Summit underway; news blackout ordered
By MICHAEL PUTZEL
AP White House Correspondent
GENEVA President Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev, agreeing they
“must achieve decisions together,” met
face-to-face for the first time yesterday and
plunged into a series of “businesslike”
discussions behind the curtain of a news
blackout.
Arms control issues were on the agenda
for the first day of the summit, but there
was no public word on developments. The
day ended with Reagan and Gorbachev
sitting down for an unscheduled 50-minute
fireside chat.
“I think we will have a good
relationship,” Swiss television quoted Gor
bachev as saying of Reagan. It was one of
the few breaks of the blackout imposed by
the two sides. The White House said the
development underscored the “serious
ness” of negotiations between the super
power leaders.
Groups opposed to the death penalty marched from a church in Pleasant yesterday, but the state Supreme Court stayed those two executions, and
Gap to the State Correctional Institute at Rockview yesterday. Two men one of a third man, until the cases can be reviewed. PLEASE SEE RELATED
were scheduled to be executed in the state’s electric chair at Rockview STORY, PAGE 3.
Local man found guilty in drug death
By K. J. MAPES
Collegian Staff Writer
A State College man was found guilty yesterday
of involuntary manslaughter and drug-related
charges in the drug overdose death’ of a Purdue
Mountain woman in January.
After a two-day non-jury trial at the Centre
County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Raymond C.
Agostinelli, 27, was found guilty of involuntary
manslaughter and possession and delivery of
drugs, according to Centre County Court Judge
David E. Grine.
Agostinelli was charged in March after he was
found unconscious Jan. 21 in a room at the Nittany
Budget Motel, 1274 N. Atherton St., with Sabina Q.
Wright, 23. Mrs. Wright was found dead at the
scene.
Agostinelli was accused of supplying Mrs..
Wright with a mixture of morphine and cocaine,
which allegedly caused her death.
William Fitzpatrick, defense attorney, could not
be reached for'comment.
First Assistant District Attorney Ray Gricar,
prosecuting attorney, said the testimony of the key
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A warm start with partly cloudy
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Because both sides agreed at the outset
not to talk publicly about the deliberations
until after they end, the content of the two
leaders’ discussions was not revealed. But
spokesmen for both sides agreed the talks
took place in a “good atmosphere” and
were “businesslike.”
The summit is scheduled to end today,
with the possibility of a “public reporting
session” tomorrow morning, according to
White House spokesman Larry Speakes.
The time could be taken up by the signing of
any joint agreements, or the leaders could
simply use the opportunity to end the black
out with their views of the first superpower
summit in six years.
Yesterday, the leaders were scheduled to
hold a 15-minute get-acquainted chat in the
morning before joining six advisers from
each side to begin the formal talks devoted
to a two-hour review of U.S.-Soviet rela
tions. Then they were to break for lunch and
return for two more hours of discussions
with advisers on nuclear arms control.
witness, Marc A. Saccarelli of Bucks County, was
essential to the trial.
“The prosecution couldn’t have done without
Saccarelli,” he said.
Saccarelli testified that he, Mrs. Wright and
Agostinelli did a “line” of what Agostinelli told
them was pharmaceutical cocaine from his fa
ther’s drug store.
Saccarelli testified that Agostinelli and Mrs.
Wright continued inhaling the white powder and he
fell asleep. He also said that Mrs. Wright and
Agostinelli were asleep when he left at 8:30 a.m.
the next morning.
Gricar argued Agostinelli deceived Mrs. Wright
by not telling her the white powder he said was
cocaine also contained morphine.
Agostinelli, however, testified that Mrs. Wright
offered him the cocaine. He testified that he
arrived at Mrs. Wright’s motel room without
drugs. i
“I didn’t have any drugs at all,” he said.
He said he “did a few lines” and then “crashed
on the floor. It felt like a bomb hit me.”
The next thing Agostinelli said he remembered
was waking up in the intensive care unit of the
Centre Community Hospital.
Syrian warplanes shot down
By NICOLAS B. TATRO
Associated Press Writer
TEL AVIV, Israel Israeli war
planes flying over Lebanon pursued
Syrian MiG-23s into Syrian air space
yesterday and shot down two of them,
Israel’s air force commander said.
