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®he Satlu (Tar Heel W News! w Busim j2> 105 years of editorial freedom Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Jury Awards Williamson $500,000 in Negligence Suit Dr. Myron Liptzin was found negligent and ordered to pay Wendell Williamson for his pain and suffering. Bv Amy Cappiello Senior Writer HILLSBOROUGH - Jurors in the medical malpractice case against former Student Health Service psychiatrist Dr. Myron Liptzin found the doctor negli gent in his care Monday and ordered him to pay Wendell Williamson $500,000. “I’m very pleased with it,” Williamson said after the verdict was announced. Unedited Tapes Air, Fuel Criticism of Case The president's grand jury testimony aired nationwide Monday, drawing both criticism and speculation. Associated Press WASHINGTON - Congress laid before a wary nation Monday the raw footage of President Clinton’s grand jury testimony and 3,183 pages of evidence chronicling his relationship with former White House Deta j| s About Intern Monica T .. Lewinsky in Jape, New explicit detail. EvidCflCG RgIG3SG(I “It’s an See page 7 embarrassing and personally painful thing,” Clinton told the grand jurors. The videotape of Clinton’s testimony began playing unedited on television sets across America shortly before 9:30 a.m. EDT. White House press secretary Mike McCurry blamed the tape’s release on “rank partisanship” and dismissed most of the new material as irrelevant to the case. McCurry said the videotape shows Printings On Decline In Libraries Reference Assistant Lucy Holman says she has found fewer wasted printouts at the Undergraduate Library. By Shannon Cldbb Staff Writer Week-old laser-printing charges in UNC libraries have cut down on wast ed printings at campus libraries, officials said. Since the charges took effect last Wednesday, students receive the first page of every print job free with a five cent charge for each additional page. The charges affect computers locat ed on the first floors of the Undergraduate and Davis libraries and now includes items on electronic reserve. “There’s certainly a decrease in wast ed printing,” said Lucy Holman, a ref erence assistant who maintains the com puters on the first floor of the Undergrad. Holman said that before the charges were installed, she collected hundreds of wasted printouts every day but now See PRINTING, Page 6 To award Williamson money, jurors had to find that Liptzin damaged Williamson through his negligence. They also had to find that Williamson did not contribute to his own damage. Williamson, a former UNC law stu dent, claimed Liptzin’s medical negli gence led to Williamson’s January 1995 near-campus shooting rampage that killed UNC lacrosse player Kevin Reichardt and Chapel Hill resident Ralph Walker. In November 1995, Williamson was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the killings. He is now indefinitely con fined to Broughton State Hospital in Morganton. Williamson’s mother, Fonda, said the family was very pleased with the verdict “We are just gratified that the jury saw TALE OF THE TAPE “repeated efforts by Starr and his pros ecutors to browbeat and badger” Clinton into discussing intimate details of his relationship. The materials released Monday pro vide one side of the story: the evidence that Starr said supports his case for 11 possible impeachable offenses against the president. McCurry’s responded to the evi dence presented. “That the president’s conduct does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense should now be clear to every- one,” he said. With the House not in session, few lawmakers were on hand at the Capitol. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said it was “unfor tunate” that Republicans insist- “That the president’s conduct does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense should now be clear to everyone. ” Mike McCurry President Clinton's Press Secretary ed on releasing the tape over Democrats’ objections. As for its impact, he said, “how dam aging is not something anybody can assess right now.” Rep. John Conyers Jr., ranking •A/; i&'jß ... ___ DTH/SEAN BUSHER Julie Schlenker, a junior chemistry major, sent many pages to the printer before leaving the Venable Hall computer lab Monday afternoon. I don't like money actually, but it quiets my nerves. Joe Louis Tuesday, September 22, 1998 Volume 106, Issue 81 it our way,” she said. “We have nothing but good will for everyone as we go on and try to fight mental illness.” Fonda Williamson said she believed the verdict would have an impact on the medical community by raising the stan dard of care used to deal with people with psychotic illnesses. Liptzin, who has medical malpractice insurance through UNC Hospitals, con tends he not only met but exceeded the requisite standard of care while treating Williamson. “I know that I did the right thing and the best I could,” Liptzin said. “In retro spect there isn’t anything that I would have done differendy.” Liptzin said he believed an appeal would probably be filed to contest the amount of money Williamson was Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, decried the release of “irrel evant, unnecessary disclosure of sala cious and lurid details” meant to embar rass the president. But Republican members of the com mittee said the videotape revealed Clinton’s legal maneuvering. Committing peijury before the grand jury would be grounds for impeach ment, said Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla. The president “understands the oblig ation to tell the truth and the whole truth,” Canady said. “And we’ll have to make a judgment about whether he has done that.” The two-vol ume set of evi dence made public Monday includes Lewinsky’s own account to prose cutors and the grand jury, in which she calls the president her “sexual soul mate” and testifies about her frustration that the president had not taken their sexual activity further. See CLINTON, Page 6 