Eight individuals have been indicted in connection with a drug-trafficking organization operating in Ashland, Medina and Wayne counties, according to authorities.

Among the 116 total charges filed against the suspects, six individuals are accused of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity relating to the sale of heroin and cocaine, including heroin in pill form, according to a news release from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell, Ashland County Sheriff E. Wayne Risner, the Medina County Drug Task Force and Drug Enforcement Administration.

Prosecutors with the Ashland County Prosecutor’s Office and Attorney General DeWine’s Special Prosecutions Section presented the case to an Ashland County grand jury on Friday, and several arrests were made Monday.

The investigation was led by investigators with the Medina County Drug Task Force, Ashland County Sheriff’s Office and DEA operating as part of an Ohio Attorney General’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission task force, the news release said.

Authorities began investigating the case after receiving information that the alleged ringleader of the operation, Richard Lawless, 48, of Polk, was trafficking drugs in the tri-county area. Authorities served multiple search warrants and conducted several controlled buys in connection with the case, uncovering heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs and marijuana with a combined estimated street value of more than $1 million. Authorities also seized cash, illegally owned guns and items used to make heroin in pill form, the news release said.

“Richard Lawless has been a menace to the area for a number of years,” Medina County Drug Task Force Director Gary Hubbard said. “The collaboration between local, state and federal authorities was paramount in the significant criminal charges that Richard Lawless and his associates are facing.”

All but one of the suspects were in custody Tuesday:

• Michael Kouns, 26, of Polk;
• Sarah Krupansky, 28, of Polk;
• David Wertman, 18, of Copley;
• James Diaz, 44, of Sullivan;
• Raymond Krupansky, 29, of Spencer;
• Vicki Stoyko, 56, of Chippewa Lake.

Hubbard said he could release no information on the final suspect.

“We’re not permitted to release their name until they’re actually been taken into custody,” he said. “The U.S. marshals are currently looking for them. There’s no real good idea where they are.”

Lawless also is facing multiple counts of felonious assault, aggravated burglary and abduction relating to crimes he allegedly committed before his arrest, the news release said.

“Heroin abuse and addiction are at epidemic levels in Ohio and across the country, and state, local and federal law enforcement are working hard to make sure traffickers don’t get away with pushing this deadly drug,” DeWine said.

“The fact that some members of this operation were not only selling heroin, but also disguising it in the form of a pill is especially concerning.”

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ELYRIA — Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll’s lawyer on Tuesday asked for the involuntary manslaughter and endangering children charges against his client be thrown out because, he argued, prosecutors had failed to prove his client was criminally responsible for the death of 2-year-old Demarius Boone.

Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll

Defense attorney Michael Stepanik said although what happened to Boone was tragic, it didn’t mean that Walton-Kirkendoll had caused his death either by his actions or by going to a party in another apartment across the hall for 20 minutes on the night of Oct. 12, 2012.

When Walton-Kirkendoll returned he found the boy on the floor of the apartment at Chadwick Apartments in Elyria. During interviews with police, Walton-Kirkendoll said Demarius appeared to have vomited and he spent some time attempting to revive the unresponsive boy.

Eventually, the boy’s mother, Latoya Tillman, called to say she was on her way home and when Walton-Kirkendoll, who was watching the children for her, said Demarius was having trouble breathing, she called 911.

Demarius later was found to have died of internal injuries, including to his back, and from a lethal level of alcohol in his bloodstream.

Demarius Boone

But Stepanik said there was no evidence that the boy was doing anything other than sleeping and even the suggestion that he might have consumed a cup of vodka and juice came from Walton-Kirkendoll.

Stepanik has spent the trial arguing that the alcohol in Demarius’ system may have been administered rectally in an effort to get the boy to go to sleep, a theory Chief Deputy Lorain County Coroner Frank Miller said was a possibility. There was evidence that Demarius may have had something inserted into his rectum, but a test didn’t find Walton-Kirkendoll’s DNA and he hasn’t been charged with a sex crime.

Assistant County Prosecutor Sherry Glass told county Common Pleas Judge Michele Silva Arredondo that there was enough evidence not only to allow the jury to consider the charges against Walton-Kirkendoll, but also to find him guilty.

She said Walton-Kirkendoll failed in his duty to care for Demarius and two other children who were left in the apartment with him when he left to go to the party across the hall. That, she said, could have allowed a “madman” to enter the apartment and do horrible things to Demarius.

By his own admission, she said, Walton-Kirkendoll, was gone for at least 20 minutes. That was too long, Glass said, for young children to be left unsupervised.

“It’s not as if he’s running to borrow a cup of sugar,” she said.

But Stepanik countered that it was no different than if he had gone out into his garage to have a beer while his children were inside sleeping. He said the apartment Walton-Kirkendoll was at was only a few feet from the door of the apartment where the children were.

He said the only difference in the comparison appeared to be that Demarius was in an apartment while his children were in a house, something Glass said she took offense to.

Arredondo said she will rule on Stepanik’s request to dismiss the charges this morning.

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LORAIN — The attorney representing a former Lorain woman whose newborn daughter was taken from her under an emergency custody ruling after “microscopic” amounts of medicinal marijuana tea used by the mother for pain and nausea in pregnancy were found in the baby’s urine sample said he plans to appeal the decision.

Lakewood attorney Joseph Jacobs said Wednesday there was no sound basis for Cuyahoga County Magistrate Eleanore Hilow to issue the ruling last month ordering Hollie Sanford’s 6-week-old daughter Nova to be removed from the family’s home.

The child is being cared for by a relative in the Cleveland area, according to Jacobs.

Sanford — who now lives in the Cleveland area with her husband, Daniel, and a supervisor at the Horseshoe Casino — is allowed to go and visit her daughter, but she cannot remain with her under provisions of the emergency custody ruling, Jacobs said.

