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Spalding grand jury recommends
that sheriff have more deputies
Popcorn is popping again. Page 8.
It was time for weeping: Sen. Dean (I) father.
Sen. Dean would cut
weekend pay of solons
ATLANTA (UPI) — Censured Sen.
Roscoe Dean, rebuked by the Senate for
his expense accounts, plans to
introduce a bill today depriving all 236
lawmakers of expense allowances for
non-business weekends during the
legislative session.
For Dean, who wound up a seven
hour Senate hearing with a frequently
emotional 100-minute speech Thursday
night, the 42-14 censure vote was the
long-expected verdict closing more
than a year of public ordeal in court and
politically.
For his parents, who sat through the
marathon hearing at Dean’s side, it was
a frustrating show of official scorn —
the first in Georgia history— for their
39-year-old bachelor son.
For Sen. Virginia Shapard of Griffin,
who authored the censure resolution on
opening day of the 1976 session, and
Pierre Howard of Decatur, who as vice
chairman handled judiciary committee
prosecution of the affair, it was public
proof that the Senate does not condone
“comer-cutting” on expense accounts.
Mrs. Shapard bristled at the
suggestion the state is wasting money
investigating Dean because his trial
costs — estimated at SIOO,OOO — and the
Senate proceedings far outstrip the
$1,424 he was accused of improperly
accepting in mileage claims.
“Since when—and I hope never — do
we proceed through the judicial process
on a costplus basis?” she asked the
Senate. “There are prisoners in
Georgia today whose trials cost more
The Country Parson
-"ESISS.
“Not all work is fun to do —
but having done it always is?’
GRIFFIN
DAI I ?t 4^NEWS
Daily Since 1872
than they were accused of stealing.
These prisoners, along with the public
in general, are thinking and wondering
if we proceed on a double standard for
Senators.
“I think we must speak out on this
issue, because to be silent is to
condone.”
Dean, dressed in the tan
marshmallow sportscoat and check
trousers he wore when his trial on 14
counts of theft by taking ended with a
hung jury Dec. 9, insisted he is innocent
of doctoring travel records or claiming
any mileage he did not really travel. He
said there may have been some
mistakes of dates and places, which he
sought to correct after finding them
out, but insisted two Jesup friends
helped him drive the 250 miles between
his home and Atlanta several times a
week.
As for the most explosive accusation
against him — claiming three Atlanta-
Jesup trips while he was admittedly in
the Bahamas Islands — Dean said he
filed an amended committee travel
roster to clarify that he made those
trips before leaving for the Caribbean.
“I know you’re going to censure me,
and I accept that,” said Dean. “But I
did every bit of travel that I was
charged with not making.”
He challenged seniors to join him in
Watergate judge Sirica fights for life
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Watergate
Judge John Sirica, a tough man on the
bench and in the prize ring, fought for
his life today in the coronary care unit
of a Washington hospital.
Doctors at George Washington
University Hospital said Sirica, 71, was
in critical but stable condition following
a massive heart attack that knocked
him cold and stopped his heartbeat as
he delivered a luncheon speech
Thursday.
Hospital spokesmen said it took
electric shock therapy to restart his
heart, but he later regained
consciousness and was able to breathe
without an oxygen mask.
They said his blood pressure had
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Friday Afternoon, February 6,1976
supporting a bill he said he will
introduce today, denying the $36-a-day
legislative expense allowance during
weekends. Dean said he checked with
legislative fiscal officer Cary Bond and
found all 236 House and Senate
members accepted payment for Satur
days and Sundays since the legislative
session started, although there have
been no weekend sessions.
Existing law provides for payment
every day for length of the session,
weekends included, except when the
General Assembly formally recesses
and stops counting work days. Dean
said not paying members for weekend
expenses would save the state $67,000.
Dean introduced his elderly parents
at the start of the hearing and pointed to
his frail mother as he wound up his
remarks.
“You’re telling that little woman over
there she raised a son to be a thief for
$1,400,” he roared. “My momma raised
me to be a man, and just remember
you’re not God.”
After the vote, Dean said, “I feel like
the little boy who stumped his toe in the
dark—after I regained my composure,
I was a little too big to cry and it hurt
too much to laugh.”
As they left the Senate, his father
said, “I don’t know — they had it in for
(Continued on page 2)
returned to normal, his life signs were
stable, and his life support systems
continued without artificial support.
The evening medical bulletin said he
was resting comfortably.
“All things considered, he is doing as
well as one can hope for so soon after a
massive heart attack with cardiac
arrest,” said Dr. Joel Gorfinkel,
assistant director of the coronary care
unit.
Sirica, a former boxer and lifelong
physical fitness buff, gained fame —
and plenty of enemies — as the
pugnacious, skeptical, probing judge,
who pried the lid off the Watergate
cover-up in 1973 and nearly two years
later sentenced top White House aides
The February term of the Spalding
County Grand Jury has recommended
more men for the sheriff’s department
and that justices of the peace be more
painstaking in issuing criminal
warrants.
It also reappointed Mayor Louis
Goldstein as a representative of the
City of Griffin on the Spalding County
Health Board as was requested by the
Board of City Commissioners.
The presentments were returned late
yesterday afternoon after a four-day
session.
After an interview with Sheriff
Dwayne Gilbert, the jury concluded
that additional manpower is needed in
the Spalding Sheriff’s Department to
“ensure the efficient and safe per
formance of the duties” of that depart
ment. It recommended the men be
added as soon as practicable.
Justices of peace were asked to be
more diligent in screening and issuing
warrants, which also was recom
mended by the last two grand juries in
June and October, 1975.
This week 39 no-bills were returned.
The grand jury said it found a large
number of the warrants had been
issued without probable cause. An
unusually large number of them were
issued in the heat of anger involving
family or friends and the persons
taking out the warrants refused to
prosecute, the jurors said.