The battle at 11:15 a.m. was the
first downing of Syrian planes report
ed since the summer of 1982, when
Israel said its fighters shot down at
least 85 Syrian jets in air battles
following the Israeli invasion of Leb
anon.
.12
.10
.14
The clash raised tensions between
the principal Middle East allies of the
United States and Soviet Union on the
Collegian
The first tete-a-tete, however, stretched
into an hour-long meeting in a small room of
the lakeside villa adjacent to the formal
meeting room. White House spokesman
Larry Speakes said the U.S. and Soviet
advisers were left “cooling their heels” and
chatting with their counterparts while they
waited for the one-on-one talk to end.
And in what Speakes called a “clearly
unexpected development,” Reagan, who
played host for the first day, ended the
afternoon session by inviting Gorbachev to
join him for a walk through the garden down
to the shore of Lake Geneva.
He said the two men put on their coats to
ward off the near-freezing temperatures
and took a five-minute stroll leading to a
pool house, which they entered and sat down
by a fire burning in the fireplace.
Speakes said the session had not been
planned in advance, but when asked how it
happened there was a fire burning in the
pool house, he quipped, “I would judge it
first day of the summit meeting of
President Reagan and Mikhail Gor
bachev in Geneva.
A military spokesman in Damascus
said Israel’s U.S.-made F-15s vio
lated Syrian air space near Nabek, 40
miles north of the capital. The
statement made no mention of Syrian
losses and said the Israeli planes
were driven away.
Maj. Gen. Amos Lapidot, the Israe
li air force commander, said on Israel
radio that the battle began when
Soviet-built Syrian jets came “nearer
than usual” to an Israeli reconnais
sance patrol flying over Lebanon.
“In order to continue the patrol and
not endanger our planes, we were
With only one survivor, the prosecution needed
Saccarelli’s testimony, Gricar said.
Gricar said that he was not sure Saccarelli’s
testimony alone would have been as relevant
without the corroboration of'the testimony of
Matthew Wright, the husband of the victim, and
evidence from the inventory of McLanahan Drug
Store, 1690 N. Atherton.
The inventory of the store, owned by Agostinel
li’s father, revealed more than 1,100 morphine pills
had been missing between November 1981 and
February 1985.
Before Grine’s decision, Fitzpatrick said that
although Agostinelli spent four hours in the motel
room with Mrs. Wright, “no (evidence) showed
any connection to McLanahan Drug Store.”
Fitzpatrick said Agostinelli nearly died and was
diagnosed at Centre Community Hospital as suf
fering from respiratory failure secondary to a
drug overdose of cocaine, morphine and PCP.
An expert witness for the defense, Frederick
Reiders, a toxologist at National Medical Services
in Willowgrove, and the prosecution’s expert wit
ness, Stuart Bogema, Jr., a toxologist at American
Medical Labs, Virginia, offered conflicting opin
ions of the lab work done, Gricar said.
forced to stage a r short battle with
them across the border.”
He said the Israeli F-15s were six
miles from Syria’s border when the
battle began, but the Syrian fighters
had air-to-air missiles with twice that
range and could threaten Israeli
planes without leaving their own air
space.
Lapidot said tensions had been
building in recent weeks because of
Syrian unhappiness with Israel’s pa
trols over Lebanon, where more than
25,000 Syrian soldiers are stationed.
The radio quoted Jerusalem
sources as saying Syria provoked the
incident to attract superpower atten
tion.
was probably one of those pool houses that
has a 24-hour-a-day fire.”
“The president, I think, felt at a certain
point in the meeting that it was a desirable
time for the two to continue their talks
alone,” the spokesman said.
In describing the meetings, Speakes said,
“The tone was good, the exchanges were
good, the opportunity for both to talk with
each other concerning these major issues
was carried on in an atmosphere which the
general secretary has described as ‘busi
nesslike,’ which we agree is an appropriate
description.”
The U.S. and Soviet advisers, meanwhile,
remained at the table and continued their
discussions, although Speakes said he did
not know whether they talked about arms
control, the issue that had been on the
agenda.
Swiss television, which has special access
to the summit sites, quoted Gorbachev as
saying of Reagan, “I think we will have a
good relationship.” The network said one of
Compact would link
Pa. and 3 states for
waste disposal sites
Editor's note: This is the third in a
five-part series dealing with Pennsyl
vania’s low level radioactive waste
problem. Today's segment details the
legislative battle, over LLRW.
