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Wednesday, November 20, 2013
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State’s attorney subpoenas bank records of students at Rock Terrace n
County seeks records for investigation into handling of work-study earnings BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
At least two parents of Rock Terrace School students have received notification from the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office that records from bank accounts under their children’s names have been subpoenaed for a grand jury investigation. A Nov. 11 letter from the office to a parent said a grand jury subpoena “has been issued for bank account records maintained in the student’s name at Education Systems Federal Credit Union.” The subpoena is part of the county state’s attorney’s office investigation into how Rock Terrace staff handled money students earned while in a work-study program that went into bank accounts at the credit union. Montgomery County Public Schools and the state’s attorney’s office began investigating the school after parents raised allegations that staff misappropriated funds their children earned. The Rockville school serves developmentally disabled students. A summary of the school system’s initial investigation — which was attached to a July 18 letter to the school’s parents from Associate Superintendent of High Schools Christopher Garran — said the state’s attorney’s office would request account records from the credit union using subpoenas.
See SUBPOENA, Page A-10
County’s school board nixes delays in capital projects Proposes that five middle, high schools stay on schedule n
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
In this 1978 photo, ballistics expert Larry Sturdivan holds a bullet believed to have struck President John F. Kennedy.
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BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
n the early-morning hours of Nov. 23, 1963, Dr. James J. Humes washed his hands after overseeing what is arguably the most controversial autopsy in modern U.S. history at Bethesda Naval Hospital, now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The director of laboratories of the National Medical School in Bethesda took his notes of the proceedings to his Bethesda home and burned them after meticulously copying the records because, Humes later testified, they were stained with John F. Kennedy’s blood
and “inappropriate to be turned over to anyone.” “Having transcribed those notes … I destroyed those pieces of paper,” Humes, who died in 1999, testified in 1977 before a medical panel convened by the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, one of several political bodies that investigated the killing. “I felt they would fall into the hands of some sensation seeker.” That admission is one of many facets of the case that have fueled speculation of a cover-up and conspiracy over Kennedy’s death for the past 50 years. As the half-century anniversary approaches Friday, the autopsy in Bethesda continues to be one of the more controversial elements. “Dr. Humes may have had his reasons for
JAMES K.W. ATHERTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
burning the original autopsy notes,” Philip Shenon, a former New York Times journalist and author of a new book, “A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination,” said in an interview. “But it was still jaw-dropping to discover what he did.” Jim Lesar, president of the Assassination Archives and Research Center, a private organization in Silver Spring that preserves documents and other records on political assassinations, added, “It was an extraordinarily controversial autopsy that has been denounced by many authorities in the field.” Of the roughly 30 agents, military officers, medical personnel and others that the House
See KENNEDY, Page A-17
Montgomery County students and staff in five middle and high schools may not face delays to construction projects after all. The Montgomery County Board of Education decided Monday not to delay revitalization and expansion projects at two high schools and three middle schools. The board voted Monday to approve a $1.74 billion Capital Improvements Program budget for fiscal years 2015 through 2020 — compared to Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s proposed $1.55 billion budget, which was based on holding off on some projects. The board added a total of about $192.6 million to Starr’s proposed figure. The board’s capital improvements program budget is about $376.5 million more than the current program, which covers fiscal years 2013 to 2018. The budget now moves to County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and the County Council for their approval. The decision to keep the five schools’ projects on track added about $172 million to the budget. The board kept Starr’s recommendation to delay 15 elementary school revitalization and projects by one year.
See DELAYS, Page A-10
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