Wednesday, May 25, 1977
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Three
v
No Pavulon in VA victim
By KEITH B. RICHBURG
Special To The DOaiy
DETROIT -No traces of the
poison Pavulon was found in the
blood or liver of late Veteran's
Administration (VA) Hospital
patient Joseph Brown, VA Chief
of Laboratory Services Dr. Lee
Weatherbee told the jury yester-
d at the VA trial here.
This revelation may jeopar-
due one of the government's two
murder counts against defend-
wntr Filipina Narciso and Leo-
nora Perez. The government
contends Narciso and Perez con-
i red to murder two patients,
including Brown, and poison
seven others by injecting Pavu-
Ion into the patients' intraven-
ous feeding apparti.
JOSEPH BROWN, an 83-year-
old veteran, was suffering from
uncontrolled diabetes, deterior-
ating kidneys, an infected urin-
ary tract, and was mentally
"disoriented.,
"le thought Iis age was 53,"
one of Brown's doctors had pre-
viously testified. Ie thought the
present year was 1893."
Brown was found dead Aug.
15, 1975, the same day four other
VA patients suffered "unnatu-
ral" breathing failures. Brown's
death was at first thought to be
due to natural causes, until an
FBI toxicologist exhumed the,
body and found evidence of
Pavulon, using a never-before-
used extraction technique.
WEATHERBEE, h >wever, yes-
terday told the jury that he sent
a sample of Brown's liver and
blood to the Rocky Mountain
Lab in Denver following an au-
topsy the day after Brown died.
The laboratory was to test for
Pavulon. e
"'rhe results of that one came
b a c k negative," Weatherbee
said.
Weatherbee testified they had
used the Rocky Mountain Lab
before this incident and had al-
ways found them to be "reli-
able."
"THEN IT'S a reasonable an_
swer that the reason the find-
ings came back negative," de-
fense attorney ~ Edward Stein
said, "was that there was nri
(Pavulon) there to be ftrurnd.-
"That is a reasonable an-
swer,"' Weatherbee said.
The doctor testified to there-
part of the Laboratory despite
a barrage of futile efforts by ihe
prosecutionr to keep the repwlrt
ouit. Prosecirtin lttriey Rich.
ard lelwtis first tibjected to the-
fact that lirky MutrItain was
"an independent labtrrttrrry,''
not asscitited with VA. The
prosecutor then had the jury
excused while the twito sides
argued the relevancy.
DELONIS further qutesitinred
the authenticity of Stein's photo-
stated copy of the lab's finding.
Defense attorney Stein replied
"the government furnished the
copy, they shouldn't be hard
pressed to verify its authen-
ticity."
In a last ditch effort to keep
the Rocky Mountain findings
from the jury, Delonis said the
report mnust first be nude an
exhibit, in which case the gov-
ernment would call a new wit-
ness not on the original witness
list for rehrtttrl. "I like to re-
serve that right to myself," De-
lonis said.
When the jury returned and
Stein again asked Weatherbee
"What were the results of those
tests?'', Delonis raised an elev-
enth hour objection claiming the
reprt had to be made an exhib-
i "ia is entirety." The prose-
crition staved atnd was success-
ful only in stalling the proceed-
ings for about ficv riintes.
DURING the letil ir.g urents
Pdge Ilh lrti qtestitired a
tr why tie triginl cry of tire
nat in Jlrosep hrtrrwn'-i rmedictri
file. 'Il ett't explirti thrtt,''
Weittherbee said.
lielernse tIttarines irate iunlt-
cated that the prtrsecrttiar i.s
expecre lid t crinclude their stage
of tire trtt1l by next week. The
defense will then tsk for a dis-
mrisstrt tor at least sore of tlie
counts against the two nurses
Defense attorney Tom O'Brien
told reporters that he expects
to spend a few days arguing for
dismissals of the governrent's
weakest counts. O'Beien exirects
the defense to conclude their
stage of the trial by July 4.