Hilow ordered Sanford’s baby to be taken into emergency custody Oct. 21 following an Oct. 15 hearing about which the parents had less than 24 hours notice, according to Jacobs.

Jacobs said Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services are not seeking custody of Nova.

The finding simply warranted protective supervision, Jacobs said.

“In their (court) pleading, they sided with the family that they did not want to request custody but wanted to be involved through protective supervision so they could keep an eye on the family,” Jacobs said. “They determined the child was safe and there was absolutely no risk of harm.”

Jacobs contends Hilow ordered an emergency custody hearing “despite the fact no one was asking for one.” And, in an Oct. 23 filing in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Juvenile Division, the county’s Children and Family Services made a motion to set aside Hilow’s Oct. 21 emergency custody order.

The case started Oct. 9 when Children and Family Services filed a complaint alleging abuse based on the test result from the infant’s first stool — a test done without the family’s knowledge, according to Jacobs. The test found what the attorney termed “microscopic” amounts of marijuana metabolite, a byproduct of the drug.

“You can use marijuana one day and you can still test positive for it a few weeks later because the metabolics stick in your system,” Jacobs said. “In theory, the mom used marijuana in her tea, and it was later measured by nano-grams.”

An initial urine test of Sanford and her baby was negative, according to Jacobs.

In the Oct. 23 filing and subsequent hearing, the agency argued that the family wasn’t a threat to the baby. An agency worker also testified she had no concerns that the family could care for the child, Jacobs said.

“The agency and the parents are on the same side,” Jacobs said.

Sanford testified in the same hearing that she would not use the marijuana tea around her children. Sanford further stated her husband and mother-in-law were present on a continuous basis for support and care of Nova and the couple’s 2-year-old.

“This is a loving family with a very healthy, completely normal 2-year-old,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs note that Hilow didn’t follow the rules when ordering the child removed from the family. He said based on appeals, this case isn’t the first to have a problematic ruling issued by Hilow.

He plans to appeal to have her removed from the case.

“Before you can take children out of a home, you have the obligation to demonstrate a risk of harm to them,” Jacobs said. “There was absolutely no risk of harm to this child, nor can the magistrate create one.”

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ELYRIA – Demarius Boone died because Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll left the boy and two other children unattended at his girlfriend’s apartment, Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Sherry Glass said Wednesday during her closing arguments in Walton-Kirkendoll’s trial on involuntary manslaughter and endangering children charges.

Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll

Walton-Kirkendoll admitted that he left the children alone on Oct. 12, 2012, while he went to an apartment across the hall in Chadwick Apartments to get “hammered,” Glass said. He didn’t lock the door and somehow the 2-year-old ended up with various injuries, including a broken back and a lethal level of alcohol in his system.

“Anything could happen. Anything,” Glass said. “This is a risk. This is a problem.”

But defense attorney Michael Stepanik told jurors that Walton-Kirkendoll hadn’t committed a crime by being across the hall. It was the same argument Stepanik made a day earlier to county Common Pleas Judge Michele Silva Arredondo when he asked her to dismiss the charges against his client, a request the judge rejected Wednesday.

“The death of a 2-year-old child is tragic,” Stepanik told jurors. “As is the conviction of an innocent man.”

Stepanik said Walton-Kirkendoll was three to five feet away from the apartment, no different that if he had been in his garage while his own children were sleeping at his house.

Demarius Boone

“What we may think is a bad parenting decision is not necessarily a crime,” Stepanik said.

Both sides agreed that Walton-Kirkendoll was gone from the apartment for approximately 20 minutes before he returned and found Demarius on the floor with vomit on his face and having trouble breathing.

Although Walton-Kirkendoll told police he tried to revive the boy, Glass said he failed in his duty to do the one thing that he should have done — call 911. That also was a violation of his duty to care for the child he was babysitting while the boy’s mother, Latoya Tillman, was running an errand.

“He had a duty of care to the child, at a minimum, to call and get him help and he did not,” Glass said.

She said the only reason anyone called 911 was because Tillman called when she was a few minutes away to check on her children and

Walton-Kirkendoll said the boy was having trouble breathing.

Stepanik said he found it suspicious that Tillman called when she was such a short distance from home to check on the well-being of children she would be seeing in only a few minutes.

He also said that Walton-Kirkendoll was trying to help the boy, even if he wasn’t doing it properly. He said it’s common in movies to see someone revived after they have water splashed on his face and his client, who didn’t have any formal medical training, may have been using that as an example.

Stepanik also accused Elyria police of zeroing in on Walton-Kirkendoll early in the investigation and not pursuing evidence that could have led to an alternate explanation for the boy’s injuries and intoxication.

He said Chief Deputy County Coroner Frank Miller allowed that it was possible that the alcohol was administered to the boy rectally. If that was the case, Stepanik said, it could explain injuries to Demarius’ rectal area that Glass suggested was the result of some sort of sexual assault.

At one point Stepanik got down on the floor to demonstrate how difficult it would have been for someone to have raped Demarius from behind and caused the back injuries. He also said the evidence showed those injuries could have been as much as two days old and may have caused the stomach pain Demarius had been complaining of before his death.

Glass argued that although there was no DNA evidence linking Walton-Kirkendoll to a sexual assault, he likely left a glass of vodka and juice on a table where Demarius could have gotten to and drank it.

To show how much alcohol was likely consumed by the boy, she poured 4 ounces of clear liquid from a Pinnacle Vodka bottle into a measuring cup and held it up for jurors.

But Stepanik pointed out that Miller said there was only around 5 milliliters of liquid in Demarius’ stomach when the autopsy was conducted.

Glass countered that Stepanik’s arguments were an effort to “divert, divert, divert” blame from Walton-Kirkendoll.

