Serving PCC and the Pasadena community since 1915
Nov. 17, 2005
pcc-courieronline.com
Veteran’s
Day
Tribute
Page 8
Vol. 92, Issue 13
Former PCC
Student Will Stand
Trial for Murder
Brian Dreisbach
/
Courier
At Odds: From left, assistant coach Chuck Walker and Lancer head coach Dennis Gossard. Gossard is knows to have
had rocky relationships with players ever since former head coach Tom Maher was fired. PCC finished 1-9 this season.
as Takes Broken Promises
Blame for A season of lies surrounds PCC football
Lost Club
Hours
Paul Aranda, Jr.
Staff Writer
The Inter Club Council Service
Hours Committee met on Nov. 10
to decide whether to approve sever¬
al campus clubs’ lost service hours
from the spring 2005 semester that
were not submitted to the ICC for
approval. The committee turned
down all but one club, the engi¬
neering and computer club, which
was granted 106 service hours. The
hours will be sent to the finance
committee, which will then deter¬
mine how much money the engi¬
neering and computer club will
receive.
Current AS president Stephen
Juarez attended the meeting to
acknowledge to the committee that
he was responsible for the service
hours documents last spring and
accepted full responsibility for their
disappearance.
“I misplaced them, “Juarez
said. “Once I turned them in, it
never crossed my mind to see why
the clubs were denied funding. I
had a lot of things on my mind at
the time.”
Although Juarez took responsi¬
bility for the lost documents, he
denied having any knowledge of
how they reappeared.
“How they got from my desk to
[see Club, PAG E 6 ]
Mario Aguirre
Sports Editor
PCC’s football team ended last
Saturday with players in tears, not just
from the dismal season but because
they had have lost confidence in the
coaching staff’s ability to fulfill their
promises.
Players who enrolled at PCC only
because Tom Maher was head coach
felt the athletic department timed the
firing of Maher so they would not be
able to change schools and play else¬
where.
“We started our program in
December or January and Coach
Maher was fired in the middle of
February,” said former Lancer Lance
Stubbs, who was kicked off the team
this season. “They fired Maher and
brought in Gossard and at that point it
was too late for people to transfer
because you need 12 units of residency
at a school before you could play
there.”
Stubbs believes that this was inten¬
tionally coordinated in order to keep
the players that Maher had recruited
from going elsewhere.
“Whoever makes these decisions, it
seems like it was very well calculated to
where we couldn’t do anything about
it,” Stubbs said. “Like it was either
play here or play nowhere at all. So
that’s my belief that they kind of
trapped us here.”
Ari Lenett, a former assistant coach
who resigned earlier in the season, con¬
firmed that the decision to fire Maher
was made when it was already too late
for players to leave.
“A few weeks from the start of sum¬
mer camp Skip Robinson made the
decision to terminate Maher, pretty
much firing him [as head coach].”
Lenett said. “Coach Maher was pretty
much shocked. Then when they said
Gossard was coming back, the majori¬
ty of the coaches wanted tp leave.”
“If Skip Robinson knew he was
going to make a coaching change, do it
in December,” Lenett said. “Do it right
after the season so you have time for
the new head coach to bring in his
recruits and his own players. Don’t do
it one month before the start of camp.
[Those football players] came here to
play for Coach Maher, not for
Gossard.”
Highly coveted prospect Ryan
O’Hara, a quarterback from the
Pasadena area who was destined to
change the fate of the program, left the
team and headed back out to a com¬
munity college in Arizona once Maher
became an assistant coach.
“I talked to Ryan O’Hara, and he
said that he knew personally that
Gossard was going to change the
offense and that as soon as he and
Maher had a disagreement then
Gossard was going to fire him,” Stubbs
said. “I didn’t want to believe him, but
it came true.”
In order to keep players from quit¬
ting the team at that point, Gossard
told his players that nothing would
change. That turned out not to be true.
Everything changed, from the offense
on the football field to the personal
lives of players.
Players were promised a lot of
things that never came to be.
Housing was a main concern for
out-of-state players.
One instructor, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, said he had a
number of football players in class.
These students were promised things
that they didn’t get like housing and
financial support to make life work for
them. Conditions were so bad there
were 10 players living together in a
Jennifer Perez
Staff Writer
The FDA is now considering
making over-the-counter HIV test
kits available to the public. This
would be the first of its kind to be
used without the help of health care
professionals.
OraSure Technologies Inc. pre¬
sented its Rapid HIV tests kit to the
small apartment. This instructor said
that the players needed financial help
and food because they were unable to
get a job due to their commitment to
the football team.
Food was also an issue. Last season
multi-millionaire Bob Moran served as
an assistant coach for the Lancers’ foot¬
ball team. Once Maher was fired,
Gossard kept him around for a couple
of days before he decided that he was¬
n’t crazy about Moran’s vision as the
offensive coordinator.
“Gossard didn’t like Bob’s offense,
so he was fired,” Lenett said.
“Gossard said wins and losses didn’t
mean anything to him and nobody
could tell him what to do.”
Unfortunately for the football play¬
ers, Moran provided a lot of financial
support last season as an assistant.
He’d buy months worth of protein
shakes and food for out-of-state players
and those who couldn’t afford to buy
food. But once Moran was fired, he
headed over to Compton College and
that was the end of the food. So with
Moran gone and Maher out of the pro¬
gram, Gossard did not step in to help
improve the situation.
