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'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