European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 9, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Soldier of Fortune loses $12.4 Montgomery Ala. Apr a jury on Friday found Soldier of Fortune Magazine liable for si2.4 million in damages for running a Quot gun for hire had blamed for the 1985 killing of a Busi Nessman. Robert Brown the Magazine s founder and publisher said he would Appeal the award which went to the slain Man s two sons. Quot pm not surprised by the Var diet a he said. Quot i think Well see it overturned on  Steve Glassroth a lawyer for the sons of Richard Braun said the judgment by the . District court jury sent a warning that a publishers have to exercise a measure of responsibility when dealing with an and of this nature. A attorneys for the Magazine argued during the first amendment Case that the publication should not be held liable and that publishers have no duty to research the background of their advertisers. The lawsuit was the second such Case against the Magazine to go to trial. In the previous trial seeking damages in a woman a slaying in 1985, a jury in Houston returned a $9.4 million verdict. That award was reversed on Appeal last year and the . Supreme court let the decision stand. In the Alabama lawsuit the jury heard 41/2 Days of testimony before deliberating for just two hours Friday. Michael Braun 21, and his brother Ian 26, both of Montgomery blamed their fathers death on a a gun for hire Quot classified and in the Magazine s june 1985 Issue by Richard Savage of Knox Villa Tenn. The Brauns contended their fathers business associate Bruce Gast Wirth used the and to arrange to have Braun killed. Michael then 16, was wounded in the aug. 27, 1985, attack in the family a driveway in Atlanta. The jury awarded $10.4 million to Michael Braun and $2 million to the Broth cars jointly. Ian Braun said the verdict would never undo the emotional damage to his brother who he said is afraid to express emotion to family members since seeing his father killed. Brown Quot was certainly within his right to publish his Magazine but what goes in you be got to be responsible for a Lan Braun said. Michael Braun declined to comment. Savages classified and read Quot gun for hire 37-year-old professional mercenary desires jobs. Vietnam Veteran. Discrete and very private. Body guard courier and other special skills. All jobs  in 1986, the Magazine stopped run Ning such ads Gastwirth Savage and two associates were convicted of Braun s killing. Savage already had been convicted in a similar murder for hire Case in West Palm Beach fla., As Well As several attempted assassinations. They Are now serving prison sentences. A in closing arguments defense attorney Jim Garrett told the jury a a publisher has no duty to investigate every advertiser but if the Magazine had checked Savage it Bojum have found he served in Vietnam and was a courier under Gen. William Westmoreland. Trial testimony showed Savage had no felony police record when he placed the and and Garrett said the add did not contain a clearly identifiable risk that it is an offer to commit  a Braun family attorney Steve Glassroth said Soldier of Fortune should have been aware of news stories about a series of unrelated crimes in the Early 1980s tied to its classified ads. Those stories should have stopped the mag Zinc from running the personal services ads Long before 1986. Brown denied seeing any of those stories. He said he ran the ads to help Vietnam veterans find jobs using their military skills. Any . On by the Washington Post on the 49th anniversary of Japan a attack on Pearl Harbor College students from Virginia to Oregon staged teach ins and rallies Friday to Snow their opposition to a . Attack on iraqi forces occupying Kuwait. Student organizers conceded the nationwide Effort fell far Short of the original goal of involving 500 campuses. But they said that regional protest groups were much closer to stitching together a National network that could provide effective coordination a was far As National coordinating i done to think that actually happened a said Pierre Barolette of the  student association a this is primarily a grass roots thing. Now there a a lot of activity certain organizations Are coming together to form this Campaign a Barolette said the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing was chosen As a protest Date because a students just Felt that that was another instance of the War death and carnage we want to  a. At Bard College in Annandale on Hudson n.y., maintenance workers lowered the . Flag in front of the administration building after the student government voted to secede from the nation for a Day. In Louisville Kyd a a group of University of Louisville students announced they would buy advertisements in local and Campus newspapers a to urge soldiers to a just say not to duty in saudi Arabia a according to Tom Pearce a recent Louisville graduate. A. Elsewhere the anti War protests took More conventional forms. University of Wisconsin students were among 350 protesters who rallied outside the state Capitol in Madison. Teach ins the most common Type of Campus protest