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startribune.com

Penny-pinching Prior Lake priest paid homage his way
Kay Miller
Star Tribune
Published 03/14/2003

Looking at Bill Seefeldt, people figured the old Catholic priest must be just scraping by.

He lived in a modest, cluttered cabin on Prior Lake bought in 1948 for $1,800. He wore thrift-store clothes until they were threadbare.

While grocery shopping, he armed himself with coupons, debating what he could afford. When his washing machine broke and he talked of hand-washing his clothes, Shakopee appliance dealer Jim Halloran felt so sorry for "the sweet old guy" that he gave him a $500 washer.

Last year, when Seefeldt died at 89, he left the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis $4.6 million.

"He never let on that he had that kind of money," said Jean Thompson, a friend and music director at Prior Lake's Church of St. Michael, where the retired military chaplain said mass every Monday until he was 87. "Father Bill was so tight. He was a cranky old thing, but lovable -- a Walter Brennan sort of guy."


Rev. Bill Seefeldt

He was a chaplain for 30 years -- first for the Army during World War II, then for the Minnesota National Guard and the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center, retiring in 1972.

But for the past 20 years, St. Michael's was his spiritual home and family. Once a week he wouldd arrive at the parish office with stale doughnuts or his signature banana bread for the staff, bragging about the deal he got on bananas.

Seefeldt "dearly loved the church," but he was an old-guard, Ten Commandments-kind of priest, Thompson said. He would arrive to say Monday mass with his worn book of the saints and notes for his homily. He didn't much like new songs in the Gather II hymnal.

"So I made up a 'Father Bill Hymnal' with old songs that date to the late 1940s," Thompson said. "He'd hand it out at the beginning of every mass."

Unlike members of religious orders, diocesan priests take no vow of poverty. Seefeldt parlayed a family inheritance of $100,000 and pensions from the Army, civil service and his Social Security into a fortune with the investment advice of Roy Stueve, a friend of 50 years.

"Father Bill had the Midas touch," Stueve said. "He gave me some money to invest in the market. I said I could lose it all. He said not to worry, the good Lord would provide."

They bought St. Jude Medical stock, which split many times, reducing his cost to 25 cents a share. At Seefeldt's death the stock was selling for $85 a share. Stueve borrowed against the profits, buying more stock on margin. They also invested in a four-plex and a 23-unit apartment building in Bloomington.

"You don't go into the priesthood to get rich," said archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath. "It's such a novelty because he had so many sources of income, he was very frugal, and he had a very astute adviser."

Did Seefeldt have any qualms about being a man of the cloth with such wealth?

"We never discussed it," Stueve said. "I handled most of the finances. We'd get together. The only time he ever said anything was, 'I notice it went down $30,000,' and I'd say, 'OK, I'll buy lunch.' "

To get income tax deductions in recent years, Stueve said, he persuaded Seefeldt to donate stock worth $125,000 to $175,000 to several charities -- Sharing and Caring Hands, St. Paul Seminary and St. Michael's church.

But getting him to make a will was "like pulling teeth."

"He didn't want to pay an attorney to do it," said Stueve, who offered to pay half. Embarrassed, Seefeldt finally agreed but howled when the bill topped $50.

They kept his will simple, leaving everything to the archdiocese with the intention of amending it later to include several pet charities, Stueve said. But Seefeldt died before that could happen.

Close friends were dismayed that the archdiocese used $800,000 of Seefeldt's bequest for its Clergy Benefit Fund, which, among other things, pays counseling and living expenses of priests accused of sexual abuse.

"Those of us who know and love Father Bill think he'd be rolling in his grave if he thought his estate was going to settle sexual-abuse cases," Thompson said.

But Austin Ward, archdiocese director of finance, said only a small part of the Clergy Benefit Fund goes toward such cases. Claims generally are paid from insurance.

Seefeldt's gift came without restrictions, and it benefits not only needy priests but underprivileged parishioners across the archdiocese. "He gave back what he felt the Lord had shared with him," Ward said.

Chicago upbringing

Seefeldt grew up in Chicago in the same neighborhood as Al Capone. He told stories of sitting on the stoop watching gangsters drive by and washing windows on trains for 5 cents a day. His German father wasn't religious, but his Irish mother insisted that he and his older sister get proper Catholic educations.

"He wanted to become a priest, but there were too many priests in Chicago, so they sent him off to Minneapolis-St. Paul," Thompson said.

After ordination, Seefeldt was assigned to a church in Le Center, Minn., but he decided parish life wasn't for him. So he petitioned for release to serve as an Army chaplain during World War II in the China-Burma-India theater.

After the war Seefeldt remained with the Army Reserves, eventually being transferred to the Minnesota National Guard as a chaplain and taking a job as Catholic chaplain at what was then the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Hospital. He rented a room in the hospital attendant quarters for seven years.

