The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, February 08, 1994, Image 1

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    February 8. 1994
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
M SPORTS
Movin'on
Nebraska is trying to get
over its "painstaking'
four-game losing streak,
Husker coach Danny
Nee said Monday.
Page 5
Tuesday
10/2
Today will be cloudy
with a chance of
light snow, possibly
mixed with sleet or
freezing drizzle.
Vol. 93 No. 99
Coaches acted within the law, Lacey says
Evidence delay
wasn’t improper
By Angie Brunkow
Senior Reporter
NU football coaches acted with
in the law when keeping a
gun allegedly used in a Jan.
29 shooting, the Lancaster County
attorney said Monday.
In a press conference to announce
his plans to run for re-election, Gary
Lacey said linebackers coach Kevin
Steele hadn’ t done anything criminal
ly wrong by keeping the gun in his
desk since last Monday.
Candles
cause of
Abel fire
By Matthew Waite
sinhr Report*
Fire alarms, not clock alarms,
roused residents of Abel Resi
dence Hall early Monday
morning.
The building was evacuated at 4:30
a.m. when a fire broke out in a 13th
floor room of the student assistant. It
was caused by two unattended can
dles. The sprinkler system engaged
and extinguished the fire, flooding
much of the floor.
Mike Wysocki, the student assis
tant on Abel 13, was not on the floor
when the fire started in his room. He
said he went out to study and lefl the
candlesbumingon aplastic milk crate.
“I came back at 1:30 (a.m.) and
everything was fine,” Wysocki said.
See FIRE on 3
MAS A waits
for response
to boycott
By Matthew Waite
sinkx Htporttr
No formal response from the
Multicultural Affairs Office
has been given to the Mexican
American Student Association’s boy
cott, MASA leaders said Monday.
Cathy Maestas, president dfMAS A,
said the organization also had not
heard anything from the office of the
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
The boycott began Friday when
MASA members charged the
Multicultural Affairs Office with un
fair hiring practices.
MASA members said the recent
hiring of an African American in
Multicultural Affairs was an example
of their claims. Members said the
office had hired an African American
four of the last five times a vacancy
had been filled.
MASA has decided not to use any
services offered by the Multicultural
Affairs Office as part of the boycott.
Eric Jolly, director of the Affirma
tive Action and Diversity Office, could
not be reached for comment.
Maestas said MASA had talked to
the Vietnamese Student Association
and the University of Nebraska Inter
Tribal Exchange about formally join
ing the boycott. She said MASA also
would speak to the Afrikan Peoples
Union today about joining the boycott.
Support from individuals in the
other groups is strong, Maestas said,
but no commitments have been made
by any group as a whole.
Tyrone Williams, who allegedly
had used the gun to shoot at an occu
Lacey
pied vehicle, gave
Steele the .22-cali
ber revolver Mon
day evening, Lacey
said.
Williams, a Ne
braska defensive
back, was charged
Wednesday with
unlawful discharge
of a firearm and the
use of a weapon to
commit aieiony. Hepieaaea not gumy
in an arraignment Thursday.
Lacey said football recruiting and
national letter-of- intent day had kept
the athletic department’s attention
diverted from the gun.
“They got busy and just neglected
to turn the gun over," he said.
However, Lacey said he was upset
with the delay. Possible physical evi
dence in a crime should be given to
law enforcement officials as soon as
possible, he said.
“It wasn’t until we went and asked
for the gun on Wednesday that it was
turned over to us,” Lacey said.
In another university-related case,
Lacey said he would be filing charges
within the week against those involved
in a brawl at the Residence Inn last
weekend.
During the fight at the hotel room,
Nebraska football players Ramone
Worthy and Abdul Muhammad were
injured.
Coach Tom Osborne had said last
week the players planned to file charges
against their assailants.
Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady
said Monday he was optimistic about
the status of the case but declined
further comment.
“I don’t think that this is a case that
we’ve run out of investigative leads
yet,” he said.
Muhammad and Worthy have been
cooperative in providing the police
with full details of the inc ident, Casady
said.
In Lacey’s announcement to run
for his second term as county attorney,
he said he wanted to come down hard
on juvenile criminal offenders.
Currently, juvenile delinquents
don’t have to fear consequences for
their actions, he said.
“They know nothing will happen
to them,” he said. “They can commit
a violent crime and as long as they stay
in the juvenile system, nothing’s go
ing to happen to them.”
Lacey, a Republ ican, has prosecut
ed many cases during his first term,
including that of Roger Bjorklund,
who was convicted of first-degree
murder in the death of University of
Nebraska-Lincoln student Candice
Harms.
Slap shot
Damon Lee/DN
Tim Epp, a freshman fish and wildlife major, blocks a shot as Dallas Smetter, a senior education major, looks on during a
hockey game at Oak Lake Sunday afternoon. Temperatures peaked at 32 degrees Sunday before dropping off in the
evening.
MU students have charges dropped
By Kara G. Morrison
Senior Reporter
The Lancaster County Attor
ney’s office dropped felony
charges against five Universi
ty of Missouri-Columbia students ar
rested for stealing a statue from the
Sheldon Memorial Sculpture Garden,
Deputy Lancaster County Attorney
Patrick Condon said Monday.
In exchange for the charges being
dropped, the men will have to pay
court costs and restitution, perform
community service and take an art
appreciation course as part of a
Lancaster County pretrial diversions
program.
Jason Mott, 19; Jason Meyer, 19;
Richard Daniel, 19; Brad Schuster,
18, and Craig Rehmert, 19, were
charged with criminal mischief in the
thefl of a 3-foot-tall statue of Abraham
Lincoln on Nov. 21.
The students, all members of the
Missouri chapter of Farmhouse Fra
ternity, were arrested arter Lincoln
police saw them carrying the statue
near 30th and Y streets at 3 a.m.
Criminal mischief is a Class IV
felony, punishable by a maximum of
five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or
both. Condon said dismissal motions
were filed Friday.
Woody Bradford, an Omaha attor
ney who represents the students, said
his clients would pay about $ 15,000 in
damages and devaluation costs as part
of the diversions program.
A spokesman from Diversions Ser
vices said the yearlong program also
would include:
• Each of the five men performing
about 80 hours of community service
work. The men will be assigned vol
unteer work and will not be allowed to
work together.
• Maintaining good grades at their
university.
• Completing a program “to en
hance their appreciation of the role of
art in society/’
The spokesman said the men would
be allowed to complete the diversions
program in Missouri but would be in
constant contact with the Lancaster
County office.
George Neubert, director of the
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, said
Sheldon officials recommended the
students be required to do volunteer
work and to complete the program
with the Art and Anthropology muse
um at the University of Missouri.
Neubert said he hoped the art ap
preciation program would help them
understand the severity of what they
had done.
“I hope that the students will learn
a lesson and that this will serve as an
example to other pranksters ..."
Neubert said.
“This was beyond what would nor
mally be called prank.”
Neubert said tne statue was secured
and that much force was used to dis
mantle it. The statue was located south
of the gallery in the sunken portion of
the sculpture gardens.
Bradford said he was satisfied with
the settlement.
-44
I hope that the
students will learn a
lesson and that this
will serve as an
example to other
pranksters.
— Neubert
director, Sheldon Memorial
Art Gallery
-tt -
Bradford said the men had no prior
record and were good students who
had taken a lot of heat in the Columbia
press over the incident.
“They’ve even had cartoons drawn
about them,” Bradford said. ‘They’ve
really gone through a lot.
“They are sorry for the incident.”
The statue now is being repaired in
New York. Neubert said the repairs
would take about three to six months.