ORLANDO -- Disney attorneys will discuss a settlement with attorneys for two businessmen who won a $240-million verdict against the company after convincing jurors that Disney stole their idea for a sports complex.

Disney will pursue an appeal of the verdict, though its lawyers plan mediation talks Thursday in the Stuart offices of attorney Willie Gary, who with Johnnie Cochran Jr., represented Nicholas Stracick and Edward Russell.

After the Aug. 11 verdict, Disney officials vowed to appeal the decision to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach. The company's attorneys plan to file a notice of appeal this week.

Despite agreeing to settlement talks, the company plans to pursue an appeal, said Disney spokesman Bill Warren.

Jurors awarded damages to Stracick, a retired baseball umpire from Buffalo, N.Y., and Russell, an architect from Fonthill, Ontario.

The men testified during a five-week trial that they pitched their idea for a sports complex to Disney officials in the late 1980s. Disney rejected the idea in 1989.

Four years later, the company announced it would build Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World. The complex opened in 1997 and is the spring training home to the Atlanta Braves.

4-year-old blamed in apartment fire

PENSACOLA -- A fire started by a 4-year-old playing with a cigarette lighter gutted part of an apartment complex leaving 28 people homeless on New Year's Day.

No one was injured in the fire, which destroyed two apartments and left 10 other units uninhabitable.

"One of my kids got my lighter and set (some) clothes on fire," Latonya Henderson said. "I tried to put it out, but my fire extinguisher didn't work."

When she couldn't put the fire out, Henderson called 911. By the time firefighters arrived, part of the complex was engulfed in flames.

Firefighters quickly controlled the blaze but the building had a large hole in the roof and the 10 other apartments were damaged by smoke and water. Total damage was estimated at $200,000.

Insanity will not be used as defense, lawyer says

SHALIMAR -- A Persian Gulf War veteran will not use an insanity defense against charges he fatally shot his girlfriend and her three children, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Jeffrey Hutchinson, 37, is to be tried Monday on four first-degree murder charges, punishable by death, unless Circuit Judge G. Robert Barron rules before then that he is incompetent to stand trial.

Rene Flaherty, 32, and her children, ages 4, 6 and 8, died in a hail of shotgun fire on Sept. 11, 1998 in the Okaloosa County home they shared with Hutchinson near Crestview.

The killings occurred less than a year after Hutchinson and the victims had moved to the Florida Panhandle from the Spokane, Wash., area.

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Lucy Morgan

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