10 The Daily Collegian Father faces By RON LESKO Associated Press Writer SOUTH BEND, Ind. Kenneth Lakeberg is fighting legal and ethical battles while his 7 1 / 2 -week-old daughter struggles for life in Philadelphia after being separated from her Siamese twin five days ago. Lakeberg, 26, admitted to a drug and alcohol problem yesterday as he fended off questions of a possible jail sentence and accusations he has abused charitable donations. He could be sentenced next week to a year in jail for violating a probation term received after a knife fight last Christmas. He also has failed to account for at least $1,300 in donations he received in the past week, said his attorney, James Lakin. "I've got a few problems, but I'm not a criminal. This has all gone too far," Lakeberg said after visiting his daughter, Angela, in The Chil dren's Hospital of Philadelphia. Attorney with HIV sues Phila. law firm PHILADELPHIA (AP) A law yer infected with HIV has filed a federal lawsuit accusing a Phila delphia law firm of firing him after surreptitiously obtaining his medi cal reports. The lawyer, identified in the suit only as John Doe,says his work at Kohn Nast & Graf was "exem plary" and came under criticism only after one of the firm's partners went through his personal belongings and learned of his condition. The suit, filed under the Ameri cans with Disabilities Act, seeks unspecified damages. One partner, Steven A. Asher, is identified by name in court papers. The secretary for senior partner Harold Kohn said yesterday he was the only person who could com ment on the suit. She said he was in a meeting yesterday afternoon and unavailable. He did not return a phone message. The suit says Doe came down with a "sudden illness" in September 1992 and had blood tests. Asher called Doe at home the next day and asked him to work, according to the lawsuit. When Doe replied he wanted to rest for the weekend, he said Asher "suggested that Attorney Doe consult the same infectious disease spe cialist that (he) had just visited," the lawsuit says. Doe, who is representing him self, says he became the subject of gossip because of his 35-pound weight loss and dry, scaly skin. One sec retary, he says, remarked that he Newest abortion clinic violence increases pressure for legislation By KAREN BALL Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON D.C. The lat est abortion clinic violence is fueling a new drive to get Congress to pass legislation creating new federal crimes for threats, violence and blockades against clinics. Pro-choice forces, outraged by last week's shooting of a doctor at a Wichita, Kan., abortion clinic, say it is a travesty that lawmakers still haven't acted on the measure that was introduced in January. "It shouldn't take another death to prove to members of Congress" the bill is needed, said Harriett Woods, president of the National Women's Political Caucus. The Wichita attack was the sec ond clinic shooting this year. The doctor was able to return to work the next day. But in March, a Florida doctor was shot to death at a clinic. Though the Florida shooting renewed lobbying for the clinic access bill, it became bogged down in the House Judiciary Committee, where lawmakers who call themselves "pro choice" but sometimes favor abortion No word yet By LEE SIEGEL AP Science Writer PASADENA, Calif. Somewhere near Mars, a lonely spacecraft or what's left of it sailed in silence yesterday as NASA waited in vain for another chance to find the castaway Mars Observer. Analysts said they believed Mars Observer exploded into "little bitty pieces" Satur day when radio contact was lost as the spacecraft was supposed to be pressuriz ing its fuel tanks. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory insisted the spacecraft most likely started orbiting Mars on schedule Tuesday, even though engineers didn't hear from it. Space agency engineers hoped an auto- Siamese twins ethical probe jail, "The main story is Angela not my dirty laundry. ... I do have a drug and alcohol problem and I'll admit to that. But I'm getting help for that." Lakeberg returned to Philadel phia on Tuesday night after com ing to northwest Indiana briefly to bury daughter Amy, who died after last week's separation surgery. He is due back in Indiana on Sept. 3 to appear before Newton Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Molter. Lakeberg has admitted using marijuana, cocaine and alcohol in violation of a one-year probation term he received May 21, when he agreed to a reduced misdemeanor battery charge stemming from the Christmas scuffle. Traces of cocaine were found in a urine sample, court records show The records indicate Lakeberg used a butcher knife to slash the hand of his cousin, Jeffrey Lynn, during a fight at Lynn's Newton County home. The original charge was aggra vated battery, a felony. "looked like he had AIDS." Asher is accused of telling Doe in December he would receive no more work. At that point, Asher stopped speaking with Doe and kept a dis tance, court papers say. Doe says Asher's reaction came after he received a letter from a doctor at Johns Hopkins Universi ty's AIDS Services Department. Doe said he found a copy of the doc tor's letter two months later when looking for another document in Asher's office. Asher, Doe claims, "could only have obtained these documents by searching through Attorney Doe's desk." According to the court papers, Doe learned .Jan. 13 he was infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. That same day, Doe alleges, Asher told him he had fallen below expectations and would be let go in 1994. Doe says he was fired March 19 after a phone message to Doe from the Equal Employment Opportuni ty Commission was passed along to Kohn. The firm told the state Unem ployment Office it fired Doe for "communicating confidential firm matters to persons outside the firm" and because his discussions with other employees about his inten tion to sue "had a detrimental effect" on staff morale, the suit says. The case bears similarity to a movie filmed this year in Phila delphia. restrictions had concerns about the First Amendment rights of protes ters. The measure would create new federal crimes for violence, threats and blockades at clinics, and would give the Justice Department new power to obtain court orders stop ping blockades. It also would allow distribution of leaflets, picketing and sidewalk counseling against abortion, but critics said abortion opponents would be unfairly singled out because people protesting other causes would face no new criminal penalties. Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who introduced the bill, said he has been courting these middle-of-the-road lawmakers, and is ready for the Judiciary Committee to vote on the measure as soon as Congress returns after Labor Day. Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, said her group would have to get tougher on lawmakers who cam paign as pro-choice advocates but have balked on this bill. "They don't get to define them selves as pro-choice if they don't from NASA's Mars Observer; experts believe it to matic computer program, designed to restore communications after a prolonged loss of contact, eventually would make Mars Observer send a signal to them, possibly as early as 2:56 p.m. PDT yesterday. But only silence came from space. With no word from the spacecraft, engineers couldn't rule out the possibility that it soared past Mars or was destroyed or damaged, ending the $9BO million mis sion. "Unfortunately, we still have no two-way communication or one-way communica tion or data of any kind from the space craft," project manager Glenn Cunningham said during a late afternoon news confer ence. He said NASA wouldn't give up trying to Dateline Brian Mathis, Newton County's chief probation officer, has rec ommended Lakeberg's probation be revoked. The judge could sentence Lakeberg to the one-year jail term he faced in May. In March 1990, a misdemeanor battery charge was filed against Lakeberg in Newton County, but that charge was dropped. In September 1988, he was con victed of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, and successfully com pleted a year's probation. A mari juana possession charge filed at the same time was dropped. Meanwhile, the Lakebergs' attorney said the couple has spent about $7,900 of the $9,200 collected in an account at a bank near their Wheatfield home. Lakin said he is the only person authorized to take money from the account, which was set up to help raise money for medical costs. About $5,600 was spent on a used Chevrolet to replace the family's Tomato fight Youths battling with 264,000 pounds of overripe tomatoes turned the Spain included activities such as dropping goats from church steeples town red in an annual food fight. Yesterday's celebration in Bunyol, and walking on hot coals. stand up against this violence," she said, adding that the White House could be doing more to support the bill. Attorney General Janet Reno has lobbied personally for it. Marcy Wilder, legal director for the National Abortion Rights Action West Virginia judge rejects state-funded abortion By A.V. GALLAGHER Associated Press Writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. A judge yesterday upheld a law restricting Medicaid payments for abortions, ordering the state to halt funding for the procedure for poor women, except in lim ited cases. Circuit Judge John Hey ruled that a provision of a $1.14 billion Medicaid funding bill that severely restricts state funding of abortions is "consti tutional and enforceable." "While an indigent woman may have a right to abort her fetus, she does not have the cor responding right to have that decision publicly funded," Hey wrote. It will take 10 days to two weeks for the state Department of Health and Human Resources to notify doctors and Medicaid facilities of the change, said agency spokeswoman Ann Garcelon. reach Mars Observer, but "every day without communications clearly lessens any prob ability of success." "I think it blew up," space historian James Oberg said by phone from Houston. "I think the propellant tanks blew up. That would explain a lot." NASA engineers have said they doubted Mars Observer exploded because the tanks had backup pressure regulators and the battered 1978 Ford, Lakin said. The car was bought while the twins were at a suburban Chicago hospital, and the Lakebergs needed a depend able car for the 90-mile round-trip commute, Lakin said. Other money was used to pay household bills and Lakin sent Lakeberg's 24-year-old wife, Reitha, $4OO on Monday. However, Lakin is uncertain how Lakeberg spent $1,300 from the account over the past week. Lake berg offered no clear explanation when he spoke to Lakin on Mon day, the lawyer said. "I think it blew up." Kenneth Lakeberg ~ , . ..i.:.,:.., . .., ,: „ .