FormerofficerBeardrespondstohistermination

by Thomas McKee editor in chief

The appeal process of fonner public safety officer Bill Beard is continuing and has moved into stage two, according to Beard. Beard said he met with Dr. Robert Bonfiglio, vice president for student development, on Wednesday, April 16, where he submitted a written account of the events that ultimately led to his "termination."

According to Beard, he was terminated on Wednesday, April 16 for what he said was called "negative duty and conflict of interest." Both Bonfiglio and Rich McErlean, director of public safety, decliried to comment.

However, sources in resident life have indicated that Beard may have been dismissed for allowing a student who had been previously banned from campus into Xavier Hall.

Beard denied the allegation, saying, "Absolutley not, not to my knoweledge."

Beard was working in Xavier Hall on April 4, the night of the college's Spring fonnal. Bill Beard said his son, Jason Beard, a first-year stu- dent, and several of his friends, who were from off-campus, returned from the formal, and entered Xavier Hall, where they signed in at the visitor's desk and went to Jason Beard's room.

According to Bill Beard, his son walked his friends back to the visitor's desk shortly after 2 a.m., where they signed out and left the building. Sophomore Meghan Barrow then entered Xavier Hall, saying the people who had just driven away in an unidentified car had been involved in an altercation in the Xavier parking lot.

Bill Beard said he then radioed Officer Eric Hatton, who was on duty in Woodcrest, to obtain a description of the car. Hatton responded, saying it was a red Chevrolet Beretta.

When Bill Beard was alerted that the people in the Beretta, were the friends of his son who had just left the building, he told Officer Hatton to disregard the radio transmission.

"They were in Xavier Hall at the time they should have been involved in the altercation," Bill Beard said.

Jason Beard, who walked his visitors to their car and watched them leave, said that there was no altercation outside Xavier, although one of his friends had been involved in an altercation at the formal.

This was confirmed by sophomore Joe Pilson, who was with Jason Beard outside Xavier Hall.

The following Wednesday, April 16, Bill Beard was summoned by McErlean, who asked for an account of what had happened. Beard said he gave McErlean his side of the story, before going back to work.

An hour later, he was summoned again and told that the President of the college, Dr. Antoinette Iadarola, and the Dean of Students, Bonfiglio, found his actions to be worthy of immediate termination.

'They never showed me a copy of the complaint," Beard said. "They never told me who the complaintant was."

Beard also said he believes that the reason of conflict of interest was unmerited.

"I feel that my character has been attacked," Beard said. "I acted on all the information received, whether it was my son or not."

Mother fakes daughter'sdeath to win back her lover

by Paul Monte news editor

Neal Casey loved his girlfriend's daughter to the point when even after the relationship ended, he rushed to the hospital when he heard the little girl was dying of leukemia.

But Taylor Cecconi did not die. She was never sick. Police say Taylor's mother, Jodi Denman Cecconi, tried to win back Casey by pretending her 23-month-old daughter was dead.

When Cecconi told Casey that Taylor had leukemia, he recalled her calling daily about the girl's radiation treatments and chemotherapy.

Casey comforted her while he spent five hours in the hospital waiting room. After Cecconi phoned Casey on March 19 and said the baby had died, he assisted with funeral home arrangements and picked out a grave site and casket. Townspeople sent flowers after the funeral home published death notices in two newspapers. Police said that Taylor never was in the hospital; she was visiting her father the whole time.

The hoax was revealed when the funeral director called the coroner to find out when the body would arrive. Instead, Cecconi arrived at the sheriff's department with a smiling, giggling Taylor in her arms.

Police detennined the hoax was played by Jodi Cecconi. Fearing for the safety of Taylor and the other children, a sheriff investigator turned the children over to welfare officials. No criminal charges were planned, according to a Carrol County, Ga. Superior Court judge. According to the judge, police "cannot figure out what charges to press."

The judge signed an order on March 30 requiring Cecconi to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and barred her from any unsupervised visits with her four children.