The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, October 29, 2012 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, October 29, 2012 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Dozens attend
Detroit vigil amid
crime worries
Dozens of people concerned
about possible recent attacks on
women turned out for a candle-
light vigil at a southwest Detroit
park despite assurances from
police that their worries are
unfounded.
The Detroit News reports the
vigil took place Thursday night at
Patton Park.
Area resident Becky Dorie says
they're "hoping to get our streets
back." She says she's joined in
almost nightly patrols of the area
with a community group.
Southwest District police
Commander John Serta says he's
been "trying to put down" recent
rumors of multiple attacks on
women.
IOWA CITY
1977 killing: Were
suspects framed?
Two black men wrongly con-
victed in the 1977 murder of a
white Iowa police officer hope to
prove something they couldn't
during trials that sent them to
prison for 25 years: that detectives
framed them to solve a high-pro-
file case.
During a civil trial that starts
Wednesday in Des Moines, Terry
Harrington and Curtis McGhee
will argue that Council Bluffs
police officers coerced witness-
es into fabricating testimony
against them in the killing of John
Schweer.
Schweer was found dead while
working as the night watchman
at a car dealership. Harrington
and McGhee, then teenagers from
neighboring Omaha, Neb., say
detectives used threats against a
group of young black car theft sus-
pects to trump up evidence target-
ing them because of their race and
pressure to solve the retired cap-_
tain's killing.
RAMALLAH, West Bank
Palestinians look
for UN recognition
next month
The Palestinian president is
moving forward with his plan to
seek upgraded observer status at
the United Nations next month,
despite American and Israeli
threats of financial or diplomatic
retaliation, officials said Sunday.
The decision sets the stage for
a new showdown between Israel
and the Palestinians at the world
body, followinglast year's attempt
by the Palestinians to seek status
as a full member state. Although
that initiative failed to pass the
U.N. Security Council, it caused
months of diplomatic tensions
with Israel.
"We will go to the U.N. regard-
less of any threats," said Taw-
fik Tirawi, a senior member of
President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah
movement. "I expect the Israelis
to take punitive measures against
us, if we win this status, but this is
our choice and we will not retract
it."
BAGHDAD
Iraq searches plane
bound for Syria
Iraqi authorities forced an
Iranian cargo plane heading to
Syria to land for inspection in
Baghdad to ensure it was not car-
rying weapons, an Iraqi official
said Sunday.
It was the second such forced
landing this month. The plane
was released after the check.
The move appeared aimed at
easing U.S. concerns that Iraq
has become a route for shipments
of Iranian military supplies that
might could Syrian President
Bashar Assad battle rebels in his
country's civil war.
The head of the Iraqi Civil
Aviation Authority, Nassir Ban-
dar, said the inspection took
place Saturday. The inspectors
allowed the plane to continue
its flight after they determined
there were no weapons onboard,
he said.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports
Quake strikes
Canada's coast
Sergio Romo kisses Marco Scutaro as they are sprayed with champagne in the locker room as San Francisco Giants cel-
ebrate after the Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4-3, in Game 4 of baseball's World Series Sunday.
Tigers lose World
Series in sweep
Evacuations but no
major damage in
B.C.
VANCOUVER, British
Columbia (AP) - A magnitude
7.7 earthquake struck off the
west coast of Canada, but there
were no reports of major dam-
age. Residents in parts of British
Columbia were evacuated, but
the province appeared to escape
the biggest quake in Canada
since 1949 largely unscathed.
The U.S. Geological Survey
said the powerful temblor hit
the Queen Charlotte Islands just
after 8 p.m. local time Saturday
at a depth of about 3 miles (5
kilometers) and was centered 96
miles (155 kilometers) south of
Masset, British Columbia. It was
felt across a wide area in Brit-
ish Columbia, both on its Pacific
islands and on the mainland.
"It looks like the damage
and the risk are at a very low
level," said Shirley Bond, British
Columbia's minister responsible
for emergency management said.
"We're certainly grateful."
The Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center lifted its tsunami advi-
sory for Hawaii Sunday morn-
ing just before 4 a.m. local time,
three hours after downgrading
from a warning and less than six
hours after the waves first hit the
islands.
Meanwhile, the National
Weather Service canceled tsu-
nami advisories for Canada,
Alaska, Washington, Oregon and
California.
Tsunami Warning Center
officials said wave heights were
diminishing in Hawaii, though
swimmers and boaters should
be careful of strong or unusual
currents. The biggest waves -
about 5 feet (1.5 meters)high -
appeared to hit Maui.
There were no immediate
reports of damage, though one
person died in a fatal crash near
a road that was closed because
of the threat near Oahu's north
shore.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrom-
bie said the state was lucky to
avoid more severe surges.
"We're very, very gratefulthat
we can go home tonight count-
ing our blessings," Abercrombie
said.
