Las Vegas news briefs

Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 | 11:52 a.m.

While Clark County will hold onto the existing 702 area code, the rest of the state will become part of area code 775 on Dec. 12.

Officials say use of the new area code will be voluntary until May 15, then becomes mandatory.

Local telephone service competition and the growth in the number of wireless phones, pagers, computer modems and fax machines have placed such a demand on existing phone numbers that the state was forced to add the second area code.

The change will not affect the price of telephone calls.

JURY -- After eight hours of poring over evidence and debating, a District Court jury was still at work today, trying to reach a verdict in the child abuse murder trial of licensed child-care worker Alica Wegner.

The jury in District Judge Mark Gibbons' courtroom, which began its work Monday afternoon, returned today for its third day of deliberations to determine whether Wegner killed 14-month-old Kierra Harrison on March 3, 1997, with a blow to the head that left a quarter-inch crack in the girl's skull.

The case is complex, because medical testimony at the trial was contradictory. Defense experts testified that the injury occurred a couple of days before the girl died. During those weekend days, Kierra was with her parents, not Wegner.

Emergency physicians, however, testified that the skull fracture would have quickly left the girl unconscious and must have occurred on the Monday when Kierra collapsed at Wegner's facility.

RADIATION -- The U.S. Department of Energy has shelved plans to take over community radiation monitoring of ground water, air and milk.

Instead, the DOE is seeking an independent organization to conduct the monitoring outside the Nevada Test Site boundaries. The Desert Research Institute has been invited to apply to do the work.

The DOE is meeting with ranchers who live near the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas and located in Nye County.

The agency also is asking citizens and officials in the surrounding areas what the future for radiation monitoring should be, since former President George Bush stopped nuclear weapons tests in 1992.

The DOE wants to keep public confidence in its efforts, said Doug Duncan, DOE environmental monitoring team leader.

The off-site checks were once conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service and then the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

PEDESTRIAN KILLED -- A 71-year-old Las Vegas man was hit by a car and killed Wednesday night on Boulder Highway while crossing the road in a crosswalk, the Nevada Highway Patrol said.

The senior citizen was heading east when the tragedy happened at 7:48 p.m. in the roadway near Kentucky Avenue, partly illuminated overhead with a flashing crosswalk sign.

The northbound driver of the 1984 Chevy Camaro that hit the man has been identified as Samuel Lacrouse, 19, of Henderson. Trooper Scott Flabi, NHP spokesman, said Lacrouse has not been charged, pending the outcome of an investigation. Investigators said they have determined that Lacrouse was traveling 50-55 mph in the posted 45 mph zone. Lacrouse dialed 911 to report the accident, and stayed at the scene until authorities arrived, Flabi said.

EVIDENCE MISSING -- The disappearance of $30,000 in cash from the North Las Vegas Police Department's evidence vault is being investigated.

Police spokesman Lt. Mike Blackwell said one of the department's employees who oversees the vault has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

He declined to reveal the man's name.

The money, discovered missing during an internal audit in September, was from a number of narcotics cases.

Blackwell said officials are reviewing procedures in handling evidence and may install surveillance cameras in the evidence vault.

SURRENDER -- The former campaign manager for lieutenant governor candidate Fuller Royal has turned himself in to North Las Vegas Police, a week after being accused of fraud, forgery, burglary and conspiracy to commit felony theft in connection with missing campaign funds.

Michael Winne was booked into the North Las Vegas Detention Center Wednesday evening and then released after posting a $28,000 bond.

He and Glen Easter, secretary of Citizens for Higher Ethics in Government, are accused of taking $7,400 intended to pay for Fuller's campaign fliers.

Easter turned himself in when the charges were filed and was released on his own recognizance.

The investigation alleges that Winne and Easter used Easter's business, Gimme Shelter, to hide the money.

Two banks and cashier's checks issued through the banks along with a bogus invoice with Gimme Shelter's logo were used to complete the scheme, according to police spokesman Lt. Mike Blackwell.