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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1993)
-4a&e 'Black and W/ t/PC sponsors modern country music concert tonight. Pag«7 Friday 35/15 Today, mostly cloudy and windy. Saturday, sunny and windy with highs in the lower 30s. October 29, 1993 University of N&braska-Lincoln Vol. 93 No. 49 Evidence used in murder trial gets challenge from defense By Dionne Searcey Senior Reporter Defense attorneys for Roger Bjorklund questioned Thursday the authenticity of evidence found in a Held by an investi gator searching the area by himself. —_—_ _ Chief Dcnutv Public Defender Scott Helvic ques tioned Richard Doetker, an inves tigator with the Lincoln Police Roger Bjorkluni Department, wno found the evidence two days after the area had been combed by teams of investigators. Testimony came during the fourth day of the trial for Bjorklund, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Candice Harms. Doetker found a pile of white ashes Dec. 9, 1992, in a field near 86th and Havelock streets. Doetker was alone at the time. Investigators had searched the area Dec. 6 and 7 and found no evidence. Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey al leged during opening statements that Roger Bjorklund and Scott Barney burned the clothes worn by Harms. In his statement, Lacey said the ashes found by Doetker contained remnants of Harms’ clothing. The defense grilled Doetker about the valid ity of the evidence he retrieved. Helvie asked whether it was unusual for investigators to gather evidence at a possible crime scene without the aid of other investiga tors. Doetker said a solo investigation was com mon if the work was not too demanding. The prosecution asked Doetker about the incident in which he found evidence including two pieces of green material. Lacey had alleged in opening statements that Harms was last seen wearing a green B.U.M. brand sweat shirt. “Did you want to go out by yourself so you could go out and throw evidence on the ground and say it was Candi Harms’ clothing?” Lacey asked Doetker. Doetker said: “If I wanted to do that, I would have done that the first day.” Helvie questioned why, after a thorough search of the area, investigators did not find the evidence until Doetker’s solo search of the area. “They either didn’t dig far enough or they didn’t find it,” Doetker said. During testimony, Doetker gave this ac count of the search: Doetker went to the area where on Dec. 6 and 7, investigators had searched for evidence on their hands and knees in a field covered with two inches of snow. By Dec. 8, rising temperatures and a small amount of rain had melted the snow covering the field. Doetker investigated alone because See TRIAL on 6 William Lauer/DN The art of teaching Krista Hagge, a senior elementarv education major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoin, paints with Natalie Braun, 2-year-old daughter of Jeff and sue Braun of Lincoln. Hagge’s art methods class taught various craft lessons at the Children’s Museum Thursday to gain practical experience. Police arrest another man in beating By Alan Phelps Senior Reporter niversity of Nebraska-Lincoln police arrested a second man Wednesday evening in connection with the Oct. 17 assault of a student in Broyhill Plaza. The first of three suspects in the case, a 17 year-old Omahan, was cited Monday. The sec ond man cited is a resident of Lincoln. Neither suspect is a UNL student, police said, and neither was taken into custody. UNL Police Chief Ken Caublc said conflict ing witness testimony and new information meant additional investigation was necessary before a third arrest could be made. Cauble said no additional identifying char acteristics or affiliations of the suspects would be released until charges had been filed by Lancaster County attorneys. Earlier this week, police said the UNL Ath letic Department had assisted in the investiga tion. Boon-Chung Ong, a UNL student from Malaysia, was beaten and kicked in the head Oct. 17 outside the Nebraska Union. W itnesscs told pol ice they saw a group ofl 0 black men gathered around Ong. Two or three of the men assaulted Ong, before police ar rived, witnesses said. A semi-conscious Ong was taken to Lincoln General Hospital, where he was treated and released. Cauble said more than 30 interviews had been conducted to gather evidence. Police and university officials have said evidence pointed to an act of random violence rather than a racially motivated attack. Eight candidates vie for NU presidency By Steve Smith Senior Reporter Eight candidates remain in contention for the NU president post. That number soon may be trimmed even further, a university official said Thursday. Corporation Secretary J.B. Milliken said an NU Board of Regents’ policy required the presidential search committee to streamline the list of eligible candidates to between four and eight finalists before submitting the names to the regents for approval. Once the finalists’ names have been given to the regents, Milliken said, the names will be publicly disclosed. Two candidates who did not supply the committee with references have been dropped from contention since the committee’s Oct. 4 meeting. Candidates had to meet the commit tee’sdeadline to supply references or be dropped, Milliken said. The search committee meets at noon Mon day at Varner Hall for what could be its final meeting. However, Milliken said, there was “no guarantee” the committee would have the list finished. “It’s going to be up to the committee to take any formal action to decide,” he said. “We’ll have to see how the meeting unfolds.” The search began in January when current University of Nebraska President Martin Massengale announced he would not seek a contract extension past 1993. Milliken said the committee probably would try to pare the candidate pool to about four or five names before it submitted the final candi See CANDIDATE on 6 Capitol gives rise to some ot city s tallest ghost tales James Mehsling/DN Editor*! Note: This story is the last of the Halloween week series about Lincoln ghost stories. By Dionne Searcey Senior Reporter incoln’s tallest building con tains some of the tallest ghost tales in town, a Capitol em ployee said. “Our standard line, of course, is, ‘There are no ghosts in the Capitol,’” said Roxanne Smith, Capitol tours supervisor. Alan Boye mentions the Capitol's haunts in his book, “A Guide to the Ghosts of Lincoln.” According to one story in the book, a man’s moans can be heard ringing throughout the build ing on which construction was com pleted in 1932. The moans, Boye said, stem from an incident about 30 years ago when an inmate was recruited from the Nebraska State Penitentiary to hang Christmas lights from the Capitol’s dome. The man had to crawl across the surface of the dome 17 stories above the ground with a cold wind whipping across his face. No one knows for sure what hap pened, Boye said, but the man’s mus cles tightened, blood rushed from his head and arms, and the vessels in his temples pounded until they burst. His screams cut through the chilly night, Boye said. Charles Hohenstein, warden’s ad ministrative assistant at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, said it was possi ble inmates could have been recruited to hang lights at the Capitol, but not a verifiable fact. Prisoners have always worked small jobs around town, but See CAPITOL on 6