POLICEMAN,
SHOT,
MADE LIEUTENANT
Victim
of Bandits in Newark
Paralyzed by Bullet
Special to The New York Times
NEWARK, Dec. 18-A police sergeant who was wounded
trying to prevent a robbery at a savings and loan association was
promoted to lieutenant today while he lay paralyzed from the waist
down in a hospital bed.
Two suspects in the holdup were arrested after Newark Mayor Hugh
S. Addonizo witnessed the escape of five gunmen yesterday and gave
chase in his official car, siren wailing.
The getaway car crashed into a utility pole one block from the holdup
site. One of the bandits fired a shot through the windshield of
the Mayor's car, narrowly missing him. The robbers got away with
$8,700.
The police officer, William Maver, 38, was shot in the back by a
lookout for the holdup men when the policeman tried to prevent the
robbery, at the Robert Treat Savings and Loan Association on Clinton
Avenue.
Doctors Hesitant
Doctors in Beth Israel Hospital hesitated to remove the bullet,
which lodged near the aorta, the main artery leading from the heart.
Rupture of the aorta could be fatal.
Lieutenant Maver finished first in recent civil service examinations
for that rank.
Lawyers for the two suspects contended there was evidence that the
police had coerced statements from their clients.
At the arraignment late last night, one suspect, James E. Washington,
appeared with blood flowing from a cut above his right eye and with
a scratch below it. The other, Alvin Dickins, had a bump at the
base of his skull.
The lawyers, William P. Reis
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and Leonard I. Weinglass,
declared that their clients had been denied the right to counsel before
the police investigation.
Mr. Reis attorney for Washington, said he would move for suppression
of his client's statement to the police. He said Washington told him
he had been beaten and threatened.
Mr. Weinglass, representing Dickens, said he would continue to look
into his client's arrest before proceeding. Dickins had asked for
medical attention several times during the six-hour investigation,
but was ignored, according to Mr. Weinglass.
A suspect's right to counsel during the early stage of a criminal
investigatlon has been the subject of extensive legal debate recently.
In New Jersey the general interpretation is that the police must honor
a suspect's request for counsel, but need not inform him of his right
to be represented by a lawyer. |