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Baldwin acquitted by
reason of insanity
By Sam S. Kepfield
Staff Reporter
Andrew Scott Baldwin was ac
quitted by reason of insanity
Wednesday of the January 18
attack on Gina Simanek Mountain.
Baldwin will have to wait until late
June to find out if
he must continue
treatment at the
regional center.
The trial of
Nebraska student
athlete Scott
Baldwin began
Monday and Dis
trict Judge Paul -
Merritt Jr., who Baldwin
heard the case, took the matter under
advisement until Wednesday.
At that lime, Merrittdetermined
that Baldwin was insane. Defense
counsel waived a jury trial, because of
the technicality of the insanity issue.
In his opening statements Mon
day, Hal Anderson, counsel for the
defendant, said that Baldwin was in
sane and not responsible for the as
sault, because his illness prevented
him from understanding uie nature
and quality of his acts. Anderson said
Baldwin was incapable of distinguish
ing right from wrong.
Anderson filed depositions of three
psychiatrists whoexamined Baldwin,
along with a forensic evaluation and a
psychiatric evaluation. Anderson as
serted that all the reports agree that
Baldwin suffered from a mental ill
ness the night he attacked Gina
Simanck Mountain.
Baldwin did not testify.
County Attorney Gary Lacey, rep
resenting the prosecution, called three
witnesses.
The first, Lincoln neurosurgeon
Dr. Benjamin Gelber, treated Moun
tain immediately after admission to a
Lincoln hospital. Gelber testified that
she was in a ‘stuporous’ condition,
bleeding from her ear. CAT scans
taken that evening revealed bleeding
into the frontal lobe of the brain, as
well as bleeding in the sinus cavity
indicating a skull fracture and blood
along the covering of the brain, drain
ing into the spinal column.
He said the injuries were signifi
cant and that a loss of motor skills,
memory and depression are common
in such cases.
John and Kristin Walters witnessed
the attack after returning from a bas
ketball game. John Walters, a portfo
lio manager and ex-policeman, said
Baldwin’s actions didn’t seem very
rational.
Kristin Wallers said that after
Baldwin picked up Mountain on the
front steps of her house, he carried her
to a car parked nearby and threw her
at the car.
Baldwin then removed his clothes,
picked up Mountain, and began car
rying her by her knees, upside down,
to the house, she said. He began “bash
ing her head against the sidewalk’’
about five to ten times, dropping her
when the police arrived. Walters then
See BALDWIN on 2
New vice chancellor appointed
By Mark Harms
Staff Reporter
he administration announced
Tuesday the filling of one of
the two vacant vice chancellor
positions.
Joan Leitzcl will be recommended
to the NU Board of Regents to assume
the post of senior vice chancellor for
academic affairs, replacing Robert
Furgason who left the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln last fall.
Ferguson resigned from his post in
December 1990. Since then, Stanley
Liberty has served as the interim vice
chancellor.
Herb Howe, associate to the chan
cellor, said Leitzel’s duties would
include overseeing the various col
leges at UNL.
He said the dean of each college
would report directly to the vice chan
cellor. The directors of University
Educational Television, the Comput
ing Resource Center and the Interna
tional Affairs office also will report to
her.
In case of UNL Chancellor Gra
ham Spanier’s absence, the v ice chan
cellor would serve as acting chancel
lor.
The search for both vice chancel
lor positions began last fall after
Spanier took office.
Howe said that more than 200
people applied for the positions.
Several women had applied, he
said, but he did not know if there were
any minorities in the candidate pool.
He said the chancellor’s office
narrowed the candidates down to five
for each position and submitted rec
ommendations to the chancellor.
The vice chancellor for research
position has not yet been announced.
The responsibilities of the vice
chancellor for lesearch, Howe said,
will be to move the university ahead
in the area of research.
He or she would be active in ob
taining grant money for university
researchers. Also, the vice chancellor
would help faculty obtain patents and
would assist in technology transfer.
Eugene Rudd, professor of physics and astronomy, does research, with the help of
graduate and undergraduate students in Behlen Lab. His research involves the bombard
ing of chambers housing targets of gas with protons and electrons, which is useful in the
examination of radiation damage to biological tissues.
Professor knows the laws of physics
By Steffen le Fries
Staff Reporter
M Eugene Rudd greets his
environment through
•the habits of a physi
cist
“You use physics to look at the
world,” the professor of physics
and astronomy said.
Rudd supports his views in an
undergraduate physics text for non
science students titled “Physics and
Our Changing World View."
The text doesn *t incl ude a lot of
math, because as Rudd said, “the
average non-science student nowa
days doesn’t know much math
ematics, and is scared to death of it.
“It’s a cultural physics sort of
thing.”
The universality of physics is one
thing that first drew Rudd to physics.
He said it was appealing to apply an
equation from one area of physics to
phenomena in another area.
He said he liked the precise nature
of prediction that physics allowed.
Rudd earned his Ph.D. at the Uni
versity'bf Nebraska-Lincoln in 1965
and recently was awarded an honor
ary degree from Concordia College.
He is a member of several profes
sional societies including a Fellow of
the American Physical Society.
Rudd was selected as Outstanding
Teacher-Scholar from UNL in 1991.
His list of publication credits also
is long; approximately 65 articles in
journals and 90 papers at scientific
meetings.
Rudd’s research involves bombard
ing gas with protons and electrons,
which he then measures the elec
trons that are knocked from the
ionized atoms of gas.
Measurements are taken of the
number of departing electrons and
the energies and direction of the
electrons.
This is of practical application
when examining radiation dam
age to biological tissues, Rudd
said, since atoms of individual cells
in the body can become ionized,
and byproducts of this ionization
can eventually break DNA bonds.
Rudd’s research is one of the
longest running grants funded by
the National Science Foundation,
he said.
See RUDD on 6
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Search continues for new athletic director
Devaney’s successor
to be named
By DeDra Janssen
Staff Reporter
The quest for Athletic Director
Bob Devanev's replacement
continues while the search com
mittee narrows down the approxi
mately 100 applications received, an
official said.
James O’Hanlon, chairman of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln’sath
letic director search committee, said
the next step for the search committee
would be to subm it three or four names
to Chancellor Graham Spanicr some
time this summer.
“We’re moving pretty fast,”
O’Hanlon said. “We’ll be able to do
that.”
From those three or four names
given to Spanier, the chancellor will
pick a few or maybe all of them to
come to the university for interviews.
The interviews will be conducted
by athletic department personnel, but
a large number of different people
will get a chance to visit with the
candidates, O’Hanlon said.
He said there were requests from
the Chancellor’s Committee on the
Status of Women and Minorities to
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