filipino globe world
April 2008
15
New hearing of 1993 Chicago murders one step closer
The trial of a co-accused in safe that yielded from US$1,800 to
the murders of seven Chicago US$1,900.
restaurant employees, including When Ehlenfeldt, 49, hesitated,
two Filipino high school students, is Luna admitted slitting her throat.
getting closer. Luna and Degorski ordered
This came after the Illinois her husband and co-owner,
Appeals Court reversed a March Richard Ehlenfeldt, 50, and their
31 ruling by a judge who threw five employees – Guadalupe
out the video confession of James
Chicago courthouse
Maldonado, 46, of Palatine, the
Degorski, citing civil rights violation. cook; Michael C. Castro, 16, and
Degorski, 35, admitted in the 4 The January 1993 massacre of Rico L Solis, 17, both Palatine
1/2-minute video, that he killed two seven people has been one of the High School students and Palatine
of the seven people slain at the Chicago area’s most notorious residents Thomas Mennes, 32, and
Palatine fast-food restaurant. unsolved crimes. Marcus Nellsen, to get inside the
Juan Luna, Degorski’s co- Police believe that the slayings walk-in freezer and they alternated
accused in the case, had already happened when the killers forced in killing them with a single six-
been convicted by Gaughan last at gunpoint the franchise co-owner shooter .38 caliber revolver
year. Lynn W Ehlenfeldt to open the obtained by Degorski.
The Filipino nurses are accused of endangering children on ventilators
when they quit en masse amid a dispute over working conditions.
Largest US
nurse group
backs Pinays
in legal fight
First prosecution of its kind in New York
State goes to trial late this month
The largest healthcare workers’ union
in the US has thrown its support be-
BY THE NUMBERS
hind 10 Filipino nurses whose res-
Number of members in Local 1199, the
largest healthcare local in the US
ignation over working conditions at
a Smithtown nursing home sparked
criminal charges of endangering pa-
tients.
Local 1199 of the Service Employ-
275,000
ees International Union, which repre-
sents about 275,000 healthcare work-
ers, is the most powerful organization their responsibility to desperately ill
to oppose Suffolk District Attorney children and, in doing so, violated the
Thomas Spota in his handling of the law.”
high-profile case. Health care unions, bar associations
The nurses and Felix Vinluan, a and Filipino-American groups across
labor attorney they consulted, face the country have condemned the pros-
trial on April 28 on charges of con- ecution.
spiracy and endangering the welfare The nurses were recruited in the
of children on ventilation machines Philippines by local nursing home
at Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and group SentosaCare, and almost im-
Health Care Center. mediately began complaining about
It is the first prosecution of its kind working conditions.
in New York State, legal experts say. Prosecutors say their resignations
“Criminal prosecution of caregiv- caused a staffing crisis at the home.
ers for standing up for their rights The nurses contend their shifts were
violates the fundamental principles covered, that two state inquiries
the labor movement is built on and it cleared them, and that Spota was
sets a dangerous precedent,” George swayed by SentosaCare’s political
Gresham, president of 1199 SEIU connections.
United Healthcare Workers East, said Last week, Local 1199 joined the
in a statement yesterday. nurses in urging the state Appellate
Spota spokesman Robert Clifford Division to issue a “writ of prohibi-
said the nurses were indicted by a tion,” a rare step that would essen-
grand jury in March 2007. tially nullify the indictment.
“By their indictment, the grand jury The Legal Aid Society also sup-
found that the defendants abandoned ported the writ.
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