Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 130, Greencastle, Putnam County, 30 January 1985 — Page 2

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The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, January 30,1985

Fugitive 'lost' Fateful knock comes 12 years after escape from Pennsylvania prison

CAMP HILL, Pa. (AP) -r- After Richard Gartner escaped from prison in 1972, he returned home, started a family and a business, and paid taxes under his own name. But in his mind, he never stopped running. “Every day I thought that they would come. Every day for 12>/2 years I never answered the knock on my door,” he said. They came, but not until last November. Now Gartner sits in a jail cell, hoping for parole and angry at the system that incarcerated him after more than a decade of benign neglect. “I would say I rehabilitated myself,” Gartner, 34, said in an interview at the state prison here. “I know I don’t belong here. I definitely don’t belong here. I belong out there supporting my family. ” Raised in Bucks County near Philadelphia, Gartner joined the Marines at age 16 and did two 13month tours of duty in Vietnam. On his return, he was assigned as a driver for military brass on a base in Georgia. “They threw you in dress blues, all spit and shine, right out of a combat zone ... There was no deprogramming whatsoever,” he said. After one day, he went home, absent without leave. “I was mentally unstable at the time,” he said.

bout ethical standards, practices

Meese returns for questioning

WASHINGTON (AP) - After forcing public release of a report critical of Edwin Meese 111, senators are asking why a government official rejected an internal report concluding the attorney generaldesignate violated ethics rules. Meese told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday the findings by the two lawyers in the Office of Government Ethics were based on factual errors and misinterpretations. The presidential counselor, who was returning for questioning today, acknowledged under oath that he asked his lawyers to take up the matter with David H. Martin, director of the federal Office of Government Ethics. But Meese said he saw nothing wrong with that. “At my request, counsel for me contacted the Office of Government Ethics

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He and a handful of others “just a bad crowd” went on a spree of half a dozen burglaries in Bucks County. The total take was less than S3OO, he said. He was arrested and convicted. After serving five months of a sixyear sentence, Gartner walked away from his prison assignment at a forestry camp in nearby Adams County. He hitchhiked home on the Pennsylvania Turnpike; no one came after him. After a series of odd jobs, he began working for a trash hauling firm. He got married, had four children and led “a regular family life.” He started his own trash hauling business in 1983. “It was just starting to go good when they picked me up,” he said. “I thought about turning myself in, but after the one kid and then another kid...it got harder each year to turn myself in,” he said. “I never told my children that I escaped. But I did tell them that I got in trouble when I was younger. I told them to never get into trouble, to be good,” he said. His wife, Jeannie, said she “knew right from the start” about her husband’s criminal past. “He wasn’t a bad person. He didn’t seem like a criminal. I was right,” she said. He used his own name and his old

and asked to be heard,” Meese said. “I do feel what they did was proper.” Martin, who was appointed by President Reagan, reversed the initial findings. He was summoned to testify, along with the two staff attorneys, F. Gary Davis and Nancy Feathers. Martin, however, reiterated a Jan. 24 conclusion that Meese “was in compliance with applicable laws and regulations regarding conflicts of interest.” “That was, and is, accurate,” Martin said in a letter to the committee, which had insisted that the internal working paper by the staff lawyers be made public. Meese, 53, is facing confirmation hearings for the second time; his nomination was tabled last year as a courtappointed independent counsel investigated allegations that he had a role in

Massacres to follow? That's Rabin assessment of post-Israeli pullout of Lebanon

c. 1985 N.Y. Times News Service WASHINGTON Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Tuesday that massacres might occur next month in southern Lebanon after Israel completes its withdrawal of troops from the area around the city of Sidon. Expressing concern over the possibility that with Israeli troops gone from the area, civil strife among the Druse, Palestinians, and Shiite and Sunni Moslems may resume, Rabin blamed the Syrian and Lebanese governments for failing to negotiate an accord with Israel allowing the United Nations forces to replace the Israelis and maintain security. “We would like to prevent havoc and massacres in the area that will be vacated

