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Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 32

Publication:
Chicago Tribunei
Location:
Chicago, Illinois
Issue Date:
Page:
32
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

(flucap (Tribune Friday, August 24,: 1984 By Jean Latz Griffin Education Wriler FOR THE SECOND time in a month, an audit by the Chicago Board of Education has raised questions about the reliability of pupil reading scores, which nave risen slowly tut steadily in recent years. The audit also suggests that some pupils who are reading well below the recommended cutoff level for grade school graduation are being moved to high school on the basis of inflated scores. The audit report, obtained by The Tribune this week, also contends that records of pupils' progress in the controversial Chicago Mastery Learning Reading program were destroyed before the audit. Another audit of reading scores, whose results were released by the board in July, found evidence of inflated reading scores in 23 schools. That audit was cited by critics of ousted School Supt.

Rutli Love, who repeatedly has taken credit for reading progress during her term. THE LATEST AUDIT seems certain to fuel the controversy stemming from the board's decision last month not to renew Love's contract. It found significant drops in the reading scores of 17 of 2B South Side pupils when they were retested five months later. The drops ranged from 5M; months to 3 years. The pupils graduated from elementary school based partly on their scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, administered in May, 1983.

The lower scores were recorded on the Test of Achievement and Proficiency given the following Oc tober when the youngsters were in high school. The two tests, from the company, are designed to give comparable results. THE AUDIT REPORT contended that 21 of the pupils "received reading scores on the high school TAP exams that indicated that these pupils were not likely to succeed with normal high school work according to present graduation standards." The board recommends that any pupil reading at less than a 6th-gracle level be retained in elementary school unless there are mitigating circumstances. Any pupil who reaches age 15 '2 must be placed in high school regardless of reading level, according to board regulations. The audit released in July discontinued on page 4, this section Section 2 Mayor allies works veto sewsi ess tribune pholos by Michael Fryer and Waller Kaie Librarian stabbed Library employee Linda Feldman is wheeled pasl abdomen Thursday.

Another employee used a chair ployee since 1978, was reported in good condition startled onlookers at the Chicago Public Library, lo corner the suspected attacker, Harold Peavy at Thursday night in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. 425 N. Michigan after she was slabbed in the right, until police arrived. Feldman, a library em- Story on Page 3, this section. By John Kass and R.

Bruce Dold ENOUGH ADMINISTRATION-aligned aldermen are threatening to vote with the majority bloc to override Mayor Washington if he vetoes $800 million of public works projects, City Hall sources said Thursday. Angered by their failure to wrest patronage jobs from the Washington administration, some of the mayor's backers said they would risk the political fallout of breaking ranks. Majority-bloc aldermen said they have secured six Washington supporters to override the mayor's veto in a City Council meeting Sept. 6. Washington administration sources countered that three majority-bloc aldermen may have switched to their side.

WASHINGTON HAS threatened to veto the public works projects Sept. 6 if the majority bloc does not remove an amendment that would give the City Council control over city contracts. "The whole issue is jobs and power," said Aid. Marion K. Volini 48th, who supports the mayor on most major issues and generally is regarded as an independent voice in the council.

"That means putting contracts and jobs and the power they have on the table and begin talking about it. I Both sides should sit down and do it now." Volini said she would move against the mayor if "it means losing the capital development projects. "I believe that the mayor is right on the issue of not giving contract control to the 29. But we would lose $800 million in projects. I couldn't support the mayor at that price," she added.

MAYORAL SUPPORTER Aid. Niles Sherman 21st, said he, too, may vote with the majority bloc to save the projects. Majority-bloc leaders have maintained that the council should hold veto power on city contracts to prevent patronage abuses. Washington has offered to give the council oversight authority on contracts, but he eon-tends that the awarding of contracts should remain a function of the mayor. Possible defections from the mayor on key issues that was told in the past have not materialized.

But in the last two weeks, some Washington allies have broken twice with the mayor, supporting the bloc led by Aid. Edward Vrdolyak 10th on holding hearings on the ouster of Chicago School Supt. Ruth Love and in a majority call for an advisory referendum on an elected school board. "AND NOW BLACK aldermen arc dealing with their own constituencies and the political issue of loyalty to a black mayor," Volini said. "Their constituencies see this as an issue of disloyalty.

But at the same time, the contracts are where the jobs are." Chris Chandler, the mayor's assistant press secretary, said he "would be surprised if the mayor's supporters would leave his side on an issue he is firmly committed to. This is not about jobs or patronage, but about a move toward reform." Two other minority-bloc members said privately that they would vote to override a mayoral veto and that, they believed four other Washington supporters would Continued on page 4, this section Greylord figure freed; tried in wrong court By William B. Crawford Jr. ALAN KAYIi, a former Holiday Court bailiff and the fifth defendant to stand trial as a result of the federal Operation Greylord investigation, was acquitted Thursday of charges that he accepted bribes to fix cases in Divorce Court. Kayo, 33, was acquitted on one count of mail fraud and six counts of extortion by a U.S.

