St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 3

11 JUL 17 1982 3 briefs illimoistuesday 17, 1982 3A ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH' Thompson Signs Measures To Aid Small Businesses Case Of Missing Couple Baffles Officials PEORIA, III. (UPI) Gov. James R. Thompson has signed legislation designed to remove "double taxation" on some business properties and roadblocks preventing others from getting loans.

Thompson signed the measures Monday with Sen. Prescott Bloom, R-Peoriai, sponsor of the bill to reduce the statutory overhead of small businesses. It prevents property classified as personal property before 1979 from being taxed as real property. Bloom said 'some assessors had treated personal property as real estate after the corporate personal property tax was abolished in 1979. He said small businesses especially were hard hit by assessors who taxed machinery and equipment as if they were real property.

Thi other bill, sponsored by Rep. DorisJKarpiel, R-Roselle, amends the Illinois Development Credit Corporation Act to make it easier for small- or medium-size businesses to get loans. St. Clair County Suspends Distribution Of Cheese The St. Clair County Community Action Agency has not received its allocation of federal surplus cheese and has hired its own private investigator to look into the disappearance.

Bright said police were questioning anyone who might have information about the Zevalloses' disappearance and were seeking assistance from other local, state and federal police agencies. The abortion clinic owned by the Zevalloses has been the scene of anti-abortion protests and was heavily damaged in January by a fire believed to have been arson. But police and family members said there had been no personal threats against the Zevalloses. A group of Roman Catholics In Granite City unsuccessfully attempted last year to get Dr. Zevallos removed from the staff of St.

Elizabeth Medical Center, a Catholic hospital in Granite City, because he performs abortions at his clinic. The clinic is at 1602 21st Street, television set on and a bowl of popcorn nearby. The Post-Dispatch has learned that the sophisticated security system at the house was turned off and the couple's car keys and wallets were missing. Nothing else in the house appeared to be missing or to have been disturbed. Bright said no information was provided by neighbors near the home at 24 Camelot Drive in the Country Club Hills subdivision.

The subdivision is behind the Sunset Hills County Club south of Edwardsville. No one heard or saw anything unusual. Bright said. Bright said he had not seen such an unusual case In 17 years of police work. "This is a very strange set of circumstances," he said.

A $10,000 reward for information about the Zevalloses has been offered by the doctor's family. The family also the case, and refused to comment on a report that Dr. Zevallos, 53, had an appointment Thursday night to show a prospective buyer a lot he owns adjacent to his home. The Zevalloses were reported missing on Friday. Bright also refused to speculate on a motive for a kidnapping.

He said there was no evidence to point to any cause for the disappearance. The Sheriff's Department was called Friday morning when Dr. Zevallos did not arrive for his 10 o'clock appointments at the Hope Clinic for Women that he operates in Granite City. Clinic employees called the sheriff when Dr. Zevallos did not answer his home telephone or pager.

Deputies went to the Zevallos home and found two rear doors at the house unlocked, the couple's two Mercedes-Benz automobiles in the garage, the across from the rear of the hospital. Dr. Zevallos is from Peru and was ,11 educated there in Lima. Laura Moody, executive director of the Hope Clinic, said Dr. Zevallos had come to the Metro East area from Peru about 1962.

She said he had served on 1 the staffs of St. Mary's Hospital of East IV St. Louis and Jewish Hospital in St. Louis before joining the staff at Elizabeth. He opened the Hope Clinic in January 1974.

Miss Moody said Dr. Zevallos had. two children from a previous marriage: Miguel, 22, and Lisa, 21, both 1, -of whom are college students and live with their mother in St. Louis. Dr.

Zevallos married Rosalie Jean 1 -Krekovich of Granite City about years ago, Miss Moody said. It was also the second marriage for Mrs. Zevallos, 45, who has no children. She originally is from Madison. By Charles Bosworth Jr.

Of th Poct-Dtapateh Staff There have been many more questions than answers for local and federal investigators looking into the disappearance of Dr. Hector Zevallos and his wife, Jean, of rural Edwardsville. In a case being called bizarre and baffling by authorities, the couple seem to have vanished without a trace. Family and friends fear a kidnapping and Maj. Fred Bright of the Madison County Sheriff's Department said Monday that all possibilities were being checked.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also is conducting a preliminary inquiry to determine whether there is evidence of a federal violation. Bright refused to discuss specifics of Fahner May Enter Rate Case SPRINGFIELD, III. (UPI) Attorney General Tyrone C. Fahner has asked the Illinois Commerce Commission for permission to intervene in a 16.8 percent rate increase requested by Union Electric Co. of St.