• , : . : .".•:.- 94: : : ' . ' '' . -:' :. , :. 1'. .' ' ..:•:1 . ....'''.....1 .. ....,, -.' ..;:*:...''' A , ........,,..... ~.,.w . .. .....:.,,,...... ..10„,..... ....„..,,.. League, noted that lawmakers have been haggling over how to define terms like "interfere." "Given the murder and ongoing assaults, death threats, arson, bombings, blockades and vandal ism . .. it is a travesty that Con As a result, abortion funding can't cease immediately, despite Hey's order, Garcelon said. Roger Forman, lawyer for the Women's Health Center of West Virginia Inc., said he would petition the state Supreme Court yesterday to put Hey's order on hold while the ruling is appealed. The law bars Medicaid-funded abortions unless two doctors say the abortion is necessary, the fetus is found to be in danger of dying or the woman is the victim of rape or incest. Three women's groups, the Women's Health Center, West Virginia Free and the National Organization for Women, sued the Department of Health and Human Resources over the abortion restrictions. They said the law discriminated against poor women who can't pay for abortions themselves because other women who can afford abortions are still able to have them. "We're very disappointed in the ruling," said Clinic sues NBC for false report By PAUL NOWELL Associated Press Writer GREENSBORO, N.C. "Date line NBC" falsely accused an eye clinic of scheduling needless cat aract surgery, the clinic charged in a $6 million lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court. AP Laser Photo "What Dateline NBC did to this practice, its doctors and honest employees is reprehensible behav ior that cannot be tolerated," said Mark McDaniel, executive director of the Southeastern Eye Center. The lawsuit names NBC and "Dateline NBC" reporter Brian Ross as defendants. The plaintiffs are Central Carolina Surgical Eye Associates and Dr. C. Richard Epes of Southeastern Eye Center. The lawsuit says NBC falsely accused officials at the eye clinic of engaging in unnecessary surgery and unethical practices in a May 4 broadcast that implied a healthy woman who posed as a patient was gress has not yet passed a strong clinic access law," said Kate Michelman, president of NARAL. Pro-choice forces contend that the current climate of protests at clinics fuels extremists, and the bill would quell that climate. But pro-life James Oberg space historian pressure shouldn't have been strong enough to rupture the tanks. Cunningham said a high-pressure heli um tank used to pressurize the oxygen and hydrazine fuel tanks had been replaced when Mars Observer was being built "because it had a slow leak." But he said he still had no reason to believe the fuel tanks had burst and destroyed the spacecraft. "I'm betting it blew up on Saturday," said Thursday, Aug. 26, 1993 '~°~ ,o ~. 6 ~ r. Barbara Evans Fleischauer, president of NOW's West Virginia chapter and a lawyer for the chapter. West Virginians for Life Inc., an anti-abortion group that helped defend the law, said the measure doesn't ban abortions but only the state funding of abortions. "We are so grateful," said Becky Romero, vice president of West Virginia for Life. "We were always very hopeful because we had an excel lent case in the court. Thirty-seven other states do not fund abortions on demand with their tax dollars." Gov. Gaston Caperton signed the Medicaid law on June 4, although he opposed the abortion restrictions, saying he didn't want to threaten medical coverage for 350,000 poor West Vir ginians covered by the program. He then filed suit seeking to overturn the abortion provision on grounds similar to those cited by the women's groups. have exploded John Pike, a space policy analyst for the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. "If it went off the air when you're pressurizing the fuel tanks, you'd expect a problem with the pressurization system, and that usually consists of something between a small leak and a big explosion," Pike said. Mars Observer was launched from Florida Sept. 25 on a 450-million-mile journey to Mars. It was supposed to go into a long, elliptical orbit, then take three months maneuver ing into a 234-mile-high circular orbit, where it was to spend at least 687 Earth days one Martian year —studying the geology, weather and seasonal climate change on Mars. minutes away from needless sur gery. McDaniel repeated his claims that the woman, Beatrice Caine, was told by two different doctors she did not need cataract surgery. He said she called back to try to schedule sur gery because NBC was facing a deadline. NBC issued a statement saying it stood by its story and that it was fair and accurate: "'Dateline NBC' broadcast what happened step by step in that clinic, letting viewers decide for them selves what we had found." Revenues at Southeastern, a $l2- million-a-year business, dropped 30 percent in the three months following the broadcast, McDaniel said. "Dateline NBC" apologized to GM to settle a lawsuit. NBC acknowl edged it attached incendiary devices to a GM pickup so a fire would erupt after a test crash in a report about the design of some pickups. it at activists scoffed at that argument. "That's like blaming the coura geous civil rights movement for the rioting and death that occurred during that era," said Maureen Malloy, a lobbyist for the National Right to Life Committee. AP Laser Photo
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