arianas· %riety;;~ Micronesia's Leading Newspaper Since 1972 ~ .evvs By Marian A. Maraya 1997. and Ferdie de la Torre In June 1998, the jury acquitted 1.I Variety News Staff Jeronimo S. Ada of kidnapping A CONVICTED murderer and and assault with a dangerous two other detainees have escaped weapon charges. The court, how­ from prison, the Department of ever, convicted him of simple as­ Public Safety said yesterday. sault, a misdemeanor offense. Shawn C. Appleby, 19, Last July, police arrested Jeronimo S. Ada, 20, and Melvin Jeronimo S. Ada and several other N. Basa, 27, escaped from the persons for beating and robbing Division of Corrections Sunday an alien worker in Koblerville. at around 7:46 p.m. He and the co-defendants were Police are still investigating subsequently charged with 37 Shawn C. Appleby Jeronimo-$. Ada Melvin N. Basa how the three managed to escape, criminal offenses after further in­ DPS spokesperson Rose T. Ada "Even if these [escapees] were their homes and vehicles and to robbery at a store in San Antonio. vestigation showed that the group said. your friends before they were report any suspicious activities in Appleby was 16 at the time. committed a crime spree that This is the fourth escape inci­ locked up, please don't approach their area," she added. Jeronimo S. Ada was charged night. dent since last year. them or even talk to them. They Court records showed that along with other men for the beat­ Basa was one of Jeronimo S. Since Sunday night, DPS has should be considered armed and Appleby has been servingjail term ing and kidnapping of a student Ada's co-defendants. been issuing precautionary mea­ dangerous," Rose T. Ada said. for the gunslaying of a business­ who was walking along a high­ It was Basa's second escape sures to the public. "The public is urged to lock up man during a November 1996 way in San Vicente on Feb. 2, Continued on page 26 Another Customs man fired for bribery By Haldee V. Eugenio disclosed the fifth man was handed was caught in connivance with Variety News Staff down his walking papers last Oct. smuggling operations. The err­ ANOTHER Customs Services 7. The bribery incident happened ing Customs man was also iden­ employee has been terminated in August. tified as one who accepted bribe from government service last "We are not tolerating these money last year. week after he alleged Iy accepted activities. We have to do some­ The Attorney General's Of­ bribe money in exchange for thing about it. Customs will not fice (AGO) filed charges of sneaking cigarettes into the have second thoughts about ter­ bribery and misconduct in pub­ CNMI. minating them," Mafnas said in lic office against the first four This brings to five the total an interview over the weekend. Customs men during the past number of Customs enforcers He, however, declined to iden­ months, while other Customs so far identified with smuggling tify the erring personnel until a personnel are currently under ·1 operations since the new ad­ case is filed in court. strict surveillance for possible ministration took over. Mafnas added this has not been connivance with smuggling Customs Director Joe Mafnas the first time that the same person Continued on page 26 Voters now more mature, says Teno now are more mature," said the governor in an interview with reporters. "They (electorate) vote indi- . viduals who they think really want to help the community," Tenorio added. '"'rL~ n ............ i...1: .......... On...+,, F ..o.,..a ..... tl,, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1999-MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS-3 2-MARIANAS VARIETY NEWS AND VIEWS-TUESDAY-OCTOBER 12, 1999 WORLD/NATION Driver fell asleep News ·Briefs Truck kills 6 students Colt may end consumer COLLEGE STATION, Texas handgun orders By Jojo Dass lowing requests by park at least three others have been by the Legislature to transfer man­ (AP)- Six college students get­ WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)-Colt's Manufacturing Com­ Variety News Staff promenaders concerned brought lined up for the American Memo­ agement of the park to the com­ ting out of their cars or walking pany will virtually stop taking orders for commercial handguns LOCAL funding for the Ameri­ about the absence of light posts rial·Park. monweal th government as initi­ along a highway on their way to a before the month is over, Newsweek reported. can Memorial Park has increased in the area. These are the construction of a ated by Senate Vice President fraternity party were killed early Citing industry sources it did not name, the newsmagazine said ·in by some $50,000, Lt.Gov. Jesus "The trail will be lit," said track and field facility, a theme Thomas P. Villagomez. Sunday by a pickup truck whose editions that hit newsstands Monday that the West Hartford-based R. Sablan