Alabama Journal from Montgomery, Alabama • 13

If Mlffift'D6 i ALABAMA JOURNAL March 24, 1982 13 TEtoinids eft For Iffi Dim MairDjyamia Case I i I Lake Worth, and Gerald Lee Esry, 43, Meadow Vista, Calif. Also, Ellen Sue Boynton, 26, of Odessa, wife of William Boynton; William Randall Newbern, 34, Orwigsburg, Joseph Tyler Albert, 31, High Spire, Pa. and George Cooper, no address or age available. Terrance Lee Dougherty, 27; his brother, James Michael Dougherty, 31; Richard Mauer, 31; John Carl Capasso, 32; and George Michael Unitus, 28, all of Pittsburgh; Louis Fred Rizzuto, 28, Tamarac, Fla. Ian Kevin Hopkins, 29, Boca Raton, Robert Bryan Sheppard, 25, Bank Robbery Trial Under Way i I --v.

Suspects In Drug Raid Led To Van After Bond Hearing Police Procedure Defended At Womack's Murder Trial By JIM PLOTT Bonds were set Monday afternoon by a federal magistrate for 18 suspects arrested in what officials are calling one of the largest drug raids in Alabama. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the suspects are charged with conspiracy to possess marijuana with the intent to distribute. Bonds set by U.S. Magistrate M. Lewis Gwaltney range from $1 million to 3 million.

An estimated eight tons of marijuana was seized Monday night at a private airstrip in Bullock County about two miles from Hurtsboro after a DC-4 landed, authorities said. Twelve people were arrested at the airport when about 20 agents of the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, FBI, U.S. Customs and Drug Enforcement Administration converged on the plane and several vehicles at the end of the runway. Five of the defendants' bonds were set at $3 million. The remaining 13 were placed under bonds of $1 million.

The defendants are being held in City Jail. Gwaltney set a preliminary hearing April 2 but said if the grand jury, which meets next Tuesday, returns indictments, there will be no hearing. The defendants were brought into the courtroom six at a time. According to an affidavit issued by Patrick F. Mitchell, special agent for the FBI, two ABI undercover agents began working on the case more than a month ago when they were asked to assist in a marijuana smuggling operation.

The affidavit states that nine people met the 1945 McDonnell Douglas aircraft as it landed and began unloading the 50-pound bales of marijuana. As others arrived at the landing strip, the agents closed in, according to ABI Lt. L.N. Bradford. According to the affidavit, a motor home, equipped with radios which would be used to get in contact with the plane, was arranged by the Under $3 million bonds are Robert Fudge Autrey, 61, Camden; Thomas Warren Shea, 29, Bethel Park, Ted Harvey Raulerson, 39, Moore Haven, Fla.

Jacques Armand Trem-blay, 36, Port Charlotte, and William J. Boynton, no age or address available. Those under $1 million bond are By EMILY ENGLAND The govenment's first witness against a man charged in a Cloverdale bank robbery said today the defendant is similar in appearance to the man who ordered her to "get the money for him." M. Yuton Hanks, assistant branch officer at the Cloverdale branch of First Alabama Bank, testified in U.S. District Court that she could not identify Carl Edward Whiting as the man who brandished a sawed-off shotgun and demanded money on Jan.

5. The two men who confronted her were completely covered, she said. "I remember that they were in dark clothing, completely covered, had hoods," she said before Judge Truman Hobbs and a 14-member jury. "He told me I was not to look at him," she said. "He told me to get the money for him." Whiting, a 57-year-old Maryland resident, is charged in a two-count indictment with robbing the bank and possessing on Jan.

6 $351 of the money taken. He has been incarcerated since his arrest Jan. 7 in Montgomery. Before Whiting donned a black mask introduced by the government this morning, his court-appointed lawyer, David B. Byrne, asked Mrs.

Hanks if she could identify him as either of the men. "I cannot," she replied. Byrne said placing the mask on the defendant was "impermissibly suggestive." Hobbs permitted the exercise for the "very limited purpose" of show ing it covered the whole face, he said. The witness said his appearance was similar to one of the men. Mrs.

