News briefs for February 7, 2002

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2002 | 10:56 a.m.

Two killed as SUV rolls over

A teenage driver of a sport utility vehicle was arrested after rolling the truck on the Strip this morning, killing two passengers, Metro Police said.

David Samaniego-Cerna of Las Vegas was charged with two counts of driving under the influence with an accident involving death after the 1 a.m. crash near the Stardust hotel, police said.

Samaniego-Cerna was driving in the northbound lane when he apparently tried to pass a slower moving car and lost control of the SUV, police said. The 2002 Ford Explorer started to spin, went across the northbound lanes and into the southbound lanes and hit a curb, police said.

The SUV then flipped onto its side and slid about 55 feet into a concrete wall, causing it to roll, and come to rest on its wheels, police said.

The two rear-seat passengers -- a 32-year-old man and a 22-year-old man -- were taken to University Medical Center but died. Samaniego-Cerna and a front-seat passenger, 19-year-old Yessenia Murillo, had only minor injuries, police said.

The names of the two men who died in the accident were not released this morning pending family notification.

38 workers draw both checks

Thirty-eight workers in state and local governments -- most of them in Clark County -- are drawing both salary and pension benefits.

George Pyne, director of the state Public Employees Retirement System, said 23 of the 38 are from Clark County. And they are all in the school district in jobs ranging from music, math and science teachers to special education teachers, psychologists and speech therapists.

There are only four in state government, including Richard Kirkland, director of the state Department of Public Safety. The others work in the same department.

The rest receiving both pay and pensions are in local governments and other school districts.

The 2001 Legislature authorized state and local governments, in an effort to fill critical positions, to allow an employee to draw both his or her retirement and a paycheck.

Worker charges wrongful firing

Clark County settled a wrongful termination lawsuit Wednesday by paying former county appraiser Charles Bunch $102,000, according to statement released by Bunin & Bunin, the law firm that represented Bunch.

The three-year-old lawsuit stemmed from Bunch's termination after he revealed he was being treated for attention deficit disorder, his attorneys said. He was later diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Bunch's suit claimed his rights under the American Disabilities Act and the Nevada Equal Opportunity Act had been violated. Last October, U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson ruled the case could go to trial.

Gilbert Ruiz, 70, of Las Vegas,

died at University Medical Center Wednesday as a result of injuries incurred after he was struck by a car as he tried to cross Valley View Boulevard north of Sahara Avenue, Metro Police said. The accident happened about 3 p.m. Tuesday when the driver of a 1998 Plymouth was pulling out of a driveway on Valley View and struck Ruiz, police said. The cause appears to be jaywalking, but the collision remains under investigation, police said.

Franny Forsman, federal public defender

for Nevada, has been reappointed, said Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Forsman was first appointed a federal public defender for Nevada in December 1989 and reappointed in 1994 and 1998. She has been a Nevada lawyer since 1981.