National Bank and Trust
victim of morning robbery
By SUE WARNER
Customers and employes of the National Bank and rust Com-
pany branch located at 510 E. William Street were distracted from
going about their business-as-usual yesterday morning when an
armed robber held up, and fled from the bank shortly after 10 a.m.
At present, police have named no suspects in the case.
The lone robber pulled off the heist by concealing a s wed
off shotgun in a large box which he carried to a teller's window.
The thief then opened the box and demanded an undisclosed
amount of money which the tller handed over to him. IlIe did not,
however, draw or aim the weapon.
BANK AND police officitri are not discltrsitrg te aioutt of
the robber's haul until they can complete further investigtirrs
into the incident.
Ann Arbor police said that the grrnmari is white and wii werrrrg
a blue trench coat and a grIlf rat at the time of the robbery.
AP Photo
TWO DUTCH POLICE officers, stripped to their shorts so that they couldn't conceal weapons,
escort a woman in Bonensmilde, Netherlands ye sterday away from a school where South Moluc-
can terrorists are holding some 105 children and six teachers hostage. See related story Page 9.
TODAY
'U' relents
University officials decided yesterday to grant
hack pay to four students who were dismissed from
their East Quad food service jobs during the re-
cent AFSCME, Local 1583 strike against the uni-
versity. The students were dismissed because of
their refusal to work in the dorm as a show of
support for the walkout. As a result of yester-
day's decision the four will receive back pay
from the last day of the strike until the end of
the winter term. The students went through the
university's standard appeal procedure and yes-
terday's decision came after an investigation into
the matter by University Staff and Union Rela-
tions officials.
Not a blast
Employees of -the Washtenaw County Building
got a long lunch break yesterday afternoon when
the building was shut down for two hours follow-
ing a bomb threat. The threat was called in to
the Ann Arbor News at 12:18, and the County Build-
ing was immediately cleared. Undersheriff Curt
Orsinger said six sheriffs, six deputies, two Ann
Arbor police officers and several maintenance work-
ers covered the building five times and found noth-
ing unusual. The building reopened at 3 p.m.
Lou Gordon
The man who provided the stage for George
Romney's famous Vietnam "brainwash" statement
during the 1968 Presidential campaign, is dead.
Flamboyant talk show host Lou Gordon, whose
taped show was broadcast twice weekly in eight
cities by the Kaiser Broadcasting Network, died
in his sleep yesterday in Bloomfield Hills at the
age of 60. The cause of death was not immediate-
ly determined, but a WKBD spokeswoman said
"it was heart-related." In 12 years on the air Gor-
don acquired a reputation as a tough - if not out-
right hostile - interviewer. Several political fig-
ures refused to apper on his show, including Rom-
ney, after an on-the-air argument with Gordon in
1973. In his last show and a newspaper column
in the Detroit News, Gordon blasted the news de'
partments of three major local television stations
for trying to entertain rather than inform the pub-
lic.
Happenings .. .
...It's a pretty sparse day, with only two major
occurances. The first is at noon, when the Com-
mission for Women will hold a discussion regard-
ing the proposed University maternity policy in
2553 LSA ... and the second is at 7:30, when the
Del Monte Boycott Committee will hold a meet-
ing at the People's Produce Co-op, 206 N. F'ourth,
to make plans for picketing and leafletting to pro-
test U.S. involvement in South Africa. That's itt
0
Son of Godfather
Paramount Pictures made screenwriter Alexan-
der Jacobs an offer he couldn't refuse, and Jacobs
is now at work on the script for yet another is
the "Godfather" series of movies. The new film
will take place in today's underworld, with the
sons of Michael Corleone involved in shady deal-
ings. Jacobs is already an old hand at resurrect-
ing cops and robbers - his previous film credits
include "French Connection II" - but we wonder
what will be left for Paramount after this movie
makes its millions. Maybe the grandsons of Mich-
ael Corleone running an illegal lemonade stand?
On the outside
If the rest of this season had been any different,
we would describe today as "unseasonably warm."
But it's just more of the same - sunny, a high of
82, an overnight low of 65. And tomorrow it'll be
sunny with a chance of morning and afternoon show-
ers and a high in the 90's.