Flather case THE MAN charged with secund-degree murder in con- nection with the death of Dr. Verne Fiather, shot dead in front of his East Keith Road house on April 22, made a brief court appearance Wednesdsy morning. David Roger Henderson, 49, of North Vancouver, was in the court room fer a few minutes. The grey-bearded man fooked around the court room and at court spectators on several occasions. He wore prison greens and a bright yellow T-shirt. Henderson’s lawyer Eleine Ferbey and Crown lawyer Craig Dykes agreed Wednesday that the preliminary hearing would take five days. Dykes said there were between 25 and 45 potential witnesses that could be cafled to testify in the case. Wenderson is scheduled to appear in court today to set a date for the preliminary hearing into the charge against him. Apartment burned FIRE CAUSED approximately $30,000 worth of damage to 2 North Vancouver City apartment suite on April 26, Firefighters were called to 302-309 West Third St. at 5:57 p.m. Neighbor Darretl Kendall had smelled smoke while watching TV with a friend. According to a North Van- couver City Fire Department spokesman, Kendall opened the door to the hallway and saw the corridor full of smoke. He activated the fire alarm. The fire department was called, and the building manager opened the door to the burning suite because the residents were unsure whether the woman living in the burning suite was inside at the time of the fire. She was not home. Kendall crawled in before the fire department arrived and attempted to pu? out the fire with an extinguisher, but the fire had progressed too far. The suite was not equipped with a smoke alarm. The suite was not insured. The fire resulted in smoke damage to a number of other suites and water damage to a suite below. Rabbit roasted FIRE DESTROYEE a car parked in the 600-block of West Third Street early April 27. According to s North Vancouver City Fire Department spokesman, firefighters were called to the scene at ap- proximately 6:30 a.m. after people working in the area noticed smoke coming from a VW Rabbit. The fire originated in the car’s engine compartment, which was in flames when the fire crew arrived. The cause of the fire, which resulted in an approx- imate loss of $2,400, is still under investigation. The vehicle was not insured. ‘Tax credit case mired in pre-trial motions THE MULTI-MILLION dollar tax credit fraud case in- volving a West Vancouver lawyer and other individuals is entering its ninth week of pre-trial motions. The trial, which ‘will bring Roger Lawrence of West Van- couver, Michaet Richards, a Van- couver accountani, Gerald Byerlay of Chilliwack, and Ronald Johnson of Richmond to B.C. Supreme Court to answer charges of using the Scientific Research Tax Credit (SRTC) program to bilk investors of more than $41 million, was supposed to start April 1. But Justice R.S.K. Wong has been deluged with legal issues raised by as many as nine lawyers in a single session that must be resolved before a jury can hear the accused. “The pre-trial taken an extraordinarily long time,’’ acknowledges Ina McMillan, chief of public affairs for Revenue Canada. “For the first month most of the proceedings were conducted behind closed doors. Each indi- vidual charged has at least one lawyer defending him; the case is a logistic nightmare.”’ Also, some of the eight individ- uals charged with fraud and related offences in 1990 either face potential extradition or cannot be found. Michael Vaz, formerly of West motions have By Robin Brunet Contributing Writer Vancouver, is thought to be somewhere in Manitoba; Dara Wilder, a former Lower Mainland businessman, lives in Bellingham, Washington; and Victor Attrill, a former Vancouverite, now lives in England. Under the SRTC program a company could obtain a 50-cent tax credit that could be sold to another company for every dollar spent on scientific research. The program was axed by the feds in 1985 after only 11 months because of allegations of widespread abuse. In July 1989, pine coffins in- scribed with ‘R.I.P.’ and bearing the names of Lawrence, Wilder, Richards and Johnson were delivered to the accuseds’ homes or workplaces. A bomb was also detonated at Lawrence’s West Vancouver heme, and two cars were set on fire at Wilder’s Bellingham home. The bulk of pre-trial motions last week focused on Revenue Canada’s methods of obtaining evidence for its case. VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL MARATHON | Half marathon goes Sunday THE START of this year’s Van- couver International Marathon’s half marathon has been moved from Park Royal to Norgate Park at Tatlow Avenue and 15th Street in North Vancouver. The run will take place Sunday, May 3 in conjunction with the full Vancouver marathon. The half marathon begins at 8:40 a.m. and runs from Norgate Park across the Second Narrows Bridge to B.C. Place Stadium. The full marathon will start at 7 a.m. at B.C. Place Stadium on MEF ROBSON’ GRANVILLE DEN 608 Robson St. 7985 Granville ‘St’ 710°Den | 266-7767. » 681-6302 Pacific Boulevard in Vancouver. The run’s route winds through Stanley Park, over Lions Gate Bridge, across the North Shore, over the Second Narrows Bridge across Vancouver, and back to Pacific Boulevard. Participants can enter and pick up their run packages today until 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City Square, Cambie and 12th Avenue across from Vancouver City Hall. 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