LOCAL/S TATE

The Michigan Daily -Tuesday, April 6, 1999 - 3

Computers
stolen from
research building
I Three suspects were caught stealing
computer equipment from the space
research building at 2455 Hayward
Street on Friday, according to
Department of Public Safety reports.
A custodian working in the space
research building told DPS officers he
witnessed three people loading com-
puters into a dark-colored Blazer from
the building's loading dock area.
Officers were dispatched to the site
and made contact with all three of the
subjects the custodian had spotted.
All were identified and a report for
larceny was filed. A warrant for arrest
will be sought against the subjects, the
reports state.
Bottles thrown
,from dorm window
One or more unknown subjects
trew bottles out of their West Quad
(esidence Hall rooms Friday, accord-
ing to DPS reports.
Reports state that the bottles were
thrown into the north courtyard of the
dormitory. DPS reports suggested that
the bottles may have been hurled from
one or more unknown rooms located on
first or second floor of Chicago House.
Person passes
;ut on Diag
during Hash Bash
An 18-year-old subject passed out on
the Diag during Saturday's 28th annual
Hash Bash, according to DPS reports.
Though slow to respond, the subject
liad regained consciousness and was
riot injured at the time when the inci-
dent was reported to DPS.
The subject declined ambulance assis-
tance from DPS officers. The subject had
not eaten all day and believed that may
have been the cause of passing out. The
subject's friends gave him candy.
Fire hose turned
*oon in East Quad
An unknown subject turned on a fire
'hose in East Quad Residence Hall on
Friday, according to DPS reports. A caller
Oreported to DPS that the hose contained
water, but there was no damage to the
cabinet or the floor around the fire hose.
Officers were dispatched to the
scene and met with the caller who was
accompanied by East Quad mainte-
nance staff members. The officers said
the fire hose would be drained.
Student harassed
+y false e-mails
A student has been receiving harass-
ing and fraudulent e-mails from an
unknown subject in East Quad, DPS
reports state. The subject has been
impersonating one of the student's rela-
tives and has been repeatedly sending
unwanted mail to the student.
DPS officers met with the student who
has been receiving the e-mail messages at
DPS offices located on Church Street.
Crowd refuses to
Heave after movie
A large crowd of people would not

leave the Edward Henry Kraus
Building after a movie showing Friday,
according to DPS reports. A worker at
the building requested assistance from
DPS to disperse the crowd.
People were standing in the building
waiting to get an autograph from an
actor who had attended the showing.
When DPS officers reached the
scene they found only a few people in
the area. The attendant had no further
problems and closed the building.
West Quad
adviser harassed
Two subjects were yelling obscenities
at a resident adviser on duty in the
@Thompson house of West Quad
Residence Hall. The subjects were last
seen in the Lloyd-Winchell courtyard
yelling at the RA through a window. The
duo was allegedly yelling anti-gay slurs.
= Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Avram S. Turkel.

Media told to give up MSU riot footage

By Charles Robinson
The State News
EAST LANSING (U-WIRE) - East Lansing police have ordered
several area media organizations to surrender materials identifying
participants in Michigan State University's weekend riot.
Area TV stations have been issued search warrants, and the
Lansing State Journal has been subpoenaed for property including
photos, news footage and notes regarding the riot.
A subpoena requires the recipient to show up at a given place and
time, presenting information and/or requested items. A warrant
allows police to enter a location and seize materials they deem
important to the case.
"They have asked us for all of our tape,"WILK News Director Kevin
Ragan said. "We certainly want to be good citizens, and we certainly
want to cooperate with the investigation, but there is also some freedom
of the press issues that we have to be concerned with"
East Lansing has set up an Investigative Task Force to help identify
those who took part in the March 27 riots. The city has established a
Web site, www.ci.east-lansing.mi.us/Riot/home.htn, which people can
use to identify suspects and give police tips.
As of 9 a.m. Thursday, the site had received at least 4,500 page
views. A page view is recorded each time an Internet user looks at a
Webpage.
East Lansing police also report 180 phone tips. One of the 19 peo-

