Milestones

By Harriet Barovick, Autumn DeLeon, Michelle Derrow, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Lina Lofaro, Anne Moffett, David Spitz and Chris Taylor

PLEADED GUILTY. JUSTIN VOLPE, 27, New York City police officer accused of torturing Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in a precinct rest room in 1997; in Brooklyn. Volpe faces a minimum of 30 years in prison.

SENTENCED. DARRYL STRAWBERRY, 37, Yankee outfielder and eight-time All Star; to 18 months of probation and twice-weekly drug testing; after entering a plea of no contest to cocaine possession and soliciting a prostitute; in Tampa, Fla. Strawberry, on leave from the Yankees, faces suspension from the team.

DIED. OWEN HART, 34, professional wrestler known as the Blue Blazer; after falling some 70 ft. while being lowered onto the mat before an audience of more than 16,000; in Kansas City, Mo. The acrobatic stuntman, scion of a prominent Canadian wrestling family, was often billed as a straight man for such higher-profile World Wrestling Federation heavyweights as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Authorities have begun an investigation into Hart's death.

DIED. PAUL SACHER, 93, Swiss pharmaceutical tycoon and conductor; in Basel, Switzerland. By the time Sacher married Maja Stehlin--the heir to the Hoffmann-La Roche drug empire--in 1934, he had already founded a musical institute and a chamber orchestra. Even as he commissioned many new works, Sacher oversaw the growth of Hoffmann-La Roche, manufacturer of Valium, for nearly 60 years.

DIED. WALDO SEMON, 100, inventor and holder of 116 patents including vinyl and bubble gum; in Hudson, Ohio. As a young researcher for B.F. Goodrich, he turned a little-known chemical called polyvinyl chloride into a flexible, functional material. And as the U.S. was on the verge of depleting its natural rubber supply during World War II, he led the effort to produce a viable synthetic.