Sirica hears taped pleas of sorrow
Mitchell, Haldeman, Ehrlichman sentences reduced
WASHINGTON(UPI) U.S. District Court
Judge John Sirica Tuesday reduced the prison
sentences of Watergate conspirators John
Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman
after each confessed wrongdoings in the scandal
and expressed "remorse" and "repentance" in
taped pleas.
The chief Watergate judge reduced each
sentence from 30 months to eight years in prison
to one to four years. That makes Haldeman and
Mitchell eligible for parole on June 20, 1978.
Ehrlichman voluntarily went to prison earlier
than his colleagues and will complete his year
later this month. But before he is eligible for early
parole Judge Gerhard Gesell must reduce his
concurrent 30-month sentence in the White
House plumbers case. Otherwise he cannot be
freed before June 27, 1979.
"This is my last ruling," Sirica said. He was not
announcing his retirement, but merely an end to
Warmer
It'll be a little warmer today
with a high in the low 70s and
a low in the low 60s. There's
no chance of rain through
tonight.
his dealings in the Watergate case which began
five years and one month ago when the original
burglary crew entered his courtroom.
Now that all appeals are exhausted and no
other cases are working their way up, Sirica has
no further tasks in the scandal.
Sirica ruled after listening to impassioned
pleas for immediate freedom for the three men
who were once Richard Nixon's top aides.
Before he announced his reduction-of-sentence
decision, Sirica made clear he would
not accept the argument that the three men
should be freed because Nixon had been
pardoned by Gerald Ford.
"I cannot- condone or excuse anyone just
because Mr. Nixon got a pardon," Sirica said in
response to the contention of Haldeman's
lawyers that it had been unfair to prosecute and
punish Nixon's lieutenants while sparing the
President himself.
it 1
I
But Sirica was apparently moved by the
willingness of all three men to confess their guilt
and express sorrow publicly for the first time,
and with their pleas that they are beset by grave
financial and family problems.
In the recording, there was none of the hang
tough defiance Mitchell and Ehrlichman
displayed during their 14-week trial.
Ehrlichman sounded politely confident in the
recording. Mitchell was quiet, almost humble in
tone.
Only Haldeman sounded the way he always
had his voice betraying little emotion
neither bravado nor humility,
But Haldeman, 50, once the most powerful
man in the White House next to Nixon, seemed
to make the most sweeping acknowledgment of
wrongdoing and remorse.
"I have the deepest personal- regret for
everything 1 have done," he said. "1 realize the
damage it has done to the nation and 1 will carry
for the rest of my life the burden of knowing how
greatly my acts contributed to this tragedy." ,
He repeated he had a "very real remorse. . . I
am sorry for the damage to our government
system... I have a very strong feeling of
repentance."
Ehrlichman. 52. confined in a prison camp in
Sanford, Ariz., also expressed remorse, saying
he got into trouble because "1 had an
exaggerated sense of my obligation to do as I was
bidden without exercising my independent
judgment."
He told of how he began to rationalize that
"things will get better" and eventually he saw
himself in the White House "as the better of
angels."
"Looking back, there were all kinds of red
flags." he said, "and had 1 been wiser, I certainly
would have checked out when 1 realized 1 was in
4 jzy
mm
a moral dilemma."
But instead he said, "I made a mistake. I
abdicated my moral judgments and turned them
over to someone else.
"I am guilty in law and in fact and in these
months in prison I've come to accept this
reality."
Mitchell, 64. reported to be in ill health, said
he was "truly sorry for and regretted those
actions of mine that resulted in my conviction."
He said that since coming to prison his
thoughts "have convinced me that my actions
resulted in my conviction.
"1 accept that outcome," he said. "My
reflections since the trial have led me to
considerable remorse and distress.
"1 want to give this court the complete
assurance that no set of circumstances. . .would
ever again cause me to perform such acts."
Hockey wins
The UNC women's field
hockey team beat ECU (9-0)
in a game late Tuesday
afternoon. Further details in
Thursday's DTH.
Servian the imlciu ami the I nivrii nmmunil mihc .S'V.
Volume 85, Issue No. 28
Wednesday, October 5, 1977, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Please call us: 933-0245
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outhern
K.H.A Q8.tE
.Sell Cctse
Carolina's own Charles Kuralt (right) and artist Bob
Timberlake (center) were autographing copies of The Bob
Timberlake Collection at the Intimate Bookshop in University
Mall. Kuralt, a UNC graduate and former DTH editor is famous
for his portraits of small-town America in his On the Road
series for CBS news. Staff photo by Sam Fulwood.
