Medical case workers help piitients, B5 ntflbwn r.wMm'NiOAtuw» N»TWriHK- Puttlng you In touch Sunday wKh your world Fttaiwy 28,1999 Serving the Westland Community for 34years © VOLUVI. 34 NtiMBtK 7 7 WfcSUAND. MICHIGAN • /4 I'AGfcS • http:• observer-eccentric.com SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS I BMMT*wa CttuauotcttkoM Nrtwbric, tmc. TODAY Rotary toy show: The Westland Rotary Club's toy show is scheduled for to seek 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, Sunday, at Joy Manor, located at 28999 Joy in Westland. Admission is . state help $3, with kids under 12 free. • Westland Meadows residents are upset about a $15 monthly increase that they say MONDAY will Dush some rent payments over $400, despite complaints about deteriorating liv­ City council meets: The ing conditions. BY DARRELL CLEM Westland City Council STAFF WRITER meets at 7p.m. in council dclemOoe.homecomm.net chambers, second floor, As mobile home lot rent increases loom Monday, Westland Meadows residents are Westland City Hall, threatening to seek state intervention on 36601 Ford Road west of issues they say their landlord has ignored. Wayne Road in Westland. Residents are upset about a $15 monthly increase that they say will push some rent payments over $400, despite complaints Tax deadline: Monday is about deteriorating living conditions. the last day to pay 1998 "Some of these people are handicapped and on fixed property taxes without incomes," resident Marcia Kelley said. "This $15 a month is going to kill them. And there are folks with children who additional penalty. already can't afford to be here." Residents protested Monday afternoon at their neighbor­ Golf course: The Westland hood clubhouse, and an estimated 60 people aired concerns Tuesday evening during a meeting in Garden City - several Municipal Golf Course miles away from the mobile home park northeast of Van opens Monday. Born and Merriman roads. Residents also have sent a letter to property owner Joseph Boyle, asking him to respond by March 6 to a list of their concerns. Otherwise, they are threatening to file complaints TUESDAY with state mobile housing officials and the attorney general, Planning commission: The Please see RESIDENTS, A2 Westland Planning Com­ mission meets at 7p.m. Tuesday at Westland City over it Hall, 36601 Ford Road, Utot a y*yo; Sham Simmons, 11, of Westland shows how to do the trick _ west of Wayne Road in ^raefc tke cradle' with hi* yoyo, Shane was attending the yo-yo class at the; Westland, =Btt## Center in Westland sponsored by Westland Parks and ^tecreationlThe Bugs city woman program focuses on teaching kids more than 20 yo~yo friic^s. BY DARRELL CLEM u STAFF WRITER WEDNESDAY [email protected] TM Bugs, a lop-eared rabbit, is looking for a new home follow­ Golf class: The Westland ing a bitter custody dispute Tuesday that made a Westland thetojfo woman hopping mad. senior citizen Friendship Universe Kari Meriedeth, 34, ran into Bugs while taking her two Center will offer a golf store in the tumor-plagued pet rats to have them euthanized at the class taught by United msttand Michigan Humane Society office in Westland. Mail teaches Meriedeth, accompanied by her 9-year-old daughter, want­ States Golf Teachers Fed­ ed to take Bugs home. The rabbit's owner, who was dropping eration-certified member yoyo tricks* him off because she was moving and couldn't keep him, David Jeffery. Orientation Watching are agreed at first. Samantha But humane society employees at the Westland office for this class is 1 p.m. intervened, saying Bugs had already been signed over to Ktinbeiit2t Wednesday at the Friend­ \-:S-\-t(Wt:to them and couldn't leave. ship Center. Light refresh­ "I support the humane society, but they're not employing right).Erica; humane people," Meriedeth said. "They're employing cold- ments will be served. Reg­ mmbeii % hearted people." ular classes will be 1-3 •/•un4;4jnber- Meriedeth said she and Bugs' owner even walked outside for the pet exchange, only to be confronted by humane soci­ p.m. Wednesdays, March Salaehtll, ety employees. 