BBPI jHH \ . . k Jurors said Dr. Myron Liptzin was negligent in his 1994 medical treatment of Wendell Williamson awarded, but he said the decision to appeal wasn’t his. Even if it was, Liptzin said he wasn’t sure he would appeal. “It’s a tough call,” he said. “I’ve decided I’ve done the right thing, and I don’t need a court telling me I’ve done John Clark (left), vice president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity talks to the fraternity's President Chaz Lusk outside their fraternity house Monday night. Clark and Lusk are members of the new pledge class. SAE Searches for Fresh Start By Stuart Cramfton Staff Writer Petrified couches. Holes in the walls. The putrid carcasses of aging pizza boxes and beer cans. None of these oft-rumored trappings of fraternity life can be found in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house, locat ed at 112 Fraternity Court. The $60,000-worth of newly painted walls, carpeted stairs, plush La-Z-Boys and other improvements are in fact only a small part of the much larger renovations going on at UNC Graduate Students Push for Tuition Break The e-mail campaign says academic assistants should not pay tuition fees while working for the University. By Keith Taylor Staff Writer University graduate students are merging new technology with old-fash ioned political lobbying to get the state legislature to eliminate tuition costs. The Graduate and Professional Student Federation is in the midst of an e-mail lobbying campaign designed to convince the N.C. General Assembly’s Budget Conference Committee to give a full tuition remission to teaching and research assistants in the UNC system. The remission would mean that teaching and research assistants would not pay tuition fees while they work for the University, said Bryan Kennedy, GPSF president. The e-mail campaign began as an easy way for graduate stu dents to show their support of the line item budget proposal. “I knew it was something graduate and professional students could take a few minutes to do, that it would be easy to do,” Kennedy said. This is the first time the student fed eration has tried lobbying through e the right thing.” Although Liptzin is retired, he still works part-time with psychiatric patients across the country. Being found respon sible for committing medical malprac tice could interfere with his work, Liptzin said. “To the extent I may be excluded from doing that because I’m covered by their malpractice insurance and with a judgment against me they may decide not to hire me,” he said. As the court recessed, both the Williamson family and Liptzin went out to talk to jurors - Fonda Williamson to thank jurors and Liptzin to find out where he went wrong. “It was really just puzzling for me to understand what they did,” Liptzin said. “They explained what parts of the evi the fraternity house. The fraternity’s real facelift involved the fraternity mem bers themselves. The chapter's membership dropped to 24 in January after 14 members were convicted of theft of local Christmas deco rations. The remaining members opted for an early alumni status when faced with Greek judicial board hearings and a semester of close supervision from members of the fraterni ty’s national headquarters. See FRATERNITY, Page 6 mail, he said. There are two different plans floating through the General Assembly. The Senate proposal would provide $8 million statewide to pay for graduate students’ tuition. UNC would receive half that amount because the University has about half of the system’s teaching and research assistants, Kennedy said. He said the House voted to provide $1 million for tuition, which will force the budget committee to determine the final amount. If passed, the tuition cut would include this semester, he said. N.C. Sen. Howard Lee, D-Orange, who helped create the budget proposal, said the tuition remission was extreme ly important for the UNC system. “It’s important we demonstrate a commitment to enhance our graduate schools,” he said. “Demonstrating this kind of support can at least let people know there is a broad interest in the matter," he said. The GPSF and the executive branch of student government have been work ing together to lobby for support of the tuition remission, said Student Body Secretary' Minesh Patel. Patel said the campaign could make the University more attractive to poten tial graduate students. See BREAK, Page 6 News/Features/Arts/Sports Business/Advertising Chapel Hill, North Carolina C 1998 DTH Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. dence they weigh most heavily. I really didn’t agree with them, and what it makes clear to me is that I didn’t make points clearly to them.” Following the verdict, most of the jurors hurried out of the courthouse, refusing to talk. One juror, Carol Sparrow, was visibly distraught. “It was the most difficult decision I’ve made in my life,” Sparrow said as tears welled in her eyes. “We believe we lis tened to the law.” Forewoman Stephanie Wissinger called the decision “gut-wrenching" for all the jurors. “I don’t think any party could end up totally happy,” Wissinger said. While the verdict was a difficult one See WILLIAMSON, Page 6 C ; Griffith Joyner Dies itm**- died Monday at I’' a.. I scene when she won three gold medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics. See Page 9. Double Time In an effort to increase security after last week's assault, the Orange County Board of Commissioners have assigned a second sheriff's deputy to patrol the Superior Courthouse in Hillsborough. See Page S. A Head Start The Department of Psychology will start the University's first program based on the Carolina Computing Initiative. Set to start Nov. 2, the plan will include 121 new computers. See Page 2. Today’s Weather a Cloudy, scattered showers; u pp er 80s Wednesday: Mostly sunny, Mid 70s. 962-0245 962-1163
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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