By AMY McRARY
Siaff Writer
When the state Attorney General's office
presents its case against Southern Bell
Telephone Co.'s present installation costs
and proposed fee increase, part of the
supporting data will come from the UNC
Residence Hall Association (RHA).
The Utilities Division staff of the Attorney
General's office will present its arguments to
the State Utilities Commission in December.
RHA now is circulating petitions
expressing opposition to a proposed
installation cost increase, which would raise
the installation charge from $20 to $72.50.
The petitions may be signed at the Y
Court and Carolina Union between 10 a.m.
Conviction of Laketree
planne
f 5 husba nd revealed
By CHIP PEARSALL
Staff Writer
Court documents revealed by Chapel Hill
Mayor James C. Wallace Tuesday show that
Dr. Eugene Rodin, husband of Laketree
community developer Sylvia Rodin, was
convicted in federal and New York state
courts last year of second-degree grand
larceny.
The conviction came after Rodin and two
other men were charged with swindling
$1,233 million from 26 investors in a $6.1
million real-estate venture.
Rodin's conviction was not mentioned
while the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen
deliberated whether to authorize his wife and
Gertrude Groten, developers of the planned
Laketree community, to build the project.
On Sept. 14, the board defeated by a 5-to-4
vote six resolutions that would have allowed
construction of the 387-acre community.
In a memorandum sent to the Board of
Aldermen and the Planning Board Tuesday,
Wallace said a copy of the federal court's
final judgement and order was found in town
files after the Board of Aldermen's vote.
"I am informed that (the court
document's) existence came to the attention
of the planning staff over a year ago,"
Wallace said in the memorandum.
He added that he has directed Town
Manager Kurt Jenne to investigate why the
document was not transmitted to the board.
Both civil and criminal actions were filed
against Rodin. The federal court, ruling on
the civil suit, ordered that Rodin repay
money he received from investors.
The New York state court found Rodin
guilty and sentenced him to less than the
possible four-year jail term because he
cooperated with Nassau County (N.Y.)
district attorneys in prosecuting the other
two men. Rodin was sentenced to five years'
probation.
Rodin, Kenneth Boklan and Seymour
Vogel overcharged investors by telling them
that a particular piece of land cost a certain
amount of money. The actual cost of the
land was less, and the overcharged funds
went into the pockets of the three men.
Buyers were also told that the men had a
substantial financial interest in the land,
when actually they did not.
Sylvia Rodin and Groten presented
Laketree to the Board of Aldermen as a
planned community that would be located
south of Chapel Hill. After the plan was
endorsed by the town planning staff and the
Planning Board, the aldermen rejected it.
Opponents of the project said that
Laketree would strain town water supplies
and sewer and transportation facilities.
After the Sept. 14 board meeting, an
attorney for Laketree said he "would not
discount the possibility of investigating
grounds for putting the matter in the courts."
Shumaker a real character,
but did he inspire cartoon?
By NANCY OLIVER
Staff Writer
Editor's note: Journalism lecturer Jim
Shumaker recently rose to comic strip
stardom when Jeff MacNelly, former UNC
student and Chapel Hill Weekly cartoonist,
began publishing his new strip, "Shoe",
about a colorful newspaperman named P.
Martin Shoemaker. Although neither the
cartoonist nor Shumaker has formally
owned up to it, some say the similarities
between P. Martin and Shumaker are too
close to question. Unfortunately, the
journalism professor is afraid of interviews,
and, if the writer hadn't been taught
interviewing techniques by the "Shoe"
himself, she may not have gotten this one.
"1 don't want to be interviewed. I'm trying
to lead a private life."
"But, Mr. Shumaker! In class, you tell us
not to let an interviewee give you no for an
answer when you've been given an
assignment. Well, I've been given this
assignment."
"I know, but that's why I grew this
moustache so no one will recognize me."
"But I thought you said we should not give
our interviewees the feeling that we're going
to nail 'em. I don't plan to nail you. I just
want to do a story on you. My editors gave
me this assignment and they won't take 'no'
for an answer."
"Everytime I have an interview I always
say something 1 know I shouldn't say. 1 know
all that bull I give you in class, but this is
different."
"I'm supposed to find out what you think
about the MacNelly strip."
"1 think it's great."
"That's not enough."
"Interview Walter Spearman instead. He's
led a more interesting life than I have."
"But my assignment was to cover you.
And you always told us in class..."
"Well, o.k."
