Peace Returns To Riot-Torn E. Cambridge

East Cambridge's riot-torn Roosevelt Towers section was peaceful last night for the first time since the death of a 17-year-old youth arrested there Saturday night.

Local residents decided at a meeting in the neighborhood's youth center last night to end their five-night string of rioting and attacks on police in the area in order to consider future measures and await action by the City Council.

The residents have charged that the dead, youth, Lawrence P. Largey, was the victim of a beating by Cambridge Police officers at the time of his arrest.

Charles R. Robinson, the state medical examiner who performed Largey's autopsy, concluded Monday that physical injuries were not the cause of death. He listed the cause of death on Largey's death certificate Thursday as ingestion of rapid acting barbiturate and ethyl alcohol (overdose)."

Robinson said that the death was "probably accidental."

A second autopsy, requested by the Largey family become of widespread doubt in the Roosevelt Towers area that Robinson's examination was correct, concluded today. The Largey family has not yet made the findings of the autopsy public.

Mayor Barbara Ackermann said yesterday that City Manager John H. Corcoran will appoint an investigator to launch an independent inquiry into the circumstances around Largey's death. Ackermann said Corcoran is now looking "in the academic areas" for the appointee.

The Middlesex County District Attorney's Office is scheduled to begin an official inquest November 9.