®be Uatlg (Ear UM
BOLO' Pleads Guilty
In Campus Attacks
Jesus Alvarez Ramos faces
probation for two August
assaults on UNC females,
despite his denials of guilt.
By Jamila Vernon
Staff Writer
MARCH 9 - After eight months in
jail, the man accused of attacking two
women on UNC’s campus in August
pleaded guilty despite his continued
denial of having committed the crimes.
Jesus Alvarez Ramos entered a guilty
plea Tuesday based on an agreement
that stipulated he would be released
immediately due to time already served.
Under the agreement, Alvarez
Ramos pleaded guilty to two counts
each of attempted second-degree kid
napping and assault on a female, said
Kayley Taber, assistant district attorney
for Orange County.
“He was given the option of getting
out of jail yesterday or waiting for a
trial,” said Amos Tyndall, assistant pub
lic defender for Alvarez Ramos. “Who
knows when this case would have gone
to trial. He would risk being convicted.”
Instead of having to serve the sen
tenced 16 months to 20 months in
prison, Orange County Superior Judge
Wade Barber suspended it to five years
of supervised probation, Tyndall said.
Alvarez Ramos still denies having
attacked the two women.
“It wasn’t him,” Tyndall said.
The first attack took place Aug. 15
hef .
• vS, rjr- / C \ M
DTH FILE PHOTO
Student fans liven up the Smith Center during a Tar Heel basketball win over Maryland. The seating
arrangement, prompted by a snowstorm, allowed more students to sit in lower-level seats.
Students Seek Improved Seating
By Jason Arthurs
and Brooke Roseman
Staff Writers
FEB. 2 - The excitement generated
by the seating arrangement at
Thursday’s men’s basketball victory has
prompted some students to question the
allocation of lower-level tickets in the
Smith Center.
However, due to the way the center
was funded, officials feel it will be diffi
cult to get more students in those seats.
Carolina Athletic . Association
President Tee Pruitt said that despite bar
riers he hoped to get students out of the
rafters and closer to the floor for future
games. “What we need to do is put stu
dents on three sides of the court,” he said.
“Right now, we’re trying to talk to all the
parties involved; we’re trying to get sup
port of the Carolina basketball family."
After receiving almost 300 e-mail
messages from students and UNC alum
ni since Thursday’s victory against
Maryland, Pruitt said he decided to try
to rally support and ideas.
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when a UNC sophomore and two of
her friends were walking near Cameron
Avenue.
The three split up as the victim began
walking home.
The victim testified that the assailant
threw her on the ground between
Caldwell Hall and Grimes Residence
Hall and attempted to sexually assault
her.
Two days later on Aug. 17, a woman
was assaulted between the Carolina
Coffee Shop and the Hanes Art Center.
The man threatened her with a knife
and attempted to jump on top of her.
Both victims recalled details of the
assaults during separate probable cause
hearings in September.
Alvarez Ramos has already served
eight months in the Orange County Jail
while awaiting trial. “(The probation is)
supervised but not as intensive, and
(Alvarez Ramos) gets credit for the six
months already served,” Tyndall said.
While Alvarez Ramos is technically
free, he is being detained for 48 hours
while the Immigration and
Naturalization Service decides whether
to deport him, Taber said.
“The INS has placed a detainer on
him -- they have to determine residency
status,” she said.
The case drew attention to Alvarez
Ramos as an illegal immigrant, Tyndall
said. But his deportation is not con
nected his guilty plea, Tyndall said.
Tyndall said that if the INS did not
pick up Alvarez Ramos within the 48
hours, he would become a free man
around 4 p.m. today.
Baddour said that because UNC made
a contract promising tickets to people
who paid for the Smith Center, it would
be impossible to add students to the
lower level. “As far as I’m concerned
that was a commitment that the
University made, and I think it’s impor
tant that we maintain our word.”
Baddour said that of the 6,000 tickets
offered for students, 2,000 were in the
lower level. He also said the proportions
of students on the floor was similar to
other schools in the ACC.