In his four years at the UNC School of
Journalism, Jim Shumaker has become as
well-known to journalism students as the
Spelling and Grammar Test and Dean
Adams' Law and Ethics course.
With the new comic strip, "Shoe,"
Shumaker has become even more well
known. Cartoonist MacNelly, who knew
Shumaker when both were at the Chapel Hill
Weekly, (now the Chapel Hill Newspaper),
denied that P. Martin Shoemaker was based
on our own Shumaker when the strip first
appeared this summer.
But in a recent column in the Charlotte
Observer, Shumaker wrote that a J-school
graduate student saw MacNelly on the
"Today" show and he confirmed that
Shumaker was the inspiration for P.M.
Shumaker himself says the similarities
between himself and P. Martin are slight.
"Several people stopped me on the street
to ask if I was really P. Martin Shoemaker
and I denied it hotly. I have never in my life
used a trash can for a desk orange crates,
yes; trash cans, no."
Although he says, "I still haven't decided
what I'm going to do when 1 grow up,"
Shumaker has spent the last four years
teaching and writing at the journalism
Please turn to page 4.
Voter registration
Oct. 5 to 9
v The following is a schedule for voter registration for Oct. 5 through 9. The deadline for
registration for the Nov. 8 election is Monday, Oct. 10. Persons who will have lived at their
current address for 30 days prior to the election are eligible to register.
Day
Thursday
Saturday ,
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
CHAPEL HILL MUNICIPAL BUILDING
Time
noon to 8 p.m.
9 a.m. to I p.m.
CARRBORO TOWN HALL
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
CHAPEL HILL POST OFFICE (downtown)
Sunday
2 to 6 p.m.
Yale has more lenient drop policy
By MEREDITH CREWS
Staff Writer
Anyone who is upset about UNC's four
week drop policy can just go to Yale.
Of six universities contacted this week,
Yale has the most liberal course-dropping
policy. Yale allows students to drop courses
with a 'W' grade until the last day of classes.
Yale also has a 10-day "course-shopping"
period at the beginning of the semester for
students to adjust schedules before
submitting them to the registrar.
But UNC students may rejoice that they
are not charged course-dropping fees, as are
students at Duke, Princeton and the
University of Virginia.
Duke students are charged $ 1 .50 for each
course dropped or added after the first two
weeks of class. UVa students must pay $10
for each course added after the first two
weeks of class, while Princeton students may
be charged as much as $20 for dropping
courses at midterm.
Please turn to page 3.
CGC elections today
Elections . to fill the vacant Campus
Governing Council seats for Districts 1, 17
and 20 will be held today.
Ballot boxes for all three districts will be
open between 1 1 a.m. and 4 p.m. and will be
located in the Y-Court and the Carolina
Union. An additional ballot box for District
1 will be at the law school.
Candidates for District 1, the graduate
and professional student district, are Dean
Johnson, Paul Kade and Bruce I indall.
Seeking the seat for District 17, the off
campus area northwest of the intersection of
Franklin and Columbia streets, are
Christopher Adams, David Madison and
Trelawny Williams.
Candidates for District 20, the off-campus
area south-west of the Franklin Street and
Columbia Street intersection, are Tim Beane
and Gary Homes.
and 2 p.m. They also are available at South
Campus lounges and at Granville Towers.
Other data to be used by the Utilities
Division staff will come from a recent RHA
survey.
Results of that survey showed that 94 per
cent of the 569 respondents to the
questionnaire did not believe the hook-up
increase from $7.50 last year (when the
University owned the system) to the present
$20 was justified.
"We want to oppose the $20 installation
fee that is now charged to residence hall
students because we feci it is unfair to them,"
RHA President Bain Jones said Tuesday.
"The charges don't apply because the phones
remain in the rooms all year round. It's just a
matter of turning on switches, not total
installation ."
- The RHA wilt also present a proposal
through the Attorney General's office
against Southern Bell's proposed
installation fee increase from $20 to $72.50.
"With so many phones remaining in rooms,
we feel the increase is not justified," Jones
said.
The proposed hook-up rate for students in
residence halls would be $49.55, according to
Mike Carson, manager of Southern Bell in
Chapel Hill.
"I'm really frustrated at this point," Vice
Chancellor of Student flairs Donald
Boulton said Tuesday. "I've had two
meetings with Southern Bell trying to get a
breakthrough, an answer. I'm trying to get
the breakdown for installation costs."
