By The
Associated Press
Edited by Jeff Singer
Nebraskan
TuMday, August 24,1
Pair of Detroit police officers found guilty of murder
DETROIT — Two former police officers
were found guilty of murder in the fatal beating
of a motorist during a struggle outside a crack
house.
A third former officer was found innocent on
a lesser charge.
Larry Nevers, 53, and Walter Budzyn, 47,
were convicted of second-degree murder in
Malice Green's Nov. 5 death. Robert Lessnau,
33, was acquitted of assault with intent to do
great bodily harm.
Separate juries sitting simultaneously heard
the two murder cases, while Lessnau opted to
have Recorder’s Court Judge George W.
Crockett in decide his fate.
The Budzyn jury reached its verdict during
the eighth day of deliberations Saturday. That
decision and Crockett's, reached last week,
were sealed until the Nevers jury reached its
verdict on Monday.
Budzyn testified that he never hit anyone,
while Nevers said he hit Green in self-defense.
All three were fired from the force after
Green’s death. Budzyn and Nevers face up to
life in prison; no immediate sentencing date
was set. Lessnau could have gotten up to 10
years.
An autopsy showed Green, 35, died of at
least 14 blows to the head and part of his scalp
was tom off.
The death Nov. 5 came seven months after
four white Los Angeles police officers were
acquitted of state charges in the beating ofblack
motorist Rodney King, touching off rioting.
Two of the officers were later convicted of
federal charges.
Green’s death spurred protests because Green
was black and the three defendants are white.
But no testimony during the 11-week trial
indicated that race was a factor in the beating.
The supervisor of the three defendants, who
is black, was charged with misdemeanor ne
glect of duty. His trial date has not been set.
Prosecutors portrayed Nevers as an aging
cop who was trying to teach Green the rules of •
the neighborhood by repeatedly smashing the
blood-soaked man in the head with a flashlight,
demanding that he obey orders to open his
hand.
Budzyn, prosecutors said, began the con
frontation by leaping into Green’s car and
hitting him on the hands and head until his
partner took over the beating.
“It was simply the exercise of raw power
over one human being by others,” W ayne County
Assistant Prosecutor Doug Baker told jurors.
The prosecutors pieced the circumstancs ot
the death togetherusingthe testimony ofGreen’s
friends and emergency medical services tech
nicians who arrived sometime after the friends
left.
Defense lawyers attacked the credibility of
the street witnesses, who admitted they smoked
crack cocaine that night. They also called on
expert witnesses who testified that cocaine and
alcohol in Green’s system contributed to his
death.
In his testimony, Budzyn, on the force for 19
years before he was fired, told jurors he never
hit anyone. “I didn’t know he was being killed,”
he said. “I didn’t see. He was behind me.”
Nevers, who had been on the force 24 years,
said Green grabbed his service revolver, and he
struck Green on the head five or six times
because he feared for his own life.
“He grabbed the handle of my gun on the left
side in my holster,” Nevers said. “I hit him in
the head. I thought he was going to get my gun.”
Lessnau admitted he rapped Green’s knuck
les to get him toopen his hand, but said the EMS
technicians who testified they saw him kick
Green in the head area were wrong.
Community leaders predicted the city would
remain calm regardless of the verdicts because
the cases were tried in Detroit before predom
inantly black juries and a black judge—unlike
the all-white suburban jury hearing the first
King case.
• . •
Hostage standoff continues
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — A
rightist guerrilla leader issued new
conditions Monday for releasing at
least 18 government officials, a day
after he raised hopes of an end to
Nicaragua’s four-day hostage crisis
by freeing 20.
Rival leftist gunmen in Managua
who held 27 hostages freed two cap
tives Monday as a goodwill gesture.
They still held Vice President Virgilio
Godoy, eight congressmen and at least
nine journalists.
The hostage crisis involves rival
groups of ex-combatants from the war
tjetween the former leftist Sandinista
government and the U.S.-backed
Contras that ended in 1990.
Rearmed former soldiers from both
tides have clashed repeatedly with
roops over the past year as President
Vvotela Chamorro’s reconciliation
enmity and a crippled economy. Un
employment runs as high as 60 per
cent.
Former Contras have accused the
government of failing to provide the
land and aid promised when they dis
armed. They also claim their rivals
have continued to persecute and mur
der them.
On Sunday, former Contras re
leased 20 of their hostages in the
northern town of Quilali and prom
ised to free the 18 to 21 remaining.
Under an accord signed Sunday by
Frank Cesar, vice minister of the inte
rior, the government promised it would
not use troops against North Front 3
80 and would continue to discuss its
demands.
The Contras said then that they
would drop their demand for the oust
er of Nicaraguan army chief Gen.
Humberto Ortega and army security
chief Lenin Cema. Contras are an
gered by what they see as Mrs.
Chamorro’s decision to co-govem
with the Sandinistas despite ousting
them in an election in 1990.
On Monday, the group’s leader,
Jose Angel “The Jackal* Talavera
Analiz, told reporters that “The ques
Uon of HumbertojOrtega andJLemn
sign the agreement with Cesar.
“The liberty of the rest of the hos
tages will depend on the actions taken
by the government,” said the 32-year
old former Contra, whose faction in
cludes about 400 fighters.
A government commission on
Monday asked Roman Catholic Car
dinal Miguel Obando y Bravo to help
negotiate freedom for the hostages
AP
held by the former Contras.
The soldiers said that they released
the two hostages as a gesture of “hu
manism” and said they would not
release more captives until the ex
Contras released theirs.