Jurors deliberated for about an hour Wednesday before going home for the day. They will resume their deliberations today.

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FOX LAKE, Ill. — Public works employees were pulling down the blue ribbons residents had tied to trees and poles as a tribute to their slain hero. Signs around the small town that had praised the cop known as “G.I. Joe” suddenly disappeared, replaced in one case by another that labeled him “G.I. Joke.”

The friends and neighbors of police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz reacted with disbelief and dismay to authorities’ announcement Wednesday that the popular Fox Lake, Illinois, officer not only meticulously staged his own suicide to make it look like he died in the line of duty, but had been stealing for years from a police club for youth that he oversaw.

“It’s breaking my heart,” said Mark Weihofen, a 41-year-old school bus mechanic. “There is a ‘We love you, Joe’ sign that I pass by every day. … It was already down.”

Investigators said they believed the 30-year police veteran — whose death prompted a weekslong manhunt and whose funeral drew thousands of mourners — killed himself because his criminal activity was about to be exposed.

Recovered text messages and other records now show the 52-year-old Gliniewicz embezzled from the village’s Police Explorer program for seven years, spending the money on mortgage payments, travel expenses, gym memberships, adult websites and loans to friends, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Commander George Filenko said.

“Gliniewicz committed the ultimate betrayal,” Filenko said. “We completely believed from Day One that this was a homicide.”

The revelations stunned people in Fox Lake, a village of 10,000 about 50 miles north of Chicago where the 52-year-old married father of four had long been a role model.

“I haven’t got my thoughts together yet. It’s shocking,” said Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit, a friend of Gliniewicz’s who said the officer wanted to meet the day before his death to ensure that the Police Explorer program would continue after what he said was his planned retirement at month’s end.

“You never thought he was this kind of man,” said Kathy Pederson, a single mother who considered Gliniewicz a father figure for her son in the Explorers program. Now, she said, “People are outraged and they are taking down the posters. … They want their money back.”

The reaction to Gliniewicz’s deception extended beyond Fox Lake.

A Washington, D.C.-based organization responsible for collecting the names of officers killed in the line of duty — the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund — quickly removed Gliniewicz’s name and photo from its website and said his name would no longer be etched onto a marble monument dedicated to fallen officers. After his death, pundits had called Gliniewicz a victim of an increasingly dangerous environment for police as some citizens challenge what they see as overzealous enforcement.

An organization that assists survivors of officers killed in the line of duty, the 100 Club of Chicago, asked the Gliniewicz family to return a $15,000 donation. And Motorola Solutions, which announced in September it would put up a $50,000 reward toward information leading to the arrest of Gliniewicz’s killer, said that the money will be donated to the Explorer program to replace stolen funds, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Still, 24-year-old Ashley Scott said there are a number of people in Fox Lake who don’t believe the officer killed himself.

“I say he died of police corruption — either his corruption or somebody else’s,” she said.

Investigators said Gliniewicz’s death was carefully staged. Minutes before he died, he radioed he was chasing three suspicious men into a swampy area. Backup officers found the Army veteran’s body about 50 yards from his squad car.

The first bullet from his handgun had struck his cellphone and ballistic vest. The second pierced his upper chest, under the vest. The swampy terrain was otherwise undisturbed, Filenko said.

By then, an intense and costly manhunt had begun, with hundreds of officers searching houses, cabins and even boats on area lakes. Helicopters with heat-sensing scanners and K-9 units scoured the area for days. More than 100 investigators stayed on the case for weeks.

When questions arose about the investigation in September, Gliniewicz’s family dismissed the suggestion of suicide. He “never once” thought of taking his own life and was excited about his retirement plans, his son D.J. Gliniewicz insisted.

Incriminating texts and Facebook messages Gliniewicz sent tell a different story, revealing his increasing anxiety after Fox Lake hired its first professional administrator, Anne Marrin. She began auditing all the village departments, including the Explorer program.

Gliniewicz deleted the messages, but investigators recovered them, and released some of them verbatim on Wednesday, without identifying whom he sent them to.

“If she gets ahold of the old checking account, im pretty well f***ed,” the officer wrote in May.

On Aug. 31, the day before Gliniewicz’s death, Marrin said she asked him for an inventory of the Explorers program.

In one of the texts, Gliniewicz discussed trying to get Marrin out of office, perhaps by arresting her for drunken driving, but also mentioning “planting things” and a remote bog in the area.

The officer’s relatives now have asked for time and privacy. A statement issued through their lawyers said Wednesday had “been another day of deep sorrow for the Gliniewicz family.”

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Thirteen years after he went missing from his Alabama home as a 5-year-old, a young man has been found unharmed, living under an assumed name with his father in Ohio, and authorities say the case broke open when his Social Security number raised red flags during college applications.

Julian Hernandez’s mother reported him missing from the Birmingham area in 2002 after his father left her a note saying he’d taken the boy, police said. After years of dead ends, officials said, the key tip came in on Oct. 30.

Hernandez was doing well in school in Ohio and was applying to several colleges, but there was an issue with his Social Security number, according to police in Vestavia Hills, near Birmingham. He approached a school counselor, who was trying to help when she realized Hernandez was listed as missing by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, District Attorney Brandon Falls in Jefferson County, Alabama, told local media outlets.

Apparently, Hernandez had been living with his father, 53-year-old Bobby Hernandez, in Cleveland, on the city’s west side, authorities said. Both were living under assumed names with a woman and two other children, according to officials, and Julian Hernandez probably didn’t know he was listed as missing.

Bobby Hernandez has been charged with tampering with records in Ohio to get a driver’s license in 2012, and police say he’ll face additional charges in Alabama. He’s being held in Ohio on a $250,000 bond.

“We are in the process of getting charges on him and when that happens, when he is adjudicated in Ohio, then he will be extradited back to Jefferson County,” Lt. Johnny Evans of the Vestavia Hills police said.

Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls told local media outlets that he’s seeking charges involving interference with custody — a felony carrying a prison term of one to 10 years.

Court records show that Hernandez was declared indigent in Ohio. A message seeking comment was left at court-appointed attorney Ralph DeFranco’s office Thursday.

Prosecutor’s spokesman Joseph Frolik said the investigation is ongoing, but he had no additional comment Thursday. A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 12.

Lt. Kevin York said police in Alabama have been in contact with the young man’s mother, who still lives in the Birmingham area. He said she has asked police not to release her name or address and has requested privacy.

“She was very happy that he had been found, quite ecstatic, but she was also somewhat hesitant because there had been so many false leads through the years,” York said.

When she reported him missing, she told police that Bobby Hernandez had come over to watch Julian, Evans said. He left her a note saying he had taken him and that was the last time she saw her son, Evans said. The two were not married, and police tried to locate Bobby Hernandez but couldn’t find an address, Evans said.

Officers received “hundreds of leads over the years of where he might be, from Florida to out of the country — Canada — and we followed up on every one of them, and they all turned out to be a dead end until I got the call Monday,” Evans said.

What happens next, in part, will be up to Julian Hernandez.

“He is 18, he is an adult, so it’s kind of up to him now as to whether he wants to come back,” Evans said.

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Lyda Towner

ELYRIA — A 16-year-old Elyria girl who ran away from home and was last seen Oct. 24 was found safe in Louisville, Ky., police said.

Police spokesman Capt. Chris Costantino said Lyda Towner met a man in his 20s online and he drove her from Elyria to Louisville. Elyria police contacted Louisville police who found Towner at a home in Louisville on Monday.

Costantino, who credited Elyria detectives for “good, hard-nosed police work” said the man wasn’t at the home when Louisville police arrived there. Costantino said the investigation is continuing, but no charges have been filed since Towner left on her own accord. Towner was returned to her family in Elyria.

“Hopefully, they can have a stronger dialogue with one another so this doesn’t happen again,” Costantino said. “There were some people who were very concerned and worried about her.”

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Cameron Friend died of injuries sustained in this crash, in a car driven by his friend Zachary Goodin. PHOTO COURTESY LORAIN POLICE

LORAIN — The driver in a July 13 crash that killed his 17-year-old passenger has been charged.

Zachary Goodin, 17, was arrested and charged today with aggravated vehicular homicide in the death of Cameron Friend, according to a news release from police Officer Kyle Gelenius.

Gelenius said Goodin was “joy riding” in a Honday on Kansas Avenue when he crashed.

Police said the Honda ran off Kansas Avenue and into a pole before re-entering the street and crashing into a parked Ford Explorer on the other side of the road.

The car continued on and ran into a house at 426 Kansas Ave. The Honda spun and struck a tree in the front yard before stopping.

Read Friday’s Chronicle-Telegram for the full story.

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ELYRIA — Convicted killer Donna Brown’s appeal has been reinstated by the 9th District Court of Appeals.

Donna Brown in court at the Lorain County Justice Center in April. CHRONICLE FILE

The appeals court threw out the appeal in September when it ruled that her lawyer had failed to file paperwork explaining why the court should hear the case.

But according to a court filing by attorneys John Mizanin Jr. and Harvey Bruner, they never received the court order telling them to file the explanation.

Brown was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison in May as part of a deal with prosecutors that spared her a possible death sentence after a jury found her guilty of aggravated murder and other charges for fatally shooting two of her cousins July 5, 2012.

Prosecutors had said that the appeal could jeopardize that plea agreement because Brown gave up most of her appeal rights when she signed the plea agreement.

The only issues Brown was allowed to appeal on were an ineffective defense and prosecutorial misconduct, which the law doesn’t permit her to waive.

In a separate court filing, her lawyers wrote that the appeal would focus on the defense presented by trial lawyer Jack Bradley.

Prosecutors argued that Brown was armed with a gun and wearing rubber cleaning gloves when she entered the Lorain home of Dale Linder Jr. and Justin Linder.

She first encountered Dale Linder Jr., whom she shot when he charged at her. She then went out the front door and shot Justin Linder after he stopped running from her.

Brown argued that she killed both men in self defense and that Justin Linder had pointed a gun at her. No weapon was recovered near Justin Linder’s body, and no other witnesses said they saw him with a gun.

Brown’s attorneys did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.

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A Liverpool Township man has been indicted on four counts of aggravated robbery, charged with robbing convenience stores and motels in Medina, Lorain and Cuyahoga counties.

Nathan Holsman

Nathan A. Holsman, 29, faces up to 11 years in prison on each charge.

He’s being held at the county jail on $1 million bond while awaiting arraignment. A court date has not been set.

Holsman first appeared in Wadsworth Municipal Court last week, where attorney Jeff Holland was appointed to represent him. Holland could not be reached for comment.

According to police, Holsman was allegedly shown in surveillance footage wearing a skull mask and wielding a knife to rob Circle K stores in Lodi and Eaton Township.

Holsman also is connected with robberies at motels in Strongsville and Medina Township, police said.

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LORAIN — The mother of 17-year-old fatal crash victim Cameron Friend is conflicted about the arrest of the driver.

“It’s sad,” Kelly Friend said several hours after police said 17-year-old driver Zachary Goodin was arrested and charged with aggravated vehicular homicide Thursday. “They were best friends, so it’s hard.”

Police Officer Kyle Gelenius, who investigated the crash, said Goodin was driving well over the posted 25 mph speed limit when he lost control and crashed on Kansas Avenue about 12:40 a.m. July 13. Goodin, of the 400 block of Idaho Avenue, was driving the Honda ULX belonging to his mother, Deborah Goodin, when he crashed.