ple featured on the site has been identified.
WILK, MSYM, WLNS and WLAJ have been asked to relinquish
materials.
The East Lansing Police Department has issued warrants to the
East Lansing Meijer, 1350 W Lake Lansing Road, for riot-related
photographs, said East Lansing police Lt. Thomas Johnstone.
Police also seized three rolls of film taken by two other people,
Johnstone said. He said those photos included one showing a man
standing on the hood of a DeWitt Township police car with one
foot up, preparing to kick in the windshield. That car was later set
on fire.
The State News has not received a subpoena for materials related to
the riot.
WLAJ news director Joe Parker said the station will cooperate
with authorities, turning over all footage taken by the station during
the riot.
"I don't see it as a problem seeing as (the riot) happened out in the
public and the big city," Parker said. "As a news organization, we're
nowhere near being separate from the community. I don't think you
need to make the distinction between 'Am I journalist or a commu-
nity member?' We're both every day"
After speaking with the station's attorney, Ragan said WILK only
will surrender riot footage that has been aired by the station. Unaired
footage will not be turned over to the police, Ragan said.

"There is a federal statute which prohibits the execution of a
search warrant on news organizations in circumstances such as this,"
said John Ronayne, WILK's attorney, and counsel for the Michigan
Association of Broadcasters.
Ronayne also has served as counsel for The State News.
Don Hudson, managing editor of the Lansing State Journal, said
the newspaper has not decided whether it will turn over pictures or
notes to authorities.
"We're really not going to talk about it at this time," Hudson said.
"It's in the hands of our attorney right now."
The number of photographs taken by the police is unknown,
Johnstone said. Police have been seizing photographs since Monday,
he said.
"If there is video or photographs out there the police department
becomes aware of with a possible suspect, we will actively seek that
evidence, Johnstone said.
Charles Hill, Associated Press chief for Michigan, said at least one
freelance photographer experienced difficulties with getting his film
developed at Meijer.
"One freelance photographer who covered the riot and has done
work for the Associated Press reported that his film was seized at
Meijer last night," Hill said. "In this case, we're not challenging the
legality of the seizure, but we are going to ask that the negatives are
returned."

De-stress through defense

Ameritech to sell cellular
business for $. billion

CHICAGO (AP) - Ameritech
Corp., hoping to merge with SBC
Communications, is selling nearly half
of its cellular phone interests to GTE
Corp., a company that itself is seeking
to merge with Bell Atlantic Corp.
The $3.27 billion cash deal is the lat-
est in an industrywide consolidation of
phone companies that comes as they
scramble to provide a nationwide array
of services for large corporate cus-
tomers, analysts said yesterday.
"SBC-Ameritech and Bell Atlantic-
GTE are gathering assets to compete
with the AT&Ts and MCI Worldeoms
of the world," A.G. Edwards analyst
Joseph Eshoo said. "It's coming down
to four large international telecom car-
riers who will be competing aggressive-
ly for the best customers."
The deal would make a combined
Bell Atlantic-GTE the leading U.S.
wireless carrier in terms of subscribers,
bringing in 1.7 million Ameritech cus-
tomers from the Chicago, St. Louis and
northwestern Indiana areas.
AT&T and Sprint PCS, however, are
the only carriers that currently offer
nationwide cellular service.
The deal also would provide GTE with
a large Midwestern customer base in
which to make future offerings of such
expanded services as local, long-distance
and Internet access, analysts noted.
A minority-owned investment com-
pany, Georgetown Partners, also has a 7

percent stake in the acquisition of the
properties, which will keep the
Ameritech name for an undisclosed
period of time.
Some 1,700 Ameritech employees
would be transferred to GTE under
terms of the deal, which is contingent
upon regulatory clearance of an SBC-
Ameritech combination.
The Justice Department recently
gave the green light to SBC's takeover
of rival Ameritech with the provision
that one of the companies divest over-
lapping properties in areas where a
merger would give the combined com-
pany overwhelming market dominance.
But last week, the government's top
telecommunications regulator said he
has "serious concerns" about the deal,
which would create the nation's largest
local phone company.
Federal Communications
Commission Chair Bill Kennard sent
letters to SBC and Ameritech on
Thursday asking to hold talks this
month to explore "whether it would be
possible to craft conditions" address-
ing his concerns.
"This sale demonstrates that the
SBC-Ameritech merger will bring
substantial new competition into the
Midwest (and) broaden the owner-
ship of these properties to include
greater diversity from the communi-
ty," Ameritech chief executive
Richard Notebaert said yesterday.

