I SPORTS
Defensive gem
Needing a victory to keep its NCAA tourney
hopes alive, the Nebraska basketball team
1 pounded Texas Tech 69-50. PAGE 7
All
Artistic comeback
Comic actor Ross Brockley starred in several TV
commercials and on New York stages before return
ing to Nebraska to make his first film. PAGE 9
^ RiDAY
March 5, 1999
Under the Sprinkler
Sprinkles possible, high 40. Cloudy tonight, low 23.
VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 115
Galligo acquitted in Schmader murder
■ Although Timothy
Hopkins tried to implicate
his former housemate, the
jury found him not guilty.
By Josh Funk
Senioi staff wri ter
After seven hours of deliberation,
Tony Galligo's jury found him not
guilty of murder Thursday night.
Galligo, 19, was cleared of any
involvement in the 1995 murder of
Michael Schmader.
The state’s main witness, Timothy
Hopkins, confessed to the murder on
the stand and to police last year.
Hopkins, 20, tried to implicate
Galligo in the crime as part of a plea
agreement he signed with prosecutors
in June 1998.
After the verdict, which came on
what would have been Schmader s 21st
birthday, his family was shocked.
“Where’s justice?” said Roxanne
Schmader, Michael's mother. “Iff
Michael was their son, wouldn't they
have thought about it longer?”
Galligo's attorney, Kirk Naylor, said
justice had been served.
“I’m obviously relieved,” Naylor
said. “I believed my client was inno
cent.”
Lancaster County Attorney Gary
Lacey refused to comment on the ver
dict or Hopkins' plea agreement.
Galligo, who will be released this
morning, told his lawyer he is anxious to
get home to his child after 10 months in
jail.
“He told me tonight (Thursday) that
he is going to go home to Omaha and
get two jobs to support his child,”
Naylor said.
As part of his plea agreement,
Hopkins was required to tell the truth, so
if prosecutors determine that Hopkins
lied, they can charge him with first
degree murder.
Hopkins pleaded guilty to
manslaughter and the use of a weapon
to commit a felony.
He was sentenced to 15 to 20 years
in prison for the weapons charge, and he
has yet to be sentenced for manslaugh
ter.
“Whatever process got that plea
agreement approved needs to be seri
ously re-examined,” Naylor said.
Hopkins, Galligo and Schmader all
lived in the same south Lincoln group
home in 1995.
On Oct. 18, 1995, Schmader was
brutally beaten and stabbed to death in
an Antelope Creek storm-drainage tun
nel under 48th Street.
Hopkins said he killed Schmader
for stealing two cartons of cigarettes
from Hopkins and Galligo.
But Galligo testified Wednesday
that was not the reason.
“Hopkins was saying that Schmader
was bisexual,” Galligo said.
Schmader s body remained buried
in the tunnel until Dec. 22, 1995, when
Please see TRIAL on 6
Fetal death
subject of
legislation
■ Bill would make drunken drivers
accountable for manslaughter when
wrecks end in fetal death.
By Jessica Fargen
Senior staff writer
In Nebraska when a drunken driver plows into
a car with a pregnant woman inside and her
unborn child is killed, the state is powerless to
prosecute the drunken driver for homicide.
A bill heard by the Judiciary Committee on
Thursday would give the state the power to charge
people with offenses such as manslaughter and
motor vehicular homicide, if they are committing
an unlawful act when the unborn child is killed.
LB111, sponsored by Sen. LaVon Crosby,
redefines statute defmition of a person to include
an unborn child from the time of conception.
“LB111 is written to acknowledge life from
the very beginning,” said the Lincoln senator.
The bill would not only apply to drunken dri
ving offenses, it would apply to any illegal offense
such as speeding or assault.
The law would not affect legal abortions; it
would put responsibility of the death of the fetus
on a third party. The woman could never be held
accountable.
American Civil Liberties Union-Nebraska
Executive Director Matt LeMieux supported the
bill’s concept, but opposed it because of loop
holes.
Under the bill, people who are speeding and
hit a car with a pregnant woman in it, consequent
ly killing her fetus, could be charged with
manslaughter.
“I don’t think that was the drafters' intention,”
LeMieux said.
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers pointed out that
men who get in a wreck while speeding to the hos
pital with their wives in labor in the car could be
charged if the fetus were killed in the accident.
Chambers also said the statute seemed to
exclude fertilized eggs in test tubes, v/hich he said
were technically unborn children.
Please see FETAL DEATH on 6
Coming Into the light
Matt Miller/DN
ALLISON FRANZEN, a freshman Spanish education major, strolls through the south hallway of Oldfather Hall late Thursday afternoon.
English lecturers rally for unionizing
«
The real question here
is whether a group of
lecturers could be
considered separate from
faculty
John Russell
associate vice president for business and finance
ByIevaAugstums
Senior staff writer
Seeking to fulfill the need of equal representa
tion within the university, some UNL English
department lecturers are contemplating the possi
bility of forming a universitywide union.
“We are seeking stability and representation
on this campus,” said Paul Eggers, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln English department lecturer.
“At the moment we are just exploring the idea.”
The union idea stemmed from the NU Board
of Regents decision last June to restructure the
ranking of titles for non-tenure-track faculty at all
University of Nebraska campuses.
Eggers said one reason he was exploring a
union was because or the dramatic increase in
English department lecturers created by the
Regents’ decision.
“When it dawned on me how many lecturers
we have in the department, I was amazed,” he said.
“The university is saving money by hiring more of
us.”
In 1997-98, the English department had seven
non-tenure-track assistant professors, 14 instruc
tors and eight lecturers, said Linda Rossiter, an
English department administrative assistant.
Currently 30 non-tenure-track lecturers teach
in the department, she said. There are about 200
lecturers at UNL^
English department lecturer Anne Whitney
Please see ENGLISH on 6
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