District Court judge who ruled (hat Kaye had not violated federal laws, although the judge said Kaye may have committed state crimes. He was the second defendant to be acquitted of charges resulting from the Greylord investigation of corruption in the Cook County Circuit Court system. "How can this man, accurately called 'reprehensible' by his own lawyer in a masterpiece of understatement, go free?" asked Judge Milton I. Shadur, who presided over Kaye's bench trial. Answering his own question, Shadur said that "the reason he goes free is that he has been charged with a federal crime when he has in fact committed state crimes.

The essential link to feder al jurisdiction is absent." "So acquittal," Shadur concluded, "is regrettably necessary." WHETHER THE Cook County stale's attorney's office can prosecute Kaye or whether prosecution is barred because of constitutional protections against double jeopardy standing trial more than once on the same charge was not immediately known. A spokesman for State's Atty. Richard M. Daley said Kaye's case and Shadur's opinion would be reviewed closely before such a determination is made. Federal prosecutors Ira Raphaelson and Julian Solotorovsky had charged that Kaye took bribes and in return promised to influence cases in Divorce Court.

But they conceded that he never passed money to judges. The first Greylord defendant to be acquitted was Judge John G. Laurie, who was found innocent by a jury on Aug. fi. He had been accused of accepting $3,000 in bribes from lawyers and an undercover FBI "mole" who posed as a crooked attorney.

The acquittal was seen as a rejection of the testimony of James LeFevour, a retired Chicago policeman and admitted bagman who testified against Laurie, and of the undercover techniques employed by the FBI. In the Laurie case, defense lawyers were able to successfully raise doubts about whether any of the bribe money paid to bagmen was passed to the judge. IN OPENING and closing statements at Kaye's trial, and in the trial itself, defense lawyers Louis Garippo and Susan Feibus acknowledged that Kaye may have violated state bribery and extortion laws. But they contended that federal authorities had no jurisdiction because Kaye was not an official as defined by the federal Hobbs Act extortion statute and that his wrongdoing had no direct impact on interstate commerce, a necessary ingredient for federal prosecution. Shadur agreed.

But he also made it clear that he regretted the conclusion. "As jiortrayed by his own taped words and his conduct, Kaye is as sleazy a human being as it is possible to ima gine," Shadur said. Nevertheless, the judge said, "He is not federally reprehensible and he did not commit federal criminal acts." AFTER THE verdict, Knphaelson and Solotorovsky met briefly with reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Building. Raphaelson refused to compare the Kaye trial with pending Greylord trials, but predicted that it would not affect the other cases because the jurisdictional challenge in the Kaye case was unique. Kaye declined comment as he left the building.

But Garippo said Shadur's opinion "was very courageous and we believe the proper one." Kaye was charged with extorting $7,000 from Leo Zutler, a lamp manufacturer who was seeking a divorce, and $3,000 from Ron Elder, an undercover FBI agent posing as a wealthy real estate investor who was seeking to fix his divorce because he feared that his wife would take all his money. Kaye also was charged with soliciting a $30,000 bribe from Elder. The kind that really makes you care9 Male murder victims 24 bodies found in four states To those who knew Danny Bridges, he was not a criminal 20Milos OHO- KENTUCKY r3yf Lexington I MICHIGAN Pvvjc' Chicago LAKE JJv MD1ANA LIT Belshaw-, Danny in the state's best facilities. In an interview with The Tribune, Danny said he spent some of his happiest days in Maryville Academy, Des Plaines. Despite the help lie received there, he resumed his life as a prostitute shortly after he left.

This week, Danny was to have been placed out of the city in another highly recommended DCFS facility, according to DCFS Director Gordon Johnson. Richard Daley also thought Danny was special. In 19112, he described the youth's troubled past to a Congressional Subcommittee on Select Education to show the problems of sexually exploited children. But the best efforts of these well-meaning Continued on page 4, this section By Lynn Emmerman and Hanke Gratteau IN DANNY BRIDGES' last tragic years, his plight touched the hearts of police officers, reporters, slate child care officials and Cook County State's Atty. Richard M.

Daley. But no one could heal the emotional scars that drove the gentle teenager to sell himself on the street and eventually oecome the victim of a killer. Larry Eyler, 31, was indicted by a Cook County grand jury Thursday on charges of murder in connection with the slaying of Danny, whose dismembered body was found tliis week in a dumpster in Rogers Park. A handsome youth who desperately sought adult approval, Danny, 10, charmed profes- Larry Eyler, 31, is indicted on charges ol murder in connection with Ihe slaying of Daniel Bridges, 16. Sec.