When family members visited, they weren't thrilled to stay at the hospital, so they bought the Prior Lake cottage, Thompson said. After Seefeldt's father died, his mother and unmarried sister lived with him until their deaths.

Grocery tours

Seefeldt had four poodles and named them all Sam, Thompson said. "Sometimes you'd call and he'd shout, 'Shut up!' and you didn't know if he was talking to you or the dog."

He would scrub his kitchen floor once a week, waiting until he had a load of clothes going so he could use the washer's soapy water for the job, said Bob Klehr, a close friend who helped care for Seefeldt after he was treated for bone cancer.

If Seefeldt was going to have soup for dinner, he'd put the can on his stove's pilot light so the soup would be warm by 5 o'clock when he wanted to eat. He shut the other pilot off to save gas, Klehr said.

"Every time you walked in the house, you could smell gas," he added.

On Thursdays or Fridays, the two men shopped for groceries together. They might drive to three stores to find bread 30 cents off. Seefeldt hit the bakery first, looking for free samples. If he had a 2-for-1 coupon, he might treat Klehr to McDonald's.

Seefeldt died Feb. 7, 2002.

He and Klehr had been on one of their shopping excursions and, though Seefeldt's eyes were bad, he insisted on driving. Minutes after dropping Klehr off, he ran a red light, rear-ending a big truck.

Klehr cleaned out Seefeldt's house, spending $40 to have trash carted away. He dismantled the hand-made altar at which Seefeldt said mass every day. He found $8,200 in cash that parishioners had given him to say mass, and hand-written notes of all the people Seefeldt was praying for.

"There wasn't anybody who didn't like him," Klehr said. "Boy, I sure miss him."

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Do you speak 'Caddyshack'?
In real life, many guys like to quote reel life
Advertisement


By Sue Vering
Special to the Tribune

March 23, 2003

It was the Saturday afternoon semifinals of golf's Match Play Championship earlier this month. As hotshot Australian rookie Adam Scott lined up the short putt that could give him the distinction of beating Tiger Woods, Steve DePaepe teed off with a running commentary from his Evanston living room:" 'The crowd has gone deadly silent . . . a Cinderella story out of nowhere . . . former greenskeeper . . . and now about to become the Masters champion. . . . ' "OK, so you had to be there.

Or in any of the thousands of living rooms across the country, where other guys were doing the same thing as DePaepe--sofa-surfing, watching golf and firing off their favorite lines from "Caddyshack."

Movie-speak is a great American male pastime, enjoyed by young and old alike. But, even so, few guys are as fluent as DePaepe. He claims to be able to quote nearly 37 movies verbatim, and there are about 100 more that he speaks a smattering of.

It's amazing what people can accomplish when they really apply themselves.

DePaepe's family remembers that he first picked up conversational "Caddyshack" while still in his teens. Away at Bradley University in Peoria, "The Pope of Greenwich Village," an urban drama starring Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke, became his native tongue. And now, in his mid-30s, his speech is a patois of box-office hits of the last couple of decades such as "Wall Street," "Platoon" and "GoodFellas." As a rule, he favors lines from movies featuring warped individuals looking to take over the world.

This year's Oscar presentation will make movies a hot topic of conversation, but not many people will commit best-picture nominees "The Hours" or "Chicago" to memory. So what makes a person--OK, a guy--devote such a large portion of his internal hard drive to storing such useless trivia?

"It's like remembering a good joke," DePaepe said. "There's just something about the off-the-wall-ness of a line that no one would ever say in real life that makes it stick with you."

As an example, he parrots Bill Murray in "Stripes" boasting, "Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do it's usually something unusual." Admittedly, that's not something one hears (nor hopes to hear) every day.

In case you're wondering, DePaepe does have a life. He's a nice-looking guy, a college grad who owns a house-painting company in Wilmette and, despite his tendency to lapse into geek speak, chicks really do seem to dig him. But after reeling off more snappy movie patter, he worried about coming off as a movie freak--emphasis on the latter.

"Do I sound like some kind of couch potato loser?" he wondered. Noooo ... It's perfectly normal for a grown man to imitate another grown man who is playacting at being another grown man. Scary, but true.

Seems everybody's got a brother/husband/son like Jeff Pfeffer of Deerfield. He can regurgitate chunks of "National Lampoon's Animal House" like a frat boy at his first toga party.

" 'Seven years of college down the drain,' " he repeats in quintessential Bluto Blutarsky-speak.

Now 37, Pfeffer grew up with "Animal House," "Caddyshack" and "Stripes." And today he's watching them with his boys.

"We were laughing and repeating lines [from `Caddyshack']," he recalls. "I said to my wife, `See. It goes from generation to generation.'"

Pfeffer says it's no coincidence so many quotable movies were written by the same person: Chicago filmmaker Harold Ramis. "It shows his consistency and ability to deliver humor that people can connect with."

