one in 15.8 million for winning the Lot
to Texas jackpot, which has been as high
as $77.1 million.
There's a one in 35 chance that a $1
Powerball ticket will win at least some-
thing. A correct powerball wins $3. Five
correct regular numbers without the
powerball win $100,000.
Powerball officials aren't yet pre
dicting how big the jackpot could be on
Saturday if nobody chooses the numbers drawn at Power-
ball headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa. It would
probably reach $350 million to $400 million.
There is an 85 percent chance the jackpot will be won,
officials said.
Like Texas, the Powerball jackpot can be paid out over
25 years. Most Texans who crossed into Louisiana Tues
day were buying the cash option, however, which in
stantly pays about half of the jackpot.
For the cash option, after taxes, that would mean a
check for almost $84 million.
Louisiana Powerball outlets are allowed to sell the
tickets from 5 a.m. to midnight every day of the week.
The lines, retailers report, get longer before sales on the
drawing stop at 9 p.m.
w
Announcing:
The Reopening of the
Cushing Memorial Library
week of July Z7 following extensive renovations.
Library Hours are
NVon. - FrL, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Use the main entry on the west side of Evans across from the Academic Building.
Man involved in fatal stabbing of vk(£
who offered him aid given life sente
TH
DALLAS (AP) —A homeless man has received a
death sentence for the 1997 fatal stabbing of a widow
who had invited the man and a companion into her
home and offered them food.
A Dallas County jury deliberated about 45 min
utes Tuesday before deciding on lethal injection for
John Wade Adams, 35. His companion, Gregory Ed
ward Wright, 32, was sentenced to death in Decem
ber for his role in the crime.
Donna Duncan Vick, 52, was stabbed to death in
the bedroom of her DeSoto home.
Adams testified that he saw Wright stabbing Vick.
But prosecutors said both men killed Vick and loot
ed her home so they could buy crack cocaine.
Juror John White told The Dallas Morning News
that jurors concluded that both men participated in
the attack.
The victim's son, Jerry D. Blanton,appi
death sentence.
"It is the right decision," Blanton said,
the state of Texas are sick and tired oftl
killing people on our streets and they'reg
a stop to it one way or another."
"A woman full of unconditional level
Duncan Vick, came face to face with angel
and greed in the form ot Gregory Edw™
and John Wade Adams," Dallas AssistantD
torney Greg Davis said in his closingstata
the jury.
"She was ours once," Davis said.
"She was our neighbor. She wasourti
was our compassionate helping hand?
our mother. She was our grandmother./^
is all gone."
Inspectors say bus meant to protect men!
retarded residents from heat endangered
Former Webb County sheriff pleads guilty
for attempt to fix criminal case outcome
AUSTIN (AP) — A shuttle bus
meant to keep mentally retarded
residents at a state-run school from
having to walk around in the sum
mer's heat instead put them in dan
ger because it had no air condition
ing, according to inspectors.
The inspectors, who boarded
the bus on July 17, said tempera
tures on bus running on the Austin
State School campus reached as
high as 110 degrees.
It was over 105 degrees while
the bus was moving. Public health
officials say heat stroke can be im
minent for people exposed to tem
peratures of 105 degrees or hotter.
According to the inspectors,
nearly 40 people were subjected to
the sweltering rides, some for up to
30 minutes at a time.
The school's Medicaid funds,
which pay up to 85 percent of ex
penses, already had been suspend
ed because of other problems when
the bus was inspected. The school
has been ordered to resolve those
problems by mid-August.
If it corrects all reported prob
lems, the school would receive all
of the withheld funds.
Austin State School officials im
mediately stopped using the bus.
Although the air conditioning
had been broken for nearly two
years, it was not repaired because
the $7,000 cost was viewed as pro
hibitive, said Doug Ferris, direc
tor of safety and transportation at
the school.
"When 1 realized how long they
stayed on that bus, I was flabber
gasted," said Ruth Snyder, whose
daughter lives at Austin State
School but does not ride the bus. "I
just couldn't believe nobody cared
enough to do anything about it."
After human-services agency
inspectors discovered
broken air conditioner,
tution began using;
tioned vans to shuttle
between their cottage 1
campus workshops.
"While the bus was ir
an on-campus shuttletop:
dividuals from having
from building to build®
heat, there wasdearlyals
to do that," said KarenH;
im commissionerofthei
partment of Mental He;
Mental Retardation, wi
sees Austin State School,
The school's derisionlt
faulty bus was thelatestp:
the institution for450res::
Earlier this month,DHi
tors froze the institution 1 !:
a-day Medicaid money
workers failed to report *
tivity among residents.
July
Staff
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Texas A&
'month p<
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|zps Valley
breaking
87.9 in I9 1
^ $25 Total Move-In Cost
for a limited time only!
$
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No
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Deposit!
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