Louis. The company filed for the increase July 9, citing inflation and higher labor costs for rising operating expenses. But Fahner said part of the rate increase was due to the cancellation of a second reactor planned for UE's nuclear power plant under construction near Fulton, Mo. Fahner filed a petition to intervene Monday. He said construction on the utility's Callaway II nuclear generating station had been halted last October because of increased expenses, construction and operating costs.

UE plans to begin using the first reactor at Fulton in 1984. Fahner said a lower-than-projected electrical demand also had contributed to the utility's decision to abandon construction of the second reactor. "I am appalled that Union Electric expects its customers and not its shareholders to shoulder the financial burden that has resulted from its poor planning," Fahner said in a news release. "Illinois citizens, in sincere attempts to save both energy and dollars, have used less electricity. Accordingly, there was no need for the Callaway II facility.

But now, in essense, the utility is penalizing customers for their successful conservation efforts." The company serves about 70,000 Illinois residents in East St Louis, Alton and Fairview Heights, Fahner said. The ICC has not yet scheduled hearings on the case. The ICC must act on Fanner's request to intervene, but an ICC official said approval on such matters was considered a formality. Sheet-Metal Workers End Strike In Illinois Southern Illinois sheet-metal workers have ended their strike and approved a new one-year contract with area contractors, union officials said Monday. About 300 members of Local 268 struck in late July after their contract expired July 1 and talks broke down.

John McNeill, local business representative, said the new contract had been approved by about 70 percent of the 214 members who voted over the weekend in Belleville. The contract includes a pay increase of about 7 percent over last year's pact, he said. About 200 other members of the local either reached retroactive agreements with their employers or were unemployed when the strike began. The strike was the first in 13 years by the local, which represents 536 workers in Illinois' 36 southernmost counties. 3 (T-smM Gov.

James Thompson addressing several hundred workers of the Dubuque Packing Co. at Joslin, Monday. The plant closed Nebraska Packer Buys Just-Shut Slaughterhouse last week, but ThompsQn told the Iowa Beef Processors Inc. of Dakota "I think that means they think they've got a pretty good thing here." Thompson said Iowa Beef, based in Dakota City, wants to refurbish the Joslin facilities before reopening within the next several months and, eventually, hopes to double the plant's Brimberry Assets has suspended the distribution program until further notice. Mary Garrett said agency officials were attempting to discover why the cheese had not been released for shipment to the Metro East area.

She is the coordinator of the project for the county's anti-poverty agency. "It was supposed to be here Friday at the Bi-State storage warehouse on 31st Street, but it never arrived," she said. "It's still in Wisconsin, and we don't know what's holding it up. But we're working on it." Low- and moderate-income residents throughout the county were to get free bricks of the processed American cheese by taking proof of their income to one of seven distribution points Monday. Mrs.

Garrett said notices had been sent Friday to all of the cooperating agencies in an attempt to prevent residents from making a needless trip to distribution sites. Dixon Transfer Plan Is Called Inadequate CHICAGO (UPI) Gov. James R. Thompson's plan to transfer 823 patients from the Dixon Developmental Center is inadequate because it does not attempt to keep patients together, opponents charged in court Monday. The Dixon Association for Retarded Citizens is challenging the state's method of moving residents to new facilities.

It is seeking a ruling in U.S. District Court that the civil rights of Dixon's profoundly retarded and handicapped residents are being violated by the transfers. The group is asking for a permanent injunction preventing transfers until the state comes up with a better plan. Earlier court challenges to the closing were turned back by the Illinois Supreme Court in July. The group's attorney, Patrick Murphy, said that the plans were inadequate and hastily drawn up and that residents would suffer "irreparable harm" if they were moved.

Attorneys for the state argued that the transfer plan was "adequate and humane." Dixon is one of three state mental health centers ordered closed last February by Thompson to trim $9 million from the state budget. It is being converted to a medium-security prison. The other centers being closed are the Bowen Center in Harrisburg and the Adler Mental Health Center in Champaign. State AFSCME Rejects Proposal For Furloughs SPRINGFIELD, 111. (UPI) The state's largest public employees union on Monday rejected Gov.

