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One hundred four years of editorial freedom
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.P2rape
suspect:
'I am not
the man'
By FRANK C. LEE
Daily Staff Reporter
A suspected serial rapist claims he
is innocent in an interview with a state
newspaper published yesterday.
Ervin D. Mitchell Jr., 33, sits in
the Washtenaw County Jail on
$50,000 bond awaiting trial on as-
sault and purse snatching charges.
"I am not the man," Mitchell said.
"I honestly, truly believe I'm going to
be the fall guy because of so much
media hype."
In an interview Monday with the
Detroit Free Press, Mitchell said he
believes he has been made the scape-
goat in one of the most intensive man-
hunts in Ann Arbor history.
He also said he did not assault and
ttempt to mug a local woman Dec. 24.
W'itchell was bound over for trial on
thosecharges and will be inWashtenaw
Circuit Court again Feb. 13.
He did not take the stand in his
own defense at his preliminary hear-
ing held Jan. 4.
Blood samples taken from
Mitchell in 1992 rape case in Inkster,
Mich., a Detroit suburb, were kept on
file by the Michigan State Police
*rime Lab in East Lansing. Those
samples have reportedly connected
him to three sexual assaults and a
rape-homicide in Ann Arbor over a
period of three years.
For legal reasons, Ann Arbor po-
lice and the prosecutor's office have
refused to comment on whether or not
the Inkster samples will be used to
charge Mitchell in connection with
e series of sexual assaults.
Law enforcement agencies have
not gone on record to comment on the
Inkster samples.
Ann Arbor Police Sgt. Phil Scheel,
spokesman for the multi-agency task
force assigned to find the serial rapist,
said results from more recent DNA
tests could be available later this week.
Those samples were taken from
itchell by Ann Arbor police after his
rrest on Christmas Day.
Mitchell said the police did not
wait for blood tests to accuse him of
being the serial rapist."The way they
treatedme it was -bottom line-you
are the man and ain't no blood going to
matter," he said. "We're going to get
you regardless because there are too
many possibilities that you fit."
Scheel refused to comment on
hether or not Mitchell had an alibi on
e dates of the assaults, but Mitchell
told the newspaper that he does.
Mitchell gave the interview while
in jail against the advice of his court-
appointed attorney, Sheila Blakney,
because he was tired of being tried in
the media.
"I find a lot of times people are
telling me 'hush hush,' - it's only
for my own good," he said. "I'm tired
f hush' because of the circumstances
I'm falling into. I got so tired of sitting
back and not saying anything about
the situation."
Firing of 3
employees
uestio'nd
By JOSH WIHTE
Daily Staff Reporter
Labelling the University an "over-
blown, overgrown company with a
strict policy of systematic racial dis-
crimination," activist S hante Driver and
others are mobilizing in what they de-
Wcribe as a fight against racism.
Dring a National Women's Rights
Organizing Coalition forum at the
Michigan Union last night, about 40
members of the community discussed
the firing of three.Black employees at
tk nl "tlCirr)XAT v tm
Priest tapped
as interim 'U'
ombudsman
Red Wings alumni lend a helping hand
A University Hospital employee yesterday demonstrates computer equipment to
Hospital in a benefit sponsored by the Red Wings Alumni Association.
a child at C.S. Mott Children's
Conflict rages in Grozny as
Chechen cease-fire unravels
By RONNIE GLASSBERG
Daily Staff Reporter
The University has named a lesbian
Episcopal priest as interim ombuds-
man, replacing Donald Perigo, whose
non-renewed contract expired Dec.31.
Jennifer Walters has served as co-
pastor of the Church of the Incarnation
in Ann Arbor since August. She took
office Monday and will continue serv-
ing at the church and work as ombuds-
man until the position is filled.
"I just hope that, to the extent that a
person can, to be helpful to students and
to be an available, effective helper,"
Walters said. "I think as ombudsman, a
lot of my role is to provide some kind of
human contact to people who often feel
they are just a number."
Walters said she will work 20-30
hours per week as ombudsman and
another 20-30 hours each week at the
church.
Perigo, who worked at the Univer-
sity full time, also had additional re-
sponsibilities in the Dean of Students
Office not connected with his role as
ombudsman.
The ombudsman's role is to assist
students with problems involving the
University, acting as a mediator be-
tween the two parties.
For the past two years, Walters
worked as assistant ombudsman at
Michigan State University, where she
is a doctoral candidate in philosophy
and ethics. She has lived in Ann Arbor
since 1990, and had commuted daily to
East Lansing.
Walters' partner works at the Uni-
versity Medical Center. They have a 2-
year-old adopted son.
She holds a doctoral degree in min-
istry from the Episcopal Divinity
School in Cambridge, Mass.
Walters was one of the candidates
for director of the Lesbian Gay Bi-
sexual Programs Office,
"As a part of that process I had met
her. There was a lot
of interest in her
even then," said
Dean of Students
Royster Harper,
who oversees the
office. "I feel like
we are very, very
fortunate."
A search com-
mittee of seven to
nine members,
composed half of students, will rec-
ommend the new ombudsman, Harper
said.
"I want to be thorough and give the
committee a chance to be more in-
volved than would normally be the
case," Harper said.
Both Harper and Vice President for
Student Affairs Maureen A. Hartford
have talked about restructing the
ombudsman's office into a student as-
sistance office.
"I haven't ruled out restructuring, I
haven't ruled it in," Harper said. "We
have talked about extending the func-
tion so that retired faculty members
could work in the office. We are going
to move toward a more comprehen-
sive student assistance program."
Harper said she hopes to have a
See OMBUDSMAN, Page 2
The Washington Post
GROZNY, Russia - On the first
day of what Moscow announced would
be a unilateral 48-hour suspension in
its assault on Grozny, Russian artillery
continued to pulverize the city center
and Russian and Chechen snipers traded
small-arms fire from mid-morning to
evening.
