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One hundred three years of editorial freedom
3 'M' players plead
no contest to theft
ISA sophomore Benoy Chacko prepares for his February debut on "Jeopardy!" for the College Championship.
Sophomore to appear on game show
By DAVID SHEPARDSON
DAILY NEWS EDITOR
The three Michigan basketball
players charged with stealing beer
from a local convenience store each
pleaded no contest to one count of
second-degree retail fraud in 15th
District Court at City Hall.
Accompanied by Michigan bas-
ketball coach Steve Fisher and wear-
ing freshly pressed suits, Ray Jack-
son, Jimmy King and Chris Fields
silently walked into the sixth-floor
courtroom filled with television cam-
eras and spectators at 10:45 a.m. yes-
terday. The trio admitted responsibil-
ity for taking several cases of beer
from a local Dairy Mart on Jan. 12.
A no contest plea means a defen-
dant is not admitting guilt but is stat-
ing that he will offer no defense. The
person is subject to being judged guilty
by the court and punished as if he had
pleaded guilty or had been convicted.
Staring at their feet for most of the
hearing, the three said little and ig-
nored the large contingent in the court-
room. Fisher's 12-year-old son Marc
also attended the hearing. Coach
Fisher and the three players rushed
out of the courtroom afterward and
made no comments.
District Court Judge Timothy
Connors, in setting a sentencing date,
said, "What you did is a crime, and it
is also a very stupid thing to do. But
you deserve to betreated the same as
anyone else."
The three will be sentenced Feb.
25 at 10 a.m. Connors outlined the
procedures the players would now
face to avoid re-appearing in court in
two weeks under the "deferred sen-
tencing program."
If they enter into a probation con-
tract, the three would each be re-
quired to pay a $200 fine, perform 72
hours of community service and serve
six months probation. If all condi-
tions of the sentence are met, the
offense will be expunged.
But Connors said if they did not
meet the conditions of the sentence,
they would be treated like anyone else.
"If you don't complete the sen-
tence, you will go to jail," he said.
Three other people face shoplift-
AP' PHOTO(
By NIDHI AGRAWAL
FOR THE DAILY
Benoy Chacko doesn't want the
parting gifts.
Next month, the LSA sophomore
just might get the chance to win it all
when he represents the University in
this year's "Jeopardy!" College,
Championship.
Chacko surprised himself, family
and friends after he passed the selec-
tive testing procedure and was chosen
to participate in the competition.
"My sister gave me a call when I
came back from class. She was all
excited and screaming and everything
and I guess we got a telegram saying
that I was on 'Jeopardy!,"' Chacko
said.
Chacko's name was first chosen at
random from letters received by the
producers of "Jeopardy!" from view-
ers interested in participating in the
competition. To qualify, Chacko and
his family drove to Omaha, Neb. on
Nov. 5. There, he passed a 50-ques-
tion test in ten minutes with a score of
at least 40.
"There were probably.60 people
taking the test in the same room as me
and only five passed. I couldn't be-
lieve I was one of them," he said.
Those who passed the first test
then participated in a mock "Jeop-
ardy!" contest to determine each
individual's game playing ability.
LSA junior Wilson Lee also reached
this level of the competition. How-
ever, only Chacko was chosen to par-
ticipate in the televised tournament.
"I was obviously pretty disap-
pointed. The selection process seems
pretty arbitrary. Last year, I talked to
someone who passed the test four
times and did not make it into the
tournament," Lee said.
. Lee added, "Of course, there are
no hard feelings. I just wish Benoy
the best."
Chacko will be flown down to Los
Angeles for tapings of the tournament
Feb. 26. The two-week competition is
Basketball players Chris Fields, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King are sworn in by
District Court Judge Timothy Connors at yesterday's hearing.
scheduled to air sometime during the
first half of May. Hotel accommoda-
tions at the Beverly Hills Hilton, food,
extra spending money and a $1,000
bonus are guaranteed to each player
for participating in the tournament.
"It's a nice perk to be getting all of
this stuff. It would be even better to
win, but we'll see," Chacko said.
Chacko has always been interested
in trivia competitions, participating
in Quiz Bowl in high school and Col-
lege Bowl for the University.
"I pick up small facts really well,
I don't know why. I've always
watched 'Jeopardy!' and have been
able to get almost all of the questions
right," Chacko said.
Chacko added, "Being on Jeop-
ardy! is really exciting. It's always
been kind of a dream."
Chacko's acquaintances and
friends share his enthusiasm about
the tournament.
