The Independent-Record from Helena, Montana • 9

Wm MEIER The Independent Record, Helena, Thursday, April 2, 1 98 1 9 A Graveley, 2 others sued in $120,000 gem case Iwaiwiiuiuiaww 1 amttm0tmmtmm fey SALLY HILANDER BR Staff Writer A Helena man who renortprtlv Li bottle of sapphires at a local bar pree years ago has brought a lawsuit against the countv at torney and two people he savs found I he precious stones but didn't return Rhem. Dick Holzworth said he aceidpntal- Holzworth told a newspaper reporter last March that he had recovered some of the stones when' Kirwin and Olson took them to a faceting shop. Graveley said he hasn't returned the jar of sapphires he has because Holzworth failed to properly identify them. "If they can be identified, I don't have any problem returning them," he said Wednesday. "We don't want them." Holzworth described the sapphire container as an inch in diameter, 3Vz inches long and wrapped in black electrician's tape.

Graveley said the description doesn't fit the container he has in the courthouse safe. It's unknown just how many jars of sapphires may have been lost and found at the Lakeside Bar and Cafe on the particular day in July of 1978. Holzworth is seeking return of the sapphires or $40,000 cash, the estimated value; plus $40,000 for the alleged illegal holding and $40,000 in punitive damages. Thirteen months ago, Holzworth asked the Attorney General's office to step into the matter, but that office said there is a specific law dealing with lost and found property, and turned the case back over to Graveley. The law places the burden of attempting to locate the rightful owner on the finder of the items through lost and found advertising and through complicated recording procedures with the county.

Defendants Kirwin, Olson and Graveley have not yet filed a response to the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday. left the container of uncut san. hhires at the Lakeside Bar and Cafe m. Hauser Lake in July of 1978, but hat he still hasn't gotten them back. Teen-agers Tom Kirwin and David bison took possession of thp san.

bhires and turned some of them over Ko Lewis and Clark Countv A paries Graveley, according to the awsuit niea in Helena District defendants in assault case deny alleged incidents ever occurred By SALLY HILANDER IR Staff Writer two defendants in this week's kidnapping and attempted sexual assault trial testified Wednesday that the incident described by their alleged victims, two adolescent Lincoln girls, never occurred. Charles "Leo" Dyll, 57, and his son, Norman E. Herrera, 27, testified that one of the girls' fathers burst into Dyll's home with a pistol in each hand the night of Sept. 5 and accused them of having broken his daughter's arm. Prior to that time, Dyll and Herrera testified, they had been drinking wine at the elder man's home on Lincoln's main street, but certainly had not abducted two young girls into the home.

In fact, they denied any knowledge of the alleged episode that precipitated the father's anger. The girls, aged 13 and 14, said they were when the trial opened Monday, and that he had only a vague recollection of the younger girl, whose mother had once taken care of Dyll's ailing father who is now deceased. Herrera, who has been jailed since the alleged incident, denied ever having seen the two girls before. Prosecuting attorney Kevin Meek attempted unsuccessfully to lure him into acknowledging that the girls had been in Dyll's house. "The truth of the matter is I never seen the girls before," said Herrera, who lives in Helena and was visiting his father at the time.

"The girls never did come in that house." Herrera denied swinging at Highway Patrolman Al Young, the first law officer on the scene. Young testified that he and Herrera ended up in a fight when he tried to take the two men into protective custody at the local jail. But Herrera said Young "attacked" him after he asked the patrolman if he had a search warrant. He described Young as "the one who came and jumped on me and used excessive force." Overall, there were substantial dif-' ferences among the statements made by all the witnesses in the three-day trial that was scheduled to be submitted to the jury this managed to flee while the two men were drinking. The older girl arrived home with a broken wrist, which she attributed to Herrera having thrown her against a door.

Dyll, who was polite on the witness stand, and Herrera, who was belligerent, disputed not only the girls' sworn testimony, 'but also that of a Lewis and Clark County sheriff's deputy and a Montana highway patrolman whom they said used excessive force. Asked by his attorney, Mike Meloy, what went through his mind when the armed man entered his living room, Dyll said "The Lord's Prayer." He also testified that he took out his wallet because he believed he was being robbed at gunpoint. The father testified earlier that he detained the two men in Dyll's home pending the arrival of the law, but that he never threatened to fire the two handguns that he was carrying. The father also testified that Dyll once threatened to kill him. But Dyll, a slightly-built man with an artificial leg and dislocated shoulder, responded to the charge with a "No sir, he's too big for me." When prosecuting attorney Jack Atkins asked Dyll if it was his idea to bring the two girls into the home that night, he retorted "Are you crazy?" Dyll said his first look at the 14-year-old girl was at the courthouse being trained in their use.