He's on to something there. After all, who can't relate to Dean Wormer's advice to Flounder in "Animal House": "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

With such movies as "Analyze This," "Caddyshack," "Ghostbusters" and "Stripes" to his screenwriting credit, Ramis has fathered a mother lode of funny movie quotes.

And he's funny even when he's playing himself. In a brief interview conducted by car phone--warning: being glib while driving is not something the average person should attempt--he produced a plethora of quotable material.

Ramis acknowledged that people frequently walk up and spout dialogue to him on the street.

"Depending on which of my movies they quote from, it tells you a lot about them." he said in that familiar Ramis deadpan. "The high end of my audience is `Groundhog Day.' The more populist end of the spectrum is `Caddyshack.'"

Breathtaking extremes

As flattering as it is for him to have people hanging on his every word--"I blush with pride," he confessed with mock seriousness--even he is sometimes stunned at the extreme to which some will take it.

"A guy will claim to have seen `Caddyshack' 400 times and start quoting to me from it," Ramis said. "I just laugh and say, `You are a very sick man.'"

Apparently this is a contagious condition.

"Guys live in fantasy more than women," Ramis said. "And movies work hard at feeding back our fantasies to us."

Purely theoretical, of course

Lake Forest movie-phile Rob Rowe has a completely different take on why guys are more into movie shtick than women. He figures it's "further evidence that women are more highly evolved than men."

A quick wit in his own right, Rowe doesn't boast as vast a repertoire as other movie mimics.

"At my age, with four kids, I don't have much free RAM space left, so I can only hang on to a few key movies that I keep coming back to," he said.

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is Rowe's holy grail. He owns the movie, has watched it countless times and considers it to be "the epicenter of all absurd behavior."

"If there's an issue that's awkward to discuss, you can default to Python as an alternate way of communicating," Rowe suggested.

Hmmm. One is left wondering what sorts of discussions can be facilitated by pretending to be a misfit member of King Arthur's court. (Maybe this is something Colin Powell should take a crack at.)

Face-to-face with Murray

Of course, like all guys who like to speak movies, Rowe is also a "Caddyshack" fan. And he once went toe to toe with the head greenskeeper himself.

Thirteen years ago, while celebrating his first wedding anniversary, he found himself in an elevator with Bill Murray.

"I said to him, `Who are the gopher's allies?' And without missing a beat, he throws back, `The harmless squirrel and the friendly rabbit,' in full Carl Spackler accent," Rowe recalled. "That exchange lasted all of maybe 30 seconds, but that's the highlight of my first anniversary."

Mrs. Rowe is clearly one lucky lady.

Although she admits that it can be "totally mortifying if he springs it and we're not with the right crowd," Suzette Rowe has gotten used to Rob's handing her a line. She knows that when he says, "I'm picking out a Thermos for you!" he's not being helpful. He's being Steve Martin in "The Jerk."

"I just put it into that `guy thing' category," she said.

What makes this particular guy thing odder than most is that language skills usually favor the female. According to professor Larry Lowry of the University of California at Berkeley, an expert in developmental cognitive sciences (the study of how people think and learn), "Females have more neurons devoted to language than males." Which explains why women don't need to let movies do their talking for them.

The scientific explanation

"Girls speak earlier, are more fluent, have better accents and speak more accurately," Lowry said. He goes on to explain that "male and female brains just work differently."

Well, hello!

"For men, something where the context is unusual or a little off-step jumps out at them," Lowry said. "The more emotional or repetitive the stimulus, the more likely it'll be remembered."

Evan Tapper, 27, who works at Blockbuster in Wilmette, has seen a lot of movies a lot of times.

And he agrees that emotions play a huge role in remembering and quoting dialogue: "For guys there's this fear it's not manly to express too much emotion. Speaking in movies is safer. You're assuming the persona when you say the lines."

Lowry places the optimum age for imbedding these lines into long-term memories at adolescence, when our prefrontal lobes are firing on all cylinders and our emotions are all revved up.

This certainly jibes with Brian Bertola, 22, and his penchant for quoting "Coming to America," a movie he has seen 50 times or more.

"When I was about 10, my dad and I would quote from a movie if a situation came up where a line would fit. `Coming to America' is the first movie I remember doing this with," Bertola said.

He was stumped for a minute when asked to replay a favorite quote from the movie.

"It's hard to think of a line without foul language," he admitted.

Makes for some great father-and-son moments.

These days Bertola trades quips with friends. "There's a buzz that comes from speaking the same movie," he said.

"We'll shoot lines at each other and try to guess what movie it's from."

Alert for an overload

Storing all these sound bites eats up megabytes of memory. Aren't some of these guys in danger of a total system crash? One more new Bill Murray movie and that's it--suddenly they can't remember their address or phone number?

Not to fear, according to Lowry.