Hanks, who slipped a stack of 'bait' money and cannisters of red dye and tear gas into the men's plastic trash bag, said the cannisters were activited when the men passed magnetic fields at the bank entrance. After the pair's departure through the back door, she locked it and looked for a vehicle, she said. "I saw a cloud of red smoke floating across the parking lot," she said. "I knew exactly what it was." The pair entered the bank after 9:15 a.m., she said. When she looked up at the clock at 9:30, "the robbery was over," she said.

The man holding the gun "told everyone in the bank to not move for five minutes," she said. "He swung the gun to me and said, "That's means you too, lady." Mrs. Hanks was one of 24 witnesses sworn in this morning and removed from the courtroom. Broward Segrest, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, said in his opening statements that much of his evidence will be circumstantial.

"Don't be led astray in this case by the fact that witnesses can't see through he told jurors. uyrne said ms case win rest on tnr time elements in the government case. The defendant's whereabouts before and after the robbery will be established to rebut the government's circumstantial case, he said. Sourruf Photo By Will Dkkey chest, arms and groin after he said he was beaten by police officers. The doctor and nurse said they found no evidence of a beating.

Womack testified Tuesday afternoon that he and Johnson shot dice and drank whiskey at a shot house on Belview Street from 10 a.m. until noon the day of the shooting. They said they went to a second shot house on Mill Street, he said. They went back to the first shot house, then hitched a ride to Womack's mother's home in Smiley Court, Womack testified. Officials estimated Bullock was shot between 11:30 a.m.

and noon. Womack said he went to police headquarters several days later after his mother told him police were looking for him. He said officers told him they knew he killed Bullock and said, "You'll talk before the night's over." He said officers beat him in the face with his tennis shoes. When hei asked to see a lawyer, Womack testi- fled, officers said, 'We're your yer. You'll talk to us first," Womack claims "Ward and other officers beat him in the chest, head and face, but he refused to sign a statement he said was prepared by Ward.

Womack said he cannot read and write. Womack said that after more beatings, he signed the statement. Womack and two other men bought drugs after Bullock's death and Womack admitted robbing and killing the 70-year-old store owner. Circuit Court Clerk Pauline Eubanks testified court records show that although Jones pleaded guilty July 16 to four robberies, he has not been sentenced. Martin testified he was treated at the Montgomery City Jail for two cigarette burns on his arm.

that he said were inflicted by police Cpl. R.T. Ward. Martin said he saw Womack's co-defendant, Charles Johnson, being beaten at police headquarters several days after Bullock's death. A doctor and nurse who treat inmates at the city and county jails testified today that records show Johnson complained of injuries to his Sema Pilgrimage Set SELMA AP) Local officials are gearing up for this weekend's Spring Pilgrimage, which, includes a walking tour of historic homes and churches, crafts and exhibitions.

The Historic Preservation Society sponsors the event, scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Six historic homes and a church will be open to the public. An antique car exhibit will be in front of City Hall. By VICKEY WILLIAMS A Montgomery police investigator followed the lead of other officers today and defended police procedure in the investigation of a shooting (leath. Investigator J.B, Andrews' testimony came in the Circuit Court trial Clarence Womack, 32, who is Charged with capital murder in con-ection with the the Feb.

2, 1981, Jhooting death of grocer Arthur Bullock. Police say Bullock was killed during a robbery attempt at his City Curb Grocery on West Jeff Davis Avenue. Andrews testified that a woman, Who claims she saw Womack in the store within minutes of the shooting, picked Womack from 14 photographs and from a lineup of identically dressed men. Womack claimed Tuesday that he was make to look different from the others in the lineup. Tuesday, akan serving three consecutive life, sentences for robbery said his partner in those crimes testified against Womack in exchange for a promise of a lighter sentence.

Neal Martin, an inmate at Holman Prison, testified inmate Rex Jones and a Montgomery police investigator told him Jones would get three 10-year concurrent sentences if he would testify against Womack. Jones testified Monday that he, GE Wants Man Found Dead Was Murder Suspect MOBILE (AP) A slain man whose body was found stuffed in a car trunk was free on bond in a murder case, police said Monday. The body of Garfield Johnson, 36, of Mobile was found Friday. He had been charged with murder in the Aug. 19, 1978, killing of Samuel Drain Jr.