The inflatable trousers are used on patients in shock from blood loss. They force blood back to vital regions within minutes. (Staff photo by Gene Fischer) LIFE-SAVING AID Carolyn Linden, left, uses Marjorle Roy to demonstrate the use of a pair of military anti-shock trousers. Registered emergency medical technicians In Lewis and Calrk County are grabbed by the necks and forced into the Dyll home about dusk, and sub jected to crude language and mumbled suggestions of an orgy. Wilderness confusion abounds The charge of attempted sexual assault stemmed from the two girls' claim that Herrera, who is Dyll's son, attempted to pull their shirts off.

The girls testified that they By STEVE HINTZ IR Staff Writer igh court denies rape appeal ly LARRY ELKIN Associated Press Writer A man who tried to overturn a 25- year-old rape conviction was denied the opportunity Wednesday by the Montana Supreme Court, in a deci permit would be denied if the area were not a wildernes-s." Peterson does contradict a contention of Consolidated Georex Geophysical, the Denver-based firm seeking the exploration permit, by noting "issuance of a prospecting permit is not mandated by the (Wilderness) -Act." That small loophole, Wilderness Society representative Bill Cunningham believes, is big enough to drive their whole case through. "We're nervous, we're apprehensive, but we feel the case for denial of the permit is very strong," Cun-' ningham said today. Cunningham believes that Peterson's careful exegesis of the legislation, which indeed allows for exploration of wilderness land, goes against the basic congressional intent in the laws. "The basic purpose of the Wilderness Act is to provide for an enduring wilderness resource and not to provide for gas wells at the foot of the Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall," he said. Ordering Coston to consider if the permit would be granted if the area were not a wilderness "begs the basic policy question," Cunningham contended.

That question is: "Is it proper to industrialize wilderness? The forest service should face the question and stop playing games with industry." Everett Towle, deputy regional forester for said today he disagrees with Cunningham. "We wouldn't have a Wilderness Act without the provision" allowing mineral and fossil fuel extraction, he said. Either way the decision comes out, it will set a precedent, Cunningham believes. "In subtle but profound ways, if the Forest Service approves this, it will be destroying itself as an agency," he said. Many employees have heard their boss say, "It's your decision," knowing all along which decision he expects to see.

That's the feeling some wilderness advocates have about Forest Service Chief Max Peterson's order to the regional forester in Missoula to make a decision about natural gas prospecting in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. And a reading of Peterson's six-page decision, which reversed Regional Forester Tom Coston's decision to "not consider" an exploration permit application on a technicality, tends to support environmentalists' fears. A Forest Service official in Missoula said today Coston should make his decision within the next few weeks. After reviewing the arguments supplied by groups which oppose exploration, such as the Wilderness Society and the Bob Marshall Alliance, Peterson says: "We believe to the contrary." Peterson notes that energy companies have no "right" to enter national forest wilderness lands. But a detailed analysis of such legislation as the 1872 Mining Law, the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act and the Wilderness Act leads Peterson to conclude that statutory authority to propect for minerals extends to national forest wilderness areas.

The chief forester also interjects broad policy statements: "The citizens of the United States have an interest in assessing all values lying in these wildernesses. In this instance, that interest might best be served by allowing further evaluation of the oil and gas resources." In reversing Coston's decision, Peterson also chastises the regional forester. "Adopting the alternative of 'not considering' an application is improper." Peterson closes the document by ordering Coston to either issue or deny an permit, and to consider "if the help in 1956 when he entered the guilty plea. Writing for a three-member majority, Justice John C. Sheehy conceded that it might appear unfair for the Billings court to consider the 1956 conviction in imposing the maximum sentence.

"The unfairness, if it exists, is not of the state's making," Sheehy wrote. "The long delay in petitioning for post-conviction relief over a 25-year period can be attributed only to the petitioner. He must bear the consequences." Chief Justice Frank Haswell and Justice John C. Harrison agreed with Sheehy. Shea, writing for himself and Justice Gene Daly, insisted that Standley is entitled at least to a court hearing to challenge the old conviction.