"The more you devote yourself to something, the more the brain provides neurons for it," he offered reassuringly. "Like a muscle, with exercise, it builds up."

So it can't hurt you. But can it help? Is there any practical application for the ability to slip into a Carl Spackler persona as easily as a golf shirt and khakis?

"Well," Tapper offered, "you can always get a job at Blockbuster."

Talking the talk with filmmaker Harold Ramis

When it comes to putting words in guy's mouths, Harold Ramis is the man.

Between "Caddyshack," "National Lampoon's Animal House" and "Stripes," the North Shore resident has created the universal language spoken in ball games, bars and golf courses across the country.

And, to quote from "Stripes," "That's a fact, Jack."

Naturally, in talking to Ramis, he had a lot to say about what makes movie lines memorable. And about what drives guys to spew movie lines like a city fire hydrant on an August afternoon.

"There is not a guy in America, of a certain age, who doesn't wish he was as funny as Bill Murray," Ramis said. "Teams of well-paid Hollywood writers spend a year to make these characters as clever as possible. Then we test these lines with audiences and get their reactions. The lines that make it through to the final cut have been in every draft from 1-15 and you just know they're solid. So it's natural that when a guy wants to throw out a laugh, he reaches for one of these lines."

Even so, Ramis acknowledged that funny comes not just from what you say but also from how you say it. He divulged that in "Caddyshack," Bill Murray's character is 95 percent improvised.

"I had Bill for only six days of filming and had only one script prepared for him--the `Dalai Lama' speech. We started with that, and then Bill added killer enhancements that have become part of the legend of the movie," Ramis said.

Although some might say it's not polite to laugh at your own jokes, who can argue with Ramis' choice of a scene from "Stripes" as one of his favorite screen moments?

"I love the Old Yeller speech in `Stripes,'" he said with a laugh.

"`We're Americans. You know what that means. It means our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. . . . '"

It's almost impossible to read those words and not hear Bill Murray's voice in your head. And it's equally tough not to continue the rest of the speech aloud in your best Bill Murray accent.

No wonder Murray gets Ramis' vote as the most quotable comedy actor of all time.

"I've done five films with him and highlights from those movies would be the best stuff anyone has said in the history of movies," Ramis said.

You can say that again. And again. . . .

-- Sue Vering

- - -

Make our day and ID these movie lines

Some Q staffers dispute the notion that committing movie dialogue to memory is just a guy thing. So feel free to choose up teams of men vs. women on this quiz on quotes. Q suggests awarding extra points for those who not only identify the movie but also the actor and character. Answers on Page 5.

"Man, that ball got outta here in a hurry. I mean, anything travels that far oughta have a damn stewardess on it, don't you think?"

"You're on a gravy train with biscuit wheels!"

"The American Express card. Don't steal home without it."

"Check my pulse on this question, Jack, do I think you're a psycho? Yes!"

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning! Smells like victory."

"Yes, Satan? Oh, I'm sorry, sir. You sounded like someone else."

"But face it. You're a neo maxi zoom dweebie, what would you be doing if you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?"

"I want your blood and want your soul, and I want them both right now."

"I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind."

"I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch."

"Do you know what it's like to be me out here for you? It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about!"

"I just don't get it! She seems totally uninterested in me, despite my smothering obsessiveness."

"Tell the cook this is low-grade dog food. The steak still has marks where the jockey was hitting it."

"Take a man and remove all accountability and reason and that is a woman."

"I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh?"

As good as it gets: Answers to the quiz

Yeah, some of these quotes from Page 1 are obscure but we think they're all fun.

"Man that ball got outta here in a hurry. I mean anything travels that far oughta have a damn stewardess on it, don't you think?"

--Kevin Cosner as Crash Davis in "Bull Durham"

"You're on a gravy train with biscuit wheels!"

--Bill Murray as Ernie McCracken in "Kingpin"

"The American Express card. Don't steal home without it."

--Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes in "Major League"

"Check my pulse on this question, Jack, do I think you're a psycho? Yes!"

--Ben Stiller as Greg Focker in "Meet the Parents"

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning! Smells like victory."

--Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Kilgore in "Apocalyse Now"

"Yes, Satan? Oh, I'm sorry, sir. You sounded like someone else."

--Jim Carey as Ace Ventura in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective"

"But face it. You're a neo maxi zoom dweebie, what would you be doing if you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?"

--Judd Nelson as John Bender in "The Breakfast Club"

"I want your blood and want your soul, and I want them both right now."

-- Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo in "Tombstone"

"I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind."

--Jeffrey Jones as Ed Rooney in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

"I'm not going to waste my time arguing with a man who's lining up to be a hot lunch."

--Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper in "Jaws"

"Do you know what it's like to be me out here for you? It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about!"

--Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire in "Jerry Maguire"

"I just don't get it! She seems totally uninterested in me, despite my smothering obsessiveness."