Still, critics noted the cellular divesti-
ture would have little, if any, effect in the
short-term on competition. Existing
Ameritech customers would transfer to
the new GTE entity, which has yet to be
named, and the number of wireless carri-
ers in the region would remain the same.
But Irving, Texas-based GTE said
the acquisition funded through 25
percent equity and 75 percent debt
would give a combined Bell Atlantic-
GTE 13 million cellular customers
and a presence in two-thirds of the
largest U.S. markets. That would lower
charges for making calls out of region,
called roaming charges, and help
reduce other costs, company Chief
Financial Officer Dan O'Brien said.
"These properties will both
enhance our ability to bundle prod-
ucts and services in areas where we
also offer local phone service and
facilitate expansion into the local
phone markets in key Midwest cities
such as Chicago and St. Louis,"
GTE Chairman Charles Lee said.
Chicago-based Ameritech and San
Antonio-based SBC announced their
intent to merge last May.
The proposed merger, now worth
more than $60 billion, has the approval
of shareholders from both companies, as
well as the support of key unions.
The deal also must be cleared by the
Illinois Commerce Commission and the
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

JESSICA JOHNSON/Daily
LSA junior Marina Lemberg performs a move on her sister, LSA first-year
student Olga Lemberg, demonstrating how the body is harder to move when
relaxed during MSAs self defense class at the Michigan Union last night.
F'end of murder
victim testifies

PONTIAC (AP) - A friend of a gay
man who was fatally shot after taping a
segment on same-sex crushes on "The
Jenny Jones Show" testified in a $50
million lawsuit yesterday that the show
urged her to hide the truth about the
topic.
Donna Riley introduced Scott
Amedure and Jonathan Schmitz in
January 1995. The three friends
appeared two months later on a taping
of the show, but only Riley and
Amedure knew the topic was "same-
sex crushes," she testified.
Schmitz, who has said he is heterosex-
ual, had been invited on the show to meet
a secret admirer. "They told us not to let
John know what was going on," Riley
said in Oakland County Circuit Court
yesterday morning. "I didn't really think
about it. I didn't let myself think about it."
But an attorney for the show said in his
opening statement that Schmitz knew his
secret admirer could be either a man or a
woman and that his clients were not
responsible for Amedure's death.
James Feeney, who represents the
program, said that during a preshow
interview, Schmitz told representatives
of the show that he had "no clue" who
his secret admirer was, but seemed rel-
atively unconcerned when told it could
be a man.
"I'll say thanks, but no thanks,"
Feeney quoted Schmitz as telling the
show's representative. "It would be a
disappointment, but don't worry, I'll be
OK." Feeney also has said that testimo-
ny would show that Schmitz continued
being amiable with Amedure even after
the show.

After the show, Amedure, Schmitz
and Riley rode together to the airport in
Chicago, flew home to Michigan on the
same flight, went to a bar that night and
hung out at Riley's apartment after the
bar closed.
Schmitz shot Amedure in Oakland
County three days later.
Amedure's family filed the $50 mil-
lion wrongful death suit against the show,
its distributor and producer, alleging the
show's "ambush" tactics humiliated
Schmitz and drove him to the March
1995 shooting.
In 1996, Schmitz was convicted of
Amedure's murder, but the verdict was
overturned due to an error injury selec-
tion. His retrial is pending.
Riley denied that she was trying to
"set-up" Amedure and Schmitz or was
trying to arrange a meeting between the
two.
She also testified that the day. of the
shooting, someone from the show
called and asked if she would appear
with Jones on some form of disclaimer.
She declined. "It had already caused his
death. Why would I want to appear on
another show? I wanted no part of it,"
Riley testified.
Her cross-examination was post-
poned so the defense could put a pro-
fessor who had testified last Thursday
back on the stand.
In testimony Thursday, Maryaltani
Karpos, a University of Miami profes-
sor of criminology, and sociology, said
she warned representatives of "The
Jenny Jones Show" about the dangers
of shock themes nearly a year before
Amedure was killed.

MORE THAN 40,000 SERVED DAILY.


Correction:
! Last weekend's Hash Bash was the 28th annual event. This was incorrectly reported in yesterday's Daily.

Whhat's happening 'in Ann Aor this weekend
1WMichael Ondaatie," Sponsored [Q Northwalk, 763-W

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