District Court considers
DNA tests for rape case
■ Vinson Champ has
been linked to three rapes
at college campuses.
By Jake Bleed
Senior staff writer.
A man accused of raping a
woman at Union College in 1997
appeared in Lancaster County
District Court on Tuesday to hear a
description of a DNA identification
procedure that could link him to the
rape, Lancaster County Attorney
Gary Lacey said.
Vinson Champ, a professional
comedian, was brought to Lincoln in
March 1998 from Pasadena, Calif.,
where he was arrested for attempted
rape. He was later linked to sexual
assaults at Carthage College in
Kenosha, Wis., and St. Ambrose
College in Davenport, Iowa.
The attack at Union College took
place Feb. 2, 1997, when a 27-year
old woman was playing piano in the
basement of the E. Dick building on
campus, court documents said.
Linking Champ to the sexual
assaults are similarities in how the
crimes were carried out and in poten
tial DNA information taken from
semen samples found at the scenes of
the sexual assaults.
In sexual assaults connected to
Champ, the attacker asked about sex
ual history, forced anal sex using his
own saliva for lubrication and, after
the attack, asked his victim to pray for
him.
Pubic hair and bodily fluids found
at the scene of the attacks could also
be linked to Champ if new processes
are adopted to present DNA evidence
in court, Lacey said.
New methods of DNA identifica
tion must be approved by the state
Supreme Court, Lacey said. District
courts must present the new method
and satisfy six criteria to gain
Supreme Court sanction.
“Before evidence can be present
ed, the court has to prove the test is
accurate and reliable and is generally
accepted by the scientific communi
ty,” Lacey said.
Dr. Robin Cotton of the Selmar
Diagnostic Clinic in Maryland and
Melissa Weber of the New
Hampshire State Forensic Laboratory
presented new DNA identification
methods in Lancaster County District
Court on Tuesday.
New DNA identification process
es are important, Lacey said, because
they narrow the possibility of mistak
enly identifying an individual.
DNA identifications often use
statistical probability to describe the
accuracy of the test. The FBI main
tains DNA samples from several eth
nic groups against which DNA iden
tifications can be compared. Experts
can compare the identifications and
come up with a specific probability.
Lacey said newer processes cur
rently being presented in court would
increase the accuracy of DNA identi
fication in Nebraska.
“With these new tests, the ratios
are so high in some cases that the
chance of it being anyone other than
the person charged with the crime is
almost nonexistent,” Lacey said.
The state Supreme Court has
accepted several forms of DNA iden
tification, said Assistant County
Attorney John Colburn.
Group focuses on pregnancy rate
ByTinaHargens
Staff writer
Through workshops and adver
tisements in Lincoln, a city-county
group is working to reduce the teen
pregnancy rate in Lincoln.
The Lincoln/Lancaster County
Teenage Pregnancy Prevention
Coalition had its monthly meeting
Tuesday and discussed the status of
several teen-age pregnancy aware
ness programs.
The coalition was created 12
years ago to promote awareness
about teen-age pregnancy in Lincoln
and the surrounding communities.
“We don’t provide direct services
but work with organizations that do,”
said Bonnie Coffey, executive direc
tor of the Lincoln-Lancaster
Women’s Commission and vice pres
ident of the coalition.
Family Services,' Big
Brothers/Big Sisters and Cedars
Youth Services are just a fewr of the
organizations that work with the
coalition to provide workshops to
teach teens and their families about
teen pregnancy.
Last week, the coalition helped
sponsor a seminar called Unequal
Partners in the Nebraska Union.
About 140 people attended the pro
gram, which addressed the issue of
adolescent girls having sexual rela
tionships with older men.
“Generally, if a 13-year-old girl
gets pregnant, it isn’t because of the
14-year-old neighbor boy,” said Julie
Anderson of the Lincoln Medical
Education Foundation for Young
Families Program.
The workshop focused on deci
sions families can make regarding the
legal system. Reporting illegal sexual
relations is one area the program
addressed.
Workshops are also directed to
the teens themselves.
