Region briefs 10/03/02

Dobbins to speak at First Friday Coffee

Southeast Missouri State University president Dr. Ken Dobbins will be the featured speaker at First Friday Coffee.

Dobbins will discuss university finances and their impact on the economy. The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce sponsors First Friday Coffee, which is held at 7:30 a.m. Friday at the Show Me Center.

Trial set in Gaylord case, no decision on bond

DEXTER, Mo. -- A Dexter man appeared in a Dunklin County courtroom yesterday for a bond-reduction hearing after the Missouri Supreme Court assigned a new judge to his case.

Stanley Gaylord appeared Tuesday before Judge John Beaton on a total of 12 felony charges relating to his business, Gaylord Grain L.L.C. of Dexter. Gaylord was arrested in August on the initial two charges of Class C forgery. Additional charges have subsequently been filed, and Gaylord remains in the Stoddard County Jail on a $750,000 cash-only bond.

Beaton scheduled the trial for Jan. 23 and 24, 2003, in Dunklin County.

Trucker arrested after Rowe furniture stolen

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A local trucking company driver is facing charges in three counties after he allegedly stole furniture and heating and cooling units off the loads he was supposed to be delivering.

The investigation began Aug. 12 when officials with McLane Transport, Inc., reported that one of the company's trucks had allegedly been stolen by its driver, Duane Tyler, 41, of Belle, Mo., sometime after noon Aug. 11, said Butler County Lt. Jerry Armes.

The truck was loaded with 55 pieces of Rowe furniture valued at more than $24,000 at the time of the reported theft, Armes said.

Two owners sentenced in 'Miss Cleo' case

ST. LOUIS -- Two Florida cousins and their companies behind the hot lines for television psychic "Miss Cleo" were sentenced Wednesday to probation and fines, resolving illegal-merchandising felonies in Missouri over the supposed clairvoyant.

Steven L. Feder, 52, and Peter Stolz, 54, both of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., entered Alford pleas during a court appearance in suburban St. Charles. The pleas allow the men to maintain their innocence, while acknowledging enough evidence existed for a conviction.

Feder immediately paid a $50,000 corporate fine, fulfilling some terms of his probation. Stolz was sentenced to up to two years of probation.

Two plead guilty to Medicare fraud counts

ST. LOUIS -- Two former General American Life Insurance Co. workers admitted in federal court Wednesday they plotted to hide false Medicare billing information.

The pleas come three months after the MetLife Inc. subsidiary agreed to pay $76 million in a Medicare fraud settlement.

Carl Messina, 59, and Mary Wimbley, 56, each pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiring to falsify and conceal information from federal auditors.

Messina, General American's former Medicare director, and Wimbley, an ex-General American Medicare manager who reported to Messina, each face up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines when sentenced Dec. 20.

Jury deadlocked in high-school murder case

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- A mistrial was declared Wednesday in the case of a teenager accused of raping and killing a high school classmate.

Zacheriah Tripp, 16, of Gower, is charged with kidnapping, forcible rape and murder in the death of Sarah McCoy.

Tripp has pleaded innocent in the death. He did not testify in his own defense.

After 17 hours of deliberations, the jury said it was deadlocked on a 10-2 vote to find Tripp guilty.

McCoy, 15, was a fellow student of Tripp's at East Buchanan High School. She disappeared Dec. 3 after getting off the school bus outside her rural Easton home. Her body was found Dec. 5 buried in a creek bed near a cornfield.

-- From wire reports