--Chris Elliot as Nathanial Mayweather in "Cabin Boy"

"Tell the cook this is low-grade dog food. The steak still has marks where the jockey was hitting it."

--Rodney Dangerfield as Al Czernik in "Caddyshack"

"Take a man and remove all accountability and reason and that is a woman."

--Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall in "As Good As It Gets"

"I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh?"

--Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in "GoodFellas"

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DUI coordinator charged with drunken driving



The DUI coordinator at Chatham County State Court resigned Monday after being arrested and charged with drunken driving last week, court officials said.

Brian P. Harrell, 24, was arrested Friday in downtown Athens after police stopped him about 1:30 a.m. because he was driving without his headlights on, officers said.

According to a police report, Harrell smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes.

Harrell -- who has worked for two weeks as coordinator for the State Court's newly developed DUI program -- told an Athens-Clarke County officer he had been drinking, but "not much," the report said.

An AlcoSensor test indicated Harrell's blood-alcohol level was .13, the report said. The limit in Georgia is .08.

Harrell refused a requested state-administered chemical breath test. He was booked in Clarke County jail and released Friday on $1,750 bail.

Harrell declined to comment for this article.

Harrell's last day as DUI coordinator is Friday, said court administrator Dan Massey. He said the arrest prompted Harrell's resignation.

The Chatham County State Court's DUI program follows the drug court model, Massey said. The drug court program aims to help offenders avoid incarceration by following a strict regiment of probation.

The State Court DUI program is a pilot project funded for one year through grant monies and is based on programs in Hall County and Athens-Clarke County.


Click here to return to story:
http://savannahnow.com/stories/03260...UIarrest.shtml

[Shadow Bea]

Good Story Bruce *bump*

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Dye Pack Explodes in Robber's Pants
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio

A bank robbery suspect learned a painful lesson: Never shove stolen money containing an explosive dye pack down your pants.

Shortly after the National City Bank downtown was robbed Thursday, police spotted John Gladney, 40, about a block away, walking strangely, in obvious pain.

Officers stopped Gladney and discovered he had been injured when the dye pack exploded near his groin, said Sgt. Brent Mull, police spokesman.

Gladney was charged with aggravated robbery.
Thursday, Mar. 27, 2003

That had to hurt. One more for the dumb criminal files

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Iowa Town May Make Lying a Crime
The Associated Press
MOUNT STERLING, Iowa

Lying could be perceived as more than just a character flaw in this southeast Iowa town. It could become a crime.

Four City Council members have proposed an ordinance against fibbing.

Acting Mayor Jo Hamlet said he's tired of the exaggerating that comes with stories in the town of 40 residents famous for its hunting and fishing.

"We wanted to slow down on this lying," Hamlet said this week. "Plus, I'm bored. ... It's been a long winter."

Hamlet said the ordinance has a chance of passing.

"We're going to beat it around," he said. "You never know with the City Council around here what's going to happen."
Friday, Mar. 28, 2003

One more for the books. They must be bored.

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Bias suit filed over cost of haircut
Salon tried to charge black woman extra
By B. Scott Bortnick
Special to The Denver Post


Friday, March 28, 2003 - Sophia Burns came in for a trim, but says she left a Denver hair salon with an emotional cut that led to a racial discrimination lawsuit in federal court.

Burns, a 22-year-old African-American, said the operators of a Great Clips for Hair salon at 5145 Chambers Road charged her an "ethnicity" fee when she came in for a haircut on March 8.

Burns said the shop's owner, Brenda Cripe, said the salon "usually catered to white people," according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.

"There was not much work needed to style their (white people's) hair, but that with black people, there was more to it and that was why she was being charged," Cripe said, according to the lawsuit.

Several messages left at Cripe's home were not returned. The store's manager, who declined to give her full name said, "I don't know anything about the situation. I don't know what went down with Ms. Burns."

The lawsuit alleges the manager told Burns about the additional "ethnicity price." The added fee boosted the advertised cost of a cut and style from $28 to $35 to about $50 for Burns, according to the lawsuit.

"I refused to pay it and asked for a better understanding by what they meant," Burns said Thursday. "The owner and manager said because I was black, I had to pay more money. I thought they did not understand what they were saying. Then they said because I was not white, they had to do more to my hair."

The store waived the extra fee after Burns discussed the matter for 20 minutes.

Time has not reduced the insult.

"I was humiliated," Burns said. "I have never been exposed to racism like that in my life."

Burns said her 6-year-old brother and her 14-year-old sister witnessed the encounter. Both children remain upset by the incident, she said.

"We were all raised in a Christian home and he (the 6-year-old) did not understand why being black would bring a penalty," Burns said.

The African-American stylist who cut Burns' hair called her and apologized, according to the lawsuit. The stylist, who refused to give her full name when called Thursday, remembered Burns but declined to comment.

