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Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 49 Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, November 3, 1977 Ten Cents 12 Pages Plus Supplement
VA defense lambast
By KEITH RICHBURG
Special to The Daily
DETROIT - In their last ditch
effort to gain a new trial for the two
nurses convicted of the 1975 Veterans
Administration (VA) hospital poison-
ings, defense lawyers yesterday
delivered their strongest attack to
date on the government's case.
Arguing in the courtroom of Feder-
al District: Judge Philip Pratt,
attorneys for Filipina Narciso and
Leonora Perez charged federal pros-
ecutors with violating the U.S. Con-
stitution and "polluting the case" so
badly that "the defendants could not
possibly receive a fair trial."
AFTER HEARING the eleventh-
hour arguments for a new trial pre-
sented by the defense - and the
prosecution's rebuttal - Pratt only
said, "I will take the matter under
advisement." He gave no indication
as to when he would render a decision
on the fate of the Filipino nurses.
Speaking to Pratt, defense lawyer
Michael Moran took more than an
hour and a half to tell of prosecutors
subjecting the indictment to "a snip
and paste episode" to covertly add in
and shift around charges, withhold-
ing relevant information from the
defense, and failing to provide a
witness list far enough in advance to
enable the nurses to prepare a de-
fense.
Moran also claimed the jury
reached its verdict because of gov-
ernment misconduct, telling the
courtroom that "viewing the evi-
dence in the light most favorable to
the government does not support the
verdict."
PIECE BY piece, Moran dis-
mantled the government case from
the very beginnings of the VA nurses
saga, blasting first the federal grand
jury that originally handed down the
indictments, calling the proceedings
"outrageous."
The grand jury proceedings "in-
volved complete misrepresentation
of scientific fact," Moran charged.
es prosecution
Moran complained that the govern- must have sufficient notice of what ing!" M
ment never told the defense "exactly they have to defend against. The 1'Moran
what it was we'd have to defend these prosecution did in fact give us a the evid
women against. witness list," Moran said. "But two way, say
"During the pretrial hearing, the days before the opening statement of cient an
prosecution excised relevant mater- the trial, the government provided us verdict.'
ial," Moran said, and "failed to - no motion or anything, they just Moran
comply with each and every court handed us - a new list that dropped cutot's p
order." 50 witnesses and added 19." "had the
case
Oran exclaimed.
questioned the validity of
dence presented along the
ying, "The facts were insuffi-
d do not support the jury's
asserted that all the prose-
roved was Narciso and Perez
means and had the oppor-
to poison the patients at the
'he evidence did not show
e means and exclusive op-
:y.
RAL Prosecutor Richard
in a briefer rebuttal argu-
efended the government's
See VA, Page 6
"AT THIS point," Moran said, "the
case had not been so polluted the de-
fendants could not have received a
fair trial. But they (the prosecutors)
did not cease, they did not desist, and
further violations occurred."
Referring to the list of prosecution
witnesses, Moran said, "Defendants
MORAN SAID Federal Prosecutor
Richard Yanko at that time apolo-
gized for added new witnesses with-
out warning by explaining that "they
couldn't give us a witness list
because they were unprepared.
"They (the prosecution) didn't
know who was going to be testify-
tunity"t
VA. "TI
exclusiv(
portunit'
FEDE
Delonis,
ment, d
Pol.SCi.
with a
guy who
knows
By BRIAN BLANCHARD,.
Prof. Gerald Ford - stolid body-
uards and curious spectators in tow
- will drop in on four more classes
today, the second of his three days as
a University adjunct professor.
The former President's lectures
for political science, law and busi-
ness students .at his alma mater are
part of an academic swing across the
country which began with the Uni-
versity of Nebraska in September
and ends at the University of
Southern California next month.
IT WAS generally agreed that Ford
had little new information to reveal,
but that his lectures were interesting
because of the job he once held. It
was exactly one year ago yesterday
that Ford lost his job.
