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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2002)
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WHEN: March 4 (8 a.m.) - March 8 (5 p.m.) WHERE: On the Residence Life Homepage (www.reslife.tamu.edu) 8 Friday, March 1, 2002 THE BATTALIC Federal court throws out convictions on three officers NEW YORK (AP) — In a stunning turn in one of the nation’s most shocking police brutality scandals, a federal appeals court Thursday threw out the convictions of three of the four white officers sent to prison in the torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that Charles Schwarz’s lawyer did not defend him adequately and that the jury was tainted by news reports when it convicted him of violating Louima’s civil rights by holding him down during the 1997 assault in a police station bathroom. The court also said there was insufficient evidence to sustain the obstruction-of-jus- tice convictions of Schwarz, 36, and officers Thomas Wiese, 38, and Thomas Bruder, 35. Wiese and Bruder had been accused of lying to cover up Schwarz’s role. The ruling did not affect the guilty plea of the main attacker, Justin Volpe, 37, who admitted he sodomized the handcuffed Louima with a broken broomstick in a fit of rage. Volpe is serving 30 years. Civil rights leaders and Louima supporters expressed outrage over the ruling, which reopens an explosive case that inflamed racial tensions and touched off street protests. The Rev. A1 Sharpton called the decision “a shocking display of how the judicial sys tem continues to fail to protect citizens from police abuse.” The appeals court entered a judgment of acquittal for all three officers on the obstruc tion charges, effectively bringing an end to the case against Wiese and Bruder. The two men had been given five-year prison sen tences but have been free on bail during their appeal. However, the court ordered a new trial on the civil rights charges for Schwarz, who is serving 15 years behind bars in Oklahoma. U.S. Attorney Alan Vinegrad said that he was disappointed by the ruling but that his office is prepared to retry Schwarz. The Police Department had no comment. Louima had been arrested in a melee out side a Brooklyn nightclub. According to tes- It's a sweet day when you can show the government was wrong and it was wrong from the beginning. leading investigators. Schwarz’s wife. Andra, said the famii looking forward to having him home, like a dream,” she said. He could be freed bail as early as next week, his lawyer sad “It's a sweet day when you cansho\q government was wrong and it was wrt' from the beginning,” said Stuart Lond Baider’s lawyer. Joseph Tacopina, Wiese’s attorneys his client wants to "resume his normal and possibly return to the force." Schwarz has denied ever being in bathroom. Even after his conviction. On Wed he late 1 Services. T ng the ca ion right insisted that Louima and the govemmai^tudents, other star witness, a fellow' officer, confc him with Wiese. Volpe himself indira Schwarz was not there. In its ruling, the appeals court suggev; that Schwarz’s attorney at the time, jv he admir= — Stuart London Thomas Bruder’s lawyer timony. Volpe was enraged because he believed Louima had punched him from behind. Louima was brutalized in the bath room and spent two months in the hospital with a ruptured bladder and colon. The attack touched off a federal investi gation that cracked the vaunted “blue wall of silence” that was said to protect rogue officers in the Police Department. In addi tion to the four men sent to prison, two other officers were placed on probation for mis- union lawyer Stephen Worth, did not Volpe as a witness because he wanted avoid implicating Wiese, a union ddega 1 he court said them w as a “distinetpc* hi lily” that “Worth would sacrifice Schwr interests” for those of the police union. The appeals court also said that the. was tainted because it found Volpe’s plea from a juror who learned through news reports. Sanford Ruben-dein. a law yer for Lx:, said his client w ould “look to the federal;) emment to retry the case and we will bee portive of their efforts as we have intheps Louima sued the city and the po. union and settled in July for S8.7 millicr- the largest payout in a police brutality in New York. ern that he prima Spears v— lave beei— In expres Save offic^ nclude s tudents heir leads hat impag he A&M m lave a le<~ iding the dministrC;; It is cruf! erns regcli onsiderelg lot only Lpon thisiL phip with ^ T -i fl Body identified as missing 7-year-old girl’ SAN DIEGO (AP) — An autopsy confirmed Thursday that the body of a child found in the desert east of San Diego is that of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, who disappeared from home nearly a month ago. The identification was made through a comparison of the missing girl’s dental records and X-rays taken from the body, said San Diego County District Attorney Paul Pfingst. The cause of death could not immediately be determined because of the body’s state of decomposition, he said. Danielle’s neighbor, David Westerfield, 50, has been charged with killing the girl. He has pleaded innocent to charges of murder, kidnapping and pos session of child pornography. Volunteers, who had tireless ly searched for the little girl, found the body Wednesday near a small grove of oak trees, just off a two-lane road 25 miles east of San Diego. The child was wearing a plastic necklace similar to one Danielle was seen wearing in thousands of fliers distributed after her