European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 20, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 a the stars and stripes wednesday May 20, 1992 states May have to refund pension taxes from wire reports Washington a with billions of dollars at stake the supreme court has agreed to decide whether states must refund taxes they illegally collected on pensions of retired Federal workers. The justices agreed monday to hear a Virginia Case in which Federal retirees arc trying to get Back some $400 million they paid in wrongful taxes. But the ruling also could apply to other states where former Federal workers Are eager for refunds. The Issue is rooted in a 1989 ruling in which the supreme court said states cannot Levy taxes on Federal pensions if they exempt the pensions of retired state and local government workers. In a later Kansas Case the court extended the principle to military retirees. But those decisions did not say whether Federal and military retirees Are due refunds on the taxes wrongfully collected. Last year the Virginia supreme court said the state did not have to refund the $400 million in taxes paid by almost 200,000 retired Federal workers. A group of Federal retirees appealed that decision to the . Supreme court. The High court said it would consider an Issue left open since its 1989 ruling that states May not tax the retirement benefits of Federal employees while exempting state and local retirees. Virginia with its 192,000  military retirees has the most at stake. But the total liability of Virginia and 22 other states that treated state and Federal retirees differently could run More than $2 billion if the ruling is retroactive. Virginia a general Assembly changed the Law in april 1989, immediately after the initial ruling. At Issue in the Case accepted for review monday Harper is. Virginia department of taxation is the states liability for refunds for four previous tax years. The Case will be argued in the courts next term which starts in october and is not Likely to be decided until 1993. The Virginia supreme court ruled last year that the state did not have to pay the refunds. It reaffirmed that conclusion after the latest word from the High court on retroactivity. Urging the High court to hear the Harper Case and reverse the Virginia supreme court the plaintiffs attorneys argued that the state should not be excused from paying refunds simply because they will be costly and that principles of fairness a overwhelmingly favor retroactive  allowing Virginia and other states to be excused from paying refunds because of the Cost involved a is analytically As satisfying As a taxpayer asserting that be cause he has no Money to pay the assessed tax he owes no taxes a they said. A indeed it is even More perverse for it suggests that the greater the magnitude of the constitutional violation the greater the states equitable claim not to rectify  attorneys for Virginia told the court it was unfair to hold Virginia liable for paying refunds for a tax that went unchallenged for nearly 50 years. Those looking for refunds the state said a seek a Windfall the repayment of taxes which they thought to be lawful when paid and which have Long since been budgeted and spent for state services the benefits of which these taxpayers a like other citizens of the Commonwealth a have fully enjoyed. They seek to shift the Cost of those services after the fact to other taxpayers taxpayers who Are entirely innocent in this  admits error in not denouncing King beating by the Washington Post los Angeles a police chief Daryl f. Gates acknowledged monday in a newly published Book that he made a a significant error in failing to denounce publicly the a a horror of the beating of Black Motorist Rod nay g. King by four White police offices in los Angeles. Gates said he kept his opinion to himself at the time because he did not want to a a taint any prosecution and because he would have been a sole judge and jury of the officers had the Case been settled within the department. One of the officers a Rookie was dismissed after the beating. A in retrospect i should have been More candid about my feelings and less worried about the niceties of due process a Gates wrote in chief my life with the land published monday by Bantam books. A the Media and the Public did not want reason a they wanted an emotion to match the pictures on the to screen. Not speaking boldly of the horror i Felt proved to be. A significant error on my part in dealing with a crisis that would Only grow  three of the defendants were acquitted and a fourth was virtually exonerated after a trial in suburban Ventura county. Those verdicts april 29 ignited deadly rioting in los Angeles. Officer Laurence m. Powell who struck the most blows in the beating of King on March 3, 1991, is to be retried on a charge of using excessive Force the Lone count on which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The Gates Book was completed before the riots during which the los Angeles police department was criticized for failing to respond efficiently. Gates was faulted for leaving the police command Center at a crucial moment to attend a political event. A los Angeles times poll last week showed that 81 percent of los Angeles residents disapprove of Gates performance As chief. When the King beating occurred Gates was attending a drug seminar in Washington. He said he did not see the videotape of the beating until March 5, 1991, when he played it Over and Over in his office at Parker Center the City a police Headquarters. A i stared at the screen in disbelief a he wrote. A i played the 1-minute, 50-second tape again. Then again Ana again until i had viewed it 25 times. And still i could not believe what i was looking at. To see my officers