Baddour said he was very pleased
with the environment at last Thursday’s
game, but he expected the same enthu
siasm from fans when UNC hosts Duke
this week. “I think this Thursday night
won’t be a lot different from last
Thursday night,” he said.
Moyer Smith, president of the
Educational Foundation, the primary
fund raiser for UNC athletics, said the
number of seats available in the lower
level was limited because of the method
by which the $35-million Smith Center
was funded in the early 1980s.
A donation of $5,000 reserved the
Year in Review
UNC Hospitals Worker
Dies in Halloween Fire
By Phil Perry
Staff Writer
NOV. 2 - As thousands of people
partied on Franklin Street on Tuesday
night, a deadly fire raged at Brookstone
Apartments complex, taking the life of
one man and sending two more to the
hospital.
Chapel Hill firefighters responded to
the blaze at about 11:07 p.m. at the com
plex off Homestead Road. Fire and
emergency service personnel had the
fire under control in a little more than
an hour.
Chapel Hill police spokeswomanjane
Cousins confirmed a man’s body was
found Wednesday. The victim, Roger
Vanden Dorpel, 51, was an X-ray techni
cian at UNC Hospitals.
Chapel Hill Fire Department Capt.
Doug Kelly said the man’s body was
found in one of the second-floor apart
ments. He also said officials are still inves
tigating the cause of the man’s death.
Two residents from the building were
taken to UNC Hospitals to be treated for
bums. The blaze caused fire, smoke and
water damage to at least eight apartments,
while several others suffered smoke and
water damage. No estimate for the extent
of the damage is available yet
The Chapel Hill Fire Marshal
Caprice Mellon is teaming up with the
N.C. Bureau of Investigation in trying to
determine the cause of the fire.
The investigation could last several
days or even longer, according to a
news release.
Kelly said that after investigations
Wednesday, the origin of the fire was
right to two upper-level seats, SIO,OOO
retained four seats (mosdy upper level),
$25,000 retained four lower-level seats,
$50,000 retained eight lower-level seats,
and SIOO,OOO retained up to 12 seats.
In addition to the initial costs, donors
must maintain an annual donation level
and pay for actual tickets, which cost up
to S3OO apiece. Smith said that because
of a lack of major gifts, many of the seats
in the lower deck were secured by
$50,000 donations.
The right to buy tickets can also be
passed down a generation, as long as
the new holder continues to donate at
the necessary level. “If we were doing it
today, we’d do it differently. What peo
ple have to realize is that we had to pay
for the entire thing ourselves. If the
building was going to be built, we had
to raise the money,” Smith said.
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still unknown. He also said the time the
blaze started was unknown.
“The fire was through the roof when
we got there, so there’s no telling how
long it had been burning before we got
the call,” he said.
Kelly also said there were no sprin
klers in the building, but it was built
long before they were required by law.
Sarah Chaffins, a senior business
major and a resident at Brookstone,
does not five in the building that was
destroyed, but she said she saw the
other apartments bum “(My roommate
and I) ran outside, looked over the roof
and saw smoke,” Chaffins said. “I ran
around the side of the building and the
whole roof was on fire.”
Chaffins said that when the firefight
ers arrived, they doused her building
with water to prevent the fire from
spreading.
She said that just in case, she and her
roommate gathered their valuables and
put them in plastic bags.
She said she feared if the fire depart
ment had come five minutes later, her
building would have burned, too.
“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever
experienced, really,” Chaffins said. “It
was just terrifying.”
Interim Police Chief Gregg Jarvies
said the Chapel Hill police were on the
scene to offer assistance to the fire
department. “We just provide any assis
tance we can,” Jarvies said. “In a fire sit
uation, we support if they ask us to.”
That support comes in multiple
forms. Police provide scene security, cri
sis counseling and media assistance,
Jarvies said.
Residents Recall Floyd's Fury
The effects of Hurricane
Floyd are still being felt in
eastern North Carolina,
which was left devastated.
By Lucas Fenske
Assistant State & National Editor
GREENVILLE, SEPT. 15 - Time
has masked the damage Hurricane
Lloyd inffictSß on "East Carolina
University a year ago this weekend*
The parking lot where an ECU stu
dent, 18-year-old Aaron Childe of
Leland, drowned while swimming in
floodwaters is now dry.