Social Security number. For years, though, he didn’t answer the phone or the front door. He was afraid to apply for a driver’s license. He kept to himself. “I didn’t socialize with people because I didn’t want them in some way finding out about my life ... The fear was always there. Every time a cop would come around the corner, I’d sort of like go back into the house.” One night last November, he said, “I woke my wife up and told her I feel something’s wrong. We stayed up all night talking about it.” The next morning, he was arrested at home, caught in the web of the Fugitive Investigative Strike Team, an operation of federal, state and local police that captured 3,300 fugitives in the Northeast over a two-month period. Since his arrest, Gartner has been locked in solitary confinement because of the escape charge against him. “I try to read but I can’t really read because I always think of my family. They’re the ones that are being punished more than me,” he said. “My kids, they want their dad home. They don’t understand at all,” said Mrs. Gartner. The oldest child, Richard Jr., 10, is especially confused, she said. “I don’t think they had any right to pick Rick up after 12'/i> years. It’s

obtaining federal jobs for people who had helped him out of a financial problems. The independent counsel, Jacob A. Stein, also investigated Meese’s promotion in the Army Reserve, his acceptance of SIO,OOO from a presidential transition organization and other matters. At Tuesday’s hearings, the senators asked about many of the same topics that they initially raised at Meese’s first set of hearings. The difference Tuesday was that senators interrogated Meese on his attitude toward government ethics rules, rather than focusing on the factual details of the incidents that prompted Stein’s investigation. In a report released last Sept. 20, Stein concluded that there was “no basis” to prosecute Meese on any violations of federal criminal laws.

by us,” he said in an interview. “We have warned the Lebanese government and the United Nations: ‘Don’t blame us if there will be massacres as the result of our evacuation.’” Some 150,000 people are crowded into the Sidon area, including some 40,000 Palestinian refugees. It has recently become extremely tense, in anticipation of the Israeli withdrawal the first phase of the scheduled three-stage pullout from Lebanon due to be completed on Feb. 18. “What will happen there,” the Israeli leader said, “only God knows.” In Washington for talks with senior officials, including a meeting with President Reagan on Wednesday, Rabin seemed satisfied by the military and economic aid which the administration is planning to give Israel in the next fiscal year. Although Israel asked for a rise to $2.1 billion from $1.4 bUlion in military aid, the

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ridiculous,” Mrs. Gartner said. Gary Hartman, the Adams County district attorney who this month dropped the escape charge against Gartner, said the system often loses track of fugitives when they go from one jurisdiction to another. “All you have to do is cross a county line and you’re in another world in terms of enforcement,” he said. Thomas Lyon, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police, said he didn’t know why no one went after Gartner, adding: “If someone is a fugitive and we know where he is, we’re certainly not going to avoid him.” The parole board interviewed Gartner last week and probably will decide next month whether to release him, according to spokesman Joseph Long. The escape charge was dropped mainly because the investigating officer died. Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff of Temple Shalom in Levittown, which he said lost the “horrendous sum of $1.75” and some “very cheap costume jewelry” in one of Gartner’s burglaries, has written the state Board of Probation and Parole urging Gartner’s release. “He’s clearly led an exemplary life until this time. Twelve years is 12 years too late to begin searching for someone,” Nemitoff said.

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EDWIN MEESE 111 Asked about ethics

administration has decided to give Israel $l.B billion. The Israelis asked for a rise to $1.9 billion from $1.2 billion in economic aid, as well as an additional SBOO million in emergency economic assistance. But pending the carrying out of Israel’s economic austerity program, the administration has put off any increase in economic aid above the $1.2 billion total. Rabin said that once the administration sees the introduction of cost-cutting measures including a sharp drop in the military budget more economic aid will be provided. At the same time, administration officials said that a decision has been made to defer, in the face of congressional opposition, plans to sell Saudi Arabia 40 more F-15 jets, to augment its current force of 62. The administration had been hoping to decide on the Saudi arms sale package,

world

White House intruder sparks security tightening

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says it has tightened security but is still trying to find out how an unescorted civilian made his way into a ceremonial area of the White House by mingling with uniformed Marine Corps musicians on their way to play for President Reagan’s inauguration. “I think all parties agree that there was a mistake made,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Tuesday after confirming a report that Robert Latta of Denver, who said he came to Washington to see the inauguration, penetrated the State Floor of the executive mansion on Jan. 20. “I just walked in with the band,” the uninvited water meter reader told The Associated Press. Speakes said the Secret Service began an internal investigation immediately after the incident and is continuing it, looking for human or procedural error. Speakes said Secretary of the Treasury Donald T. Regan, whose department over-

