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-DNA test may tie suspect to serial rapes
First DNA probes
reportedly match
DNA profile of
suspect in 5 rapes
By FRANK C. LEE
Daily Staff Reporter
Preliminary DNA test results have
linked a local man with a series of
Ann Arbor rapes, according to pub-
lished reports.
Mexico
* looks for
U.S. help
with peso
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Mexico's fi-
onancial markets rallied from two days
of heavy losses yesterday after Presi-
dent Clinton declared the United
States stands ready to extend addi-
tional financial assistance to help sta-
bilize its southern neighbor's battered
economy.
Clinton, pronouncing the precipi-
tous tumble of the peso a "short-term
crisis," said he is prepared to raise the
$9 billion credit line Mexico has with
the Treasury and will consider ex-
tending the period for repayment of
that money from the current six
months. "We may have more to say
specifically in the days ahead,"
Clinton said.
"The United States is committed
to doing what we can to help Mexico
through what I believe is and should
be a short-term crisis," Clinton told a
*news conference following a White
House meeting with Japanese Prime
Minister Tomiichi Murayama. "I have
confidence in the long-term future of
Mexico. ... It is in America's eco-
nomic and strategic interest that
Mexico succeeds."
Robert E. Rubin, who was sworn
in as Treasury secretary Tuesday
night, spent much of his first day on
the job consulting with lawmakers
about the situation in Mexico, ac-
cording to sources familiar with the
conversations.
Clinton also called on the world's
multilateral development banks to
provide additional financial support
for Mexico.
The World Bank dispatched 30
officials to Mexico to discuss terms
of possible financial assistance and to
0provide technical expertise in the sale
of state-owned enterprises.
Mexico's main stock index,
known as the Bolsa, plummeted
more than 5 percent in early trading,
then turned upward after the presi-
dential palace in Mexico City re-
leased a transcript of Clinton's re-
marks at the White House. The mar-
ket ended the day up 55.54 points,
*or 2.82 percent, at 2027.87 after
losing more than 190 points- 12.5
percent of its value - Monday and
Tuesday.
At one point, traders said, the
government's domestic development
bank intervened and bought stocks in
an effort to ensure that the market
closed in the plus column.
The peso also registered slight
gains after dropping Tuesday to 5.8 to
*the U.S. dollar on international ex-
changes. Yestersday it closed at an
average 5.65.
The first two DNA probes of Ervin
D. Mitchell Jr.'s blood sample report-
edly matched the DNA profile of a
man believed to have raped five
women. One of the attacks resulted in
a homicide.
Sgt. Phil Scheel, spokesman for
the Ann Arbor Police Department,
said the police are waiting for more
conclusive probes to be done before
formally charging Mitchell with the
sexual assaults.
Eight more DNA probes will be
run on the sample at the Michigan
State Police Crime Lab in East Lan-
sing. With each successive probe, the
likelihood that the DNA from the
crime scenes is Mitchell's greatly in-
creases.
"(Lab technicians) break the DNA
down so much at each step or each
probe of the testing," Scheel said.
"Generally, the first two probes can
be done in two to three weeks. Then it
takes 10 days to two weeks for each
successive probe after that.
"To get through the whole process
of six, seven, eight probes - or how-
ever far they can break down a par-
ticular sample -- can take several
weeks, even three or four months."
Dr. David Ginsberg, an internal
medicine and human genetics profes-
sor and a University DNA expert,
said such evidence alone can lead to a
conviction in court.
"In rape cases, (DNA analysis)
has been a particularly effective tool
because rapists generally tend to leave
behind a sample of their own DNA,"
Ginsberg said. "Semen is basically
just a bag of DNA. It's a very good
source of DNA."
DNA samples of that sort are dif-
ficult to leave behind in an innocuous
way, Ginsberg said. "When the se-
men sample is there, it's a little bit
See MATCH, Page 2
Suspect Timeline
Oct. 13 --Last reported rape;
police obtain best known
description of suspect:
Dec. 24 - Woman is assaulted
and robbed in same pattern of
earlier rapes; attacker flees
Dec. 25 - Ervin D. Mitchell Jr. is
arrested in connection with
robbery and assault charges.
Jan. 11 - Preliminary tests
match Mitchell's DNA with
samples found at previous
crime scenes
"cancer can be overcome... No matter what adversity people face
they can go on and lead full lives."
-LS A senior Mike Petrilli
Chechen leader
emerges, calls
for peace talks
Los Angeles Times
KHASAVYURT, Russia -- Con-
founding a claim by Russian intelli-
gence that he "no longer exists," the
president of secessionist Chechnya
reappeared from hiding in his war-
racked capital yesterday and declared
that neither the Russian army nor his
guerrillas can win the month-old con-
flict.
Gen. Dzokhar Dudayev, looking
pale and tired but spirited, called again
for peace talks and said he is willing
to recognize that the Kremlin has le-
gitimate interests in this Caucasus
Mountain region. But he offered no
new proposal and gave no sign of
bowing to Moscow's demands that he
drop his tiny Muslim republic's 3-
year-old claim of independence and
disarm his rebels.