Students taking Political Science
415, "The American Chief Execu-
tive," began their classes yesterday
t 8:30 in the Physics and Astronomy
building with a lecture and question
session with Ford. The American
See PROFESSOR, Page 7
Firm subcontracted
for housekeeping at
University
H
By SUE WARNER
Over the objections of campus union
officials, the University has signed a
two-year contract with Service Master
Industries, a nationwide hospital
management firm, to provide
housekeeping services a University
Hospital.
The sub-contracting plan, which
hospital administrators claim will
result in cheaper and more efficient
services, has drawn complaints from
the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employes (AF-
SCME, Local 1583), who fear the
arrangement will lead to a reduction of
AFSCME jobs and increased
workloads.
HOWEVER, SANDY Williams,
associate director of hospital
operations, said the agreement
provides that no supervisors or workers
will be laid off.: Williams said Service
Master will abide by all Hospital and
University policies in addition to the
University's current AFSCME contract
Hospital administrators expect the
new sub-contract to save more than $1.7
million over the two-year period, and
the cost is not expected to exceed
$400,000 each year.
Williams predicted, "Efficiencies
will be achieved through the use of bet-
ter management techniques, more ef-
fective utilization of the work force and
the use of better equipment and sup-
plies."
HE ADDED that recent studies have
shown the University Hospital's
housekeeping unit to be overstaffed in
comparis' with other university
hospitals.
Service ster representatives have
estimate' ,'y will be able to reduce
houseke- g employes from " the
current leY =, of 273 to 196. Williams said
the decrease may take place over a
year and stressed the reduction would
be through attrition, the normal em-
plove turnover rate.
AFSCME bargaining chairman Art
Anderson said the union is not
()sptl
planning to take any job action against
the University decision right now, but
will probably "go through the usual
grievance procedures" once the con-
trackgoes into effect. "We're just going
to wait and see until they get their little
program started," he said.
"WE HAVE MET with the University
and we've assured them that we with
deal with any funny business," he ad-
ded, referring to any violations of the
AFSCME agreement.
Anderson contends the outside con
See'U', Page 6
Bomb threat emptiOes
two city buildings
. oiy Photo by CHRISTINA SCHNEIDER
The way this guy runs around campus with Secret Service types on his tail, you'd
think he used to be the President. Whoever he is, he talked to several classes
yesterday, including this one in Mason Hall.
Audit says tenant gru
mismanaged finances
By RICHARD BERKE mitted "potential criminal viola- comment until he had read the
The Public Housing Tenants Or- tions" in getting credit from the document more thoroughly. The
anization (PHTO) has committed Kelly Girl Company for temporary Daily could not reach either Johnson
potential criminal violations" in its office help. or other PHTO officials yesterday.
Some Ann Arbor and Washtenaw
county employees had a short working
day yesterday when police emptied
City Hall and the neighboring county of-
fice building, both threatened by a
bomb scare.
At 1:30 yesterday, an unidentified
man called the Ypsilanti Press and told
a switchboard operator that there was a
bomb in City Hall. A staff member
reported that the caller did not give any
reason for the bomb threat.
Authorities evacuated some 500
workers from the county building and
another 1,100 from City Hall, then
searched for the bomb with sniffing
dogs.
City Hall employees later returned to
their jobs when no bomb was found, but
the county facility was shut down for
the day.
g
The buildings are on
separated by a block.
Huron Street,
use of $49,500 in federal funds, City
Councilman Ken Latta (D - First
Ward) has charged.
A special audit of the organization,
which has represented Ann Arbor
tenants with an on-again, off-again
style, has revealed that poor fiscal
management of Community Devel-
opment Block Grant (CDBG) funds
may have rolled up $15,000 in debt by
the group - an amount the city may
have to pay.
BUT WZ ILE the CDBG report, to
be presented to City Council at next
Monday's meeting, did not suggest
any foul play, Latta charged that
actions of the PHTO could be classi-
fied as "criminal."