disclosed. Sablan. "Marianas M~morial Park" and a This was however was opposed driver had fallen asleep, po­ gunrilaker also will lay off as many as 300 of its 700 union workers In an interview with reporters He has earlier expressed hopes nature trail. after it was established that local lice said. in Connecticut. last week, Sablan likewise said the solar-powered lighting Sablan said the local govern­ government will not be receiving The accident happened just af­ Steven Sliwa, president and chief execi,tive of Colt's, could not be that the U.S. National Parks Ser­ project will be completed before ment is aiming to have it all done the funds used by NFS to manage ter midnight about two miles west reached for comment by The Associated Press. A telephone message vice will add some $300,000 more the year ends. by next year. and maintain the park, should the of the Texas A&M University was left at his home Sunday night. to its current $500,000 funding Aside from the lighting project, There has been recent moves move materialize. main campus, said police Maj. Calling Colt's the biggest victim of lawsuits filed against the gun for maintaining and developing Mike Patterson. industry, Newsweek reported that the cash-squeezed company is the park. The victims- four students from having trouble paying its vendors and hopes to avoid the damage of Sablan said there will be "a lot Baylor University, one from Jesus R. Sablan a possible jury verdict by abandoning the handgun business - at least of improvement projects ahead." Tex.as A&M and one from South­ for now. Among these projects include making available some $67,000 west Texas State - were among a ) the proposed installation of light­ to match a similar amount re­ group of people who were going A. Samoa prison burns ing fixtures at the park's joggers' leased recently by the Duty Free to a party at the Tau Kappa Epsi­ PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP)- More than 15 inmates trail. Shoppers Saipan for the lighting lon house along a four-lane high­ escaped as rioting prisoners burned the Territorial Correctional Sablan said he has been "in­ project. way. Some had just parked on the Facility's four cellblock buildings to the ground. formed" by the Marianas Public The lighting project has been in road shoulderand the pickup side­ All but four of the escapees returned on their own later in the day Land Trust that the agency is the works for the past years, fol- swiped two parked cars and struck Saturday, police said. One of those still being sought was serving a third. time for murder, they said. Witnesses said parties at the A firefighter and a police officer were treated for smoke inhalation DPH pursues stronger fraternity often draw large crowds as order was restored to the prison that houses 110 inmates. No other of people who must park on the in juries were reported. · shoulder of the highway, which The riot was touched off by the enforcement of a policy barring food safety campaign has a 65-mph speed limit. visits by the inmates' minor children. By Haidee V. Eugenio ing as the industry's most effec­ The man driving the pickup, Trouble developed when the wives of inmates and their children Variety News Staff tive way to enhance food safety. also a Texas A&M student, had arrived for a noon visitation. Correctional officers blocked the gate, WITH THE recent certification "We are very proud of them just taken his girlfriend home and and inmates in the prison yard saw the confrontation. · · was returning to campus when he of nine CNMI food trainors by the and we hope there will be more fell asleep and veered offthe road, A blood stain and other evidence is circled with spray paint along Bosnian Serb may withdraw National Restaurant Association food trainers here that will pass Patterson said. Highway 47 in College Station, Texas, where six college students were Educational Foundation;the De­ the said examination," Ned "We could hear screaming and killed while getting out of their car.s or walking along a highway on their lawsuit vs Yugoslavia partment of Puc lie Health (J:?PH) · Arriola, deputy secretary for pub­ way to a fraternity party. AP stuff but at first we didn't have BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - The Bosnian Serb said the government's campaign lic health administration said in any idea he was running over A&M student Brandon students; William Flores, 22, of Assembly on Sunday endorsed a proposal to withdraw a lawsuit on food safety will be given more an interview. people," said Daniel Lara, a 22- Kallmeyer, was not injured and Southwest Texas, and Ted Bruton, against Yugoslavia for aggression and genocide in connection with prominence, thereby resulting in David Rosario, public health year-old student who lives next apparent! y had not been drinking, 21, of Texas A&M.