By ADAM BOONE
Collegian Science Writer
Input from Pennsylvania residents
has helped shape proposed legislation
that would unite Pennsylvania and
three neighboring states in a low level
•radioactive waste disposal compact,
the co-director of the Environmental
Coalition on Nuclear Power said.
Judith Johnsrud said the state
House of Representatives’ study of
the LLRW issue relied heavily upon
public hearings.
The possibilities of having an
LLRW disposal site in Pennsylvania
have sparked a reaction that shows
strong public concern for caution in
radiation containment, she said.
‘For the past 30
years, they just dug
trenches, backed the
trucks up and
dumped.’
—Judith Johnsrund, co-
Larry Gordon, research analyst
with the House Conservation Com
mittee, said as a result of public
debate, 22 amendments were added
to Senate Bill 417 the state’s com
pact legislation. The amendments
are aimed at strengthening the bill
and having the provisions reflect
public concern about LLRW disposal.
“The 22 amendments that we ap
plied to this bill (were) generated and
came directly from these individuals
and groups. I’m not only amazed, but
I’m thoroughly gratified,” said Cam
ille George, D-Clearfield, state House
Conservation Committee chairman.
Brian Clark, attorney for the state
Senate Environmental Resources
arid Energy Committee, said the
state House of Representatives is
preparing for a floor vote on Senate
Bill 417.
The bill which proposes a com
pact between Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland
and is called the Appalachian Com
pact would allow these states to
control the disposal of low level radio
active waste produced within their
borders, he said.
Wednesday, Nov. 20,1985
Vol. 86, No. 94 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1985 Collegian Inc.
director, Environmental
Coalition on Nuclear
Power
its reporters had talked to both men during
the day.
The two leaders’ wives also met Tuesday
for tea, and their session, too, went longer
than expected.
Nancy Reagan, who invited Raisa Gorba
chev to the 18th century mansion where the
Reagans are staying, told reporters af
terward they had “talked about our hus
bands and the meeting and what we both
hoped would come out of the meeting.”
They agreed, She said, that both their
husbands hope to achieve “a better under
standing” between the two longtime adver
saries.
Mrs. Reagan also disclosed the two wom
en had invited the other to visit her coijntry,
and both expressed a desire to do so. The
private tea ran 30 minutes past its sched
uled 45 minutes. Mrs. Gorbachev has in
vited the American first lady to a reciprocal
meeting at the Soviet mission on Wednes
day.
Federal laws allow states to form
compacts with other states in their
region, Clark said.
The compact states would collecti
vely dump LLRW in a compact-mem
ber host state, he said. These states
would be protected from LLRW
dumping from states outside the com
pact.
Senate Bill 417 is sponsored by Sen.
D. Michael Fisher, R-Allegheny, who
is chairman of the Senate Environ
mental Resources and Energy Com
mittee, Clark said.
First drafted a year ago, the bill
has since passed the Senate vote in
June and has moved on to the House,
which should vote on the legislation
within a week.
These amendments result from an
in-depth study of the Appalachian
Compact by the House Conservation
Committee, Gordon said.
“The committee did a really com
prehensive report on the bill,” he
said, adding that he believes the
House will not delay passing the
amended bill.
If it does pass through the House,
the bill will then return to the Senate
for amendment approval, he said. If
the amended bill does not pass the
Senate, a committee of three senators
and three representatives will be
formed to reach an amendment com
promise, Gordon said.
Federal law states the compact
must be approved by the states and
Congress by Dec. 31; he said.
Johnsrud said several aspects of
the Senate bill concerning citizens’
rights will require amending.
Currently there is no legislation
allowing public input regarding the
actual disposal site location, she said.
Johnsrud said shallow land burial
should be banned, which the current
legislation does not take into account.
“For the past 30 years, they just
dug trenches, backed the trucks up
and dumped,” she said.
This method of waste disposal is
totally irresponsible, Johnsrud said,
adding that she is hopeful a new
amendment will alleviate the prob
lem.
“We’d like to see an outright ban on
shallow land burial,” she said.
These and other concerns have
been advocated by many public inter
est groups instrumental in the pro
posed amendment legislation, she
said.
“I really consider it an outstanding
example of the good that can come
out of legislative concern for the
public interest,” Johnsrud said.
She said if the additional amend
ments are made, the resulting com
pact will effectively serve the public
interest.