Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 267, Greencastle, Putnam County, 18 July 1984 — Page 1
Jury convicts Walters on molestation charges
By BARBARA CARHART Banner-Graphic Staff Writer The seven-man, five-woman jury returned a verdict of guilty on five of six charges filed against Glen Edwin “Bucky” Walters, 47, Greencastle, Tuesday evening after hearing two days of testimony during the Putnam Circuit Court trial. Walters was convicted on three counts each of child molesting (two C felonies and one D felony), and one count each of exhibition of obscene matter and dissemination of matter/conducting performance harmful to minors (both class A misdemeanors). SENTENCING HAS BEEN set for 9 a m. Monday, Aug. 13 in Putnam Circuit Court. During the second day of the- trial Tuesday, the jury had an opportunity to hear testimony from three adult male Greencastle subjects who allegedly had encounters with the defendant during their youth. As the last witness of the day, Walters himself took the stand telling jurors he had first seen the 16-year-old juvenile in question at Marvin’s Pizza and that their relationship did not go beyond allowing the teen-ager to view films at his East Franklin Street apartment. Walters repeatedly denied he made any sexual advances toward the youth, although he did admit using foul language around “the foul-mouthed kid.” DURING EXAMINATION of Walters by his counsel, David Houck, the defendant told the court he had first met the juvenile in March 1983 when the teen-ager began to frequent Marvin’s Pizza to play video games. For the first six months, Walters testified, the teen would come to the business five times a week, always to play video games. Walters told the court the young man would mostly come to Marvin’s Pizza alone. “I don’t really know how any conversation started,” Walters testified. “He would bum quarters. He would go to the Hub, run out of money, then come to us (Walters and Marvin Long).” Walters said the first in-depth conversation he conducted with the teen-ager was in mid-April when both were playing the video game Donkey Kong. “He (the juvenile) was bent over, twisting his rear end, I pinched him,” Walters testified. “We were just horsing around. As a result of that, we got into a conversation about he and his brother having anal sex. I asked him if it hurt, and he said it hurt like hell.” WALTERS ADDED, “He went on to describe that he had oral sex with his brother also.” The defendant testified that the teenager had told him he was 16 years old.
Andrea hoping to ride away with queen title By BARBARA CARHART Banner-Graphic Staff Writer This outing, Andrea Smith, 18, Route 1, Fillmore, is not horsing around! The daughter of Don and Mary Smith, Andrea is one of 16 girls competing for the title of Putnam County Fair Queen to be crowned July 28. An accomplished equestrian, Andrea has been busy showing one of six family horses. She is president of her 4-H Horse and Pony Club, of which she has been a member for eight years. "4-H REALLY STARTED me out,” Andrea explained. “If it wasn’t for that, I really would not have developed my interest. Now when I am helping little kids with their horses, I see myself.” Col. 1, back page, this section
Behold our low possibilities
Clear again overnight with the possibility of record-low temperatures in the low 50s. Sunny and warm on Thursday, with high in the low 80s. Indiana Extended Forecast The Indiana extended weather forecast includes a chance for thundershowers north Friday and in the south on Saturday. Otherwise partly doudy Friday through Sunday with highs in the 80s all three days. Lows in the 60s Friday and Saturday and the upper 50s to mid 60s Sunday.
Banner Graphic Greencastle, Putnam County, Wednesday, July 18,1984, Vol. 14 No. 267 25 Cents
Solicitation 'unauthorized' The Greencastle Chamber of Commerce and City Police are warning residents against unauthorized door-to-door sales of magazine subscriptions in the area. Reports have been received of such sales. However, sales representatives have not received authorization from the city to go door to door. Anyone who has questions about such sales practices may contact the Chamber office (653-4517) or the City Police Department.