Dennis Sinnott of the Cana-
dian Institute of Ocean Science
said a 69-centimeter (27 inch)
wave was recorded off Langara
Island on the northeast tip of
Haida Gwaii, formerly called the
Queen Charlotte Islands. The
islands are home to about 5,000
people, many of them members
of the Haida aboriginal group.
Another 55 centimeter (21 inch)
wave hit Winter Harbour on the
northeast coast of Vancouver
Island.
Canada's largest earthquake
since 1700 was an 8.1 magni-
tude quake on August 22, 1949
off the coast of British Colum-
bia, according to the Canadian
government's Natural Resourc-
es website. It occurred on the
Queen Charlotte Fault in what
the department called Canada's
equivalent of the San Andreas
Fault - the boundary between
the Pacific and North Ameri-
can plates that runs underwater
along the west coast of the Haida
Gwaii.
In 1970 a 7.4 magnitude quake
struck south of the Haida Gwaii.
The USGS said the temblor
shook the waters around British
Columbia and was followed by a
5.8 magnitude aftershock after
Giants beat Tigers,
4-3, in 10 innings to
win championship
DETROIT (AP) - Smart
pitching. Clutch hitting. Sharp
fielding. Plus an MVP Panda.
All the right elements for a
sweet World Series sweep for the
San Francisco Giants.
Nearly knocked out in the
playoffstime andtime again, and
finally pressed by the Detroit
Tigers in Game 4, Pablo Sando-
val and the Giants clinched their
second title in three seasons
Sunday night.
Marco Scutaro - who else? -
delivered one more key hit this
October, a go-ahead single with
two outs in the 10th inning that
lifted the Giants to a 4-3 win.
"Detroit probably didn't know
what it was in for," Giants gen-
eral manager Brian Sabean said.
"Our guys had a date with des-
tiny."
On a night of biting cold, stiff
breezes andsomerain,theGiants
combined the most important
elements of championship base-
ball. After three straight wins
that looked relatively easy, they
sealed this victory when Sergio
Romo got Triple Crown winner
Miguel Cabrera to look at strike
three for the final out.
"Tonight was a battle," Giants
star Buster Posey said. "And I
think tonight was a fitting way
for us to end it because those
guys played hard. They didn't
stop, and it's an unbelievable
feeling."
Posey, the only player who
was in the starting lineup when
San Francisco beat Texas in the
2010 clincher, and the underdog
Giants celebrated in the center of
the diamond at Comerica Park.
They built toward this party
all month, winning six elimina-
tion games this postseason. In
the clubhouse, they hoisted the
trophy, passed it around and
shouted the name of each player
who held it.
"World Series champions,"
Giants outfielder Hunter Pence
hollered.
Benched during the 2010
Series, Sandoval, nicknamed
Kung Fu Panda, went 8 for 16,
including a three-homer perfor-
mance in Game 1.
"You learn," Sandoval said.
"You learn from everything
that happened in your career....
We're working hard to enjoy this
moment right now."
Cabrera delivered the first
big hit for Detroit, interrupting
San Francisco's run of dominant
pitching with a two-run homer
that blew over the right-field
wall in the third.
Posey put the Giants ahead
3-2 with a two-run homer in
the sixth and Delmon Young hit
a tying home run in the bottom
half.
It then became a matchup of
bullpens, and the Giants pre-
vailed.
Ryan Theriot led off the 10th
with a single against Phil Coke,
moved up on Brandon Craw-
ford's sacrifice and scored on a
shallow single by Scutaro, the
MVP of the NL championship
series. Center fielder Austin
Jackson made a throw home, to
no avail.
"That's what makes it so
much special, the way we did
it," Scutaro said. "We're always
against the wall and my team,
it just came through first series,
second series and now we sweep
the Tigers."
Romo struck out the side in
the bottom of the 10th for his
third save of the Series.
The Giants finished the month
with seven straight wins and
their seventh Series champion-
ship. They handed the Tigers
their seventh straight World
Series loss dating to 2006.
"Obviously, there was no
doubt about it. They swept us,"
Tigers manager Jim Leyland
said. "So there was certainly no
bad breaks, no fluke.
"Simple, they did better than
we did," he said. "It was freaky.
I would have never guessed we
would have swept the Yankees
and I would have never guessed
the Giants would have swept us."
The Giants combined for a
1.42 ERA, outscored the Tigers
16-6 and held them to a .159 bat-
ting average.
"I think we never found
our confidence at home plate,"
Cabrera said. "It was not the
same game we played. We could
not find our game in the World
Series."
Execution looms for S.D.
killer, ending 22-year saga
Nanny not herself
beoekilling kid
Ortega allegedly a life in distress has begun to
emerge in the days since the kill-
stabbed two ing.