Justices of peace were asked to take
more pains in issuing warrants and in
listing names of witnesses and law
officers on the warrants.
It also was recommended that the
justices of peace make every effort to
set bonds commensurate with the of
fense and that they review lo
cal records to discover prior arrests or
convictions and pending warrants
against accused persons.
District Atty. Ben Miller was asked to
send a copy of the recommendations
concerning warrants to all Spalding
County Justices of Peace.
The jury reviewed docket books of the
justices of peace and noted no
irregularities.
It was recommended that a list of all
appointed positions to be considered by
the grand jury be published at least two
weeks prior to the time the jury con
venes so the community will know
which positions are open.
The grand jury asked that future
grand juries be furnished copies of all
presentments made during the
preceding 24 months in order to provide
for continuity of effort in the commun
ity.
Presently, the jury is furnished
presentments of the two preceding
grand juries.
It was recommended that the “Hand
book for Grand Jurors of Georgia”,
published by the University of Georgia,
be mailed to each grand juror along
with his or her subpoena.
Carey Jones is foreman and Miss
Joyce Howard, clerk.
to jail for their roles in it.
He also forced President Richard
Nixon to hand over damaging White
House tapes and ordered federal grand
jury findings in the case sent to the
House Judiciary Committee for
impeachment proceedings.
The heart attack felled him at the
speakers rostrum of a luncheon
attended by 300 lawyers in
Washington’s Army-Navy Club.
“He had started into the main body of
the speech but stopped in midsentence
and just keeled over as if someone had
knocked him out cold," said A. I. Perez,
counsel for the Mexican-American
Legal Defense and Education Fund.
“People at the dais half caught him
Vol. 104 No. 31
F wH
Checking
Sen. Virginia Shapard (D-Griffin),
compares two vouchers submitted by
Dean. Experts testified at the hearings
that it was impossible for Dean to have
signed the vouchers as he claimed since
one of the forms was printed nine
months after he said he signed and
submitted it. (UPI)
Caravan
visit set
Feb. 24-25
The Griffin-Spalding County
Bicentennial Committee announced
today that the Tennessee Valley
Bicentennial South exhibits would be in
Griffin Feb. 24-25 at South Side Shop
ping Center.
The Griffin Kiwanis Club will sponsor
the visit for one day with a SSOO dona
tion. Other donations have been
secured to finance the other day.
The caravan travels by truck to
communities with its exhibitd depicting
the history and development of the
South.
Five trailers will be connected U-
Shaped so visitors can walk through
them.
Penney men
to visit here
The president and the vice president
of all stores of J.C. Penney Co. plan to
visit the new Griffin store and Griffin
manager Ray Esary next week.
President J. B. Jackson and Vice
President Dave Miller, both of New
York, will jet to Atlanta and drive to
Griffin Thursday. Mr. Esary has
worked for both of them directly in the
Penney organization as they moved
through regional into their present top
rank positions.
and lowered him to floor. There was no
clutching of the chest, no gasping for
air, no bending over, no nothing.
“He just keeled over.”
Sirica’s two-year center-stage
performance in the Watergate affair
brought him into direct conflict with the
White House and drew criticism from
lawyers who deplored the way he
bullied defendants, witnesses and
counsel to get at the truth.
It also made him a public hero.
People responded to the spectacle of
one tough, terrible tempered judge, the
son of impoverished Sicilian immi
grants, rattling the cages of the mighty
in Washington.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 68, low
today 53, high yesterday 72, low
yesterday 41.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Variable
cloudiness Sunday through Tuesday
with little or no precipitation. Not so
cold Sunday night. Colder Monday
night.
lews
summary
By United Press International
Robbery film
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - A film
put together from surveillance
cameras at the Hibernia Bank was
shown Thursday at Patricia Hearst’s
trial on charges of her participation in a
holdup of the bank April 15, 1974. It
showed four SLA members, including:
Miss Hearst, in the commission of the
robbery.
The first two prosecution witnesses
were called and testified Miss Hearst
had made obscene threats during the
holdup.
In a related incident former
companions of Miss Hearst, William
and Emily Harris, issued a tape
recorded statement and denounced her
defense, of having been brainwashed,
as “fabrications and lies.”
Killer weather
At least eight persons were dead in
weather-related accidents, as a result
of a massive winter storm that spread
from the Pacific Coast to the-
Appalachians Thursday. Heavy snows
fell in the West and the southern
Rockies and a sheet of ice was laid by
freezing rain from Oklahoma to the
Ohio Valley. Snow also was falling to
the east of the valley.
The storm brought from 27 to 30
inches of snow in the West, where ski
resorts have been hampered, in some
cases closed, because of the lack of
snow. The storm also eased drought
conditions in California’s farmland, but
■
not enough to overcome it entirely,
according to experts.
Threatened
BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) —|
Lebanon’s fragile truce was threatened
today by the discovery of the bodies of
three Palestinians in eastern Beirut
and at least 10 reported street
abductions, mostly of Christians.
Most of Lebanon’s six rounds of
fighting in the 10-month civil war have
been sparked by kidnapings.
In less than 24 hours President
Suleiman Franjieh is due to visit Syria
to work out a peace accord.
Toll 3,000
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala -I
The earthquake death toll climbed to
3,000 today and Red Cross Director Jose
Alvarado said it is “still rising.” Many
victims of Wednesday’s predawn
‘quake were buried in mass graves that
were sealed over by bulldozers.
Relief teams from various
rushed food and medical supplies to the
stricken country. And the injured still
streaming in from devastated
mountain villages were operated on
and otherwise treated in makeshift
tents, when the hospital roof threatened
to cave in. 1
R ** Ji
Fights for life.