10 through April 28. ^Umm "I was heart-broken," Meriedeth said. "I just wanted to Intend. Please see RABBIT, A6 INDEX • Obituaries A3 Police steer plan to stop driver's license fraud E5 BY DARRELL CLEM "Liar, beware," Westland Sgt. Jon while going to his apartment to arrest Newer Michigan driver's licenses Real Estate El STAFF WRITER him for other outstanding warrants. contain features that criminals haven't dclem9oe.homecomm.net Handzlik said. Crosiword E& Thp 26-year-old suspect went to a Handzlik described the suspect as been able to duplicate. Jobs H2 Westland police are clamping down Secretary of State office and obtained a "shocked" to learn that his fraudulent A picture of the Mackinac Bridge on driver's license fraud - a crime that license with his picture on it - even license could become his special pass to contains the word "Michigan" repeated­ Home ft Service J2 few offenders realize carries a poten­ though his real name wasn't on it. prison. ly along the side of the bridge - but it Automotive J7 tially lengthy prison term. He used a friend's name and person­ Some criminals want fake licenses to can't be seen by the naked eye. Stobbe al information to get the license, but conceal their true identities. Others lie revealed the feature with a magnifying • Ta_ste_ ...,,_;:._ Bl "It's a constant problem," Lt. Marc Stobbe said. had his own picture taken for it. His on Secretary of State applications glass. • Health A Fitness BB One local man who faces a court scam was uncovered by police officers because of bad driving records that Also, a state seal in the center of the • Arts ft Leisure CI hearing this week was stunned to learn who knew his real identity, Handzlik block them from getting a valid license. new licenses can be seen - but only said. But authorities are getting tougher with a black light. • Sports A Recreation that he couldiface five years in prison _D1_ for lying to get a driver's license, police The suspect was caught - and his on fake driver's licenses, and catching Those are only two of the changes, said. legal problems compounded - when criminals has become an easier task, Please see LICENSE, A2 HOW TO REACH US officers asked for his driver's license Stobbe said. Newsroom: 734-9 W-2104 Teens charged in carjacking of woman sentenced N^sroom Fa*: 734*591-7271 E-mail: b|aehm«nt ot.homtcomm.fwt BY DARRKLL CLEM The 24-year-old victim told police that one teen near Merriman and Schoolcraft. Nightline/Sports: 734-993-2104 STAFF WRtTKR approached her from the front to ask for directions Westland police officers! patrolling the area found Reader Comment Line: 734-993-2042 dclefnOoe.homeoomm.net while another walked up from behind and initiated the woman just moments after she was attacked. Classified Advertising: 734-9914900 Two teenagers charged iti a carjacking that left a the assault. l^»cal paramedics helped her at the scene, and she Westland woman beaten and bloodied are serving Police described the woman as a cancer patient also sought treatment at St. Mary Hospital in Livo­ Display Advertising: 734-991-2300 prison terms of 18 months to 10 years, a court clerk who had been undergoing chemotherapy. nia for injuries to her face, knees and an elbow. Home Delivery: 734-5910500 said Thursday. Outside of a court hearing in September, Westland Defense attorney Barry Resnick has described Alexander Amill, 19, and James Guth, 17, learned police Sgt. Michael Gould sain" the suspects "heat her Amill as a young, church-going man who had never their fate in Wayne County Circuit Court after recent to the ground with their fists, and, when she cried been in trouble. pleas that averted a jury trial. out for help, they kicked her in the head to silence He said Anull was supposed to start working with The Detroit teens had been charged in a carjacking her." his father. that occurred just before 4 a.m. Sept. 13 in a parking The teens took the woman's ke^&and drove off in Another defense attorney, Jerold Sherman, had lot of The Landings, a large apartment complex on her 1996 Pontiac Grand Am. Westland police issued described Guth in September as a then-Holy Warren Road east of Central City Parkway. a bulletin alerting other departments, and Livonia Redeemer senior whose role in the carjacking "was 0 63174 10011 6 officers caught Amill and Guth after spotting the car totally out of character for this young man " Th* Observer AB^cmtricf SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2S, 1999 mmmmmmtm Entertain* nmteThe 2 men over /Westland Communi­ ty Founda­ in assault on clerk tion's Third BY LEANNE ROGERS cigarettes." Annual STAWWTUTTB The clerk, a 29-year*o1d Dear­ Spring lroger*OoeJi6m«c0iiuti.aet born Heights man, was beaten Ball will Two Westland men have been with a blunt object in the Feb. 4 feature ordered to stand trial on felony incident at the Warren and Irish enter- charges in connection with the Venoy Sunoco gas station. assault of a clerk at a Garden Hospitalized after the attack, tainment City gas station. the clerk suffered permanent including Kevin $cott Patterson, 30, and vision loss in his left eye, Lind­ Celtic Steven Hendrick JohnBon, 32, man said. Pipes and were bound over Monday to In an apparent attempt to Drums, Wayne County Circuit Court to make identification more diffi­ face charges of assault with cult, the pair had shaved their Finvarra's intent to rob while being armed.