Burns wants to see the store punished. "I want them to understand what they are doing is not right," she said.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and attorneys' fees.

[eggplant43]

On his 14th birthday, boy weds 42-year-old


03/30/03

By KAREN TOLKKINEN
Staff Reporter


PRAIRIEVILLE, La. -- Lauren Roberts was riding in a car with her aunt, Daina Sancho, to Blockbuster one day last summer when Sancho said, "Lauren, I have something to tell you. I'm in love with I.V."

Daina was a 41-year-old mother of two. I.V., the nickname for Irwin Vincent O'Rourke III, was only 13 years old. It was a good thing, Roberts said, that she wasn't driving, because the news came as a shock.

"I told her to be careful," said Roberts, a slender 17-year-old redhead and mother of a 1-year-old baby girl. "I didn't want her to get in any trouble."

Just a few months later -- court officials said it was October or November -- Daina, I.V. and I.V.'s parents showed up at the Ascension Parish Courthouse in Gonzales, seeking a marriage license.

"I said, 'No, I'm not signing that,'" recalled Judge Ralph Tureau. "Not without knowing more about it."

The couple left. On Jan. 10, I.V.'s 14th birthday, they showed up at Mobile County Probate Court. By this time, Daina was 42. Unlike Louisiana, Alabama does not require a judge to approve marriages in which the bride or groom is under age 16. Alabama merely requires that the minor be at least 14 years old, and that both parents sign.

I.V.'s parents, Irwin Vincent O'Rourke Jr. and Mary Alice Bordelon O'Rourke, were willing to sign.

"If you've met the man of your dreams, why wait?" his father told the Mobile Register.

They were struggling to get back on their feet after suffering severe health problems and financial setbacks when they lived near New Orleans. I.V.'s father had been operations manager for the New Orleans Novelty Co., which sells pinball machines. But, he said, he suffered heart valve damage and could no longer work. He blames a diet pill for his heart problems.

In 1995, they filed for bankruptcy, according to court records. In 2001, they lost their modest brick house in Kenner to foreclosure.

In Kenner, I.V. had been an honor roll student. He'd been on a school Quiz Bowl team that finished third in the state in 2000. He was part of a Duke University program for gifted children.

"He was just always a really happy person," said Emily Osborn, who was in his honors classes in fifth grade.

He wasn't the type of boy the girls had crushes on, nor was he terribly popular, but he participated a lot in class and was never mean to people, she said.

The family moved to Gonzales, a small city about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans. I.V. met Daina through her 14-year-old son, Justin, from her first marriage, said her ex-husband, Jules Marc Sancho. Daina and Marc, married 18 years, divorced in 2000.

She met Sancho when she was 15 and he was 16, and they quickly became a steady couple, Sancho said. Their parents were active in Mardi Gras societies, and they both attended Catholic schools.

Daina dated here and there after the divorce, and had an on-again-off-again relationship with her ex-husband, said Sancho and Roberts. Sancho and Roberts said Daina started acting much younger than she was.

She started using teen slang and got a thumb ring, Sancho said. She wore youthful clothing and started listening to teen music, according to Sancho and Roberts.

"She loves my friends and my friends adore her," Roberts said, sitting on the stoop of her house one late morning in February.

Teens and others in their early 20s drifted in and out of the house, some with piercings and tattoos, all sharing an easy, lazy banter. It was close to noon, but some were just waking up. They'd been to New Orleans the night before, Roberts explained.

Daina is "out there," as in not your typical 40-something-year-old mom, said a goateed Donovan Hunter, 21, who said he goes from job to job. "But in a good way. She's like old, but one of us."

A slender woman of average height, Daina has long dark hair that she sometimes pulls back from her face into a ponytail. She works as a dental hygienist and sells Mary Kay cosmetics on the side.

In 2001, she lost her parents and sister. Her mother and father died of cancer months apart from each other, and her only sister died of natural causes, her ex-husband said.

For a while after the deaths, she lived in the home her parents had purchased just around the corner from her ex-husband. The Sanchos had joint custody of their two children.

Late last year, she bought a brick-and-stucco home in an upscale Prairieville subdivision where homes typically start at above $200,000.

Neighbor Carol Dean, who buys cosmetics from Daina, said her school-age daughters play with I.V. and Daina's children. Dean's daughters say the Sanchos have a white rat named Peaches and at various times they've seen a pet tarantula, a pet scorpion and something that resembles an iguana in their home.

Dean said she had no idea that Daina and I.V. were married. She just thought Daina was taking care of him.

Daina and O'Rourke said they tried hard to keep the marriage a secret. O'Rourke said they weren't even planning to tell her 9-year-old daughter.

"It is unusual but it's nobody's business," Daina said during a brief telephone interview. "It's nobody's business who I fell in love with."

