Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993                   TAG: 9308270061
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                                LENGTH: Medium

STORY OF SIAMESE TWINS SHIFTS TO FOCUS ON FATHER

But the saga of the Lakeberg twins - which drew a stampeding passel of reporters and television camera crews last week - has taken an abrupt turn.

Now the focus has shifted to the drug use, crimes and contradictory statements of the twins' father, 26-year-old Kenneth Lakeberg.

The cycle goes something like this: Lakeberg talks. The media report it. Lakeberg contacts reporters to clarify and says something new, and often contradictory. The media report it again.

During the past four days, Lakeberg, often before television cameras, has:

Acknowledged he must attend a hearing in Indiana for violating probation imposed after a knife fight late last year.

Admitted he uses drugs and abuses alcohol.

Talked openly about turning his daughters' story into a movie deal and indicated he wouldn't mind portraying himself.

And perhaps most damning, Lakeberg admitted using $1,300 in donations for a cocaine binge days before the twins' surgery.

"I think Kenny is just in over his head," said Lakeberg's lawyer, James Lakin. "They're media celebrities, and they're just not equipped to deal with it."

The media has moved from hourly condition checks of Angela, who remains critical but stable, to hourly updates of her father's statements.

It's reached the point where The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where the twins underwent surgery, has relinquished responsibility for Lakeberg.

On Saturday, the hospital's public relations department was arranging the parents' news conferences. By Thursday, spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis had recorded a voice mail message trying to distance the hospital from the family.