LSA sophomore Jeff Martin,
See JEOPARDY, Page 2
ing charges as well. Football player
Remy Hamilton, store clerk Allison
Chenault -who police said encour-
aged the crimes - and her friend,
Jaymar Joseph, will be arraigned at
later dates, Ann Arbor Police Detec-
tive Sgt. Mick Schubring said.
"She allegedly called (the ath-
letes) and said, 'Stop down sometime
and I'll fix you up with what you
need,"' Lt. John Atkinson said of
Chenault.
The trio were suspended from
Michigan's victory over Michigan
State on Saturday. Against Indiana on
Tuesday, King scored 17 points; Jack-
son had 13 points and a game-high
nine rebounds. Fields was scoreless.
Before the three players entered
the courtroom, they were arrested,
then fingerprinted and photographed.
Michigan Football player Damon
Jones was also arraigned yesterday
for a separate incident on a charge of
retail fraud. A pre-trial hearing was
scheduled for March 1 at 10 a.m.
Topped with the shoplifting
charge, Jones' probation could be re-
voked and he could receive a new k
sentence of up to four years in prison
and a $2,000 fine on abomb charge.
-The Associated Press contributed
to this reportI
Unsurprised,
students call
sentence just
By WIWE CLARK
FOR THE DALY
University students had mixed
reactions to yesterday's sentenc-
ing of three Michigan athletes.
Three Michigan basketball
players -Jimmy King, Ray Jack-
son and Chris Fields -accused of
stealing beer from a local conve-
nience store, were sentenced in
Michigan's 15th District Court
yesterday.
Many students said they ex-
pected the sentence of 72 hours of
community service, a $200 fine
and six months' probation because
it was the first time that the athletes
had been charged in any criminaf
activity.
"I think that they should serve
a little more community time" said
LSA junior Derek Dalling.
The trio's "no contest" plea
See REACTION, Page 2
.S. increases military
involvement in Bosnia
NEWSDAY
WASHINGTON - After months of ignor-
ing the war in Bosnia as a regional problem, the
United States is again increasing its involve-
ment, seeking NATO military action to end the
siege of Sarajevo and reviving efforts for a
negotiated peace in partnership with Europe, a
senior Clinton administration said yesterdey.
The first steps in the new U.S. efforts, offi-
cials said, come today in Brussels, Belgium,
when NATO's policy-making North Atlantic
Council meets to consider action that would
silence and force the withdrawal of the Serbian
guns that have terrorized Sarajevo for nearly
two years.
As one official explained the strategy to
Newsday: "We are pursuing two tracks: One is
the tactical or immediate issue on how to deter
or deal with Serb artillery attacks against civil-
ians in Sarajevo.
"We will be looking at proposals on how to
respond immediately, with air strikes to such
attacks, and how to deal with the continuing
threat from those guns."
He added, "The other track is how to rein-
vigorate the peace process. And here we expect
to work more closely with the Europeans, in-
cluding the French."
That has jarred State Department and other
advocates of the Bosnian cause, who fear the
United States might join France in seeking to
See BOSNIA, Page 2.
Bosnian Serbs, facing possible air strikes, agreed
to withdraw heavy weaponry from around Sarajevo
and put it under U.N. control. A cease-fire was
reached in talks between government commanders.
sretrenica
Saraevo
Active frontline
Line of internal Mstar
conflict
: Bosnian Press- &
dency (mostly Eu
Muslim)
Bosnian Serb
0$ Bosnian croat
State Sen. Don
Koivisto will hold
hearings on prices
of university texts
By RONNIE GLASSBERG
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
LSA sophomore Angela Coletti
spent $250 this term on textbooks for
her four classes, and she bought three-
quarters of those books used. She is
not alone.
These sort of costs are not un-
usual. However, a state senator be-
lieves university book prices are too
high and he wants to do something
about it.
Sen. Don Koivisto(D-Ironwood)
is trying to combat the problem, but
he said he does not know who is at
fault.
State senator pursues
war on tetook costs,
Ulrich's, said the bookstores do not
make such high profits.
"Basically we work between an
18 to 23-25 percent margin (of profit),"
he said. "I don't think that's a really
exorbitant profit."
When a professor knows that the
text will used the next term, students
can receive back 50 percent of the
book's cost, Rosser said.
But Koivisto is not blaming the
bookstores yet. The senator said he
has called on the hearings because he
is trying to discover where the prob-
lem lies.
"We don't know what type of leg-
islation would have to be put in," he
said, commenting that the problems
may also be in the publishing indus-
try.
Koivisto said often times publish-
Source: United Nations
AP
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