News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 19

News-Press if DEATHS 4 LEGISLATURE 6 dJa TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1985 vidence will show deputy drop, at site of drug rosecutor says Federal investigators have been trying for more than two years to link Danny Moss and Col. David Wilson, Lee County's chief deputy, to the smuggling operation in Corkscrew. A a V) TV'S'-I I A 4T- -7 fj 1 -J I N- jj I By BARBARA JOHNSON News-Press Staff Writer TAMPA A federal prosecutor says he will present evidence this week that a high-ranking Lee County sheriff's deputy was at the scene of a marijuana drop in 1981 in the rural Corkscrew area southeast of Fort Myers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Warren Zimmerman made the statement Monday morning at the opening of the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of Debra Moss, wife of former special deputy Danny Moss.

Zimmerman didn't name the high-ranking deputy in court and wouldn't comment during a recess in the trial. But federal investigators have been trying for more than two years to link Danny Moss and Col. David Wilson, Lee County's chief deputy, to the smuggling operation in Corkscrew. The News-Press reported last year that federal agents have at least one witness who places Wilson at the scene. Wilson has denied being there.

In a preview of the defense case, lawyer William Blackwell of Naples told the jury that one month after the 1981 smuggling Incident, Debra Moss was diagnosed as having encephalitis, which he described as a brain disease that can cause amnesia. Blackwell said he hopes to have a Naples neurologist fly to Tampa to testify about her mental state. Moss, who lives in Corkscrew, is accused of lying to a federal grand jury which investigated the 1981 drug smuggling incident and to a federal trial jury which convicted four of her friends and neighbors. the call in question was made by a sheriffs deputy. "I don't know.

I'm as surprised as you," Blackwell said. Testimony in the case began at 2:30 p.m. after 12 jurors and two alternates, none from Fort Myers or Naples, were selected. Two pilots from U.S. Customs, who followed the marijuana-laden plane to the airstrip, testified the plane landed at about 8:30 p.m.

Both said they watched from the sky as a car parked at the landing strip then drove to the Moss home, stayed for several minutes and drove off. One pilot said he followed the car for about five minutes until he saw it stopped at a police roadblock, which by that time was in place on Corkscrew Road. Collier County deputy Larry Day said he stopped two vehicles at the roadblock: a car driven by Joy Carter and a four-wheel drive vehicle driven by Charles Connolly, who also lives in Corkscrew. Day said the radio dispatch log at the Collier sheriffs department shows he set up the roadblock at 9:08 p.m. the exact moment Moss testified she and Joy Carter were placing the 13-minute telephone call.

However, Day said Joy Carter was at the roadblock at about 9:09 p.m. Blackwell, who described the See EVIDENCE, page 2B News-PressDan Fitzpatrick Lab lesson David Lowe, blood bank supervisor, takes a look microscope. Fort Myers Community Hospital of-at a slide of blood cells as Karen English slides to ficials invited Dunbar students to the hospital on the side to await her turn to look through the Monday to tour the laboratories. Water, sewer bond issue may Rain won't wash away watering restrictions, state officials say New parking lot to ease Dunbar shopping woes By ROSLYN AVERILL News-Press Environmental Writer The charges center on her testimony about a 13-minute telephone call to the Lee County Sheriff's Department logged on the Moss' telephone toll records at 9:08 p.m. on July 9, 1981.

That's the night a plane loaded with 800 pounds of marijuana landed on a grassy airstrip off Corkscrew Road near her home. Moss told the federal juries that she made the telephone call from her home to alert deputies to suspicious planes and activity in the area. With her while she made the call, Moss also told the federal juries, was her friend, Joy Carter. Carter and her husband, former FBI agent J.R. "Buddy" Carter, were among the four convicted of smuggling in the case.

Zimmerman said he will present evidence that the 13-minute telephone call was not made at Moss' home at all. Zimmerman said there was an extension of the Moss' phone several miles away in the Corkscrew Country Store on the edge of the airstrip. Zimmerman said the call was placed from the store by the high-ranking deputy. He didn't elaborate further on the call. When the trial adjourned for the day, neither Debra nor Danny Moss would comment on the prosecutor's allegations.

