NATION IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Goetz in Court to Fight Youth’s Suit

Subway gunman Bernhard H. Goetz made his first appearance in court in a $50-million lawsuit filed against him by one of the four victims he shot aboard a subway car in 1984. Goetz looked nervous as he told state Supreme Court Judge Barry Salman an order sought by Darrell Cabey’s attorneys, asking for sanctions against Goetz for failing to appear in court, has “no legal standing.” But famed civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, who is representing Cabey, said “those motions in essence were to get the doggie’s (Goetz’s) attention.” Goetz said he had given “valid reasons” for not appearing to give a deposition in the lawsuit by Cabey, who his lawyers say is paralyzed from the waist down and brain-damaged. Most recently, Goetz told Salman that he was suffering from testicular cancer.