Boulton said he believes installing a phone
in a new home isdifferentfrom hookingupa
phone in a residence hall. He said University
personnel involved with the telephone
service when it was owned by UNC
estimated that $10 to $12 would be a proper
cost for installation and paperwork for
hooking up residence hall phones.
Although nearly half of the respondents to
the RHA survey, or 48.2 per cent, said
Southern Bell took four to seven days to
hook up their phones. 74.5 percent said they
had had no major problems with the phone
company this year.
"We believe that working with the Utilities
Commission in this manner (through the
Attorney General's office) will give the
student a greater savings than the system
with Southern Bell that State is working on,"
Director of University Housing James D.
Condie said.
Condie was referring to a plan to include
telephone installation charges in dormitory
room rent. N.C. State University is
considering the plan, which is the standard
one offered by Southern Bell for hooking up
dormitory phones.
Under the plan, N.C. State would be billed
monthly for service at a rate of $6.80. The
charge would decrease during the summer
months. A restoration charge of service
every fall, which would be comparable to an
. installation charge, would be jl 1.50.
Under the proposed rate increase, the
restoration fee would be $28.50. Carson said.
He said this would be a savings of $21 for the
student.
"We proposed the plan to University
officials here a couple of months ago, but
they did not react favorably," Carson said.
"We're working up a proposal for the
University about the plan now and we think
it will get more consideration now."
"Using a plan like State's here would take
away the student's individual freedom,"
Jones said. "Some people just don't want a
phone in their room."
However, if the proposal to lower
installation costs is not approved, Jones said
including costs in dorm rent would be the
only alternative.
"I don't know what else we can do if the
proposal in December doesn't go through.
But if we did have to work out something like
the plan at State, we'd be totally responsible
to Southern Bell."
Boulton said the University would have to
conduct a detailed study before it would
accept a plan like State's. "In a way, we'd be
getting back into the utility business and we
just got out of it." Boulton said.
If 1-40 foes represented
Hunt won't oppose board
By MARK ANDREWS
Staff Writer
Gov. Jim Hunt will not intervene in the
state Transportation Board's decision to
build an lnterstate-40corridorthrough rural
Orange and Durham counties if he is assured
by transportation officials that opponents
have had adequate opportunity to protest.
Hunt press secretary Gary Pearce said
Tuesday.
Pearce said Hunt is aware of area
opposition to the 1-B corridor but said that
the Governor had not had much personal
involvement with the issue.
"He is aware of the objections but does not
have independent knowledge," Pearce said.
Corridor 1-B, which begins at 1-85 near
Hillsborough, runs through rural Orange
and Durham counties and joins the existing
1-40 at the Research Triangle, was selected
last month by the state Transportation
Board.
Hunt will rely on Transportation
Secretary Thomas Bradshaw's assessment of
citizen input and would be "very, very
reluctant" to reverse the decision if he has
been assured that area residents have had
sufficient chance to make their views known,
Pearce explained.
"If there had not been, he (Hunt) would
want them to look at it again," Pearce said.
Pearce said that if Hunt is satisfied with
Bradshaw's assessment of the opportunity
for public debate, he would seek reversal
only under "extraordinary circumstances"
and with "damn good reasons for it."
Pearce said it was his understanding that a
series of hearings had been held throughout
the state. He was not. however, aware of the
specifics of public hearings regarding the 1
40 corridor.
Opponents of the 1-B corridor have
maintained that no opportunity was
provided to voice their grievances to the state
Transportation Board in person in a public
hearing. Coalition leader B. B. Olive and
Hunt have exchanged letters concerning
citien input in the 140 issue.
Pearce responded to charges by 1-40
opponents that the state had not given
enough attention to the highway's likely
effect on future water and fuel resources by
saying that something will have to be done to
alleviate the local water crisis regardless of I
40 plans. He cited a proposed clean water
bond which is supposed to provide relief.
1-40 opponents meanwhile are threatening
to oppose the Hunt-supported bond
referendum for transportation, coalition
leader B. B. Olive said last week. Pearce
maintained that the bond issues should be
judged on their own merits.
Pearce said sometimes highway
construction can save energy by providing a
more efficient routing of traffic. Olive has
questioned w hether there would be adequate
supplies of fuel in the future to justify
building certain highways.
The coalition of local officials, groups and
interested citizens opposed to the 1-40
corridor are establishing a non-profit
management corporation to solicit money
for waging a campaign against the highway,
Olive said Tuesday.
Plans are also being made for an Oct. 26
public forum at UNC. Concerned citizens
and students will be encouraged to hear
different viewpoints of the 1-40 controversy.