LOCAL/STATF
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 30, 1999 - 3
Police searching
for missing
autistic man
"he Ann Arbor Police Department is
asking for any tips in locating a 22
year-old autistic male last seen in the
400 block of Washington St. yesterday
at about 10 a.m.The man, Jeffrey
Beauchamp, is white, six feet tall and
weighs 180 pounds. When last seen he
was not wearing any type of winter
clothing and was dressed in a brown
sweater, khaki pants and white
Converse tennis shoes.
n yone with information is asked to
c l AAPD Sgt. Michael Logghe at
(734) 994-1612.
South Quad exit
sign stolen
Two male subjects in South Quad
Residence Hall were issued minors in
possession citations after they were
observed ripping an exit sign off a fifth
r wall Wednesday morning,
epartment of Public Safety reports
state.
The two suspects were also reported-
ly "spitting on the floor." DPS reports
state that a warrant is being sought
against the suspects for malicious
destruction charges.
Parts from various exit signs were
reported missing throughout West
Quad Tuesday morning, but DPS
ported no connection between the
idents.
Internet camera
helps nab football
field trespassers
Five subjects were observed running
on the field at Michigan Stadium early
Wednesday morning on the stadium's
l internet camera, DPS reports state.
i1 officers made contact with three
of the five persons and cited two for
MIP citations.
Subject defecates
at Law Quad
DPS reports that an unknown person
left human waste on the loading dock at
the Law Quad last Tuesday afternoon.
The Occupational Safety and
ironmental Health department was
dispatched to the Law Quad for
cleanup.
DPS did not report having any sus-
pects in the incident.
Marijuana found
in West Quad
Suspected marijuana was seized
bye DPS officers from subjects is
it Quad Residence Hall early yes-
terday morning, DPS reports state.
Warrants are pending based on
analysis of the suspected substance
at the Michigan State Police crime
lab.
MIPs given at
Mott Hospital
Two subjects were taken into cus-
tody and served with MIP citations
*Mott Children's Hospital on
Vriday evening, DPS reports state.
TLe subjects were reportedly visit-
ing patients in the hospital and offer-
ing alcohol to other minors on the
premises.
Christmas tree
catches fire
Christmas tree on fire on the
it porch of a Church Street home
Wednesday morning was extin-
guished by DPS officers, DPS reports
state. It was not clear how the fire
began.
No report was filed.
Dental student
threatens to
steal textbook
graduate student at the Dental
School reportedly threatened to
remove a textbook from the school's
library on Nov. 3, DPS reports state.
At the time, the student was urged to
leave the book and complied, but the
next day the book was discovered
missing.
DPS is investigating the incident.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Dave Enders.
Abercrombie to check ID or catalog
By Nick Bunkley
Daily StaffReporter
Santa Claus won't be the only one checking to
see ifyou're naughty or nice this holiday season, as
Abercrombie & Fitch employees now are required
to check identification when selling "Naughty or
Nice," this month's issue of the company's quarter-
ly magazine.
The policy follows a demand by Michigan
Attorney General Jennifer Granholm that the com-
pany stop selling the S6 magazine to minors. An
investigation by Granholm's office earlier this
month revealed that employees at the Meridian
Mall store in Okemos, Mich., did not require
parental approval from underage customers
despite a mature content warning on the packag-
ing.
"When they're selling that type of material to
children as young as 10, that's a problem,"
Granholm's spokesperson Chris Dewitt said.
"They did no checking of any parenisI consnt for
children to buy these things"
The magazine, which last year printed a citure
called "Binge Drinking 101," cotins nude pho-
tos and an interview with a pedoplile sorking as
a shopping mall Santa Claus impersonator, Dewitt
said.
"It's designed to get attention" Dewitt said.
"Clearly that's what the company was trying to do.
They knew that they were going to push the enve-
lope so they would gain more attention than they
normally would."
Hampton Carney, a spokesperson for
Reynoldsburg, Ohio-based Abercrombie & Fitch,
said shrink-wrap packaging and a warning sticker
were instituted last year to prevent in-store brows-
ing.
