Page Three
Wednesday, June 23, 1976
THEMCHIGAN-DAILY
Bail hearing set for VA suspects
By GEORGE LOBSENZ
A bond hearing for the two nurses charged with poi-
soning and murdering patients at the Ann Arbor Vet-
erans' Administration (VA) Hospital last summer will
open tomorrow in the Detroit courtroom of U. S. Dis-
trict Court Judge Philip Pratt.
YESTERDAY, defense attorney Thomas O'Brien
filed a motion asking that the tough bail conditions set
for his clients - Leonora Perez, 31, of Evanston, Ill.,
and Filipina Narcisco, 30, of Ypsilanti - be relaxed.
Perez abd Narcisco are being held in Washtenaw
County Jail in connection with the suspicious series of
breathing failures which resulted in the deaths of at
least 11 patients at the hospital last summer. Last
week, a federal grand jury brought a 16-count indict-
ment against the two nurses.
Narcisco and Perez worked in the intensive care unit
of the hospital during the outbreak of breathing fail-
ures. They stand accused of the murder of s patients
and the poisoning of 10 others. They have also been
charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Perez is being held in lieu of a $50,000 bond, while
Narcisco was denied any bail whatsoever by U. S.
Magistrate Barbara Hackett in her arraignment last
Thursday.
IN A HEARING before Pratt on Monday, O'Brien
termed the bail ruling.excessive and unnecessary, and
called six character witnesses to the stand to bolster
his claims. After hearing the testimony, which O'Brien
called "all very up-beat and favorable," Pratt delayed
his ruling on the bail question until tomorrow.
O'Brien said the bail appeal "made mention of the
restricted budget and means of the two women and
asked that bail affordable for them be offered." The
attorney would not say what he considered an "af-
fordable" bond for the two suspects.
In a sidelight, a small controversy was kicked up
before Monday's hearing when O'Brien asked Pratt
to issue a protective order restraining the FBI or any
other government agents from contacting the women
without presence of counsel.
O'BRIEN CHARGED in his motion that FBI agents
had violated his clients' rights on numerous occasions
by threatening and intimidating them in an attemplt
to obtain confessions, even though the agents knew
the two nurses had retained counsel.
To illustrate, the lawyer pointed to an incident that
took place last December - two months after the
women retained O'Brien's Ann Arbor law firm.
"Last December, FBI agents served a subpoena on
Miss Perez in Chicago that asked her to appear before
the grand jury," he said. "And in the process of doing
this they threatened her ,trying to get a confession."
O'Brien continued, citing an incident during Nar-
cisco's arrest:
"WHILE BEING held, Miss Narcisco was questioned
about substantive conversations she had had with her
lawyers," declared O'Brien. "It's clearly unconstitu-
tional to go in and interrogate someone when you know
they're being represented by counsel."
"Our position is that we categorically deny every-
thing alleged in the motion," said Richard Delonis,
Assistant U. S. Attorney. "We're not going to nit-pick
on this. We're just not going to give a response to
See BAIL, Page 6
Dems propose House audits
WASHINGTON A) - Democratic lead-
ers yesterday proposed a monthly ac-
counting of every House employe's pay
and duties as one way to prevent the
kind of payroll-sex scandal that hit Rep.
Wayne hays.r
A package of recommendations ap-
proved by the Hloule Democratic leaders Y
also would remove the power of the Ad-
ministration Committee to inc'rease mem-
hers' allt'wanes for staff and travel.
HAYS, 65, recovering from an over- a
dose of sleeping pills, resigned the com-
mittee's chairmanship after Elizabeth
Ray charged that he kept her on its pay-
roll for $14,000 a year to give him sex. v ".
The Democratic leaders also nomi-
nated Rep. Frank Thompson (D-N.J.) to
succeed Ilays. Thompson tried two years
afro to unseat Hays as chairman.
'he recommendations if a three-man
task force, which were approved by the
leadership's Democratic Steering and
'tlicy Committee, also would end memc- "
bers' abiilty to draw up to $11,000 in
''is. fur statiasetry and travel.