Blackwell said this was the first he heard of allegations that would accommodate 360 additional students, and that would still be 224 students more than they're able to accommodate," Patton said. "North Fort Myers has the room for them without any problem." School board officials studied the Cape Coral high main building and recommended against adding more portables because the building couldn't take the strain that additional students would create, she said. "They've still got restroom use and cafeteria use (in the main building)," Patton said. "The main facility cannot handle any more students." Patton said she is recommending that all eighth graders attending Pine Island Middle School, in Bokee-lia, go to North Fort Myers high as ninth graders. Under Patton's proposal, eighth graders at Caloosa Middle School, 610 S.

Del Prado who reside north of Nicholas and Viscaya parkways also would go to North Fort Myers high. Eighth graders at Gulf Middle School, 1809 S. 36th Terrace, who live north of Trafalgar Parkway See SCHOOLS, page 2B The skies opened up over Southwest Florida on Monday, dumping more rain on some communities than had fallen on the area since the first of the year. Rainfall ranged from .60 of an inch at the Charlotte County Airport to an unofficial recording of 4.8 inches at a farm in Immokalee. But the rain wasn't enough to lift outdoor watering restrictions in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties, state water management officials said.

Area firefighters who have battled numerous brush fires in recent weeks said the rain greatly reduced the danger of fire. Monday's official rainfall measurement for Fort Myers came from Page Field, which reported .72 inches through 7 p.m. Cape Coral See RAIN, page 2B By DEBORAH SHARP News-Press Staff Writer Anderson Avenue shoppers soon will be able to park their cars in a new $17,100 lot, the Fort Myers City Council decided Monday night. The council voted to spend the money paving, lighting and landscaping a new 30-space lot at the northeast corner of Anderson and Cranford avenues. The lot is on property which the city recently purchased for $35,500 ready overtaxed as it is," she said.

Budget Director Ken Hoffman said utility rate hikes are likely anyway with or without the bond issue. Hoffman predicted the hikes will be needed to offset increased costs primarily due to operation of two new sewage treatment plants. "These aren't mysteries," Hof Overcrowding in school may force student move City proposes law to cope with neighborhood pests up rates from Dunbar resident Andre McGill. George Crawford, the city's traffic engineer, estimated the lot will be complete by this summer. The parking lot was prompted by a survey circulated by Councilwoman Ann Murphy Knight after her October election.

The survey revealed parking was a central concern of Anderson Avenue business owners. A shortage of spaces discourages customers from shopping along the once-busy commercial See PARKING, page 2B fman said, referring to increases in user fees. "Basically, if you have a user system, the user has to pay the costs." The hikes, Hoffman said, will likely be required to pay for a long list of expensive, but necessary, improvements to the city's antiquated water and sewersystems. dents of her east Fort Myers district complained of the sounds and smells of a backyard barnyard. Porter investigated and found the city had no means of controlling animals which had become a nuisance in quiet residential areas.

The proposal scheduled for a final vote at an April 29 council meeting is a less-restrictive version of a law which caused some squawks in it's first incarnation. It prohibited farm animals and fowl anywhere within the city limits, and raised a ruckus among residents who keep chickens for eating and eggs. The council on March 19 sent the law back for a rewrite. The revised version declares it illegal to keep such animals as hogs, pigs, chickens, geese, turkeys and ducks in any back yard within 300 feet of another dwelling or a residential district. It also allows one warning from a city zoning official before the animal-keeper is cited for keeping a "nuisance injurious to the health and welfare" of the public.

Someone who runs afoul of the law and is found quilty could receive a penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine, Watson said. However, the attorney said a $25 fine would be a more likely punishment. By DEBORAH SHARP News-Press Staff Writer The Fort Myers City Council on Monday authorized issuing up to $15 million in water and sewer bonds, which could spell rate hikes down the road for city utilities customers. The vote passed with a stipulation, added by Councilwoman Ann Murphy Knight, that no increases would be made in utility fees until the issue comes back before the council. Within the next three or four weeks, the council must decide to use all or part of the 1 5 million for water and sewer improvements.