Dudayev's 15-minute news con-
ference in the heavily guarded cafete-
ria of an oil-refinery workers' clinic
on the edge of Grozny, the Chechen
capital, was the most dramatic event
on a day of anti-war posturing in the
Russian Parliament and unease in the
Kremlin over the Russian army's bun-
gling of the campaign.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
met with his prime minister and lead-
ers of both houses of Parliament, and
they discussed removing Gen. Pavel
Grachev as commander of the army's
general staff while leaving him in the
post of defense minister.
The talk of slashing Grachev's
powers was the first sign of what may
be a long process of official recrimi-
nations over the invasion of Chechnya.
While so far failing to capture Grozny,
the campaign has cost the Russian
army hundreds of lives, scores of tanks
and whatever was left of its super-
power prestige. One Russian law-
maker just back from Grozny esti-
mated 1,500 Russian army dead -
six times the official army estimate.
Yeltsin's office announced that
the Kremlin meeting also produced
agreement to investigate how half the
weapons in Chechnya that belonged
to the former Soviet armed forces had
been handed over to Dudayev in 1992.
Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, the last So-
viet defense minister, asserted this
week that Grachev had ordered the
turnover.
So far, Yeltsin has remained loyal
to Grachev and his other security min-
isters, prompting the president's crit-
ics to charge that they pushed him
See CHECHNYA, Page 2
GOP passes first
major. le0gislation
MICHAEL FITZHUGH/Daily
Mike Petrilli plans to travel across the country as part of Pi Kappa Phi's Journey of Hope.
Sdee t
Student ndes blike for chanty
By JENNIFER HARVEY
Daily Staff Reporter
Lots of University students ride
bikes. Some ride to class in Angell
Hall, some ride to Zingerman's for
lunch. Some, like LSA senior Mike
Petrilli, ride from San Francisco to
Charleston, South Carolina.
Beginning June 11, Petrilli will
be cycling to raise money in the 8th
annual Journey of Hope, a 63-day
bicycle trek to benefit PUSH
America.
"i'm excited by the challenge of
it," Petrilli said.
PUSH America, a non-profit or-
abilities, was founded by Pi Kappa
Phi Fraternity, in which Petrilli is a
brother.
The Journey of Hope is not the
first challenge that Petrilli has faced
in his life. During his senior year of
high school, he was diagnosed with
cancer.
Petrilli endured heavy chemo-
therapy and multiple hospitalizations.
Although he came close to death on
several occasions, Petrilli was deter-
mined to beat his disease.
Petrilli has made a full physical
recovery. Indeed, he has begun train-
ing for the grueling bike trek.
Currently, Petrilli works out for
about an hour every day. He will be
increasing his training as the trip
approaches. He hopes that by April,
he will be able to ride outside for a
couple hours each day.
"By May, my training will be
really intense," Petrilli said.
In addition to training and at-
tending classes, Petrilli serves as
the president of University Students
Against Cancer. He also recently
co-founded Project Smile, a group
dedicated to making the University
more friendly.
PUSH America helps children
and adults with disabilities in a va-
See BIKE, Page 2
Workplace rules sail
through; other parts
of Contract for
America stalled
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Senate
last night approved on a bipartisan
vote the first major initiative of the
Republican-led 104th Congress: a bill
to force the House and Senate to com-
ply with the anti-discrimination, safety
and other workplace rules they im-
pose on other employers.
The vote was 98 to 1, with Sen.
Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) casting the
only dissenting vote.
The House already has approved
similar legislation, and Rep. Christo-
pher Shays (R-Conn.), chief sponsor
of the House version, said the bill will
be on President Clinton's desk by the
end of the month. Clinton has said he
will sign the measure. The House
could either accept the Senate version
or resolve minor differences in a con-
ference.
The bill was part of the list of
Republican campaign promises that
helped the party take control of both
houses in the Nov. 8 elections. But
two other promises - the constitu-
tional amendment to balance the bud-
get and term limits for members of
Congress - ran into trouble in the
House.
While the 36,000 employees of
Congress and its agencies already are
covered to some extent by many of
the laws, the legislation is being touted
by GOP leaders as emblematic of the
new majority party's intention to over-
haul Congress and end what they have
decried as the privileged status of
members.
No longer will there be "two sets
of laws - one for Capitol Hill and
one for the rest of the country; one for
Pennsylvania Ave, D.C., and another
for Main Street, U.S.A.," said Sen.
Charles S. Grassley (R-lowa), the
bill's chief sponsor in the Senate.
See SENATE, Page 2
ganization serving
people with dis-
m
'U' employees may
file suit on basis of
*racial harassment
By JOSH WHITE
Daily Staff Reporter
As part of a plan to fight what they call "racism" at the
University, three Dental School employees are preparing
INSIDE
Blue ekes out 2 OT
victory over Hawks
WEEKEND ETC.
Check out an interview with
Changing Faces, the duo
responsible for the hit single
"Stroke You Up."
NEWS
3
By PAUL BARGER
Daily Basketball Writer
Wednesday night's wish list was
very lengthy and ambitious.
The Michigan men's basketball
allows us to say that we're better than
how we've been playing. It was a
great team victory for Michigan."
It was quite apparent for most of
the second half that the game would
Michigan's Legislature kicked
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