The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, June 5, 1984 - Page 5
Defense wants Faber trial moved
By MICHAEL BEAUDOIN
Judge Ross Campbell considered a petition for a
change of location in the trial of Ricardo Hart, the
alleged accomplice in the slaying of Nancy Faber, as
jury selection for the trial began yesterday.
In the Campbell's chambers before the selection
process began, Thomas Quarterman, the defense at-
torney, claimed his client couldn't get a fair trial in
Washtenaw County because of the extensive local
media coverage surrounding the case.
CAMPBELL denied Quarterman's initial request
for a change of venue, but the issue can still be raised
at any point during the trial.
"In the middle of all of this (the trial) I may still
ask for a change of venue," Quarterman said.
Quarterman also said that Judge Campbell wants
to see if an impartial jury can be found before making
any further decisions regarding the location of the
trial.
HART, 29, is charged with first-degree felony mur-
der, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm for
his part in the November 22 shooting death of Faber,
a 39-year-old speech therapist and wife of Ann Arbor
News editorial writer Don Faber.
Hart was implicated in the incident in a taped
statement given to police on December 21 by his
girlfriend, 17-year-old Machelle Pearson after her
arrest. He was questioned and finally arrested on
January 6.
Pearson was found guilty of identical charges last
Friday and faces a mandatory life sentence which
will be formally handed down by Judge Campbell on
July 6.
CLOSE TO fifty prospective jurors were seated in
Judge Campbell's courtroom yesterday morning to
begin the sometimes long process of jury selection.
Campbell instructed the panel of jurors to jury
procedure and then asked them various general
questons centering around their prior knowledge of
the Faber case. Most ofthe prospective jurors admit-
ted to some familiarity with the case.
Fourteen people were questioned individually by
Judge Campbell and both attorneys before all were
sent home for the evening. Six were discharged after
questioning yesterday.
JURY SELECTION is scheduled to continue this
morning.
During her trial, Pearson explained how she and
Hart planned to rob someone in the parking lot of the
Krogers store on Plymouth Rd.
Pearson testified that Hart picked out Faber, gave
her a gun and forced her to rob Faber. During the
robbery, Faber was shot in the neck and died three
days later of brain damage.
The prosecution said they hope to prove that Hart
"aided or abetted" Pearson in the commission of the
crime."
Detroit civil rights trial opens
DETROIT (AP) - Two men senten-
ced to probation for beating a Chinese-
American man to death with a baseball
bat face trial today on federal civil
rights charges, in a case .that
prosecutors say stemmed from
misguided anger against the Japanese
auto industry.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin
in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge
Anna Diggs Taylor in the government's
case against Ronald Ebens, 44, and his
son-in-law, Michael Nitz, 25, both of
East Detroit.
THE MEN are charged with two
counts each of violating the civil rights
of Vincent Chin of Oak Park, who died
four days after being beaten outside a
topless bar in Highland Park on June
19, 1982.
Witnesses said one assailant was a
laid-off autoworker who apparently
blamed his situation on imported cars
and thought Chin, 27, was Japanese.
"There's a serious question here
about whether race had anything to do
'There's a serious question here about
whether race had anything to do with it or if
it was a barroom brawl that spilled out into
the streets and had a tragic consequence.'
- defense attorney Frank Eaman
with it or if it was a barroom brawl that
spilled out onto the streets and had a
tragic consequence," defense lawyer
Frank Eaman said yesterday.
THE CASE attracted national atten-
tion to alleged discrimination against
Asian-Americans.
The trial was to begin in January, but
Taylor delayed it until March at the
request of defense lawyers and later
granted a second delay until today.
The case prompted protests after
Wayne County Circuit Judge Charles
Kaufman sentenced the men to three
years' probation and fined them $3,750
each on manslaughter charges.
WHEN HE sentenced the men,
Kaufman said they "are not going to go
out and harm anybody else."
The men originally were charged in
the state court with second-degree
murder, but Ebens pleaded guilty and
Nitz pleaded no contest to the lesser
charge.
The sentencing drew protests from
Detroit's Asian-American community,
and a federal grand jury indicted the
pair last Nov. 2. If convicted, Ebens and
Nitz could be sentenced to life im-
prisonment.
Their lawyers wrote U.S. Attorney
General William French Smith last
month, asking him to dismiss the
charges and investigate conduct by
American Citizens for Justice, a Royal
Oak-based civil rights group that inter-'
viewed witnesses to the attack.
"We've gotten no response, and, as
far as we know, they're going to ignore
our letter," Eaman said. He said three
wintesses had collaborated on
testimony and that American Citizens
for Justice lawyer Liza Chan had told
witnesses what to say.
Chan declined comment yesterday,
saying she just had received a court or-
der that barred her from talking about
the case.sHowever, the organization's
vice president, Dr. Marisa Chuang,
characterized the letter to Smith
earlier as "a desperation ploy by the
defense attorneys because they have no
case."
MSA continues search
for judiciary members
By DAVID VANKER
The deadline for applications for
positions on the Michigan Student
Assembly's judicial board has been ex-
tended beyond last Friday, MSA-Vice
President Steve Kaplan said yesterday.
"We're not going to discriminate
against people who didn't meet the
deadline," Kaplan said. "We'll keep in-
terviewing until we get the ten."
MSA BEGAN to solicit applications
for the ten-member "Central Student
Judiciary" during the second week of
May after Kodi Abili, an unsuccessful
candidate for president in last term's
0 Rackham Student Government elec-
tions, demanded that his
disqualification for campaigning too
close to polls be reviewed by an appeals
committee.
The CSJ, a board which hears ap-
peals and has jurisdiction over student
governments and other University
organizations, hasn't existed for two
years.
"It's hard to say there wasn't a need
Sfor it," said Kaplan, whose ad-
ministration took office in April. "It's
probably a combination of no cases,
and the, people who were on it
graduating."
"IN A WAY," Kaplan said, "it's un-
fortunate that we had to start it up for
this case." Kaplan added that he ap-
preciates Abili's patience.
Abili earlier said he would take his
case to "municipal court" if MSA could
not form the judiciary board before the
summer ends.
Yesterday, however, he said he trusts
the assembly's efforts and will continue
to wait.
"It seems they're concerned," Abili
said. "If there is no CSJ, I blame
the previous governments for not
having a justice system on campus.
As of noon yesterday, Kaplan said,
MSA had received six applications for
membership on the judicial board.
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