<4 SPORTS
Senior &
Nebraska setter Nikki
Strieker, who broke the __,
school career assist T llGSu3y
record last Saturday, is ct\/9R
leading the Comhuskers OKi/dD
through one of their Today, partly sunny
toughest seasons. dry with
g highs in the 50s.
Four picked as finalists for NU president
By Stave Smith
Senior Reporter
The NU presidential search com
mittee unanimously selected
four men as finalists for presi
dent Monday.
The NU Board of Regents likely
will narrow the list to one this week
end.
The finalists for the position are:
a Warren Baker, president of Cal
ifornia Polytechnic State University
in San Luis Obispo, Calif.;
• Constantine Curris, president of
the University of Northern Iowa;
• Dennis Smith, the executive vice
chancellor at the University of Cali
fomia-Irvine;
• Gregory O’Brien, University of
New Orleans chancellor.
University of Nebraska Corpora
tion Secretary J.B. Milliken said he
expected the four finalists to visit
Lincoln this week to meet campus
chancellors, students, administration
officials and the media.
Although plans for the finalists’
visits have to be finalized, Milliken
said, Smith and Baker probably will
be in Lincoln on Wednesday. O’Brien
and Curris arc expected to visit Thurs
day.
Milliken said he expected the re
gents to call a special meeting this
weekend, where they would select
Martin Massengale’s successor.
Regent Chairman John Payne of
Kearney said the board would inter
view the candidates during their Lin
coln visits and decide shortly thereaf
ter.
“It’s not set in stone when we’ll
meet,” Payne said. “We’re shooting
for this weekend.” Search Committee
Co-chairman Rob Raun of Minden
said the nine-month search was “a
grueling process,” but it had excellent
results.
“I feel that (the search) has led to a
successful progression for the univer
sity system,” Raun said. “We feel
we’ve made great progress.”
Committee Co-chairwoman Nan
cy O’ Brien of Waterloo said the near
ly completed search was surprisingly
successful.
The search process seemed impos
sible at first, she said, but things soon
fell into place.
“This is the first time I’ve been
involved with a search of this magni
See SEARCH on 3
Witnesses tell of house searches, stolen guns
►A .38-caliber shell casing was
found under Bjorklund’s washing
machine by his landlord. Police
say Bjorklund used a .38-caliber
revolver in the slaying of Harms.
►Harms purchased a green
B.U.M. Equipment jacket at
Maurices in July, the store
manager testified. Harms was
wearing the jacket when she
disappeared.
By Alan Phelps
Senior Reporter '
and Jeff Zeleny
Senior Editor
During the sixth day of Roger
Bjorklund’s first-degree mur
der trial Monday, witnesses
told jurors of house searches, stolen
guns and clothes worn by Candice
Harms.
Law enforcement officers and
Bjorklund’s former landlord testified
that a .38-caliber shell casing was
found under a washing machine in the
house where Bjorklund lived before
he was arrested.
Police say Bjorklund used a .38
cal iber revolver and Scott Barney used
a .380-caliber handgun in the 1992
slaying of Harms, a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln student.
Dennis Duckworth, a Lincoln Po
lice Department investigator, said he
searched Bjorklund’s former resi
dence, 610 S. 52nd St.,on Dec. 2 with
three other officers and an FBI agent.
At the time, the police were searching
for evidence to connect Bjorklund
with a string of robberies.
Duckworth said they seized .223
rifle ammunition, .357-cal iber rounds,
a pair of brown gloves and an address
book.
Duckworth and another officer,
Richard Kohles, returned to the house
David Badders/DN
Chief Deputy Public Defender Scott Helvie (left), Roger Bjorklund and Special Deputy Public Defender Richard Goos during
Bjorklund’s first-degree murder trial.
Dec. 8 to look for evidence in connec
tion with the Harms’ murder case.
Kohlcs said he took from the ga
rage of the house a plastic wheel with
duct tape and a shovel with dirt. The
dirt was later sent to the FBI crime lab
in Washington, D.C. along with sam
ples of dirt taken from Harms’ grave
site, he said.