"This is adult stuff. We've said that from the
beginning," Carney said. "You can't walk into an
Abercrombie & Fitch store and flip through the
quarterly. It has to be purchased"
Detroit radio station WJR-AM 760 contacted
Giinholm after listeners called to complain about
the explicit content of the magazine. In a Nov. 19
intersiew with morning show personality Paul W.
Smith, Granholm called the quarterly "Playboy for
Kids"'
"The pictures are kind of like Playboy but the
writing is kind of like Hustler or worse," Smith
said,
In response to Granholm's complaint, Carney
said, the company has agreed to establish nation-
wide guidelines for selling the quarterly magazine.
"We will be carding every single person who
wants to buy a copy of our quarterly," he said.
"They could be 75 and we'll still ask for ID."
Carney said the 300-page magazine, which
debuted in August 1997, is designed for 18- to 22-
year-olds, the store's primary customers, as a mag-
azine rather than a store catalog.
"\\ C1e sas it's almost comintiental that clothes are
fotr sale in the iuirterl ihe said. "It' sour main
ss ol cottminicIting ss it our cure customers:
Abercrombie & Vitch's \\ehsIse calls the com-
pass's line of clothes "the lifestyle for kids 7 to
14."
LSA first-year student Demoree Fritz, who
recently purchased the holiday issue of the
Abercrombie & Fitch quiirterl, said it seemed
very risque.
"I wouldn't want my little brother looking at it"
Fritz said.
Fritz said the design of the magazine sug-
gests it is meant to promote the company's
products.
"If they have an order form in it, it would be to
order clothes, not for the words:' she said.
Managers at both Okemos and Ann Arbor stores
directed all inquiries about the quarterly to the
company's headquarters
I I
Judge to rule on Dow
Coming's bankruptcy pa
BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - After
four years of legal wrangling, Dow
Corning Corp. should learn today
whether a judge accepts its bankrupt-
cy reorganization plan that includes a
S3.2 billion settlement over silicone
breast implants the company no
longer makes.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur
Spector's ruling comes four months
after his hearings on the Midland-based
company's S4.5 billion plan to emerge
from bankruptcy, sought after thou-
sands of women sued over implants.
Spector has said his ruling would
focus on one the settlement's most con-
tentious parts - a provision barring
further lawsuits against Dow Corning's
corporate parents - Dow Chemical
Co. and Corning Corp. - over silicone
breast implants. He also said he will
consider the settlement's ban on puni-
tive damages.
The implants settlement provides
S3.2 billion to settle claims from
170,000 women who say their
implants caused various illnesses. The
bankruptcy plan also includes SI.3 bil-
lion to settle other claims, including
those from creditors and health-care
organizations.
Yesterday, Dow Corning spokesper-
son T. Michael Jackson said the compa-
ny believed Spector would confirm the
bankruptcy plan and implant settle-
ment, the latter already approved by 94
percent of 112,774 women in the case.
Beyond that, Jackson said, "I would-
n't want to speculate at all" about what
Spector might rule, including possible
blanket or partial approval of the reor-
ganization plan.
"It would be difficult not to approve
the plan," he said. "It's anticipated the
plan will be confirmed."
Objectors to the plan include 50
women with implants from Nevada,
where that state's Supreme Court has
upheld a civil decision against Dow
Chemical. Geoffrey White, a lawyer
for those women, argues the settle-
ment takes away their right to sue,
making it "patently illegal and uncon-
stitutional'
"We're hopeful, based on (Spector's)
comments throughout the (July) hear-
ing, that he either rejects the plan
despite the momentum behind it or
carves out the Nevadans from the plan,"
White said.
White said a Spector ruling unfavor-
able to his clients would prompt his
appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Cincinnati, then to the U.S.
Supreme Court if necessary.
His question: "Does Judge Spector
have the power to approve the plan that
in one fell swoop wipes out (his
clients') constitutional rights?"
Kenneth Eckstein, a lead attorney
for the bulk of U.S. women who
sued Dow Corning, did not immedi-
ately return a telephone message left
yesterday.