"If the state can use a record 22 years ago to increse a prison sentence, fundamental fairness requires that a defendant should also be able to challenge the legality of that first conviction. But the majority holds in effect that (it) is a one-way street: it operates against the defendant but does not operate against the state." "I fail to make any sense of the (majority) opinion; it is illogical and unfair," Shea wrote. Strong language also turned up in a ruling on a divorce settlement. The court unanimously agreed with Helena District Judge Gordon Bennett that James Karr could not be trusted to make regular payments to his ex-wife Joanne. The high court upheld Bennett's award of a $190,000 lump-sum property settlement to the woman, who divorced Karr last year after 33 years of marriage.

Again writing the majority opinion, Sheehy found no reason to disturb Bennett's conclusion that Karr was "a highly unreliable, untrustworthy, evasive, intentionally confusing, studiously misleading and, on occasion, patently perjurious witness." sion labeled "illogical and unfair" by dissenting Justice Daniel Shea. Jack G. Standley pleaded guilty to the rape charge in Butte District Court in 1956 and received a 10-year sentence. Paroled in 1959, he later was picked up and returned to jail after he was charged, but not convicted, of sexually molesting a juvenile girl at a party. Standley was freed in 1968.

In 1978 he drew a maximum 10-, year sentence from a Billings district judge when he was convicted of theft. The tough sentence was based in part on Standley's 1956 con-'Viction. 9 At that point Standley went to court to overturn the earlier charge, -saying he was denied effective legal Juvenile publicity bill OK'd Baby wins battle over heart defect IR State Bureau By BILL SKIDMORE IR Staff Writer five months. Except for a brief, two-week trip home last winter, Mr. and Mrs.

Weston were at his side. Finally, the disease began to ebb. And last Monday, as the Weston's flew into Helena with their first and only child, the ordeal appeared to be over, Weston said insurance paid most of his staggaring medical bills and many fund drives and benefits in Helena paid most of his other expenses. "If you write a story," he said this morning, "I want to express our deepest thanks not only for the money, but for everybody's prayers." Weston thinks there's somebody else to appreciate, too. Even as Christopher lay sedated, breathing artificially, very near death, "everybody who saw him could see he was fighting the whole time," his father said.

"Everybody could see his special will to live." of names of some juvenile offenders. As a result, the bill was introduced by Senate President Jean Turnage, R-Polson, and Stan Stephens, R-Havre. The Republican leadership of the Senate had agreed earlier to review ideas submitted to the newspaper. The measure provides that once a petition is filed in youth court, publicity could be given to the identity of a juvenile charged with committing an offense that would be a felony for an adult. For instance, a theft in which property worth at least $150 is taken is a felony.

In addition, a juvenile's name could be printed if he were charged with committing criminal mischief punishable by mqre than 6 months in jail. The bill was not designed to Include youths who were charged with minor offenses or runaways. The only hope, Mark Weston said he was told, was an experimental surgical technique performed only in London. In the late spring of last year, Christopher underwent a preliminary operation at Salt Lake designed to strengthen his heart for the more extensive operation to come. Then, in Sepember, the Westons moved to England.

The operation performed by Mr. Magdi Yacoub (in England they call doctors Mr.) was a success. The doctor, who was born in Cairo, Egypt, but is a naturalized citizen of Great Britain, is known as one of the three best surgeons for heart operations in the world, Weston said. About a week after the surgery, Christopher caught pneumonia. It was a bad case, and after all the operations, all the travel, for several months it seemed likely that the little boy would die.

He dropped from 17 pounds to just 12 pounds. He was on a ventilator to aid his breathing (and ease his weakened heart) for The House of Representatives has given final approval to a bill that would allow more press coverage of juvenile offenders. The measure, Senate Bill 381, was given final approval by the House on a 80-16 vote late Tuesday night. Since the bill already has passed the Senate, It now goes to Gov. Ted Schwinden for his signature.

The bill would allow the press to publish the names of juveniles who are charged with crimes that would be felonies if they had been committed by an adult. The proposal originated from several Helena residents who participated in a reader survey conducted by the Helena Independent Record. The newspaper asked its readers to suggest laws the'Legislature should pass, and among the scores of responses were eight that suggested a bill to allow the printing Christopher Weston is back from England. But more important, the 16-month-old baby is back a winner victorious over a near fatal heart defect, and ready to leave the operations, breathing machines and life-saving trips to Salt Lake City and London to begin a normal life at last. The Weston baby was born with a "transposition of the great his heart, which meant his tiny body was starved for oxygen.

immediately after birth, the infant was rushed from Helena to Salt Lake City where his heart was punctured with a small hole to save his life at least temporarily. But subsequent tests showed that Christopher, unlike many infants with similar heart defects, suffered from a condition that was too serious for treatment at Salt Lake City..