In'their testimony, Duckworth and
Kohles said the two house searches
were very thorough. Kohles said the
houses’ air ducts and floors were
checked on Dec. 8, but no .380-cali
ber or .38-caliber ammunition or spent
shells were found.
“Would you say you examined the
whole floor of the top level and base
ment of the residence?” Chief Public
Defender Scott Helvie asked Kohles.
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
However.Terry Kraft, Bjorklund’s
landlord at the time, told the jury he
found a .38-caliber shell casing under
a washing machine on Jan. 31.
Kraft said Mike Livingston moved
into the house about two weeks before
Christmas, after the Bjorklunds’ lease
had been terminated. A month and a
half later, Kraft was called to the
property to fix a washing machine the
Bjorklunds had left behind.
Kraft said he put the casing in his
pocket and later turned it over to
police. Neither Kraft nor Livingston
said they owned a ,38-calibcr revolv
er.
All items police found were of
fered into evidence and accepted by
District Judge Donald Endacott.
Andrew Lyons of Lincoln testified
that a .380 semi-automatic pistol and
See TRIAL on 3
Assault victim plans to stay at UNL
By Andrea Kaser
Senior Editor
Boon-Chung “Marco” Ong said he
and his friends expected to spend the
early morning hours of Oct. 17 talk
ing and smoking cigarettes at Broyhill Pla
za.
Instead, the UNL student from Malaysia
was beaten to semi-consciousness in front of
the Nebraska Union before his friends ar
rived.
It was just after midnight on what police
called an otherwise quiet Homecoming night.
Ong said he was walking along the ledge of
the fountain while waiting for his friends.
One said that while he was standing on
the ledge, he noticed a group of about 10
black men leaving the Nebraska Union.
They didn’t seem to be intoxicated or to
be behaving out of the ordinary, he said.
They looked as innocuous as a group of
people leaving a movie theater, he said.
Ong said he didn’t feel threatened when
one of ithe men began running toward him.
Ong said he moved aside, thinking the man
wanted to jump onto the ledge of the foun
tain.
“Instead, he stopped in-front of me. He
grabbed me by thejacket and threw me into
the fountain," he said.
Ong said that being drenched, confused
and angry, he wasn’t aware of the group’s
reaction. He got out of the water and fol
lowed the group as they walked toward the
parking lot east of the union.
When he caught up to the man who had
thrown him into the fountain, Ong said he
asked him, “What is your problem?”
“He didn’t say anything .... He took one
step forward and punched me on the right
side of my face," Ong said.
Ong said he must have been knocked
unconscious because he didn’t remember
anything after that first Wow.
Witnesses loldpolice they saw the group
huddling around Ong while two or three of
the men beat Ong and kicked him in the
head.
When Ong came to, he was in Lincoln
General Hospital. He did not know how he
got there.
Ong was released from the hospital with
stitches inside his mouth, a swollen left
check, a bruised right check and cut lips.
Ong, who is in his first year at UNL and
in the United States for the first time, said he
wouldn’t let the assault keep him from com
pleting his education at the university.
The junior marketing major transferred
to the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln from
Malaysia in the second half of his sopho
more year.
Ong said his family was worried about
the incident, but they didn't think UNL was
a dangerous place. Ong said he agreed with
them.
The same incident could happen in his
hometown of Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, he
said.
Despite initial concerns from interna
tional students, Ong said he didn’t think the
assault was racially motivated.
“I don’t see it that way at all.” he said.
Although Ong said the cause of the bcat
~~ See ASSAULT on 3
Florida State
to interview
Massengale
By Matthew Waite
Staff Reporter
44-member screening committee, a gov
erning board sub-committee and the
press all will be waiting for NU Presi
dent Martin Massengale next week at Florida
State University in Tallahassee, Fla.
Massengale has been selected as one of 10
candidates for the presidential post at FSU. His
contract expires next January.
Pat Heyward, associate dean of FSU’s Col
leges of Arts and Sciences who has assisted in
the selection process, said it was loo early to
speculate on Massengale’s chances of being
selected for the post.
“It’s a wide open search at this point,”
Heyward said.
The screening committee will meet with
See MASSENGALE on 3