Hazardous Waste Disposal Facility At Burkville for such waste disposal operations, but he is aware of GE's plans to build the site. Groeve said that, based on a scaled-down conceptual plan furnished by General Electric, it appears the proposed secure landfill will be one-eighth mile square. An ash and solid waste disposal site measures about three-sixteenths mile wide by three-eighths mile long, he said. Groeve said plans provided to the Corps of Engineers show the plant will use about 12,000 gallons of water per minute, of which 50 to 75 percent will be drawn from the Alabama River. The facility will discharge an average of 12.4 million gallons of water per day, he said.

The discharge will consist of effluent from processing, sanitary waste water, cooling tower blow down and contaminated storm water, he said According to Groeve, contaminated storm water is rainwater that has come in contact with the plant and may have been "contaminated by dirt or perhaps by some sort of vapor in the air." Construction of the $1.5 million multiproduct manufacturing complex is scheduled to begin in 1983. GE officials estimate the project will provide 700 to 1,200 construction jobs and some 200 permanent jobs initially. By 1995, according to GE predictions, more than 1.000 persons will be employed at the complex. "In the loose conversation that we have had with them, their indication was that they would prefer to have an on-site facility rather than hauling it to another hazardous waste disposal site," Chipley said. The state's only EPA-approved hazardous waste disposal site is at Emelle, about 100 miles west of Burkville.

Browning-Ferris Industries, a Texas-based firm, has proposed locating a hazardous waste dump in Lowndes County, about 20 miles west of Montgomery. "If you have a location where the site characteristics are good and appropriate, then we think that to handle any kind of waste like that generated yourself is the best because you have the control," Birch said. Lyons said GE has won several awards for its work in environmental protection. The proposed plant, he said, should be an "environmental showplace." Lyons said the plant will be the "safest, latest technology plant ever constructed." He said the company bought 6,000 acres so all wastes can be self-contained to minimize risks of spillage to community. He said the company is "doing everything we can to minimize wastes.

The vast amount of land will keep risks of contamination low." Maj. Dennis Groeve, chief of regulatory operations for the Mobile -District Army Corps of Engineers, said his organization is not responsible Residents Moving En Masse Burkville By PAULA MATHIS By MARTY LOU ELLIS General Electric Co. has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for permission to build an on-site hazardous waste disposal facility at its planned Burkville manufacturing plant, according to an EPA spokesman. John Dickinson of EPA's Atlanta-based office said the company has filed an application that gives notice that the company will be generating hazardous wastes. Dickinson said the details of the application, including what kinds of wastes will be disposed of, are not available to the public because the company has "declared it confidential." Tom Birch, an assistant to the GE project team in charge of the Burkville plant, said the company does not want competitors to be able to "put bits and pieces together" and determine the company's production processes.

"That is a general policy when filing for permits if we are concerned that some of the information would be competitive," he said. Birch said he could not name any byproducts of the manufacturing process. "'Hazardous' is kind of a blanket term," he said. "An awful lot of common materials are lumped in the regulation." Dickinson said EPA expects to receive technical information, including the land geography and engineering plans, in April. Land studies are still under way at the site, Birch said.

"We have conducted a number of tests and some are still to be completed," he said. Birch said he is unsure of the size of the proposed disposal site. "In terms of that type of facility, it will be relatively small" because the company has developed ways to minimize and recycle waste residue, he said. Alfred Chipley, director of the state Health Department's solid waste division, said GE officials have "discussed the possibility that sometime in the future they will have hazardous waste." Chipley said plans submitted to his department concern only a non-hazardous waste disposal site on the property. Although EPA is responsible for approving and monitoring the proposed -hazardous waste site, the company needs only the approval of the state Department of Health for the non-hazardous waste disposal site.