Gelenius said the northbound Goodin accelerated as he approached the railroad tracks on Kansas Avenue and the Honda went airborne about 60 feet. Goodin lost control when the Honda landed.

He hit a curb, veered right off the road and struck a utility pole, according to Gelenius’ report. The Honda then traveled back onto the road. It veered left of center, striking a curb and running off the road and through the front yards of several homes.

The Honda then struck a parked, unoccupied Ford Explorer and caromed into the side of a house at 426 Kansas Ave. No one in the home was hurt. The Honda then spun and struck a tree in the front yard before stopping and catching fire.

Police extinguished the fire and removed Friend and Goodin from the Honda with help from several residents. Friend died after being hospitalized. Goodin was critically injured.

Cameron Friend died of injuries sustained in this crash, in a car driven by his friend Zachary Goodin. PHOTO COURTESY LORAIN POLICE

After the crash, nearby resident Paul Pelton was arrested and charged with vehicle trespass after being accused of entering the Honda to record the occupants on his phone. Pelton, who pleaded not guilty, said in a Facebook post that he posted the video online as a cautionary tale about the dangers of reckless driving.

In a related incident, Pelton was charged last month with bribery and intimidation of a witness. Pelton is accused of trying to persuade Goodin to tell police he had permission to enter the Honda in exchange for Pelton giving Goodin legal assistance.

Pelton is due in Lorain Municipal Court at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Deborah Goodin wouldn’t comment, but Friend said it was “terrible” of Pelton to video the crash aftermath.

Kelly Friend said her son had been planning to attend college after graduating from Lorain High School, but hadn’t decided on a major. She said he was often quiet around her, but liked to chat online with his friends.

Friend said her son and Zachary Goodin — released to his mother after being booked — had been friends since elementary school. They worked together at a Subway and were returning from a gym when they crashed.

Friend, who said Goodin’s family contacted her to give condolences after her son’s death, said the two were like brothers. Friend said she doesn’t condone Goodin’s driving, but said young people often speed.

Friend said if Goodin is convicted, she hopes he isn’t imprisoned. “We do stupid things that we regret,” she said.

Gelenius said he’s investigated several fatal crashes involving young people since becoming an officer in 2005. Gelenius said in a news release that he hopes Friend’s death will be a wake-up call to young drivers to slow down. “Sadly, Zachary Goodin is going to have to live with the regret of killing his best friend for the rest of his life,” he said.

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NEW ORLEANS — Marie picked up the phone and dialed the number the detective gave her 10 days before, on the night she was raped at knifepoint outside a friend’s house in New Orleans. It was the first of many calls Marie would make in an 18-year ordeal of shoddy police work and numbingly slow prosecution to track down and convict her attacker.

“Just checking to see if there are any leads, if you’ve caught anyone,” Marie recalls telling the detective.

“Nothing’s turned up yet,” he responded. “Why don’t you go on with your life?”

“What about testing the DNA? The rape kit?” she asked.

“We can’t. There’s no money for that,” the detective said.

The same rapist went on to attack at least six more women, including a 16-year-old raped three months after Marie.

For Marie, the trauma continued long after the assault and was compounded, she said, by the incompetence and callousness of the New Orleans Police Department.

“I felt like I was a problem,” the 60-year-old stockbroker said in an interview at her suburban New Orleans home. “They wanted me to just go away.”

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual assault. Marie agreed to be identified only by her middle name.

Largely through her own persistence — dozens of phone calls pushing police and prosecutors over nearly 16 years — did police finally nab the suspect: a serial rapist on the brink of walking free from prison.

Police detectives, supervisors and prosecutors who handled Marie’s case declined to comment.

Court and police documents reviewed by AP corroborate much of Marie’s story; and her account serves as a window onto the police force’s troubled sex crimes squad.

On Sept. 19, 1994, Marie had just returned to her hometown of New Orleans for a job interview, having recently earned a master’s degree in finance. She drove to a friend’s house in a leafy, quiet Uptown neighborhood, parked and headed indoors.

A man walked by, then grabbed her from behind and put a knife to her throat. He pushed her off the sidewalk and into some bushes and told her: “I’ll kill you if you scream or look at me.” He raped her and fled.

Two patrolmen in a cruiser responded to the 911 call. The rape squad was called in. A detective took Marie, accompanied by her friend, to a hospital, where staff examined her and took DNA evidence.

And that was where the effort to find Marie’s attacker essentially stopped.

A 2010 U.S. Department of Justice investigation exposed a pattern of misconduct in the NOPD’s sex crimes unit, including downgrading rape complaints, failing to investigate rapes and blaming the crime on the victim. The probe also found about 800 rape kits sat untested, part of a nationwide backlog estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

In 2013, the scandal-plagued police department entered into a consent decree with federal authorities to clean up the squad. It sent untested kits off to labs and reopened cases. Detectives were given new training and the department said it was fixing its problems.

Nevertheless, a city inspector general’s report a year ago showed five detectives had failed to properly investigate hundreds of rape and child abuse cases between 2010 and 2013.

Howard Schwartz, a former FBI agent and the lead investigator, entered the unit unannounced earlier that year and found a department in disarray, with piles of files improperly processed and logged.

“The records were all over the place,” he said.

An internal police department review released in August located much of the missing investigative paperwork the inspector general’s office couldn’t find, but still the NOPD team found widespread failings. The department again vowed a thorough house-cleaning.

In August, Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered more changes to the sex crimes unit, including adding two new detectives, a DNA analyst and a supervisor.

In the years after her rape, Marie kept calling but always got the same response: Nothing new.

Finally, about a decade after her attack, she got a sympathetic cold case detective to send in her rape kit for testing.

It came back with a hit.

The man who raped her was locked up in Tennessee. His name was Jimmie Spratt.

