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Northgate
ATTENTION
All On-Campus Residents
ALL current on-campus residents are
required to complete the Housing Decision
2002 process to renew or cancel their
housing for the fall 2002 - spring 2003
academic year.
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
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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
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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
-