“He said he’d been a freshman,” Walters told the court. “He said his mother held him back. He went on to say he played video games at the IGA and I invited him to drop by (to Walters’ apartment) sometime.” Alluding to earlier testimony when the teen-ager said Walters had touched his privates at Marvin’s Pizza, the defendant said that was virtually impossible to do while playing video games. “I MAY HAVE SAID something,” Walters admitted, “but it is virtually impossible to do what he described. It is very unlikely for two people to squeeze in there.” Walters testified that the teen-ager had been to his apartment seven times to view films. Each visit, Walters told the court, occurred sometime close to 5 p.m. when he was preparing to take a shower and watch the evening news. Most of the times the juvenile came to the apartment, Walters testified, he was outside tending his flowers. “The first time he came, I told him I had no time to mess with it (the films),” Walters said, “but he watched one film and started another one by the time I got out of the shower.” Walters testified that he did not make any sexual advances nor do anything to be construed as a sexual advance toward the youth. “THE NEXT DAY I saw him at Marvin’s (Marvin’s Pizza),” Walters testified. “He’s very foul-mouthed and I made comments around him that I would not normally do.” Once again, Walters had said he and the teen-ager played video games, explaining the juvenile was proficient at playing three of the machines. “He spent all his paper route, money and what he got off me playing the games,”
m wm
ANDREA SMITH Fair queen contestant
Abb y A 4 Calendar A 4 Classifieds A12.A13 Comics A 6 Crossword Al 2 Farm A 7 Heloise A 5 Horoscope Al 3 Obituaries Al 4 People A 6 Sports A9,A10,A!1 TV A 6 Theaters Al 4 Worry Clinic Al 2
Walters explained. The next visit to the apartment was two weeks later, Walters told the court. Walters explained the pattern for each of the seven visits was basically the same. The teen-ager would view more films as the defendant would shower and shave. Oftetimes, the juvenile would thread the machine and select his own movies, Walters told the court. Each visit, the defendant explained, would not be over 30 minutes long. THE PATTERN AFTER the visits would be the same, according to testimony. The defendant would see the teen-ager at Marvin’s Pizza and, according to Walters, shared very little conversation. “A lot of times the only conversation between us would be,” Walters explained, “that he would say ‘Hey, ‘Buck,’ give me a quarter.’” It was during the third visit, Walters testified, that the teen-ager brought a friend to view the films. At the time of the fourth visit, Walters told the court he was in his apartment as the visitor came by his residence later during this visit. “He was by himself and I was inside taking a shower,” Walters said. “I was in my shorts. I always watched the TV wearing my shorts.” DURING THE LATER summer months, Walters said he saw the teen-ager a couple of times, usually while painting Marvin Long’s house. “Between early July and mid-October,” Walters testified, “I saw him maybe three times.” Describing the Nov. 11 visit, Walters said the juvenile came by at around 9:15 a m. as the defendant was leaving to go work on a part-time job. “I was in bed, I answered the door and he said he wanted to see a movie,” Walters told the court. “It was toward the end of the movie that he did unfasten his pants pull them down and he was masturbating. I think I made some obscene remarks about it.” THE LAST TIME THE defendant saw the teen-ager was last Friday, according to his testimony. “He was playing video games with his friends at Marvin’s,” Walters said. “He went over to Delaney’s to get change for a dollar and he gave me back 75 cents.” Responding to earlier testimony from a 32-year-old Greencastle resident who had received calls as a teen-ager from a man identifying himself as Bucky Walters, the defendant told the court he was not the one who made those obscene calls. Walters also discounted the testimony of Col. 3, back page, this section
Mirror image
Greencastle looks into Bryan past to see our future
By ERIC BERNSEE Banner-Graphic Managing Editor Bryan, Ohio, newspaperman Tom Voigt is eerily immersed in some of the same joys and sorrows involved with a small-town daily. Converting to a six-column format while juggling a nine-column classified page is a new headache. Watching over a sports editor with enough standing headlines and a small print to make for the “Adventures of Alice in Agateland” is not. Welcome to the club, Tom. BUT WE DIDN’T CALL the northwestern Ohio newspaperman to talk shop. We wanted to talk downtown. As in renovation and restoration. As in successful. Bryan, Ohio, you see, is so similar to Greencastle, it could be our twin sister. There’s a courthouse square and turn-of-the-century buildings that surround it. A county seat, Bryan is comparable to Greencastle, boasting a population of 8,500. That’s why at least 15 Greencastle civic leaders made a five-hour trek to the corner of Ohio Wednesday morning. As you read this column, the Greencastle contingent is probably on its way home, hopefully bursting with confidence and some new ideas. THAT WAS THE GAME plan. Bryan has already given us Kathy and Steve Jones, who loved the Ohio town they called home, but like Greencastle equally well enough to open a new car wash business and help orchestrate the beginning of the Greencastle Civic League. It was the Joneses’ idea to bring a contingent to Bryan to see how to keep up with the Ohioans. “I’m going to tell them the history of the program. It’s 10 years old now,” Voigt said via telephone Tuesday afternoon. The Bryan restoration project, he said, is a voluntary effort void of government financing. “Ours isn’t anything radical,” the Bryan Times general manager explained. “It’s been a gradual thing.
