Briefs

MARATHON MAN

When Miami police led Clarence Mullins off to jail in the morning darkness one day last week, they ended a crime spree that may put Mullins, 26, in the record book. It all began, according to the police, when Mullins stopped a teen-age driver in downtown Miami, relieved him of his valuables, stuffed him in the car trunk and headed for Jackson Memorial Hospital. There he grabbed a nurse and pushed her into the car, but the woman slid out the opposite door before he could drive off. By now police radios all over the city were crackling: Look out for a white Dodge Dart with an arm protruding from the side of the rusted trunk. Mullins ditched the Dodge, flagged down another motorist, pistol-whipped him and took his car. Minutes later Mullins appeared at a restaurant, where he assaulted a woman and ran off with her purse. At a nearby street corner he picked up a young woman, later described by police as a prostitute, and raped her in a park. When a passer-by surprised him, Mullins retreated to the car with his victim; both were nude. Speeding off, he rammed a car. The woman ran for safety; Mullins, pausing only to pull on his underwear, gave chase. By then the police were on the scene. But Mullins was not through yet: in the final act of his rampage, he knocked one of the officers unconscious. If Mullins was tired after his crime marathon, so was the police computer. His rap sheet came to 42 pages, mostly for drug possession and shoplifting. Later, after listening to the detectives' version of the story, Mullins said he could not possibly have done it, it must have been someone else. The new charges--altogether eleven--include rape, robbery, assault and battery, and false imprisonment. All the work of two hours.

NO WEDLOCK, NO WORK

In 1968 Kathleen Bishop set up house with her boyfriend. Seven years later, then a Catholic University law student, she was still living with him and looking forward to a summer job with the Justice Department. During a routine background investigation, a question was asked that floored Bishop: "Are you living with anybody?" Her answer cost her the job. The department's rationale: cohabitation out of wedlock is "widely regarded as a sign of low character." Bishop filed suit. Last week the Justice Department signed a consent order stating that it cannot refuse to hire someone solely because he or she lives out of wedlock with a person of the opposite sex. Bishop, 33, was pleased, but the ruling did not come soon enough to help her; she is a full-time administrator at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

DON'T KEEP ON TRUCKIN'

When the Jeff Davis County sheriffs department in Texas brought in four portable toilets, it was clear that something big was on. And big it was: a 24-hour roadblock along Interstate 10 near Kent, Texas, that stopped 1,000 cars and netted the county almost $7,000 in fines, according to a report last week to the county commissioners. Truckers were the main victims: they accounted for the bulk of the 199 citations issued for expired licenses and permits. Six people were arrested for drunken driving, three for auto theft, two for possession of weapons and nine on drug charges. Seventeen illegal aliens were apprehended. Since all vehicles were stopped, authorities insist they steered clear of the random searches declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court last March. "Not illegal, but very undesirable," said an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman. Such criticism has not deterred the roadblock's creator, Sheriff Wid McCutcheon, who doubles as county assessor-collector. The county is already planning another road show next spring, at a date not to be announced.

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