Teachers' union chief proposes licensing test

WASHINGTON (AP) Teacher union chief Albert Shanker, calling current teacher licensing tests “a joke,” is urging education leaders to join him in an effort to create a tough, new national exam for entry to the profession. Teachers should have to pass licensing exams, just as doctors and lawyers do, the president of the 600,000-member American Federation of Teachers said Tuesday. There should be a uniform, nationwide passing score, and it should be a crime for school administrators to hire someone who flunked the test, said Shanker, who added that provision would have to be phased in “or the jails would be full.” Shanker, once known for his militant union leadership in New York City, has been an outspoken advocate of restoring

which also includes advanced Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, around the time King Fahd of Saudi Arabia arrives here for a state visit on Feb. 11, the first trip to Washington by a Saudi king since 1977. In the interview, in his suite at the Regent Hotel, Rabin expressed frustration at the inability to persuade the Syrians, through American diplomacy, to agree to security arrangements. “The Syrians hardened their position in the last three and a half months,” he said, in opposing allowing the U.N. forces into the region being evacuated by Israel. He said that the Lebanese government also refused to cooperate because it is “practically a puppet government controlled by the Syrians.” In another matter, Rabin seemed to confirm even though he denied them reports that Israel has become an arms supplier to China.

Oil ministers reportedly close to agreement as Geneva meeting resumes

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) - OPEC oil ministers opened a third day of an emergency meeting today and were reported close to agreement on a new pricing structure that would mean a net drop in Rrices. The final touches were being put on a plan that would raise some prices and lower others, according a source close to the talks. The net effect, however, would be a decline in the average OPEC price, currently $28.75 a barrel, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The ministers were seeking to abolish the largely symbolic “benchmark” price of $29 a barrel, which aplies to Saudi Light crude. Under the plan being considered, this oil would drop slightly in price and would no longer be the reference point for determining other OPEC prices, several sources said. The president of the cartel, Indonesian Oil Minister Subroto, said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had moved closer to agreement Tuesday, but a full day of meetings produced no deal. In New York, Conoco Inc. announced Tuesday that it had cut its offering price

sees the Secret Service, gave the president a detailed briefing on Latta’s escapade after it was disclosed Tuesday. The spokesman said Reagan had been told about the incident earlier, but he did not know when. The president and his wife were attending a special inaugural church service at the time Latta was arrested. Less than two hours later, Reagan took the oath of office for his second term in a small invitation-only ceremony just a few paces from the spot where the arrest occurred. Speakes spent nearly an hour fielding reporters’ questions about how Latta could have just walked into the White House despite elaborate security precautions that include metal detectors. Security had been intensified for the inaugural weekend. Speakes pointed out that the area in which Latta was arrested “is exactly the same area tourists go through six days a week.”

rigor to the schools and holding new teachers up to exacting standards, including tests. But he said this was the first time any major organization has called for a national teacher examiniation. In a speech at the National Press Club, Shanker warned that the nation soon will face a shortage of teachers, due to low pay, poor morale and other conditions that have discouraged people from entering the field. He predicted many states, to meet the shortage, will simply hire less qualified people. Shanker said his union would eventually ban new teachers from membership unless they passed such an exam. He challenged the rival National Education Association to join him in supporting it.

Average lunch hour:49 1 /2 minutes NEW YORK (AP) How long is the average workday lunch hour? Exactly 49 minutes, 31 seconds, according to a nationwide survey of 100 top U.S. corporations. Not only is that quite shy of 60 minutes, it’s 54 seconds longer than the average employer allows workers to spend at lunch (48 minutes, 37 seconds). You may think the average boss indulges himself a lot longer, allowing ample time for two martinis and numerous cigars. Not so, says Marc Silbert of Accountemps, a supplier of temporary accountants, bookkeepers and data processors. Silbert said, “On the average, they allow themselves fractionally less time than they allow employees, but they take nearly one minute longer.”

for the top grade of U.S. oil by $1.50 a barrel, to $25.20 the lowest level for that oil in five years. The Conoco price is for a grade of oil roughly equivalent to Saudi Light. Many industry analysts are convinced that the cartel eventually will be forced to accept a new drop in prices. “Our best guess at this point is that we’ll see a series of small ward ratchets over the next two or three years rather than a collapse,” First Boston Corp. analyst William Randol wrote in a report to the New York-based investment firm’s clients last week. He added that the chance of a price collapse “cannot be dismissed.” In a move that highlighted the OPEC ministers’ dissension, a special session set for late Tuesday night was called off nearly an hour after it was to open. Ministers said the delay was forced by continued rifts on the central question of price cuts. But after announcing the cancellation, Subruto said, “It’s only a question of time” before an agreement is sealed.”