Marie’s painful saga wasn’t over. Hurricane Katrina interrupted the investigation. Then the prosecutor who had interviewed Marie left the district attorney’s office. It took three years for another prosecutor to show interest in her case.

Finally, with Spratt’s release from prison in Tennessee approaching in 2010, Marie was invited to the district attorney’s office for the first time.

Spratt was brought to New Orleans. He was convicted March 9, 2012, of three counts of aggravated rape and sentenced to life in prison without parole at Angola State Penitentiary, where he remains.

Marie has become an advocate for rape victims. She speaks on their behalf at meetings reviewing the Justice Department consent decree. She wants to make sure rapists don’t get away with their crimes.

“What I’d really like to see now,” she said, “is some form of accountability that the reforms are actually resulting in more arrests and convictions.”

The post Justice denied: Victim waits 18 years for justice as serial rapist continues crimes appeared first on Chronicle-Telegram.

PHOTO PROVIDED
Gloria Svec, right, with her brother, Jim Mallos.

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — A North Ridgeville woman was shot to death Friday evening, and her husband has been charged with murder and felonious assault. Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

North Ridgeville police officers received a 911 call at 6:46 p.m. from a man stating that he had shot his wife. When they arrived at 5915 Jaycox Road, they found Gloria Svec, 69, lying unresponsive in the kitchen with multiple gunshot wounds.

Ronald Svec, 74, was taken into custody. North Ridgeville Fire Department confirmed they removed a woman from the home at 7:01 p.m. with “multiple gunshot wounds” and took her to St. John Medical Center in Westlake. A short time after being taken to the hospital, Gloria Svec was pronounced dead.

Ronald Svec is being held at the Lorain County Jail.

No further details were released Friday.

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ELYRIA — Former Lorain County Commissioner Michael Ross will be released from prison Nov. 18, a judge ordered Friday.

Ross’ prison sentence was cut from nine years to six years during a hearing before Visiting Judge Thomas Pokorny last month.

Michael Ross

Under the old sentence, Ross would have been released on Nov. 14, 2018, a date that Friday morning the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction still had listed as Ross’ release date on its website.

Prison system spokesman Scott Flowers said the paperwork forwarded to the Bureau of Sentence Computation after the new sentence was imposed was confusing, and the bureau had been seeking clarification.

After being contacted Friday by The Chronicle-Telegram, he said, the prison system again asked for an explanation, and Pokorny issued the order clarifying Ross’ sentence and when he should be released.

Defense attorney Anthony Baker said that Ross would actually have been entitled to be released even earlier this month had he been given credit for 14 days he spent in the Lorain County Jail while awaiting trial in 2005.

Although that issue was discussed during last month’s hearing, Jail Administrator Andy Laubenthal said the jail never received any paperwork from the court instructing jail officials to examine whether Ross should get credit for those 14 days.

Baker said that surprised him.

“We specifically talked about that in court,” he said.

Baker, who had urged Ross to be released in court filings, said he was pleased to learn Ross would be getting out, but that his client is upset with the idea he might have been kept imprisoned longer than he should have been. He said Ross has mentioned the possibility of suing for wrongful incarceration.

Another issue that still needs to be addressed, Baker said, is whether Ross will be on parole for three years or five years following his release from prison.

Ross originally was sentenced to 9½ years in prison following his 2009 conviction on public corruption charges that centered on bribes totaling $582,783 he took during his time as a county commissioner in exchange for steering county business, including construction of the Lorain County Justice Center, to Elyria businessman Larry Jones.

The 9th District Court of Appeals ruled in 2012 that errors in jury verdict forms used in the case for felony charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and conspiracy required those charges to be reduced in severity.

Pokorny restructured the sentence to give Ross nine years in prison, but Ross appealed again, arguing that the judge only should have been able to resentence him on the reduced charged covered in the first appeal. The appeals court agreed and ordered Pokorny to revisit the case only on the charges they’d ordered reduced.

That left Ross, a former attorney, with the six-year sentence he will complete later this month.

The post Ross to be released later this month appeared first on Chronicle-Telegram.

Christopher Cassell

ELYRIA — Four people who are accused of robbing an off-duty Lorain County Sheriff’s deputy who was soliciting a prostitute have been indicted.

The deputy, Christopher Cassell, resigned and pleaded no contest to a soliciting charge in Elyria Municipal Court just hours after reporting the Aug. 26 incident to Elyria police.

Dawn D. Gibson, the 44-year-old Lakewood woman whom Cassell reportedly made arrangements online to meet, is charged with aggravated robbery in the case. Dominique Mincy, 27, and Jordan Marquez, 21, both of Lorain, are charged with aggravated robbery, theft, tampering with evidence, having weapons under disability and assault.

The fourth person charged in the case is Raymond Smith, 39, of Elyria, who was indicted on charges of aggravated robbery, compelling prostitution, theft, tampering with evidence, having weapons under disability, promoting prostitution and assault.

Dominique Mincy

Jordan Marquez

Dawn D. Gibson

Cassell told police that he met a woman who identified herself as “Ashlee” on the website Craigslist and had made arrangements to meet her at the CareFree Inn in Elyria, formerly known as the Econolodge.

When he arrived at the motel, Cassell told police he paid Gibson $100, but before they could engage in sexual relations, Mincy, Marquez and Smith entered the room and attacked him.

Cassell reported that he was choked until he was unconscious and when he awoke an off-duty handgun he was carrying and his wallet were gone. The pistol has since been recovered.

After he reported the attack, police tracked down the four people now facing charges.

Cassell had been a part-time deputy for less than a year and had mostly worked security at the Lorain County Justice Center prior to his resignation.
Smith, Mincy and Marquez are being held at the Lorain County Jail, while court records indicate Gibson is free on bond. They are scheduled to be arraigned next week.