Thus, the end of the first month of
Russia's military campaign against the
renegade republic of Chechnya ended
as it began at dawn on Dec. 11 -
marked by violence, distrust, confu-
sion and questions about who is giving
the orders.
"What cease-fire?" said a grinning
Chechen fighter as he picked his way
through the heaps of rubble, smashed
glass and tangled power lines strewn
about Avturkhanova Prospekt, a few
hundred yards from the presidential
building. "We don't believe anything
the Russians say."
The principal effect of theKremlin's
declaration was to limit the Russian
bombardment to the area directly
around Grozny's main square and presi-
dential building, where shells were
crashing every minute or so at midday.
Other neighborhoods, which have been
blasted with mortars, bombs, rockets
and shells since the New Year's Eve
attempt to storm the Chechen capital
began, were spared yesterday.
From all indications, Russian
ground troops maintained their posi-
tions several hundred yards from the
pemains a Chechen stronghold. And
following the early morning, perhaps a
result of heavy fog, the fighting in the
center picked up as the day wore on.
It was impossible to tell which side
shot first after the cease-fire began at 8
a.m. local time (midnight Monday
EST), although it was hardly surpris-
ing that small-arms fire should con-
tinue with the two sides separated by so
little ground. The Chechens seemed
fully to expect a renewed Russian on-
See CHECHNYA, Page 2
I
EARLY SHOTS FIRED IN TAX BATTLE ON CAPITOL HILL
Gephardt says plan
will include flat tax
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON-House Minor-
ity Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-
Mo.), in another bid to steal the Repub-
licans' thunder, said yesterday he is
developing a proposal for a modified
flat tax of 10 or 11 percent to replace the
graduated income tax system.
Gephardt's plan strongly resembles
an approach advocated by House Ma-
jority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-
Tex.), although Gephardt insists his
proposal would be fairer to middle-
and lower-income taxpayers.
Democrats have sought to reposi-
tion themselves politically since Re-
publicans sweptto power Nov. 8 prom-
ising major spending and tax cuts and
dramatic changes to government pro-
grams. Both Gephardt and President
Clinton proposed middle-class tax re-
lief measures to rival those contained
in the GOP "Contract with America."
"I'mhappy to see that Mr. Gephardt
now recognizes the power of my flat
tax idea, and welcome him to the de-
bate," Armey said. "The flat tax is
clearly in America's future, and if the
minority leader's statement is not just
political posturing, Congress can re-
spond in a bipartisan manner to the
public demand for a simpler, flatter,
more fair tax code."
A flat tax would greatly simplify
the tax structure by eliminating most
deductions and applying a reduced
across the board tax to all wages, sala-
ries and pensions. Gephardt contends
that Armey's 17-percent flat tax would
be a major boon to the rich because it
exempts capital gains, interest and all
other unearned income. Wealthier
people would end up paying a lower
effective tax rate than middle-income
taxpayers.
Gephardt's disclosure during testi-
mony before the Ways and Means
Committee highlighted a long day of
congressional activity on the fiscal and
budget front.
Pressure continued to mount for
Armey and other House leaders to alter
their balanced amendment proposal to
drop a requirement for a three-fifths
"supermajority" to raise taxes. And the
House Appropriations Committee be-
gan confronting the challenge of slash-
ing spending to help pay for the Repub-
licans' proposed tax cuts and to gradu-
ally balance the budget.
Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), new
chairman of the Appropriations Com-
mittee, dramatized the challenge by
brandishing an alligator skinning knife
nicknamed a "Cajun scalpel" during a
meeting. But despite the chairman's
showmanship and his pledge to cany
out the goals of the "Contract With
America," he and other members made
clear they were opposed to indiscrimi-
nate budget-cutting.
In what some took as a thinly
veiled reference to the House Bud-
get Committee, which will take the
lead in outlining the Republicans
long-term budget goals, Livingston
said that "it would be a mistake to
come up with grand numbers and
grand goals without being able to
reach them."
Fed chairman
questions math
in GOP budget
Newsday
WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan threw cold water yesterday on Republican ef-
forts to rekindle "supply-side" budgeting when government
agencies calculate the financial impact of tax and spending
proposals.
Speaking before an un-
usual joint hearing of the
Senate and House budget
committees, Greenspan
warned that inflation and in-
terest rates might rise if the
financial markets decided
that the Republican-con-
trolled Congress was using
budgetary numbers rooted in
wishful thinking rather than
in sound economics.
"The current, relatively
straightforward scoring sys-
tem has served us well,"
Greenspan said.
'The current,
relatively
straightforward
scoring system
has served us
well.'
-Alan Greenspan
Federal Reserve
chairman
Greenspan's predecessor as Fed chairman, Paul Volcker,
also warned lawmakers that they must "resist the siren song
of expediency pressed by those with other agendas" or face
the risk of higher budget deficits, soaring interest rates and
reduced prospects for savings and investment.
The issue, while arcane, is important because Republi-
cans are trying to fill large budgetary holes through what
critics say are conflicting pledges to cut taxes, increase
defense spending and balance the budget by-2002., Under
current budget law, tax cuts must be offset with spending
cuts, so the way the budget scorekeepers make their calcu-
lations has become almost as important as the tax proposals
themselves.
Current "static" methods of budgeting count most
See GOP, Page 2
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.)
outlines his proposal for a flat tax yesterday.
Middle Class Bill of Rights'
President Clinton, waging a counter-offensive on
the GOP, visits a Midwestern community college to
promote his "Middle Class Bill of Rights." Page 3.
'U' Flint campus bans smoking in facilities, vehicles
INSIDE
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