were held at Georgetown University George Mason University in Virginia and the University of Oregon in Eugene. At Georgetown the six hour teach in in the Levacy commons offered an ideologically balanced roster of speakers that included Sandra Charies director of near East and asian affairs at the National Security Council and Saul Landau a senior fellow at the Institute for policy studies. A two mounted Seattle police officers arrest an anti War protester Friday morning. The protesters blocked a main Street in front of the . Naval Reserve building. A we want to promote a More intelligent activism which needs both sides for a Good debate Quot said Todd Heyman a Georgetown Sophomore from Massachusetts. A i think this Issue has a lot of mainstream support. Its not the Radical activism of the sixties. This is what democracy is All about.�?�. The audience of about 100 listened respectfully and uttered no expressions of disapproval As Charles presented a defense of Bush administration policy including an assertion that iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein threatens the a Energy Security Quot of the world. The audience included several Navy Roth cadets from George Washington University who sat together in their uniforms. Two declined to be interviewed citing restrictions on their conduct while in uniform. In California where the first Campus teach ins on the persian Gulf occurred in september rallies were popu Jar Friday. They were held at the University of Cal Tor Nia Berkeley University of California Santa Cruz and City College of san Francisco. A As far As California goes we be had so Many teach ins already a said Hilary Diamond a graduate student at san Francisco state University. A now what a needed is to mobilize people to be against this  t army reservist Stephanie Atkinson and Patrick cot Clough a Reserve officer training corps Cadet were among those heading for a protest Friday at the Massachusetts Institute of technology. They both Are calling for withdrawal of . Troops. A they were joined by veterans including shakur Ali who served three Tours of combat duty in Vietnam. Colclough a former student at St. Lawrence University is awaiting a decision on his application for conscientious objector status. He wants a Complete withdrawal of troops from the Gulf. A we have no right to be there a said Colclough 21. Of Saugerties the Day of protests an idea of a group of Washington students called Aegis Justice was hampered by the pressures of final examinations on Many campuses. On others such As Northwestern University in Evanston iii., students had already begun their Holiday recess student leaders plan to try again for a National protest this time on Jan. 26-27, that will include a coordinating meeting in Washington. The leaders of regional student groups based in Boston Chicago the san Francisco Bay area Washington and other cities have decided to form the National student and youth Campaign for peace in the Middle East legless Viet vet loses bid to overturn life sentence Sands of time san Francisco a a state appeals court upheld a life without parole murder sentence for a Vietnam Veteran who lost his legs in the War saying it had sympathy for his wounds but could not excuse his killing of a policeman. A most severely wounded Vietnam veterans have managed to Deal with their anguish without committing murder a the courts presiding judge Clinton White said in a ruling thursday Stanley Verketis who lost both legs to a land mine in 1968, returned Home suffer ing from drastic personality changes and became addicted to heroin and alcohol according to testimony at his trial. He was convicted of fatally shooting police officer Arthur Koch who had responded to a report of gunfire at Verke Tisz Home in Fairfield Northeast of san Francisco in july 1984. At his Appeal the defense argued that a life sentence was cruel and unusual punishment because of Verketis background. The 1st District court of appeals agreed that Verketis would not have been waiting for the officer with a gun had he not suffered a a life transforming injury a but said that fact did not make the sen Fence disproportionate to the crime. A to that extent we feel sympathy for Verketis because he was in fact the victim of events beyond his control a White said in the 30 decision in the stars and stripes. 40 years ago today. Dec 9,1950 a several Hundred protesters Many  students demonstrated in front of a downtown Berlin theater Over the return to the stage of Werner Krauss a leading actor in anti semitic films of the nazi period. 30 years ago today. A dec. 9, i960 it president elect John f. Kennedy asked Adlai e. Stevenson to serve in his administration As ambassador to the United nations. A a a a 20 years ago today r. Dec. 9,197q a a Union Leader threatened a nationwide rail strike in Defiance of any action by Congress the White House or Federal courts. _ 10 years ago today. Dec. 9, 1980 a three elderly people who lived on wine and hot peppers for 15 Days were rescued from the cellar of their Salerno Italy farmhouse which had been destroyed by a recent earthquake officials with the Relief Headquarters in Naples reported