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NORTH RIDGEVILLE — A 74-year-old man jailed Friday night after reportedly fatally shooting his wife claimed in a call to police he fired after she came at him with a knife.

PHOTO PROVIDED
Gloria Svec, right, with her brother, Jim Mallos.

The 911 call, released Saturday by North Ridgeville police, was made at 6:46 p.m. Friday by a man, later identified by authorities as Ronald Svec, who stated he had just shot his wife. When police arrived at 5915 Jaycox Road, they found Gloria Svec, 69, lying unresponsive in the kitchen with multiple gunshot wounds.

The husband was taken into custody and has been charged with murder and felonious assault.

Police have offered no additional details about the shooting, but did provide audio of the 911 call made from the home.

“I just shot my wife,” the man identified as Ronald Svec said in the call. “She pointed a knife at me and I shot her.”

He then asked police to send an ambulance and hurry.

The husband also told a police dispatcher there was a child in the home at the time of the shooting.

“I got this baby here,” Ronald Svec said before he went silent for several seconds while the child could be heard crying in the background.

Ronald Svec can be heard telling the child to sit in a chair and not move before the line goes dead.

North Ridgeville Fire Department took Gloria Svec to St. John Medical Center in Westlake, where she was pronounced dead.

Ronald Svec is being held at the Lorain County Jail.

A family friend said in an email that the family would not make a comment, did not want to be contacted and is requesting privacy. An undated photo of Gloria Svec was provided, and she can be seen hugging her brother, Jim Mallos.

Friends and co-workers of Gloria Svec recount her as a sweet woman and grandmother.

“I worked with Gloria, and she was the sweetest person I know,” said Christina Morris. “She worked for Murray Ridge (Center) and loved her consumers very much. She was raising her grandson and that’s all she ever talked about.”

Stacy Smith, 28, of Avon, said Gloria Svec was an instructor at the Elyria facility.

“She always made everyone laugh and smile,” Smith said. “She really knew how to care about her consumers and how their lives could be changed for the better no matter what problem you have. The consumers were able to go to her and talk to her, and she would provide the best advice that life could offer. Everyone looked up to her as a compassionate woman with a great heart and warm smile.”

This is the second homicide police have investigated related to domestic disturbances in North Ridgeville this year.

In July, Timothy Hoff, 65, shot and killed 62-year-old Donna Roode before turning the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide. The couple had lived together at Roode’s Laurel Circle residence for a number of years, according to police, before Roode told Hoff to move out a few weeks before Hoff shot Roode to death.

The post Man jailed for shooting said wife threatened him (AUDIO) appeared first on Chronicle-Telegram.

VERMILION – Vermilion Police Capt. Michael Reinheimer has been suspended days after he proudly wore an “I support legalize 2016” button at a police auction.

This photo, posted on Legalize Ohio 2016’s Facebook page and reportedly provided by Vermilion Capt. Michael Reinheimer, shows a pot legalization advocacy pin next a Vermilion police badge. PHOTO PROVIDED

Reinheimer reported to work at 9 a.m. Monday and was promptly placed on administrative leave by Police Chief Chris Hartung.

Hartung said he is in the infancy of the investigation, but Reinheimer was not suspended because of his personal belief marijuana use should be legalized. There is a clear department policy against advocating political issues while on the job.

“Capt. Reinheimer has made no bones about his personal opinions on legalization and on more than one occasion has publicly made them known,” Hartung said. “But you cannot advocate for any political issue through your office. You can’t do that as a Civil Service employee.”

It was Saturday during a police auction when Reinheimer’s personal beliefs and profession allegedly collided.

Hartung said Reinheimer was working as the police auctioneer. He was wearing civilian clothes – and possibly a T-shirt with a marijuana leaf graphic – underneath his Police Department-issued jacket that bears his police badge, rank and department insignia.

Hartung said over the weekend he received several emails, complaints, notes and text messages about Reinheimer’s choice of clothing.

“I got the bulk of it on Sunday,” he said. “It’s all over Facebook, too.”

The public Facebook page of Legalize Ohio 2016 posted a picture of Reinheimer’s badge with the “I support legalize 2016” button.

“We got this picture from one of our fans who happens to be in law enforcement,” the post read. “We love our (law enforcement officer) friends.”

Calls to Legalize Ohio 2016 were not returned.

The message also included Reinheimer’s own personal support of the cause.

“I fully support the legalization of marijuana in Ohio,” the message attributed to Reinheimer said. “This button was given to me today before our Police Department’s auction. I proudly wore it on my uniform jacket for the whole auction to show my support. I took this pic (sic) today with my badge to let those who support legalization and to my fellow LEOs (sic) that we all need to stand together in support of a fair and open legalization measure that will provide the best opportunities to the citizens of Ohio. Divided we stand…..Together we RISE (sic).”

The move to legalize marijuana took a huge hit in Ohio. One week ago, voters across the state unequivocally shot down a measure that would have ended the prohibition on medicinal and recreational pot. Had Issue 3 passed, it would have limited growing marijuana to 10 locations across the state, including on a swath of land along the Black River in Lorain. Lorain County also would have seen the construction of a marijuana testing facility in Oberlin.

Proponents of legalization have maintained efforts to legalize will continue in the state.

Hartung said Reinheimer will be entitled to a pre-disciplinary hearing to respond to the allegations before the city administration decides what, if any, discipline Reinheimer should receive.

Legalize Ohio 2016’s Facebook message also included an updated reference to Reinheimer’s suspension.

“I am Captain Michael Reinheimer of the Vermilion Police Department. On Sat., Nov. 7 2015, I was given and wore a button on my uniform jacket to show my support for Legalization in 2016 while I conducted our annual police auction,” the post said. “Today I was placed on administrative leave by the Mayor of the City of Vermilion Eileen Bulan … specifically for showing my support for legalization by wearing this pin… Right now your support would be appreciated. I stand tall behind my beliefs and my support is unconditional. Please share with anyone who supports legalization.”

