Letting the Facts Get in the Way of a Good Story About a Little Girl

I don’t mean to be a journalistic killjoy, but I thought you should be advised about a story making the media rounds.

It’s about Dominique Candace Crocitto, a 6-year-old girl from Upstate New York. She’s adorable.

She has won 47 baton-twirling and modeling contests. Her little heart is set on being an actress.

Now, according to the story, Dominique’s dreams are endangered by a bureaucratic goof: Her birth certificate, unbeknown to her parents, listed her as a boy.

Some meanie at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Diego messed up royally. Since the mistake was discovered, contests won’t let Dominique compete.

The Buffalo News broke the story last week after getting a call from a contest promoter. Then the Associated Press spread the tale coast to coast.

The National Examiner sent a photographer. “Current Affair” and “Hard Copy” did interviews. Mother and daughter appeared Tuesday on “The Joan Rivers Show.”

It’s a natural: a cute kid, an injustice, an outraged momma. Yes, but how true is it?

The Buffalo News reporter says he got the runaround from a records clerk at Kaiser. He ran out of time for further checks before deadline.

Dominique’s mother, Sue, tells me that the promoter, after getting lots of publicity, let Dominique compete. Still, the family wants the certificate fixed before they move to Tennessee.

Dominique’s father, Dominick, an Immigration and Naturalization Service employee who once worked at San Ysidro, tells me he’s afraid he’ll have to hire a lawyer. I don’t think so.

The county Department of Health Services confirms that the certificate does list Dominique as a boy. The state handles amendments.

The state health department says all it takes is an affidavit from Mom, Dad or other relative and a $19 fee. The state amends 8,000 birth certificates a year.

“You mean it’s very simple to get it corrected?” asks the mother. “That’s not much of a story, is it?”

Depends on how you handle it.

Who?

Where they are now.

* Former San Diego City Councilman and ethereal thinker Bill Mitchell is selling real estate and plotting a political comeback. Of sorts.

He’s chairman of a committee looking to curb a noisy civic blight: gas-powered leaf-blowers.

* Dick Silberman is doing time at the federal prison in Boron. But he hasn’t lost his interest in money and law.

He just got a mail subscription to the San Diego Daily Transcript.

* Marjorie Judith Vincent, the reigning Miss America, will visit the aircraft carrier Independence at North Island on Thursday, Valentine’s Day, to show support for Operation Desert Storm.

* Chula Vista hypnotist Paul B. Kincade has been nominated for the International Hypnosis Hall of Fame in Blue Bell, Pa. He wants crime victims to be able to testify under hypnosis.

* John Dadian leaves soon as chief of staff to county Supervisor Susan Golding, by mutual agreement.

He’ll be replaced by Craig Lee, former head of the San Diego Taxpayers Assn. Lee will be Golding’s fifth chief of staff in six years.

* Superior Court Judge Dick Murphy will stay put. Chances he’ll run for mayor of San Diego are nil.

* Former Councilman Ed Struiksma is consulting. He lobbied the City Council to buy those apartment buildings owned by Alvin Malnik, the Miami financier with reputed mob links.

No Gulf in War of Words

Moon(less) over the Gulf. Or: you can’t keep a good lead paragraph down.

Los Angeles Times, Feb. 6: “Some moonless night in mid-February, as the waters of the Persian Gulf lap high along the shoreline, the largest U.S. amphibious landing operation since the Korean War may begin on a remote stretch of beach in Kuwait.”

USA Today, Feb. 7: “Within 10 days, the Arabian skies will be moonless and the Gulf tide will be high--perfect for a nighttime amphibious assault.”

Copley News Service (as published in the San Diego Tribune) Feb. 9: “On a dark, preferably moonless night sometime soon, U.S. and allied forces are expected to launch the largest and most complex military ground offensive since World War II.”