James R. Thompson's plan to put state workers on unpaid furloughs in an effort to thwart future layoffs. Steve Culen of Illinois' American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said the 150-member statewide committee had thrown out the proposal because It did not guarantee that no layoffs would take place. Thompson said last month that about 1,300 state workers could lose their jobs unless unions agreed to money-saving steps such as five-day unpaid furloughs or deferring pay for those days until the next fiscal year. The governor said layoffs would begin this month or in September if there were no agreement.

Thompson has said the state needs to save $30 million in wages to keep solvent. Aides estimated that there were more than 55,000 workers under the direct control of the governor. The union represents about 40,000 state workers. In April, AFSCME rejected Thdmpson's suggestion of a six-month delay in a pay increase. The pay increase took effect last month.

a New State Law To Ban Armor-Piercing Bullets SPRINGFIELD, 111. (UPI) Gov. James R. Thompson on Monday signed legislation banning the use, sale or possession of armor-piercing bullets. Thompson said at the ceremony that public access to such bullets would endanger the lives of police.

Anyone convicted of using such bullets could face a prison term of up to five years under the new law. Law enforcement officers, military personnel and forensic laboratories are exempt from the ban. The measure also outlaws the sale of metal-piercing bullets, carrying a prison sentence of up to three years for offenders. The law becomes effective immediately. Lottery Number The winning number drawn Monday in the Illinois LoSery Daily Game was 773.

WE UPI. workers that it had been sold to City, Neb. employment and output. "They plan to slaughter and dress more cattle here because they see Chicago as a major market for this, he said, noting the plant had been slaughtering about 1,400 cattlei -daily before it closed. it state whether any of the properties has a lien on it.

The report does state" that no other properties will be subject to claims of the trustee. Brimberry; his attorney, Ronald Stanley, and Moline could not be, reached for comment. It wasn't known whether Moline would accept the offer in Brimberry's report to transfer th; i properties. A federal grand jury has yet to hand up an indictment on possible criminal charges against Brimberry, though lie already has struck a deal with federal prosecutors. Brimberry plans to plead guilty to one charge of tax felony in return for his cooperation in disclosing how the scheme worked and who was involved.

111., Chief fired as Fancil himself was shot. Authorities said the two key prosecution witnesses, Donald Lee Mitchell and James Sharp, were Wilson's accomplices in the burglary -Wilson testified in his own defense last 1 week that Sharp had shot Fancil. Fancil was killed during a on June 1, 1970, at Big supermarket. Fancil had two burglars, and then was shot-to death by a third accomplice who was hiding near a soda-bottle cage at the rear of the store. Mitchell and Sharp testified that, they had been the ones Fancil was searching when the shooting started; -Wilson said he and Mitchell had been the ones being frisked when started firing.

Prosecution witness Howard Kirchhoff, Robinson police chief, was; prevented from testifying about'-a, conversation he had with Wilson while' Wilson was being taken to Crawford Memorial Hospital for treatment of the gunshot wound. For Being In All-Male Club suggested that Stevenson, who lives on-. a rural estate, might be unfamiliar with" Chicago's culinary brightspots. Thompson recalled that his own membership in several men-only clubs; in Chicago was brought up as an issue" during the 1976 gubernatorial campaign against Michael Howlett. Thompson later dropped his memberships under; pressure.

Thompson said he no longer believed it was "proper for a governor of a state 1 to belong to a club that excludes members for reason of sex." Acquitted After 5th Trial In Killing JOSLIN, 111. (UPI) Iowa Beef Processors Inc. has purchased a cattle slaughtering plant closed without warning by the Dubuque Packing Co. on Saturday. The acquisition gives new hope to nearly 500 workers left jobless by the closure.

Gov. James R. Thompson announced the sale to about 350 jeering and picketing employees Monday. Although Iowa Beef plans to expand the plant's operations, he said he could not guarantee every worker would be rehired. Thompson said Iowa Beef officials had met with him in Springfield last week and agreed to buy the plant.