As of 3 p.m. Monday, the message received 556 likes, was shared 339 times and garnered 61 comments from Facebook supporters.

“The captain is a wonderful man,” wrote one commenter who identified herself as a Vermilion resident. “He does his job very well. I’ve lived in Vermilion for awhile and love it a lot. Good luck captain we’re all behind you and the rest of your force. You’re all doing a great job.”

Others spoke of calling Bulan. The number to Vermilion City Hall was included in the public post.

Hartung said employees are not allowed to utilize the department to advocate for any political issue regardless of any potential controversy.

“It would lead people to believe the Vermilion Police Department is advocating for a political issue,” he said. “If you want to go door-to-door or support the issue on your personal time, so be it.”

Reinheimer was suspended earlier this year after he was caught driving with a suspended license in Erie County. He was also ordered to write a letter of apology to the city.

The post Officer placed on leave for pot pin appeared first on Chronicle-Telegram.

A man is taken into custody by Elyria police as the robbery of the Circle K on Broad Street is investigated Monday afternoon. BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE

ELYRIA — A license plate number tip provided by a witness helped police arrest two robbery suspects Monday.

A police report was unavailable Monday night, but police Lt. Lee Frank said a witness called police about the plate of the getaway car used in the robbery of the Circle K, 402 E. Broad St., about 4:40 p.m. Monday. The call led police to the home of suspect Robert Fisher in the 1200 block of Middle Avenue.

Police said two men wearing gray hooded sweatshirts and red shirts or red masks to hide their faces, robbed the store. Frank said they implied they had weapons, but none were found. No one was hurt in the incident.

Fisher, 26, and Elyria resident Dalton Rudy, 24, of the 200 block of Gates Avenue, were each charged with aggravated robbery. Both were being held without bond in Lorain County Jail on Monday night.

Investigators confer following a robbery at the Circle K on Broad Street in Elyria on Monday morning. BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE

They are due in Elyria Municipal Court at 9 a.m. today.

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ELYRIA — A Lorain County Common Pleas jury found Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll guilty Monday of three counts of endangering children in the death of 2-year-old Demarius Boone.

Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll

After three days of deliberations, jurors in the case found Walton-Kirkendoll guilty of felony and misdemeanor counts of endangering children but acquitted him of involuntary manslaughter in the Oct. 12, 2012, death of the child.

Walton-Kirkendoll was found guilty of one felony count of endangering children involving Demarius, and two misdemeanor counts of endangering children, which applied to two other children in the apartment at the time. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 14.

“Any verdict is worthy of respect,” defense attorney Michael Stepanik said. “I know the jurors worked very hard to reach this decision. It was not an easy case for anyone to be involved with. Any time a case deals with the death of a 2-year-old, nothing good can ever come out of it.”

During the trial, Stepanik argued Walton-Kirkendoll tried to assist Demarius after returning to the apartment — even though Stepanik allowed the suspect may not have offered adequate help to the child.

Demarius Boone

Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Sherry Glass argued Walton-Kirkendoll left the children in the apartment while he stepped across the hall to a party in another apartment to get “hammered.”

Glass also argued the defendant failed in a critical way by not calling 911 to seek help for the badly-injured child, who died from blunt force injuries, including a broken back, a fractured bone and ingesting a lethal amount of alcohol, according to prosecutors.

Walton-Kirkendoll had admitted he left a unit at Chadwick Apartments for about 20 minutes where he had been watching Demarius Boone and two other children to attend a party across the hall.

Stepanik said he doesn’t yet know whether he’ll appeal.

“I haven’t even given thought to an appeal at this point. I’m still taking in what happened,” he said.

The post Walton-Kirkendoll found guilty of child endangerment, acquitted of involuntary manslaughter appeared first on Chronicle-Telegram.

LORAIN — With about seven weeks left in the year, Lorain Municipal Court collection fees for Lorain’s general fund are nearly $571,000 less than the $1.41 million revenue city officials budgeted for.

Annual revenue from collections averaged roughly 98 percent of what was budgeted for between 1995 and 2012, according to Auditor Department records. However, revenue declined to about 81 percent of estimates in 2013, the year court computer software problems began.

Revenue was about 82 percent last year when a computer crash led to 90,000 records being lost and a massive retrieval effort began. About 59 percent of revenue has been collected this year.

Auditor Ron Mantini mentioned the low revenue at Monday’s City Council Finance & Claims Committee meeting. Mantini said after the meeting that he wants to find out if the decline is due to a lack of revenue or problems collecting it because of the crash.

“We need all the money we can get this year,” Mantini said.

Less collection revenue would come at a bad time for Lorain, which has a $33 million annual budget and about 450 workers for a city of 64,000. Lorain has lost about $1 million in revenue this year due to hundreds of layoffs at Republic Steel and U.S. Steel’s Lorain Tubular Operations earlier this year.

Money from recycled steel byproducts from the former RTI steel mill is about $1.3 million less than the $2 million projected due to a worldwide drop in demand.

Mantini said it’s too early to say how the city will compensate if collections don’t meet projections. Mantini said he and Mayor Chase Ritenauer are working on a plan, which includes dealing with less steel plant revenue. Ritenauer said last week that he’s hoping to avoid layoffs or service cuts next year, but nothing is off the table.

Mantini said he’s planning to meet Thursday with Court Clerk Lori Maiorana to discuss the low revenue and the court’s failure to reconcile its books to its bank accounts in 2013 and last year. Ohio Auditor’s Office annual audits cited the deficiencies in its annual audits of Lorain the last two years.

Maiorana didn’t return calls Monday night.

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