l l 2)’ <4<<<4<<<4<<< pa9e12. . * Bar'ebacki_ng’s, back, writes Justin .Bartor_i-Caplin, despite ,.aeeades.~or‘HlV/Alps/sro. prevention information. “ v Who.Clioo§es_ 1 "-For.You? “ " page 14 ‘ . ‘ - lt’s crucial to document with a DPOA who will decide your medical matters. V chronicling Lesbian Lives ‘ page 23 ‘ V Author Leslea Newman brings a new collection of lesbian romance to Burlington. News 2 - 7 Editorial 4 Letters 5 Features 8 - 15 Views 16'- 18 columns 19 - 22 — Arts 23 - 24 community compass 25 Calendar 27 - 28 . The Source 29 - 31 Les B. Frank 32 Classifieds 33 Gavitv 34 - 35 Out in the Mountains ‘ PO Box 1078 Richmond VT 05477 TI‘ 802.434.0lTM F: 802.434.7046 next month: Pride preview Federal Hate Crimé , Indictment Handed “DOWN For 6. < V‘ b QQ“ t l Q V \ 1996 Shenandoah Murders Alleged killer could face death penaltyfor slaying of couple on route to Huntington. COMPILED FROM NEWS REPORTS BY MARGARET PORTER .S. Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the * Hate Crimes "Sentencing Enhancement Act in the indict- ment of Darrell David Rice for the 1996 slaying of two female hikers in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. The indictment marks the first time ever that the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act was invoked to charge someone with a hate crime based on sexual orientation or V gender. Ashcroft said that ’ Julianne Williams, 24, of Burlington, Vermont, and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, were specifically selected as vic- tims because they were women and lesbians. Their bodies were found June 1, 1996 at a secluded campsite with their wrists bound and throats slashed. Rice was indicted by a grand jury in Charlottesville, Va., charged with four counts of capi- tal murder, two as a result of the p hate crime designation. If con- victed on any of the four charges in the indictment, Rice could be subject to the death penalty. L Prosecutors quoted Rice as saying he “hates gays” and that the victims “deserved to die because they were lesbian whores.” Rice is already in prison after pleading guilty to a 1997 attempted abduction of a female bicyclist in the same park. No physical evidence specifically linking Rice to the murders was discussed at the press conference. Because the murders Bullying 1'rial Findings: sc Bv EUAN BEAR A jury in Caledonia Superior Court found that school officials at the St. Johnsbury middle school acted appropriately in response to reports of sexual harassment of a male student. The jury reached its finding after about two hours of deliberation following a 5-day trial. The lawsuit against the -5 car, ... .. mamarmriu-3, , hummus ¥i£Mi.1'—. rears; = ' {Ir .;am;W W1 télier. §¥}%‘%l§'?:-WEI}. occurred on federal land, the 1994 Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act, which applies only to federal crimes, could be applied. The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act, currently pending in Congress, would make violent hate crimes federal offenses. Currentlyonly 27 states and the ‘District of Columbia have hate crimes laws that include sexual orientation. “After more than five years, we’re relieved that progress has been made in the case. However it serves as a sad reminder about the pervasiveness of hate violence against gay, les- bian, bisexual, and transgender people,” said Lorri L. Jean, exec- utive director of the National Gay school was filed by Linda Berthiaume, who had charged that the school had failed to pro- tect her son, Nicholas Spaziani, from harassment on the bus and in his home room by classmates who assumed he was gay. Berthiaume was reported to have sought $1 million in' damages. In a brief statement, plaintiff’s lawyer Eileen Blackwood, of Burlington..said . and Lesbian Task Force. FBI Special Agent Jane L. Collins and National Park Service Special Agent Timothy W. Alley investigated the case. Criminal Chief Thomas J . Bondurant, Jr., and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Giomo are scheduled to prosecute. A Rice’s father and sister insist that the Darrell David Rice they know could not have com- mitted these murders. He was doing well, they said, and showed no sign of misogyny or anti- female beliefs or behaviors. “He’s never expressed any kind of hatred against gays or women in I his life,” his older sister, Dawn Metcalf, was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. that the jury found that the boy had been harassed, but that the school had responded appropri- ately to acts she had earlier char- acterized as more than “just harmless teasing.” In her opening statement, Blackwood had out- lined the effects of the harass- ment on Spaziani as severe enough that the boy threatened to kill himself. Defendants’ lawyer Family members and friends characterized Rice as a “hippy-ish Grateful Dead fan” who was “fiercely loyal to his friends.” Rice had problems with drugs and depression, but was at a high point in his life at the time of the murders, they said. A year after the murders, Rice was fired from his job at a computer firm for punching a hole in a men’s room door. According to the Post’s report, he _ told investigators that his coworkers were watching his house and that he had been deal- ing marijuana. A week after being fired he was arrested in ‘L”"~»—— .- -» attempted abduction of a female cyclist. Winans and Williams, . who met in 1995 in Minneapolis, had become romantically involved and planned to share a home in Huntington, Vermont, soon after their Shenandoah camping trip. Both women were expe- rienced in hiking and camping in wilderness areas. According to a report in the Washington Blade a year after the murders, Park Service officials said the two had registered and obtained permits for camping in several locations in the 105-mile long park, which stretches like a ribbon in a north- south direction from Front Royal to Waynesboro, which is located about 25 miles west of Charlottesville. They were last seen alive May 24 by a Park Service employee who drove them to the > continued on page fi hool Acted Appropriately Pietro Lyn, representing the school district and three officials being sued, maintained success- fully that the school responded “every single time a complaint was made.” Administrators spoke to the harassers and sent letters home to their parents. Eventually, the four worst offenders were suspended when Spaziani was in his last year of middle school. V