engaged in what appeared Gates to be excessive use of Force possibly criminally excessive to see them beat a Man with their Baton 56 times to see a sergeant on scene who did nothing to seize control was something i never dreamed i would witness. A it was a very very extreme use of Force a extreme for any department in America. But for the land considered by Many to be perhaps the finest most professional police department in the world it was More than extreme. It was impossible. A i sat there watching terribly shocked a Gates continued a feeling sick to my stomach sick at  the Christopher commission that subsequently investigated the land found incidents such As the King beating which Gates described As an a aberration a to be widespread. Gates denounced the commissions report As a a a travesty and claimed that racist exchanges Between land officers on patrol car computers Are relatively rare. However Gates said a transmission from Powell shortly before the King beating in which Powell compared a Domestic dispute within a Black family to a scene from the movie gorillas in the Mist was a clearly racist in nature and a suggested a possible Bias on the part of the officer who sent  the Christopher commission found that the police department encourages racism by failing to discipline officers such As Powell the target of other complaints alleging racial insensitivity. Warren m. Christopher a former Deputy Secretary of state who headed the probe said this failing reflected weaknesses in police leadership beginning with Gates. Stacey c. Koon the police sergeant acquitted in the King beating and highest ranking officer on the scene also has stirred charges of racism with a 275-Page Book manuscript that As yet has no publisher. In the manuscript he refers to King As a mandingo a which refers to a West african people and sometimes is used As a denigration of Black male slaves. . S new chief vows to improve riot handling by the los Angeles times los Angeles a police chief designate Willie l. Williams toured los Angeles on monday for the first time since the riots promising that police would react differently if faced with the situation again. A i recognize there arc going to be trials there Are going to be incidents there Are going to be events that can evoke the same Type of emotions that we saw a Williams said. A the real Challenge to me is to have this department and this City respond  the former Philadelphia police chief brought with him a message of Healing and change As he met with a wide Cross Section of people from political business and Church leaders to Junior High school students in a tour that took him from the san Fernando Valley to South Central los Angeles. Along the Way he took an Impromptu tour of areas hit hard by the rioting that followed the april 29 verdicts in the Rodney g. King beating Case. Williams got out of his chauffeured police car and walked the intersection of Vernon and Central avenues a where businesses on three Corners were destroyed by fire a and said the firsthand look at the damage had a Strong Impact on him. Although he did not Lay blame or second guess the police departments initial response to rioting Williams said he will join in the investigation of what happened and take Steps to ensure the Force is ready to handle any future unrest. A was police chief i am going to be examining preparation and intelligence background information about what we should have expected what we thought would occur and How the department prepared for it a Williams said. He said he was interested in How information was or Wasny to disseminated through the Chain of command to Street officers resulting in the Retreat of officers from one of the Flash Points of violence at Normandie and Florence avenues in the hours after the verdicts. A i am making sure we Are prepared for whatever May occur in the future a he said. Juk autopsy was proper insists doctor who did it by new Day for almost 30 years James Humes the doctor who performed the autopsy on the body of president Kennedy listened to the conspiracy theories about the presidents assassination and kept silent. �?o1 read accounts that were crazy a a rays and photographs were faked or doctored the president was shot from the front but the wounds were altered to make it appear he was shot from the rear the doctors who performed the autopsy were threatened not to talk and on and on a Humes said monday. On tuesday the journal of the american medical association was to release a transcript of a first Ever i depth interview with Humes who performed the Kennedy autopsy at the Bethesda naval Hospital in Maryland. He says in the interview that he is convinced the president was shot from behind a just As the much disputed Warren commission report concluded in 1964. Transcripts of recent interviews with medical personnel who treated Kennedy at Parkland memorial Hospital in Dallas minutes after the nov. 22, 1963, assassination also will be released. Conspiracy buffs Many of whom have placed Humes and other doctors involved in the Bethesda Hospital autopsy at the Center of a vast multilayered cover up will take no Comfort in Humes comments. A nothing was faked. All that is just nonsense a said Humes who retired from the Navy in 1967 and lives in Maryland. A How could a rays be doctored and Why a _ Humes said he granted an interview with the journal of the american medical association in the Hope that it would help quell debate Over whether there was a conspiracy behind the assassination or whether one gunman a Lee Harvey Oswald according to the Warren commission a was responsible. Humes said the medical journal also interviewed j. Thorton Boswell the assistant pathologist who aided in the autopsy at Bethesda. Boswell is retired and lives in Florida