I p
County Council hears details
Airport improvements ahead
By BECKY IGO Banner-Graphic Area News Editor Current resurfacing efforts and future runway expansion plans at the Putnam County Airport were updated Tuesday afternoon by Aviation Board member Steve Brackney, who reviewed the federallyfunded and state-assisted project with the Putnam County Council. The discussion evolved after the Aviation Board made a request to the County Council to transfer $1,150 within its own budget to pay for engineering fees related to the runway resurfacing project. THAT REQUEST WAS unanimously approved by Council members Jack Waldron, Gene Beck, Max Nichols, Bob Evans, Dick Asbell and Richard Hassler. Gene Clodfelter was absent. But approval was not given without councilmen requesting a status report on the airport. “We received approval for federal funding,” Brackney told Council members, relating the federal government will pay 90 per cent of the total project cost. The state will pay 5 per cent, while Putnam
F
“You can’t believe it’s going to work when you first start out, but each little business is a victory.” ONE OF BRYAN’S FIRST steps was contacting Ohio State to study the downtown and recommend restoration possibilities. It cost the city SIB,OOO (paid in equal thirds by the merchants, the Chamber of Commerce industrial division and the chamber’s general membership). “That SIB,OOO really just got us a book,” Voigt said. “But it was the guidelines we needed ” The Bryan group paid to have a sign company come in and take down all overhanging signs, he recalled. The city then passed an ordinance against overhanging signs and set down coordinating efforts for sign size and lettering “People judge your town by what they see downtown,” the newspaperman said. “People shop your downtown and then they shop your business. Once you get them down there, you’ve got them.” HAVING COORDINATING storefronts is part of the way to keep the shoppers downtown, he said. And the restoration work doesn’t have to be tremendously elaborate. “Mostly it was just a matter of trimming your windows and changing signs,” he said of Bryan’s efforts.
County will be responsible for paying the remaining 5 per cent Money transferred now out of the Airport Board’s land improvement fund wll be reimbursed later. It will then be returned to that same account, Brackney said. Bids for the resurfacing project at the airport are to be let in August, according to Brackney. “We hope to get a lot of local people involved in the bidding," he told the Council “We want to keep as much of the work as we can in Putnam County. "I KNOW FOR SOME bidders it does get discouraging with the bid specs,” Brackney noted of the detailed regulations. “That can be discouraging to the small town operator.” Brackney made mention of the fact that future plans call for the airport’s runway to be extended 800 feet. This will allow larger aircraft to land at the Putnam County Airport. In addition, an access road will be constructed off of State Road 240, allowing the main road into the airport to be relocated to the north, instead of its
Daze Work
Taking out his frustrations on the punching bag, Joe Pendleton (played by Greencastle's Troy Wilson) ponders his calling to heaven 60 years too soon in the comedyfantasy “Heaven Can Wait." The Putnam County Playhouse production resumes Thursday with 8 p.m. performances also scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Hazel Day Longden Theater on Round Barn Road. The production features enough Wilsons to make anyone punchy as dad Larry appears as Mr. Jordan, while brother Gary is also in the cast and mom Judy is assistant stage manager. Tickets are still available at the box office or at Gjesvolds' Photo and Art Center at $3 apiece. (Banner-Graphic photo —,, by Steve Fields). \ / r' t
present southern location off of Airport Road. Receiving federal funding for such projects is difficult, Brackney noted, and the Airport Board was successful in obtaining funding only through its persistence. “We did get the assistance because they came down to look at all the airports making requests,” Brackney noted. "WHEN THEY LOOKED at our project in Putnam County, it was determined that we had the greatest need. After that, it did renew my feelings that the system does work,” he added. Council President Waldron lauded the Airport Board’s initiative, saying progress at the airport can only enhance Greencastle and Putnam County’s future growth and ability to attract new industry. Later, Councilman Evans suggested county officials ponder the possibility of funding a parking lot for courthouse employees. “It is nothing that is urgent at this point.” he told fellow councilmen. “It’s C\ Col. 1, back page, this section
“It’s gradual and you’d be surprised how many businesses change hands in 10 years. That’s when you can make the change (more easily) when businesses change over, you’ve got them.” Bryan, he said, is proud of the fact that despite its close ties to the auto industry and a jobless rate at times of 15-18 per cent, few storefronts ever stood empty. The location of a K-Mart and a Murphy’s Mart away from the downtown haven’t hurt the core of the city, he said, echoing a theory that has surfaced with the unveiling of plans in Greencastle for a Wal-Mart store and shopping center on the east side. “IT WON’T BE THE DEATH of the downtown if you have a plait' ready for it in years to come,” Voigt stressed. Bryan is ready, he said, to survive despite a 38-shop mall going in at Defiance, just 14 miles away. “That’s okay, we’re poised for it,” he said. The revival, of Bryan’s downtown is really an outgrowth of Bryan Development Commission, a 12member board not headed by merchants per se, but by an orthodontist and an engineer. Also a member, Voigt gave a slide presentation on the program to Greencastle visitors Wednesday. He also knows a little about our city and remembers noting similarities when he escorted his daughter here last year to check on the DePauw University campus as her possible college choice. "I REMEMBER THINKING at the time, They could really do something,’” he said. “I thought Greencastle had a lot of potential, but just needed some guidelines to bring it all together.” Bryan did that. And Greencastle could learn from its efforts. “People used to paint their buildings blue, black or pink,” he laughed, recalling a downtown hodgepodge. “Now they’re all brown...all brick-colored. You’d be surprised what a difference that makes.”