Dow Corning, which no longer
makes silicone breast implants,
declared bankruptcy in 1995 after thou-
sands of women sued over implants
they said made them sick.
According to a settlement worked out
between the company and attorneys for
many of the women, those who blame
illnesses on Dow Corning silicone
breast implants could get between
$12,000 and S300,000 each. Women
also can get up to $25,000 for ruptured
or leaking implants, and up to 55,000
for implant removal.
Women who have no problems with
their Dow Corning implants but still
filed claims against the company also
can settle for 52,000 with no questions
asked. The plan lets women file claims
for 15 years after it goes into effect.
And it covers claims for women
whose implants were made by other
companies but filled with Dow Coming
silicone gel.
The plan also provides a pool of up to
$400 million for individual claims,
allowing women who choose to reject
the offer to file lawsuits on their own.
Dow Corning estimates about
179,000 women around the world are
covered under the settlement.
JESSicA JOHNSON/Dai/y
Michael Schneider, a Biology professor at the University's Dearborn
campus, swims laps at the Central Campus Recreation Building
yesterday.
Roche left no note
befre ting own
READ THE DAILY ONLINE AT WWWichigandaily.com
life at Hill
HILLSDALE, Mich. (AP) - The
daughter-in-law of Hillsdale College's
former president left no note when she
committed suicide last month, but a
police report released yesterday indi-
cates she was despondent over an affair
she allegedly had with her father-in-
law.
The report also reveals that 41-year-
old Lissa Roche was considering a
divorce from George Roche III's son,
George IV, and had briefly resigned from
her position as editor of a Hillsdale pub-
lication a month before her suicide.
"I have been such an object in the
college community for many years
now," she wrote in a Sept. 8 resignation
letter. "I just want this to be as private
as possible, and, most of all, I don't
want to have to answer any questions."
The alleged affair rocked the tiny cam-
pus, which Roche had transformed into a
conservative powerhouse during the last
28 years. Roche, who abruptly retired
Nov. 10, has denied the alleged affair to
his son and to the college's board of
trustees. Acting Hillsdale President
Robert Blackstock said yesterday that he
doesn't know Roche's whereabouts; the
two haven't spoken since Nov. 10.
According to the police report, which
was obtained by The Associated Press
through a Freedom Of Information Act
request, Lissa Roche called George
Roche the morning of Oct. 17 to tell
him she was going to commit suicide.
George Roche, a diabetic, was in the
hospital but had his secretary call his
son to tell him about Lissa Roche's
threat. George Roche IV, a Hillsdale
professor, left a class and went home
to speak with Lissa Roche, who
demanded they go to the hospital.
George Roche IV told police Lissa
sdale
Roche repeatedly threatened to kill
herself on the way to the hospital,
prompting him to ask a nurse for the
names of some counselors. Once they
were in Roche's room, Lissa Roche
told her husband, George Roche IV
and Roche's new wife that she and
Roche had an affair.
After George Roche IV and Lissa
Roche returned home, Lissa Roche
suggested that George Roche IV go to
his grandmother's home to check on
her. When George Roche IV returned,
Lissa Roche had gone to a gazebo
behind their home and shot herself in
the head with a revolver from the fami-
ly's gun case. George Roche IV told
police that he, Lissa Roche and the
couple's son all had keys to the gun
case.
At first, George Roche IV told police
Lissa Roche had been "despondent for a
while over family matters," particularly
George Roche III's recent divorce and
remarriage. In a later interview, George
Roche IV admitted that Lissa Roche was
upset about the alleged affair.
George Roche IV told police he had
never heard Lissa Roche threaten sui-
cide until that day, but that she had been
agitated for some time. "During the last
month, Lissa had really changed. Lissa
had become very flighty and
depressed," the police report said,
attributing the comments to George
Roche IV
While searching Lissa Roche's com-
puter for a suicide note, police also dis-
covered a resignation letter she had sent
to college officials.
George Roche IV told police that
Lissa Roche left him in early October,
but had moved back home and was
attempting to work things out.
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
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