Campus sidewalks covered with
leaves after the storm were cleared long
ago. Chunks of road and sidewalk tom
from the ground by the rampaging
flood waters have been repaired.
But the hurricane still lingers in the
memory of many students who were
forced to carry their soggy belongings
from mud-covered apartments.
Greenville, located on the Tar River,
was one of several N.C. cities hit hard
by the flood. ECU classes were can
celed for nine days, the longest in recent
memory. The school suffered more than
$4 million in physical damages.
ECU sophomore Michael Rowcliff of
Chapel Hill said he remained on cam
pus dining Floyd until he was forced to
evacuate. “No one wanted to go to sleep
(that night),” Rowcliff said. “Everyone
wanted to see what would happen."
He said his residence hall lost power
about 3 a.m. when the hurricane’s eye
was overhead, setting off the fire alarm.
“We were standing outside in the rain
and wind,” Rowcliff said. “Tree branches
were flying around. It was total chaos.”
He said Floyd itself was not a major
problem for students, but the subse
quent floods were devastating and
turned his residence hall, located at the
top of a hill, into an island.
“There was no way on or off except
by boat,” Rowcliff said. “The commuter
parking lot was a lake. All you could see
was a sign that said ‘Caution: Lot Prone
to Flood’ sticking out of the water.”
fit m mBM
wh FILE PHOTO
Chapel Hill firefighters work to clean out one of three units at
Brookstone Apartments that was gutted by a fire Halloween night.
He said the effects of Floyd -and the
smell of mildew in some classrooms -
lingered for the rest of fall semester.
Rowcliff said possessions and apart
ments damaged by the flooding, com
bined with the loss of vacation days,
made it hard for most students to devote
the necessary attention to their studies.
“No one was motivated,” he said.
“More students were on academic pro
bation than could fit in the auditorium.”
Despite the academic, emotional and
physical effects oftheltorm on campus,
the damage wrought by Floyd is more
visible in the city
of Greenville.
Faded police
caution tape fitters
the ground around
Darryl’s, a restau
rant and once-pop
ular student hang
out that is now
locked. A cobweb
covered bench,
with its seats folded
“We were standing outside in
the rain and wind. Tree
branches were flying around.
It was total chaos. ”
Michael Rowcliff
East Carolina University Sophomore
up, states, “Welcome to Pirate Country.”
Tar River Estates, an apartment com
plex located next to the river of the
same name, still has about a dozen
buildings with gutted interiors bearing
signs warning “condemned” or “build
ing unfit for human habitation.”
Fish chase minnows around the com
plex’s abandoned swimming pool,
where weeds and algae have started to
grow. Insulation, heart-shaped key
chains commemorating a blood drive
and pieces of an artificial Christmas tree
fitter the floor of the nearby clubhouse.
ECU senior Jacob Parrish of
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Louisburg said he lived in Tar River
Estates during the flooding.
Parrish said he went home during
Floyd after receiving a warning from the
police and could not return to the apart
ments until several days later. “Even the
beer truck couldn’t get into Greenville.”
When Parrish was finally able to
return to the apartment weeks later, he
said fungus was growing on the walls
and the floor was covered with mud.
Parrish said he and his roommate,
Bradley Cash of Louisburg, received
about $5,000 in rent aid from the
Federal Emergency
Management
Agency.
Parrish said
other university
officials were equal
ly attentive to stu
dent needs - per
haps overly so.
“This one lady kept
asking me ‘Are you
OK?’” he said.
“Yes. ‘Are you in denial?’ No.”
Despite offers of support, Parrish said
professors expected too much of students
harmed by the flood, causing his grades
to drop. He said many students were
depressed by the flood and its impact on
them and their families, but an ECU foot
ball game, played while the campus was
still closed, boosted their morale. He said
the blowout victory against the fittingly
named Miami Hurricanes lifted stu
dents’ spirits. A crowd of students, him
self included, rushed the football field
and tore down the goal posts. “That win
helped more than anything.”
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