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LINCOLN FIREFIGHTERS take debris off the roof of a house at 1731 Trelawney
Drive. They were preparing to lay plastic over holes created by an electrical fire that
started there Tuesday.
Light bulb sparks fire;
attic, bathroom damaged
Human error causes
third house fire in Lincoln
neighborhood in the last
three years.
By Kasey Kerbeb
Senior Reporter
A fire seared the attic and bathroom of a
southeast Lincoln house Tuesday, but
firefighters contained the blaze before it
spread to other parts of the one-story home.
No one was in the home at the time of
the fire.
A construction worker reported die fire
after seeing a column of smoke rising from
the roof of the house.
Jack Bruns, fire investigator for die Lin
coln Fire Department, said die blaze at 1731
Trelawney Drive was caused by a light bulb
with wattage that exceeded the requirements
of die socket into which it was screwed.
Brans said the casingof the socket caught
•
fire and then spread to the attic’s insulation.
Rich Furasek, deputy fire chief, said
firefighters arrived on the scene five min
utes after the fire began.
Furasek said firefighters saw a thick qqI
umn of smoke coming from a vent in the
roof. They broke into'the roof to gain access
to the fire and contained it before it could
spread further.
“The fire managed to burn its way
through the studs and into the bathroom, but
it mainly burned die attic area,” Brans said.
Firefighters who altered the home were
hosed down shortly after leaving die attic.
Furasek said the dousing was meant to guard
against die harmful chemicals in the attic's *
insulation.
As of Tuesday afternoon, estimates on die
cost of damage to the house were not yet
known.
A neighbor said Tuesday's fire was not
the first time that Tfcelawiiey Drive had seen
fires caused by human error.
The woman, who did not wish to be
named, said three fires had struck houses on
her street in die last three years.
h
Judge makes example of former NU defensive back
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
A judge used Tyrone Williams to send a
message Tuesday, sentencing the former NU de
fensive back to six months in jail and three years
of probation. '
Moments after Williams
apologized for the incident,
Lancaster County District
Court Judge Bernard
McGinn said the incident
was “a little more than
shooting a gun into the air.”
The charges stemmed
from a Jan. 30, 1994, inci
dent where Williams, now -
a Green Bay Packers defen- Williams
sive back, smashed the pas
senger side window and shot Brooke Bohac’s
car. Bohac, who was in the car with former New
York Jets football player Kevin Porter, was a
University of Nebraska-Lincoln student at the
time; neimer was mjureo.
Wiliams pleaded no contest Sept. 10 to a
felony count of unlawful discharge of a firearm
and a misdemeanor count of third-degree as
sault and was found guilty.
McGinn said the sentence must carry a mes
sage to others who could be involved in similar
incidents. He said Williams was an “appropri
ate” candidate for probation, but the incident
warranted incarceration.
McGinn said that with good behavior, Wi
liams could be free in 120 days.
Along with jail time, Williams was sen
tenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of
community service and ordered to pay $1,300
restitution for the felony count. The maximum
sentence for that charge is five years in jail and
$5,000 in fines.
Wiliams was sentenced to jail time for his
misdemeanor charge, which carried a maximum
penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Reading from Bohac’s victim impact state
Please see WILLIAMS on 3
Tenure causes controversy
.among regents, professors
By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
One NU regent called it an “outdated con
cept.” Professors cry out that it protects their
academic freedom, and UNL’s own chancellor
said if “wise and prudent action” isn’t taken,
explosive fights may be the result.
It’s tenure. And at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln, like many other universities
across the country, administrators an£ faculty
are wondering if it should be revamped, rejected
or just remain the same.
It usually takes' about six years for profes
sors to reach tenure. Tenure grants professors
job security, academic freedom and protects
them from summary dismissal unless they are
Please see TENURE on 7
it-—
As a student taking
classes, I had tenured
professors that were
partly retired on the job.
They can slack off and
not get fired.”
Drew Miller
NU Regent
Forced marriages bring abuse charges
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
L Ignorance of the law is no excuse for two
Iraqi immigrants charged with having sex with
children, Lancaster County Attorney Gary
Lacey said Tuesday.
Two girls, ages 13 and 14, were in protec
tive custody Tuesday after their father, also a
recent immigrant from Iraq, was charged with
two counts of child abuse. Police allege the fa
ther forced the two children to marry men more
than twice their age cm Nov. 9.
The two men, Latif Al-Hussani, 34, and
Majed Al-Tamimy, 28, woe charged Monday
with first-degree sexual assault of a child. Court
records said the mm had sex with the children
to consummate the marriages.
First-degree sexual assault of a child is pun
ishable by up to 50 years in jail. The men will
return to court Nov. 25 and are being held on a
$50,000 bond.
According to court records, the girls said
they were forced to maty the men, but then
father told police the 13-year-old was only en
gaged. Police affidavits said she claimed
Hussani had sex with her tinee or four times
between Nov. 9 and Nov. 13.
The 14-year-old told police she ran away
after being forced to have sex with Tamimy. Her
father reported her disappearance to police.
When police found the girl, she told her story.
Mohammed Nassir, a University of Ne
braska-Lincoln professor and member of the
Lincoln Islamic Foundation, said the men didn’t
mean to break any laws. They married the girls
according to Islamic tradition that has existed
for centuries, he said.
Fifty years ago, Nassir said, girls married
between ages 13 mid 18. Now, girls often don’t
many until after high school, but many are en
gaged as early as 13 or 14.
But Nebraska state law prohibits adults from
having sex with people under die age of 16,
Lacey said. People under 17 cannot marry.
Claims of cultural differences had no bearing
on the case, he said.
“The culture, in which I enforce the law,
criminal law, is American culture,” he said Tues
day afternoon. “When people move to Ne
braska, they have to abide by the policy of the
Legislature.”
The Associated Press contributed to this
report*