Survival Skills is a program spon
sored by the Lincoln YWCA and
Planned Parenthood that offers coun
seling and tutoring services to teens
in the Lincoln area..
Tiffany Mullison-Kauffman,
Survival Skills coordinator, said once
teen-agers join the program, they can
stay in the program throughout high
school.
Wise Guys, another coalition pro
gram, is designed to teach young men
about their sexuality and responsibil
ity.
To attract public awareness, the
coalition has spent two years creating
an advertisement promotion. Coffey
said the coalition now just needs
funding in order to start the cam
paign.
The coalition plans to use the ads
on billboards, bookmarks and in stu
dent newspapers.
The advertisements use student
parents from Lincoln High, Lincoln
u
A 13-year-old friend ^
isn’t the best source
of sex information
Bonnie Coffey
executive director of the Lincoln
Lancaster Women’s Commission
Northeast and Tender Loving Care - a
program for teens with children.
Susan Powers-Alexander, direc
tor of Education and Training for
Planned Parenthood of Lincoln, said
the coalition would like to bring the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
Planned Parenthood and other orga
nizations together to address other
issues such as the influence alcohol
has on sexual decisions.
For right now, the coalition will
continue to promote awareness of
teenage pregnancy through Survival
Skills, Wise Guys and soon the adver
tising campaign.
“People need to know there’s a
challenge of teen pregnancy,” Coffey
says, “A 13-year-old friend isn’t the
best source of sex information.”
The coalition did not have the lat
est teen-age pregnancy statistics for
Lincoln on hand at its meeting.
Coffey said those numbers should be
available next month.
Anthrax vaccine disputed in House
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Lawmakers said Tuesday they were
skeptical of Defense Department assur
ances that the anthrax vaccine is safe
and shots given to soldiers are having
no effect on troop readiness and morale.
Defense Secretary William Cohen
last year ordered all 2.4 milhon active
duty and reserve troops to get shots of
the anthrax vaccine as protection
against biological warfare. Some
340,000 service members have been
immunized so far. About 200 to 300
have refused to take it because of con
cerns about its safety and efficacy.
At a House hearing, lawmakers
questioned Pentagon officials’ asser
tions that the number of adverse reac
tions to the shots was small and there
was no impact on troop readiness.
“Either the Defense Department is
being less than forthcoming about
objections being raised (among troops),
or they have their heads buried in the
sand,” said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind.,
chairman of the House Government
Reform Committee.
Military officers and federal health
officials have repeatedly said the drug
is safe and inoculation is the only
known way to prevent rapid deaths of
troops who inhale anthrax.
“We are confident that the anthrax
vaccine is safe and effective,” said
Kathryn Zoon of the Food and Drug
Administration.
But Kwai-Cheung Chan of the
Government Accounting Office, the
research arm of Congress, said his
review of the studies available on the
anthrax vaccine since the 1960s showed
its long-term safety is unknown.
He also said there has been no spe
cific study of the efficacy of the
licensed vaccine in humans who have
inhaled anthrax spores. Such studies
have been conducted using guinea pigs,
rabbits and monkeys.
The only study focusing on humans
involved mill workers and others whose
skin was exposed by touching .infected
animals. Anthrax is a naturally occur
ring bacteria lound in domesticated ani
mals.
“You have not tested this vaccine
thoroughly,” Burton said.
But Dr. Sue Bailey, the Defense
Department’s assistant secretary of
health, said it would be unethical to test
anthrax spores on humans.
Chan said a recent survey of sol
diers at the Tripler Army Medical
Center in Hawaii indicated women had
a higher reaction rate to the vaccine
than men. Twice the number of women
reported they missed one or more duty
shifts after a shot, and women were
more than twice as likely to report
fever, chills or general malaise.
“Clearly, we need to determine if
there is any gender difference” through
further research, Bailey conceded.
The FDA specified troops are to
have six shots with an annual booster to
ensure they are properly inoculated.
But Chan said no studies had deter
mined the optimum number of shots
required.
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