disappearance. An ear ring matching the description of a pair she was wearing at the time of her disappearance also was found. Initial reports indicated the body had been burned, but authorities declined to discuss the condition of the remains. Danielle disappeared after her father put her to bed Feb. I. She was discovered missing the next morning, eventually lead ing to a search involving thou sands of volunteers that stretched from Mexico to the desert east of San Diego where her remains were found. Westerfield spent the week end of Danielle’s disappearance traveling around San Diego County in his motor home.s ping in the desert east da city. Authorities have said: found traces of Danielle's I in the motor home and mi IMUging i Opinion jSS News} % News ~ The Batted less and ind^ feserves the in personfg ailed to: 01:^ -1111. = article of his clothing. Westerfield, a twice-di father of two grown chii has said he was at the sanx where Brenda van Dam time with friends the Danielle disappeared. Van Dam’s husban 1 .^ home w ith their dauch;-. n _ „ two sons. Barton Damon and Brenda ^ issues Dam thanked volunKt 1 hursday. in response editorial: NEWS IN BRIEF States want to mandate the Pledge of Allegiance HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Responding to the post-Sept. 11 burst of patriotism, state lawmakers around the country want to put the Pledge of Allegiance into more public schools. Half the states now require the pledge as part of the school day, and half a dozen more recommend it, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This year, bills to make the oath mandatory have been brought up in Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, Mississippi and Indiana. In Connecticut, Republican state Rep. Philip Prelli said schools have gotten out of the practice. “It comes back to teaching what our coun try stands for,” he said. The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union opposed Prelli’s bill at a hearing on Monday. “Patriotism isn’t something you have to put on the books,” executive director Teresa Younger said. “It’s something that happens when your government is taking care of its people.” In Missouri, a pledge bill that died three years ago “suddenly started picking up a lot more traction” after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said sponsor Sen. Ted House, a Democrat. The Missouri bill would require public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at least once a week and allow for objectors to be excused. It passed the state Senate 30-0 on Monday. “It's a quick and easy way to start think ing about what it is to be an American,” House said. The Minnesota House on Wednesday passed a bill that would require the pledge at \ Yiope stu (into conside , a vote than 1 least once a week in public schools. made by 77 A similar movement is under waytopci f or Barton s the motto “In God We Trust” in school; an Aggie an Michigan passed a law in December ttu traditions is makes it clear that the motto can be hung in recent ye schools. Florida, Utah, Arizona, Virginii Hutchison ( Louisiana and New Jersey are considenr;the Universi similar legislation. more of an In October, school board members A&M than ! Madison, Wis., were the targets of a patnotdormer A&M backlash after three members voted again? Hutchison schools' using the pledge as a way tofulfL tant fundin required daily moment of patriotism. The boat exte nsion p later voted to allow schools to offer the pledge ? nc * s ^ e m Earlier this month, Colorado's Sena!;! nto Judiciary Committee killed a Repubfo ' to Texas I 125th anniv While Ag their value, the pledge. Democrats said forcing students todos ' ^ could cause eventually cause them tic erne d :,ith become jaded about their country. taxes socia national iss There's Something About Miche' That something is comic genius! Equal parts musician, inventor, acrobat, juggler, and, of course, comedian, Lauziere will delight OPAS JR audiences this Saturday with his hilarious one man show. In addition to the stunt you see in this photo (yes, his body is inside a balloon), one of Lauziere's many other gags includes performing classical and popular music with his famous suit of horns. If that doesn't entice you to get a ticket, nothing will! FUNNYMAN MICHEL LAUZIERE Sun, March 3 • 2 PM & 4 PM Rudder Theafre Tic KETS: Call 845-1234/ Online at opas.tamu.edu FOR THE YOUNG AT ART! Support provided by. The OPAS Guild Supporting the arts since 1973. 2001 -2002 Season Media Partners dsm&h, fflEfcongji smssswa NEWS IN BRIEF Camp andt This is rota <our goven (voters stai based on Scientists rescue^' 11 r . es Pf simply wta by search team ated from SANTO DOMINGO Dominican Republic (AP) - Two American scientists lostf a mountainous park for a wee> Only a d; were rescued by a Dominicat acknowledg search team and were rear "light enp perating Thursday from heavy onA exhaustion, officials said. endorsedB Patrick Martin and Olivi< P r ' m ar]M Duren got lost on Feb. 21 if Barton i: Armando Bermudez Nationa t i 1ro Pewli Park, site of Pico Duarte, tlif| axes 011 fte Kennedy, breathe They survived by rationing two days worth of food sup ° IJ - _i ; . , . .. ,„, were rnota plies and drinking spring wate 1 Barter s) until a rescue team foM 11 leader but them Wednesday afternoon, has mini Martin and his assistant re q U j re|11{| Duren, both from Come! lack ol po University, were researching a rare pine tree, Pino oca dentalis, which grows in part! of the Dominican Republic highest mountain in Caribbean at nearly 10,500 teet -