1, pg. 1. sionals he encountered with his quick smile and painful honesty. For the youth officers assigned to the special investigations division, lie was a special, high priority case who filled their thoughts long after their workday ended. Police and state officials found Danny's case so poignant that they arranged for him to be interviewed by The Tribune and NBC reporters to illustrate the destruction wrought by child sexual abuse.

THE ILLINOIS Department of Children and Family Services twice attempted to place 1. March 22, 1982: Jay Reynolds 2. Oct. 23, 1982: Stoven Crockett, 19 3. Oct.

30, 1982: Robert Foley 4. Dec. 25, 1982: John R. Johnson, 25 5. Dec.

28, 19B2: Steven Agan, 23 6. Dec. 28, 1982: John Roach. 21 7. March 4, 1983: Edgar Underkofler, 27 8.

April 8, 1983: Gustavo Herrera, 28 9. April 15, 1983: Ervin Dwayne Gibson, 16 10. May 9, 1983: Jimmy T. Roberts, 18 11. May 9, 1983: Daniel Scott McNievo, 21 12.

July 2, 1983: Skeleton of unidentified male 13. Aug. 31, 1983: Ralph Calise, 28 14. Oct. 4, 1983: Derrick Hansen.

18 15. Oct. 15, 1983: Skeleton ot unidentified male, aged 18-26 16. Oct. 19, 1983: Four skeletons: two identified as Michael Bauer, 22.

and John Bartlett, 19 17. Dec. 5, 1983: Unidentified male 18. Dec. 7, 1983: Richard Wayne, 21, and an unidentified body 19.

May 7, 1984: David M. Block, 22 20. Aug. 21, 19B4: Daniel Bridges, 1G Cli.carjo Tnliuiitt Ciplvc; Suitco. Cluc.K)', tiiljtim; List of the 24 victims in cases police linked to Larry Eyler JASPER KANKAKEE Lake vintage -X r-V NEWTON Vjx Lafayette Danville I outside Danville near the WIAI radio tower.

The body may have been there for weeks, and the cause of death is not clear. APRIL 8, 1083 Gustavo llerrera, 28, of N. Pine Grove discovered with multiple stab wounds under a pile of brush near Lake Forest a few miles from the Tri-State Tollway. His severed right hand was found nearby. April 15, 101)3 Ervin Dwavne Gibson, 10, of Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, found in a rubbish pile in woods west of Itiverwoods Road a mile south of 111.

Hwy. 00 near Lake Forest. He had been stabbed 10 times in the back and once in the neck. May 1983-Jimmy T. Roberts, 18, of 5001 S.

Federal Chicago, found in Thorn Creek near 17.M Street and Volbrecht Road in Thornton Township. Suffered about 35 stab wounds. May 1), Daniel Scott McNieve, 21, of Continued on page 4, this seetion found. Police believe he was killed elsewhere. Oct.

30, 10112 Robert Foley, found in Will County, 111. No other information available. DEC. 25, 1S182 John R. Johnson, 25, of 32-11 N.

Broadway, Chicago, found in an open field at 125th Street and Belshaw Road in Lowell, Ind. Suffered multiple stab wounds. Body was badly decomposed when found. Missing since November, 10112. Dec.

28, L. Roach, 21, of Indianapolis, found slabbed to deatli in Putnam County west of Indianapolis, just off Int. Hwy. 70. lie was last seen Dec.

21. Dec. 28, lima Steve Agan, 23, of Torre Haute, was found with multiple stab wounds 2 miles north of Newport, 5 miles from the state line near Ind. Hwy. March 1083 Edgar Underkofler, 27, of New York City, a member of the Air National Guard assigned to Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, for training, was found in a field LARRY EYLER is considered by police to be a suspect in as many as 24 slayings of young men, although he lias been charged with murder in only two cases.

The following list of victims is based on information from Lake County Sheriff Robert "Mickey" Babcox, the Central Indiana Multi-Agency Investigative Team and local police departments. In all cases where the cause of death could be learned, the victims were stabbed. Many of the victims were found partially undressed. March 22, lt)H2 Reynolds, early 20s, of Lexington, found stabbed to death at the bottom of an embankment alongside U.S. Hwy.

25 between Lexington and Richmond, Ky. Dead less than a day when found. He may have been killed in his car, which was found elsewhere. Oct. 23, Crockett, 19, of -1501 N.

Maiden Chicago, found stabbed to death in a cornfield in Kankakee County near the Lake County, line. Dead 12 hours or less when HENDRICKS Indianapolis I putnam VERMILLION Belleville I 6 Terra Haute utc 20 Miles (ll) to".

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