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Two plead guilty in 2000 dorm fire that killed three at Seton Hall University

By TIMES WIRES
Published November 16, 2006

Nearly seven years after a dormitory fire killed three students at Seton Hall University, two former roommates pleaded guilty Wednesday to arson, admitting for the first time that they set a banner ablaze in a prank that tragically got out of hand. They also pleaded guilty to witness tampering for telling some friends to lie to authorities.

Joseph T. LePore and Sean Ryan, both 26, struck a deal with prosecutors as they were about to go on trial on murder charges. They will get no more than five years in prison, compared with 30 years or more if they had been convicted of murder.

Prosecutors said LePore and Ryan, up late after celebrating a victory by the basketball team, set the banner on fire in a third-floor lounge around 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2000, and the flames spread to a couch. The fire was largely confined to the lounge, but choking smoke spread throughout the six-story dorm.

Eighteen-year-old freshmen Frank Caltabilota, John Giunta and Aaron Karol were overcome by smoke and died. Dozens of others were injured. The blaze was quickly determined to be arson. But the unsolved case haunted the Roman Catholic university and the criminal justice system for years. It was not until 2003 that the defendants were charged.

The men's lawyers said the deal was appropriate because the school did not have adequate systems to prevent the blaze from spreading.

"The intervening cause was Seton Hall's lack of response in preventing fires," said William DeMarco, LePore's lawyer.

NEW YORK

Remains search turns to nearby building

New searches for human remains from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are beginning this week at buildings near ground zero, a city official said Wednesday.

Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler laid out a schedule for a yearlong planned search of buildings, rooftops, streets and ground zero for human remains that weren't recovered in the eight-month cleanup after the attacks. More than 200 bones have been found in three manholes on a service road in the past month.

Work resumed Monday at the former Deutsche Bank skyscraper across from the 16-acre lower Manhattan site. More than 760 bones and fragments were found in the past year on the roof. Officials used vacuums to remove debris from some of the upper floors and planned to sift through them outside the building for remains.

Workers planned to begin sifting through gravel on the roof of a nearby hotel at the end of the week, Skyler said. Searches are planned in the coming weeks on the roof of a building housing downtown rebuilding agencies, two other buildings and the site of a destroyed church.

LOS ANGELES

Man beaten on tape enters no contest plea

The man seen in a controversial video clip being punched in the face by police pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of resisting or obstructing an officer.

William Cardenas, 23, was sentenced to three months already served in jail and placed on three years of probation.

The video footage posted on the Web site YouTube.com showed the arrest of Cardenas, an alleged gang member. Two Los Angeles officers can be seen holding him down as one punches him in the face.

The clip prompted the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate.

Police said Cardenas had been wanted on charges of receiving stolen property when they confronted him Aug. 11.

Cardenas' attorney, B. Kwaku Duren, has accused the officers of using excessive force.

MORGANTOWN, W.VA.

Sago miners' families sue mine owner

Relatives of six men killed in the Sago Mine disaster sued the mine's owner and other companies Wednesday, accusing them of failing to maintain a safe working environment.

The families also contend executives of International Coal Group Inc. negligently caused emotional pain by waiting to correct initial reports that all the miners had survived. Twelve men died in the Jan. 2 blast and its aftermath.

The lone survivor, Randal McCloy Jr., and the widows of two miners sued ICG and a subsidiary in August, accusing them of negligence and making similar claims about the miscommunication.

ELKHART, IND.

Police: Four children were suffocated

Four children found dead in the basement of their home were suffocated, police said Wednesday.

The children, two girls and two boys ages 2 to 8, were found dead Tuesday alongside their unconscious mother, Angelica Alvarez, who remains hospitalized, police Capt. Steven Mock said.

An autopsy ruled they died of asphyxia, and the deaths have been ruled homicides, he said. Mock did not say how police think the children were suffocated.

He said detectives were reviewing records of police visits to the home that involved custody disputes between Alvarez and Gonzalo Lopez, the father of the two older children. He said detectives found no sign Alvarez took part in killing the children.

[Last modified November 16, 2006, 01:37:28]