One former player said, “We were
told they would pay for players’ rent
and outstanding debts that they had
with other schools. I know for a fact
that there was food given by people and
there was money given to the team, but
it never got to the players.”
Lenett believes that Gossard didn’t
give the kind of effort that Maher did.
“Gossard is not intuitive of what
kids need,” Lenett said. “Feeding play¬
ers or seeing they had basic things is
everything Tom Maher was doing. He
cares about the players and the team.
Gossard was just here to collect a pay-
[see Football, PAGE 3]
FDA’s Blood Products Advisory
Committee on Nov. 3. The tests have
been available since 2002, with sales
and use restrictions limiting their use
to clinical laboratories to assure the
quality of the device is met.
OraSure’s kit will test oral fluids
by swabbing a small applicator
against the upper and lower gums.
The sample is then inserted into a
vial of buffer fluid. It takes twenty
Dean Lee
Staff Writer
A former PCC student was for¬
mally charged with the first-degree
murder of a Japanese foreign
exchange student during his pre¬
liminary hearing in Alhambra
Superior Court Tuesday. George
Pigman IV was charged with the
brutal murder of Eimi Yamada on
May 7 in her San Gabriel apart¬
ment.
Pigman, 23, entered the court¬
room wearing an orange L A.
County jumpsuit with his hands
shackled in front of him.
He listened as the prosecuting
attorney, Michael Villalobos, pre¬
sented the case against him to the
court through the direct examina¬
tion of three witnesses, a neighbor
and two officers who were at the
scene.
The victim’s parents flew in
from Japan on Monday. Her moth¬
er, Kayl Yamada, sat sobbing into a
blue handkerchief during the two-
hour hearing. Yamada’s father,
Elichi, was also present, holding a
framed picture of their daughter.
Both flew back to Japan Tuesday
night, according to the prosecu¬
tion.
“This is a parent’s worst night¬
mare,” Villalobos said. “You send
your kid off to school in the United
States and then something like this
happens.”
George W. Pigman III and
Celeste Moore, the defendant’s
parents, were also present in court.
Pigman never looked back or tried
to make contact with anyone in the
Courtesy of Kenny Kimura
Pigman as a PCC student.
Chantal Mullins
Feature Editor
The preamble of the charter of
the United Nations begins, “We the
Peoples of the United Nations
Determine to save succeeding gener¬
ations from the scourge of war,
which twice in our lifetime has
brought untold sorrow to
minutes for the device to detect any
HIV antibodies in the sample.
Many other home-use tests, such
as over-the-counter pregnancy tests,
have been available since 1976. Tests
for blood glucose and cholesterol
can also be purchased over the
counter.
There are two types of home-use
[SEE HIV, PAGE 6]
courtroom except his public
defender. Pigman’s father is a pro¬
fessor at Caltech and his mother
was a former art instructor at PCC.
Christine Chan, a neighbor that
lived below Yamada in the same
building, testified that she knew
Pigman but had never talked to
him except when he asked where
Yamada was. She also testified that
she heard screaming and yelling
the night of the murder. She said
she recognized the sound of both
Yamada’s and Pigman’s voices.
“I heard people running back
and forth and pounding noises,”
Chan said. “Then I heard crying. I
think it was Eimi, I know her voice.
She said, T love you, I love you’
over and over. Then I heard some¬
one with no accent say, ‘F — you.’
I think it was her boyfriend.”
When the prosecution asked,
Chan identified Pigman in the
courtroom as the man she heard
that night.
Temple City Sheriff’s homicide
detective Joseph Sheehy said he
discovered Yamada’s after respond¬
ing to a call in the 8500 block of
Palma Vista Street in San Gabriel.
Her body was found in the bath¬
room, naked and bloody, with mul¬
tiple stab wounds and her arms
twisted back behind her head. Her
body also showed marks from
blunt-force trauma. Authorities
found a pair of barbecue tongs next
to her body.
During cross-examination by
defense attorney Jose Colon,
responding officer Cesar Casillas
testified that he got a call on the
night of May 7, reporting a white
male, naked and making loud nois¬
es, pacing back and forth on a
rooftop in the 6800 block of La
Presa Drive.
When Casillas arrived he found
Pigman with blood on his hands
and genital area. He was arrested
approximately 30 minutes later
when he stepped down onto a wall,
trying to get to another rooftop.
Casillas grabbed his left ankle as
Pigman grabbed a rain gutter. It
could not support his weight and
he fell.
“He was not all there,” Casillas
said. “At first he did not look in our
[see Pigman, PAGE 6]
mankind...” Yet time and time
again nations engage in war and
fight to the death. Various countries
around the world have been locked
in war for countless years.
This spring, a new course at PCC
aims to teach students what they can
do better, what can be done to return
to the principles outlined in the char¬
ter of the United Nations.
History 24G: Model United
Nations will be offered as a short¬
term class from Feb. 20 until April
12. The class will meet on Mondays
and Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m.
until 6:30 p.m. in C325.
Students enrolled in the class will
prepare to participate in a confer¬
ence organized by the American
Pacific Conference. Before the con¬
ference, students will study and
research countries that have been
randomly assigned to their school.
Between March 30 and April 2, stu¬
dents will stay at the Biltmore Hotel
in Los Angeles, where they will take
on roles as ambassadors of their
[see Class., PAGE 6]
New Over-the-Counter HIV
Test Considered By FDA
Steve Carrillo
/
Courier
Do It Yourself: the Orasure kit will include a cotton swab¬
like device to collect saliva samples for HIV testing.
U.N. Model Class To
Promote Diplomacy