The amount of rate increases which customers will see is tied to the amount the city must borrow and pay back to float the bonds. If, for example, the city uses the entire $15 million sum, utility customers would face an annual hike on monthly rates adding up to about $10 over some 10 years, Maynard Matz, city clerk and finance director, said. Monthly utility bills which include fees for garbage pickup and water and sewer service average about $30 for city residents, Matz said. Council OKs contribution to arts hall By DEBORAH SHARP News-Press Staff Writer The Fort Myers City Council on Monday night agreed to contribute up to $50,000 to the Lee County Alliance of the Arts' drive to build a performing arts center. Armed with an easel and an artists' drawing of the proposed center, Marjorie Gruber, president of the alliance, gave the council a cultured pitch for the funds.

"You are asking for $50,000, but you're saying that if we don't grant that, you'll take a lesser amount?" City Councilwoman Ann Murphy Knight asked. "I'm saying we'll take as much as we can get more or less," answered Gruber. "I feel very strongly that we should grant the request for a number of reasons," Councilman Wilbur Smith III said. Smith said the donation would be a sign of the city's support to all the people who work to bring cultural events to this area. The center, planned for 10.35 acres at the corner of Colonial and McGregor boulevards, will be an asset to residents in the city and In all of Lee County, he said.

The alliance has been designated "It'll take council approval later to decide how much, If any, of that we want to use," Councilman Paul Henderson said, referring to the $15 million in new bonds. In addition to the new bonds, the council voted to refund about $27 million in old bonds. Refunding the old bonds allows the city to play changes in interest rates to its advantage. Through refunding, the city initially should save about $800,000, Matz said. Over the 30-year bond repayment period, the savings could add up to as much as $5 million, he said.

The council's vote came after more than two hours of discussion at a workshop before the regular meeting. Council members had directed city staff members and consultants to come up with alternative methods to using bonds to pay for millions of dollars worth of sewer and water system Improvements. Councilwoman Veronica Shoemaker, who attended the workshop but was absent from the council meeting, was critical of the city getting involved in another bond issue. "The bonds will cause the utilities to increase and that's another burden on the taxpayers who are al- ANN MURPHY KNIGHT city councilwoman the county's "umbrella arts agency," Gruber said. The council's vote, followed by a burst of applause from area art-lovers, will strengthen the alliance's application for a $200,000 federal grant.

The grant requires a contribution from local governments double the amount of the National Endowment of the Arts grant, Gruber said. The alliance will make a similar pitch for contributions to the county commissioners and elected officials In the cities of Cape Coral and Sani-bel, Gruber said. The alliance will ask Lee County for $200,000, Gruber said. The grant application must be filed with the National Endowment for the Arts before May 1. The alliance will find out by December if the grant has been approved, he said.

By ERNESTINE WILLIAMS News-Press Staff Writer i More than 150 students may be attending North Fort Myers High School instead of Cape Coral High School next year to relieve overcrowding at the Cape school, an official said Monday. The Lee County School Board must decide whether to switch 158 students from Cape high, 2300 Santa Barbara to the North Fort Myers school on Orange Grove Boulevard, said Linda S. Patton, school board consultant for civil and human rights. A public hearing to address the issue will be held today during the school board's regular meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the administrative center on Central Avenue in Fort Myers.

The projected 1985-86 enrollment at Cape Coral High School is 2,418, Patton said. However, the school's capacity without portable classrooms Is 1,834 students, which would put the population over capacity by 584 students, she said. "They now have 1 2 portables that By DEBORAH SHARP News-Press Staff Writer Your goose could be cooked If you keep fowl or farm animals in Fort Myers and the animals become a nuisance to your next-door neighbor. But a new law given preliminary approval Monday night by the City Council can be ducked if your closest neighbors are more than 300 feet away. "If the neighbors want to tolerate it, they can," City Attorney Frank Watson Jr.

said. "But if they don't, then the chief of police can do something about it." Watson said if the city receives a complaint of wandering ducks or worse, a warning will be given to the owner to keep the animals penned up. Councilwoman Ann Murphy Knight asked what if the owner can't be found. Laughing, Watson nodded toward Police Chief Morgan House, who was seated in the audience. "Then they might end up as the chief's Sunday dinner," he said.

The law was urged by Councilwoman Joan Pigott Porter after resi Inside Parents to be told of teen abortion A House subcommittee votes 3-2 to appprove a bill requiring pregnant teen-agers to tell their parents before getting an abortion, but supporters predict the bill's chances for passage are slim. Committee OKs seat belt bill The House Transportation Committee approves a mandatory seat-belt bill, which also tells insurance companies to report general savings such a law would bring them..