Iowa Beef which is considering whether to build a $35 million hog slaughtering plant in northern Illinois or Iowa, has postponed that decision pending Thompson's action on a bill to abolish Illinois' unitary tax system. Iowa Beef spokesman Charles Jennings said his firm would be among dozens of other businesses lobbying Thompson to abolish the tax, which Jennings said places a heavy burden on corporations with operations in several states. i. UPI "Obviously they would like me to sign it," Thompson said of the bill, which is sitting on his desk for approval. "But I told them I couldn't promise anything.

They were willing to come into this plant despite the unitary tax. Order Freezes Thomas R. Brimberry, the key figure in an internal looting scheme that forced the closing of the Stix Co. Inc. stock brokerage here, has been prohibited from disposing of any of his property.

An injunction issued Friday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Brauer prevents Brimberry, his wife and minor children from transferring any property in which they have an interest until the Stix case is resolved. Attorney Harry O. Moline the Stix trustee, is trying to recoup some of the $14 million in losses sustained by Stix Co.

Moline filed suit in February to recover assets alleged to have been stolen by Brimberry since 1975. SPRINGFIELD, 111. (UPI) A jury found Clarence Eugene Wilson innocent Monday night of the shooting in 1970 of Oblong Police Chief Jack Fancil. Wilson, 51, of St. Louis, acted as his own attorney in his fifth attempt to prove his innocence.

Two earlier trials on murder charges from the Fancil shooting had ended in mistrials and two convictions had been overturned on appeal. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for more than eight hours Monday before returning the verdict. Fancil's widow, Ginny Smith, was present In the courtroom when the verdict was read. She held her head in her hands and cried. The verdict so incensed Assistant Attorney General Michael Vujovich that after the jury had left the courtroom, he approached the defense table and asked Wilson, "Who are you going to kill next Vujovich's outburst provoked a stern reaction from Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Richard J.

Cadigan. He told the assistant attorney general that he would be held in contempt of court if such an action was ever repeated. Wilson left the courtoom saying that he "felt no bitterness over the 12 years" in prison, but that he had been insulted by Vujovich's remark. "I've studied for this case in a small room in the roughest prisons in the world and taken this matter through the judicial, and I never acted like that in any court," Wilson said. But Wilson's problems with the law may not be over.

A charge of aggravfflad battery was filed against him Monday as a result of a fight last Monday with a sheriff's deputy in the m- Brimberry was vice president in charge of operations for Stix until the firm was closed last fall. He has told federal authorities that he and others conspired to loot the firm through the manipulation of accounts and the use of phony securities. In a report submitted to the court Friday, Brimberry disclosed the personal assets he would voluntarily convey to the trustee. The list includes six properties in the Metro East area and a jet boat at Lake Ozark, Mo. The parcels of real estate include lots in Edwardsville and Granite City, at Illinois Route 162 and Mockingbird Lane, and in Chouteau Township.

Brimberry's report does not set a value on any of the properties. Nor does Of Oblong, Sangamon County Jail. After the verdict, Wilson was freed on a $20,000 recognizance bond. Wilson's legal adviser, Bradley Blodgett, told the jury in closing arguments, "The time has come to tell the state to stop prosecuting this man and let him get out of this nightmare he has been living for the last 12 years." The defense contended that the state had failed to prove that Wilson had killed Fancil. In two hours of closing arguments, Vujovich and Neal Goodfriend insisted that they had proved that Wilson was the man who shot Fancil to death when the police chief interrupted a burglary at a grocery.

"The person sitting right here is the trigger man, the man who killed Jack Fancil," Goodfriend said, gesturing to Wilson. "This Is the killer." But defense witnesses testified that Wilson had been unarmed and had already surrendered to Fancil when the shooting broke out. Wilson was shot in the hip by a bullet from Fancil's gun, Thompson Assails Stevenson CHICAGO (AP) Gov. James R. Thompson has criticized his opponent, Adlai E.

Stevenson III for belonging to an all-male club, an issue once used against Thompson. Stevenson said Sunday that one reason he belonged to the men-only Cliff Dwellers Club was that he found it difficult to find a good place for lunch in downtown Chicago. But the governor said that if Stevenson was having a hard time finding a place to have lunch, he would be glad tit invite him to some of his own favorite spots in downtown Chicago. He i i i -i Clarence Wilson (right) of St. Louis and a police officer leaving a Springfield, courtroom Monday after completion of Wilson's murd? trial.

A jury later acquitted Vjfson in the 1970 killing of Oblong, Police Chief Jack Fancil..