T'IASK FORCE C'hiirman David Obey
(D-Wis.) said the recttmimiendti ns g t
S fir --.a rca rabtle i takit e, Ctin
S ' n fr a Id s c c n t l e u t i r n t i
"The only way yt t goingtItt get
fl accouIttabilit-," b Ob 'tild rertters,
"is tt reqtire every mmber is he
leaves the louse to be aecom anttied ty
ta rist anid c top tid I doi't thitik thI I
is pos 'ible." W
The Deiitocratic leaders reportedly ap-
proved 12 of the 13 Obey task force rec- AP Photo
ommendations by voice vote and with
little opposition
BUT THERE was a fight on one, which loe Mazour and friend Chico take a spin through Nelson, Neb., on Mazour's
Obey said would eliminate the Adminis- motorized bicycle. Chico doesn't contribute much in the way of energy, but it's
See DEM, Page 10 always nice to take a snack along on those long country rides.
Your future It's all in the cards
/'t .
Kamikazee car
Startled onlookers thought it was some
kind of a joke whe'it a motel owner's
little electric car started whizzing
artiund the motel's parking lot by itself
with flames spewing out of it. But
the owner, James Baughn, grimly rea-
lieed that it was no laughing matter as
he watched his $3,000 Sebring Citicar
drive unattended from his Salem, Ill.,
motel parking lot into a neighbor's back-
yard, spreading flamnes across the grass
and shrubs. The car, which had caught
on fire in the ot and started moving
by itself, appiarently sought some kind
of retribution for its own destruction as
it turned around in the neighbor's yard.
headed back toward the motel parking
lot, and struck another car. Engulfed
in flames by the time firemen arrived,
all that wis left of the kaiakazee ve-
hicle was a pile of scrap metal sitting i
a pool of battery acid by the tittle the
blaze was plt out.-
Not just a toy
Sailor, a l-yearild doliphin whoit had
entertained tlosandils ti the i q l Cj iitil
of Niagara "alls, USA, died Monday -
done in by a toy octopus. Surgery was
being attempted to remove the object
from the matnmttl's stomach when he
had a cardiac arrest early in the oper-
ation. "He just couldn't take the oper-
ation," said Jobn Barclay, general man-
ager of the aquarium. "You wouldn't
believe what we have found in the
pool," Barclay exclaimed. "Wallets,
rings, eyeglasses, purses, cameras, hats,
gloves, coins, even dentures." Dentures?
We can just see the headlines now -
'Man's Teeth Sink Fish", inspiring
Peter Benchley's fothcoming bestsel-
ler, "Gutms".
Happenings
the Commission for Women meets
today at noon in the Regents room of
the Administration Bldg . . . The Peo-
ple's Bicentennial Commission is pre-
senting The Return of the Pink Panther
tomorrow at 7:00 and 9:00 in MLB Aud
3 . . . Trying to cut that grocery bill
down? Join the Hilalian Family Food
Co-op. Order now at Trotter House .
Weather or not
Skies will be partly cloudy today, with
highs in the lower 80's. There is a
chance of rain tonight, as the mercury
will dip to the upper 50's.
By STEVE KLINSKY
The time is near midnight. At a
small, private table hidden in the'
shadows, a candle flickers. The only
sound is the slap and rush of -cards
being shuffled and dealt-cards like
Death, Lust, and the Fool.
"The Magus covers the Prince of
Cups," you are told. "The cards are
good."
SOME WEIRD dream born of grade
B movies and cold pizza? Not quite-
for Detroit Tarot card reader Dan
Wieme, it's just another night of
honest labor.
Wieme is the resident soothsayer for
Detroit's exclusive L'Espriit disco-
theque. He has a clientele that in-
cludes such local luminaries as 'auto
magnate Henry Ford.
A stylish man in his mid-twenties
with long brown hair, Wieme seems
worlds apart from the old stereotype
of the gypsy fortune teller. He is the
nation's only male professional Tarot
card reader, and one of the youngest
and most successful readers in the
business.
THE EXACT origin of the Tarot
deck (long employed in fortune tell-
ing), is not known, Wieme says. The
cards were used b ythe ancient Egyp-
tians, and may have once been asso-
ciated with fertility rites. Possession
of the cards was at one time a capital
offense, but their use continued, giv-
ing birth to conventional playing cards
along the way. Tarot cards have even
figured in the literature of T.S. Eliot,
Lawrence Durrell, and others.
Wieme admits there are really no
magicial properties in the Tarot deck
itself. The secret, he says, lies not in
the cards but in the reader. The pro-
phecy in Tarot card reading is really
a form of telepathy, according to
Wieme. The reader probes the sub-
conscious of the subject by using the
cards as a medium. Sensitivity, not
magic, is responsible for the revela-
tion.
See YOUR, Page 7