Chipley said General Electric is "not ready to talk about" what kinds of hazardous wastes may "be Involved because the company is still uncertain what items will be manufactured at the multiproduct complex. Preliminary plans indicate, the company will manufacture Lexan polycarbonate plastic, which Is recognized as the1 world's toughest engineering plastic. It is used in space helmets and is marketed worldwide. GE operates the world's largest Lexan plant at Mount Vernon, Ind. Chipley said most of the hazardous wastes generated by GE "will probably come from an incineration process they may have." "If we have the opportunity to incinerate materials that would reduce them to inert matter and avoid any longer term holding or disposal, then that is the technology we would want to pursue," Birch said.

Chipley said he sees no problems with the company's plans for disposing of non-hazardous waste. "In fact," Chipley said, "the site they have proposed for solid wastes could possibly be satisfactory for hazardous wastes." The Lowndes County site, which is about 20 miles west of Montgomery along the Alabama River, sits abeve a highly impermeable chalk clay foundation, Chipley said. Steven Lyons, former manager of communications, said the clay strata I exceeds governnnt regulations for waste sites. Residents of Burkville, a small community just across the Ldwndes County line from Montgomery, are moving en masse from homes and friends with whom they have shared a lifetime. The" moves were prompted when the General Electric Co.

purchased 6,000 acres of land along County Road 37, off U.S. Highway 80 in the Burkville community for a multiproduct manufacturing complex. Residents who have sold their land and homes to the conglomerate said GE managers made sufficient settlements for the property. Laverne Wynn, formerly of Burkville and now living in Montgomery, said her family lived in the same house for 18 years. Her husband, Frank, was born and reared in the Burkville community.

"I don't know what the other neighbors might say," she said. "They were nice and they gave us a fair price, more than an individual might have "It's hard to uproot a lifetime thing," Mrs. Wynn said. The same feeling is shared by most of the people who have left the area. Mr.

and Mrs. Lamar Bush moved to the Blue Ridge area of Wetumpka. Their son and his family still live in Burkville, on the periphery of the land bought by GE. "I don't have any ill feelings," Bush said. "We didn't want to leave and would rather be back." His wife was born in Burkville and the couple lived in the community for 13 years.

GE made a good settlement, he said. His deal gave GE three months to put an option on his property. He was the last of his neighbors to sell. "We did wait it out," Bush said. They waited to see what their neighbors were going to do.

When everything around them sold, they chose to go along. "They didn't harass me," he said of GE's offer. "They were real nice about everything." Before leaving their home, the Bushes had to purchase an Insurance policy in addition to their existing one to cover GE's liability, Bush said. They paid $50 fee to GE for the policy. According to Lyons, the company purchased a blanket policy that covered all the properties GE bought.

"Tenants were asked to pay a $50 liability fee after GE closed (the purchase of the property)," Steven Lyons, former manager of communications, said. "We allowed them to stay on their property for $1 a month." The Wynns are pleased with thetr settlement but disappointed at giving up their Burkville home. "We chose to move so there's no need tobe' bitter about something we made our choice to do," Mrs. Wynn said. i People who live on the other side of County Road 37, away from the proposed site of the new plant, have heard little about the project.

"We've had mixed feelings," said Bonnie Bush, the Bushes' daughter-in-law. "At first we thought it might be good, but now I don't She said "a smokestack here and a waste dump there has been the neighborhood talk. Anything else has been learned from the news. Mrs. George Dansby, a neighbor of Mrs.

Bush, said the only contact she has had with GE has been through the Burkville United Methodist Church, which sits in the middle of the proposed site. The church is more than 100 years old, she said. It is an historical landmark. She said the church group had one meeting with GE officials, but they said very little about the plant. Little has been said about the plant because GE is still developing the plant's uses, Lyons said.

The company plans to take an active roll in the community by working to educate and inform neighborhood groups about the plant, he said. "I think we've done a very good job of informing the Lyons said. "When there's something to tell, we TFtell them." She added, however. "Nobodv could have sriven me enough to compensate." Nothing could replace the memories she has of her Burkville home, she said, "We got a nice house, but it took all they gave us to move and replace everything," die said. "To me, it's still not home." The Wynns did not want to move and would not have if GE had not come into the community, she said..