She said she feared that the information, once known, would jeopardize her job and possibly the custody arrangement of her children.

"We happen to be on the proper side of the law," said I.V.'s father. "It's in the laws of five states. Why is it so wrong?"

Actually, only two other states -- Kansas and Texas -- allow 14-year-olds to marry with just parental consent, a search of state statutes shows. Some states allow children to marry at that age or even younger, but set conditions: he or she must be a parent or expecting a child, or the minor must obtain a judge's permission.

If Alabama hadn't allowed Daina and I.V. to marry, they would have gone to another state, O'Rourke said.

His son is mature for his age, O'Rourke said, and he felt the couple had waited long enough to be sure that marriage was the right step. Prior to the ceremony, the minister, the Rev. Frank McCloskey, took them into a separate room where he asked them questions, O'Rourke said.

McCloskey, available for weddings at the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion, said he is an ordained priest with the Old Catholic Church, a denomination that split off from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1800s. It is very small, and he said his Mobile-area congregation meets in homes and consists mostly of friends and family members.

He would not discuss the ceremony, or whether he had performed marriage ceremonies for other minors.

When I.V. is college age, Daina will be in her late 40s. When she's near retirement age, he'll be in his 30s.

O'Rourke said he believes that Daina and I.V.'s relationship will last.

If not, "Divorce is easy," he said. "If it doesn't work, it doesn't work."





Copyright 2003 al.com. All Rights Reserved.

[n2gun]

Deputies Find Marijuana in Truck's Tires
The Associated Press
DENTON, Texas

There wasn't much air in the tires of a pickup truck Denton County deputies stopped early Monday, but they say there was plenty of marijuana.

Dora Valdez, 27, and Michael Navarette, 21, both of El Paso, were charged with possession of marijuana over 50 pounds, a felony.

Authorities said they found more than 80 pounds of marijuana, valued at more than $64,000, packed into metal boxes welded around the wheels inside the tires. A drug dog alerted to the three tires on the ground and a spare.

"I was going to move the spare tire out of the way, but I couldn't even move it," Deputy Armin Melo said in a story in Tuesday's Denton Record-Chronicle. "I knew there was something in that tire."

Melo said he became suspicious after stopping the truck for speeding on Interstate 35, south of Denton. He said the driver was extremely nervous and told the officer a different story than her male passenger. Melo said the driver allowed a search of the vehicle.

"There was some air in the tires, but mostly they were full of marijuana," Melo said. "They said it rode pretty rough."

Melo said Valdez is on federal probation on similar charges.
Tuesday, Apr. 1, 2003

[eggplant43]

Is this a new kind of "air head"?

[angelize56]

Investigators Work To Identify Woman
Posted: 3:26 p.m. EST April 2, 2003
Updated: 4:24 p.m. EST April 2, 2003

Authorities are investigating whether to press charges after a 15-year-old patient at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital sought out an escort service for sex during his hospital stay this week, according to the Ann Arbor News.
Police believe the teen called an escort service and requested an escort for Sunday evening.

The woman reportedly came to the hospital, where she and the boy engaged in consensual sex - although the teen is not legally at an age of consent, according to police.

Police believe the two had sex somewhere other than his hospital room, the paper reported.

Investigators are now working to identify the woman, who could be charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Police would not release information on the boy's medical condition to the paper, citing patient confidentiality laws.

The case will be forwarded to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office to determine what criminal charges could be filed.

[n2gun]

Huge Squid Caught in Antarctic Waters
By RAY LILLEY
Associated Press Writer
WELLINGTON, New Zealand

The 330-pound, 16-foot-long specimen was caught in the Ross Sea, said Steve O'Shea, a research fellow with the Auckland University of Technology. He said the squid was a young female; adults are much bigger.

Going by the scientific name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the animal is unrelated to the smaller and more common giant squid, O'Shea said.

"This animal is formidable," he told New Zealand's National Radio.

While the giant squid eats "quite small prey," the colossal squid eats large prey like the Patagonian toothfish, which can grow more than six feet long.

Fully grown, the colossal squid would be "larger than any giant squid I have seen, and I've seen 105 of them," O'Shea said.

Only one other colossal squid has ever been caught before. Scientists knew of their existence because their beaks have been found in the stomachs of sperm whales.

"All we know is that it can move through the water ... to a depth of 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) and it is an extremely active and extremely aggressive killer," O'Shea said.

It differs from the giant squid "by having enormous hooks arming the tentacles and the arms," he said.

The creature makes up three-quarters of the diet of large sperm whales, which suggests there are large numbers of them in Antarctic waters, O'Shea said. He said the squid was caught near the surface of the ocean.
Thursday, Apr. 3, 2003

[eggplant43]

Posted on Thu, Apr. 03, 2003



Ex-Phila. teacher gets 5 years for three bank robberies

By Nora Koch
Inquirer Suburban Staff

TRENTON - A former Philadelphia high school teacher who turned to sticking up banks a year ago told a judge yesterday that he still cannot explain why.