Latta said last night PHTO Execu-
tive Director Albert Johnson com-
"JOHNSON represented himself
as a city department head to get
credit from Kelly Girl . . . that's
obviously a violation of law and not
sloppy management, and the city
may get socked for that," he
charged.
However, Laurie Wargelin, direc-
tor of the city's CDBG program, said
of the auditing report, "We found no
instances of any funds missing or
fraud . . . just poor organizational
procedures." The audit showed man-
agement discrepancies ranging from
ineligible use of CDBG funds to
unauthorized hirings.
The Ann Arbor News reported in
yesterday's edition that Johnson
said, "there are disputes" about the
audit, but that he declined further
WARGELIN SAID the audit- was
ordered in September after her office
received letters telling of unpaid bills
by the PHTO. Those letters came
from the Housing Commission, which
rents office space to PHTO, and the
Kelly Girl company.
Financial reports filed by the
PHTO falsely indicated those bills
had already been paid, according to;
the audit report.;
The audit report showed the PHTO
with debts totaling more than $15,600,
and only $3,100 in cash to cover those
bills.
INCLUDED IN the unpaid bills is
PEACEFUL BLASTS INCLUDED:
Brezhnev: Ban N-tests
MOSCOW '(AP) - President Leon-
id Brezhnev proposed a halt in
nuclear explosions for both military
and peaceful purposes yesterday in a
speech marking the 60th anniversary
of the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Soviet leader also reported the
1977 grain harvest was well below the
target fixed by Soviet planners and
even less than U.S. experts had anti-
cipated.
willing to include peaceful blasts in
nuclear test ban talks.
The speech text carried by the
official Tass news agency also in-
cluded a proposal that "the nuclear
powers could undertake to start the
gradual reduction of existing stock-
piles of such atomic weapons, and
move towards their complete, total
destruction."
Brezhnev omitted this point when
delivering the speech, and Western
observers said later they did not
know whether the omission resulted
$2,373 owed to the Internal Revenue
Service and the state of Michigan for THE NUCLEAR proposal marked
See AUDIT, Page 6 the first time the Kremlin had been
Forte is priesthood
but Fly is a clown
from a last-minute revision or from"
an inadvertent slip-up in reading ,the
text.
WASHINGTON'S initial reaction to
Brezhnev's nuclear suggestions was
favorable, but State Department
officials said he was ambiguous on
several points.
In-Washington, Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance welcomed Brezhnev's
proposal for a moratorium on all
nuclear 'explosions, calling it "a
major step toward a comprehensive
test ban agreement."
Vance told a news conference "the
proposal he (Brezhnev) made is in
the direction of what we have been
talking about for several months on
the need to include all kinds of
nuclear explosions, including so-
called peaceful nuclear explosions in
a comprehensive test ban."
BOTH THE United States and the
Soviet Union staged test explosions
underground just last week. Western
monitors reported the Soviets set off
a double explosion in Siberia on
Friday and the United States explod-
ed a nuclear device with a 20-kiloton>
blast last Wednesday.
The proposal in the text to reduce
stockpiles of nuclear weapons
matches a goal of U-.S. President
Carter, who last month told the
United Nations General Assembly
the United States was "willing now"
By BARBARA ZAHS
David Fly likes to clown around.
But 15 years ago he packed up his
baggy pants and floppy shoes and
decided that he wanted to become an
Episcopal priest.
"BEING A PRIEST is serious
business;" he told a group at Can-
terbury House last night. "But being
a clown doesn't die easily. Once
WITH HIS CLERICAL collar and
full beard, Fly hardly looks the part
of the clown. But he insisted, "We're
all sort of closet clowns' The ques-
tion is whether we're going to come
out or not."
Fly decided to "go public" in Aug-
ust, 1975 during registration day at
Kansas State University, where he
now serves as a campus chaplain.
"I saw hundreds of students stand-
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