The Michigan Daily Vol. LXXXV, No. 13-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, May 23, 1975 Ten Cents Twelve Pages Prosecutor criticized in Swainson hearing LANSING (UPI) - The Michigan Supreme against Swainson as the result of a grand jury Court and State Bar of Michigan blasted a fed- probe into allegations that he took a $40,000 bribe eral attorney yesterday for predicting that Jus- from John Whalen in exchange for an appeal of tice John Swainson will be indicted by a grand Whalen's. burglary conviction before the Su- jury and questioning "the integrity of the ap- preme Court. pellate courts of this state." Stephen Bransdorfer, president of the State Bar Swainson, 49, testified twice this week before of Michigan, called Ozer's statements "deplor- a grand jury in Detroit investigating bribery al- able." legations. He removed himself from all court "Public statements by a prosecutor which sug- deliberations Wednesday, after taking the Fifth gest that an allegation is in fact a foregone con- Amendment before the grand jury. clusion, and which predict the likelihood of fur- ther grand jury action, are wholly improper and "THE BROAD - RANGING remarks attributed wholly unfair," Bransdorfer said. to Mr. Robert Ozer, an attorney in the United States Justice Department, as reported in the media, call into question the integrity of the appellate courts of this state, and in our opinion are unprofessional and a grave disservice to the people of this state," Chief Justice Thomas Giles Kavanaugh said. "We do strongly object to innuendos, exces- sive and premature statements to the media, and the encouragement of a continuous stream of conjecture. Such a course of action is destruc- tive of public confidence in our court system and is totally indefensible." Kavanaugh said the high court has "cooperated fully with the Department of Justice and made available our files and records to them." OZER, chief of the Justice Department's Strike Force in Detroit, said Wednesday he would "be very surprised" if charges are not brought "IF MR. OZER had stopped at this point, it would have been bad enough. Unfortunately, he felt compelled to in addition cast a cloud of sus- picion over the entire appellate court system in this state." Ozer said the Strike Force will pursue its in- vestigation within Michigan's appellate courts. "I have more concern for the continuing in- vestigation concerning such charges than in the forthcoming charges against Swainson," he said. "IF WE have reached the point where a Su- preme Court justice can be influenced by a per- son like John Whalen, the question that interests me is not whether this occurred in this instance, bit how there came to exist access of this kind to the appellate judiciary." See ATTORNEY, Page 10 AP Photo MARSHALl FOUSBERG, owner of Marshall Plastic Firm Inc. looks over the damage where winds of tornado intensity destroyed over two-thirds of the processing section of the plant. Estimated damage was over $100,00. Legislature expected to slash 'U' budget By BILL TURQUE Special To The Daily LANSING - Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, putting the final touches to higher education fund- ing for fiscal 1975-76, expect to recom- mend a state University allocation of $110.7 million. The figure represents a $15 million cut from the University's original request, and a $2 million hike over Governor Milliken's budget projections for the University. UNIVERSITY administrators, not sur- prised by the long-anticipated cut, have adopted a wait-and-see attitude on the bill, which is expected to leave com- mittee next Wednesday. They indicated, however, that serious internal realloca- tions of funds are on the horizon, includ- ing the increasing likelihood of a tuition hike next fall. Lawrence Fincher, assistant vice-pres- ident for state relations, called the $110 million total "fair." "That's about what we have been ex- pecting," said Fincher. "Considering how the budgetary process works, it's a reasonable number." "WE'RE GLAD that we are holding steady at this point," added Richard Kennedy, vice president for state rela- tions. But he added the appropriation "puts the University into a tough kind of situation in terms of priorities." While the bill still awaits formal ap- proval from the committee and both houses of the legislature, Sen. Bill Huff- man (D-Madison Heights), Vice-chair- man of the appropriations committee, said yesterday he anticipates no major change in the $110 million figure. "I would say it's final," said Huff- man. DOUG SMITH, a legislative aide to Sen. Gilbert Bursley (R-Ann Arbor), said the House tends to whittle down ap- propriations bills coming from the Sen- ate. In this case, however, with only $4.5 million in "new money" earmarked for the University, Smith agreed that the $11 million figure was likely to be fair- ly stable. While a complete breakdown of the bill is not yet available, some salient features of the measure include appro- priations to the Medical School of $208,- 000 for enrollment funding, and $867,000 for general programming expenditures. The budget will also include a three per cent ceiling on inflationary expen- ditures. This means that the allocation as a whole can only be inflated three per cent beyond the total state appro- priation. A MAJOR item, and one area in which the University received considerably less than it asked for, is utilities. The bill calls for $715,000 to be allocated to utili- ties, while the University asked for near- See STATE, Page 6 AN ELDERLY Eskimo woman is helped from an evacuation helicopter by a National Guardsman as she arrived in Bethel, Alaska Wednesday from one of several Yukon villages which have been flooded by the Yukon and Kuskakwim Rivers this spring.