"I wonder how I came to the point of robbing a bank," said Alvin Jumpp, 53, of Mount Laurel, a religious man who sank deep into debt as his marriage fell apart. "I stand before you a bank robber - a person who really lost their moral compass."

Jumpp was sentenced in U.S. District Court to five years and three months in federal prison for robbing the two bank branches - one of them twice.

He must also repay the $17,622 he stole from branches of the Farmers & Mechanics Bank in Mount Laurel.

The University of Pennsylvania graduate and father of two college-age sons had pleaded guilty in October to three counts of bank robbery for holdups that occurred between December 2001 and April 2002. Jumpp has been in jail, unable to make $100,000 bail, since his arrest April 30.

"I'm astounded at how it was at all possible for me to transgress so horribly. I'm sorry. I'm overwhelmed with sorrow," Jumpp told U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper.

Jumpp, a former history teacher at Audenried High School in South Philadelphia, was deep in debt, with $68,000 in credit card bills and $69,000 in loans for a son's college education. In total, his debts amounted to almost $310,000, Cooper said. Jumpp's attorney argued yesterday that he was also suffering from a severe depression.

The first two robberies occurred at the Farmers & Mechanics Bank branch on Fellowship Road, and the last at the Church Road branch - where he was a regular customer, authorities said.

Jumpp robbed the banks in similar fashion, according to authorities:

Wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and a black ski cap, with white gauze covering his face, Jumpp would show the teller what looked like a handgun (actually his hand covered by cloth or a bag) and say, "Hold your hands up," according to prosecutors. He would then hand the teller two yellow bags and instruct them to fill them with money quickly.

Jumpp emerged as a suspect when a teller at the bank on Church Road told authorities she recognized the robber's voice.

He was arrested April 30 by the FBI while taking out the trash at his home.

Since his arrest, Jumpp has been penitent and introspective, said McDonald "Mac" Martin, Jumpp's former Sunday school teacher at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Burlington City.

"He really understands that there's a penalty," said Martin, who visited Jumpp in prison and regularly exchanges letters with him. "Still, he can't figure out what happened. He just lost it. He lost it."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[eggplant43]

Dog chain locked on wife's neck

By Jesse Bogan
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 04/04/2003 12:00 AM

Police officers are investigating the bizarre case of a woman whose husband of 15 years is accused of keeping her on a 25-foot chain similar to those used for dogs.
San Antonio firefighters used bolt cutters Thursday afternoon to cut the chain, which was wrapped around the woman's neck twice and held in place with a padlock, police said.

Jerry Wayne Thomason, 41, was charged with aggravated assault with serious bodily injury and unlawful restraint. He was in Bexar County Jail in lieu of posting a $53,000 bond.

His 45-year-old wife was taken to Southeast Baptist Hospital, where she was treated and released.

A witness alerted police at about 11:45 a.m. after seeing the chain around the woman's neck as the couple dropped off their two sons, ages 11 and 14, at a Southeast Side school. Police said the witness asked the husband about the chain.

He told the witness, as he jerked the chain, that it was meant to keep his wife from running off, police said.

Early Thursday afternoon, officials found the couple in the driveway of their home on the Southeast Side.

The woman was standing beside a blue 1991 Cadillac with the chain still around her neck. The length of it was cradled in her arms, officer Kenny Hagen said.

"She had a really tough time talking," he said. "She was distraught, kind of like beat down, almost like you had accepted your fate in life."

The husband was asleep in the driver's seat, Hagen said. The man told police he loved his wife and wanted to take care of her.

Family Violence Detective R. Gallegos, who's investigating the incident, declined to comment, saying only: "She is going to be OK."

The couple's two children were with their maternal grandmother, police said.

It was unclear late Thursday how long the woman had been wearing the chain and whether she was kept tied up.

A couple who live nearby said they saw the woman, who they described as withdrawn, mowing the grass at a relative's home across the street earlier in the week.

They said they didn't see the chain then.

Another neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said the husband once told him he kept his wife in a cage at night.

"I said, 'For real? Are you serious?'" he recalled. "I thought he was joking."

Patricia Castillo, executive director of the PEACE Initiative, a local organization that works with victims of abuse, said it's not uncommon for women to be controlled and dominated by their partners.

However, in her 23 years of social work experience, she said, she'd never heard of a woman being held on a chain.

Women in similar relationships "have nothing to be ashamed of," she added, and should "reach out to whomever you can."

Castillo praised the witness who reported the case to police, calling her a heroine.

"We need people like her practically on every block of this city," Castillo said.

Hello,

Being a young female (the squid, not me!), I think it should have been returned to the sea. It could have been photographed and returned.

Penny