-SPORTS WIRE
Baseball playoffs not entirely supported
NEW YORK — The chances
are “very small” that major league
players will agree to a proposed
playoff format involving four divi
sion winners and four second-place
teams starting next season, union
chief Donald Fehr said Monday.
The owners approved the change
in tjie playoff setup at their quarter
ly meetings last June, but have yet
to officially vote on a new format.
The owners would prefer the four
division winners and the four sec
ond-place teams.
Fehr said the union is open to
negotiations, but didn’t consider it
likely the players will agree to the
owners’ current version. The own
ers don’t think a schedule for the
players’ version of three division
winners and a wildcard team can be
in place by next season.
The additional round of play
offs was established by the owners
as part of the new TV venture with
ABC and NBC. Next season’s play
offs are scheduled to be televised
by NBC with ABC carrying the
World Series.
There also have been reports
that the owners might decide to
keep things the way they are until
the 1995 season.
In a letter to owners’ representa
tive Richard Ravitch, Fehr wrote,
“If the additional round of playoffs
is a good idea, then the additional
round of playoffs should begin next
year, in 1994. If it is not a good
idea, then we should dispense with
it altogether."
Fehr said the players are con
cerned the playoffs and regular sea
son will be diluted if the four sec
ond-place teams qualify.
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Kennedy assassination
documents released
WASHINGTON — The National
Archives released on Monday thou
sands of documents relating to the
1963 assassination of President
Kennedy, including classified files
from the Central Intelligence Agen
cy.
Experts were hoping the documents
would help answer nagging questions,
including whether Lee Harvey Oswald
had any ties to the U.S. government.
Thousands of documents, includ
ing files from the Warren Commis
sion, investigative panels and con
gressional committees, were released
at the National Archives. But it was
the unveiling of 90,000 pages from
the Central Intelligence Agency that
attracted the most attention, since
many of the CIA’s records had been
secret until now.
“I think that there will be a lot of
interesting information,” said James
Lesar, director of the Assassination
Archivesand Research Center. “There
will be plenty of information that will
be of great interest to researchers.**
The Warren Commission conclud
ed in 1964 tint Oswald, acting alone,
killed Kennedy with a rifle from his
perch in a sixth-floor window at the
Texas School Book Depository in
downtown Dallas. Since then, how
ever, numerous conspiracy theories
have surfaced, revolving around
whether Oswald was the lone gunman
and, if he was, whether he might have
been acting at the behest of the CIA,
FBI or organized crime.
Commissions that have studied the
assassination over the years have had
access to the CIA files.
“People who believe the agency
did it are paranoid, and naive to be
lieve that they would be stupid enough
to leave footprints,” said Robert
Blakey, a Notre Dame law professor
who served as staff director for the
1978 House Select Committee that
studied the assassination. Blakey, who
studied volumes of CIA documents,
concluded that there is “no smoking
gun there.”
“And if there was something we
missed,” Blakey noted, “if there was
something truly earthshaking in it, it
would have leaked out by now. It’s
been 30 years.
The House Select Committee con
cluded Kennedy was probably the
victim of a conspiracy, with a second
gunman firing at him but missing.
Kerrey vote might be harmful
OMAHA—U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey,
D-Neb., acknowledged Monday that
his controversial vote in favor of Pres
ident Clinton’s deficit-reduction plan
might harm his chances for re-elec
tion in 1994.
Kerrey goes on the road this week
to town hall meetings in Alliance,
Chadron and Red Cloud to explain his
views.
“Any serious deficit reduction ef
fort that genuinely reduces the deficit
—you have to be willing to risk your
political career ” Kerrey said. “You
can’t vote for something that cuts
spending and raises taxes without
somebody saying ‘I won’t vote for
you again if you do.’”
Some Nebraskans were angry with
Kerrey for his vole in ffcvorofClinton’s
deficit-reduction plan.
Kerrey, who kept Clinton waiting
for his decision until nearly the last
minute, ended up casting the decisive
vote, tying the tally at 50-50. Vice
President A1 Gore broke the tie to pass
the S496 billion plan.
Following his vote, Kerrey said he
felt a bit like a fugitive, though he
believes he did the right thing.
Kerrey said that Nebraskans’ reac
tion to his vote has been mixed, but “I
think people understand that some
thing had to be done and that deficit
reduction’s tough.”
Plainview man accused of death
riEKL.fc—-A Plain view man free
cmi bond pending trial on charges of
sexually assaulting a child in another
community was held Monday with
out bond in the investigation of the
stabbing death of a 10-year-old Pierce
boy.
Pierce County Attorney Verlyn
Luebbe identified the man arrested as
Richard C. Barnes, 23.
Luebbe said he would file a charge
in the death of Mitch B. Ziemer, wno
was stabbed repeatedly Friday in a
restroom at a city park.Z iemer’s
body was found about 3:30 p.m.
W itnesses saw Ziemer and another
boy fishing in the park Friday when a
man began bothering them, authori
ties said. The other boy, who also is
about 10 years old, gave investigators
valuable help in identifying Barnes, a
veteran of the Persian Gulf War,
Luebbe said. Luebbe declined to iden
tify the boy.
Barnes, who is unemployed and
lives with his parents in Plainview, 16
miles northwest ofPience in northeast
Nebraska, was in Pierce on Friday for
a job interview, Luebbe said. -
Barnes was facing charges of sex
ually assaulting a child in Laurel in
June, said Cedar County Sheriff Elliott
Arens. Barnes had been freed on bond
pending trial in district court.
Preliminary autopsy results indi
cate Ziemer died of multiple stab
wounds, Luebbe said.