"Apparently over the last
children to death month she was not herself," said
police department spokesman
NEW YORK (AP) - Friends Paul Browne.
and relatives of Yoselyn Ortega, But relatives in Ortega's native
the NewYork Citynanny accused Dominican Republic said they
of stabbing two young children were shocked by the allegations.
to death, said she appeared to Miladys Ortega, the nanny's
be struggling emotionally and older sister in the Caribbean
financially recently. Few, though, nation, told The Associated Press
could offer any explanation for on Saturday thatcher sister "loved
what might have caused her to those children." She said the
attack the children. family felt the nanny was "unable
"She snapped," the nanny's to do that."
sister, CeliaOrtega, told The New "Yoselyn is fair, loving, loving
York Post. "We don't understand with those children. She loved
what happened to her mind." them," Ortega said at the family
Yoselyn Ortega, 50, remained home in Santiago de los Cabal-
hospitalized Saturday from self- leros, about 150 miles north of
inflicted stab wounds, including the capital, Santo Domingo. She
a deep gash to her throat. spoke as she prepared to attend
Police said Marina Krim, Mass after visiting the grave of
the Manhattan mother who their mother.
employed Ortega, returned to She said the Krims had visited
her Upper West Side apartment the Dominican Republic last Feb-
Thursday to find two of her chil- ruary with Yoselyn and stayed at
dren, ages 2 and 6, dead of knife her home in a middle-class dis-
wounds and the nanny stabbing trict of Santiago.
herself with the blade. "Those children were here,"
Yoselyn Ortega's motive Miladys Ortega said tearfully.
remains a mystery, even to those "They were happy, running,
who knew her, but a picture of playing."
Defendent spent
years appealing
Court decisions
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -
Torrential overnight rains had
washed away the blood so the
searchers at first thought the
pale form lying on the earthen
berm might be a mannequin.
"I almost didn't believe it,"
recalled former Lincoln Coun-
ty Sheriff Ken Albers, the first
officer to approach the body of
9-year-old Becky O'Connell.
"You don't mess up a crime
scene, but I had to walk over
and touch the body to convince
myself that it was real."
The shocking discovery that
night in 1990 began a 22-year
legal and emotional saga that is
expected to end Tuesday, when
Donald Moeller, who was con-
victed of abducting and murder-
ing the girl, is scheduled to be
put to death by lethal injection
in the state penitentiary.
After decades of appeals,
Moeller, 60, now accepts his
fate without protest. But the
end leaves behind a community
still marked by the crime and its
experience with capital punish-
ment.
Moeller's death sentence
in 1992 was the first handed
down in South Dakota in 45
years. Until this month, when
the killer of a prison guard was
executed, there had been only
one other execution in the state
since the 1940s.
The child's mother, Tina Curl,
plans to drive the 1,400 miles
back to Sioux Falls from her
native New York state to watch
Moeller take his last breath. She
didn't have the money for the
trip but did fundraising events
to pay her way.
"I'm looking forward to it,"
said Curl, who said she fell into
alcoholism after her daughter's
death. "All this is just bringing
what I tried to push way in the
back, back up front."
Some residents said the mur-
der changed how they felt about
their city, where violent crime is
rare.
"It's just like society as a
whole just kind of tightened up
for a long time," said Jeff Mas-
ten, the former Lincoln County
state's attorney who prosecuted
the case, and who later changed
careers because of the strain of
criminal law.
LaVonne Martley, a juror,
said she knew the execution
would bring the case back into
the public spotlight - "and I've
dreaded it." But she has never
questioned the outcome. "He
definitely did it," she said.
Curl thought she was escap-
ing the dangers of big-city life
when she moved her family in
1990 from New York to Sioux
Falls, a well-kept, medium-size
city along the Big Sioux River
that serves as a market center
for the sprawling expanse of
farmland where South Dako-
ta, Iowa and Minnesota come
together. Homicides happen,
but not many - about a half
dozen a year, most involving
people who know each other,
and where there is no mystery
to solve.
On May 8, 1990, Becky, a
fourth-grader who lived with
her mother and stepfather in a
Sioux Falls mobile home, began
walking a couple of blocks to
Omer's Market to buy sugar
to make lemonade. She never
returned.
Authorities say Moeller, a
felon with a history of assaults
who lived nearby, lured the
brown-haired girl into his truck
and drove her to a wooded area
near the Iowa state line, where
he raped her, stabbed her and
left her to bleed to death.
Moeller was interviewed
shortly after the killing but
disappeared before investiga-
tors could follow up. Detec-
tives later tracked him down
in Tacoma, Wash., and brought
him back for trial. He was con-
victed in September 1992 based
on DNA and circumstantial evi-
dence. The trial, with detailed
and graphic displays on how
the child was killed, devastated
the community, but the ordeal
wasn't over: The verdict was
overturned by the South Dakota
Supreme Court because of the
mention of past crimes during
testimony.
With a new trial ordered in
1996, the horror of the grue-
some killing was relived, and
lingered for years longer.