ELYRIA — The city’s police chief has recommended that indicted Elyria police Officer Tom Orsik be fired.

Tom Orsik

Chief Duane Whitely made the recommendation after Orsik, 41, refused to answer questions during an internal investigation into the allegations that led to charges he had solicited sex from three women and stalked a fourth.

Whitely wrote in his recommendation that Orsik was told that because of what is known as the Garrity rule, nothing he said as part of the internal probe could be used against him in the criminal case.

“Ptlm. Orsik was explained that refusing to answer any questions reference to this matter is in and of itself insubordination and could results (sic) in his termination,” Whitely wrote.

“Ptlm. Orsik stated that he understood.”

Whitely referred questions about the disciplinary process to Safety Service Director Mary Siwierka, who will make the final determination about what Orsik’s fate with the city will be.

Siwierka said she has met with Orsik and still needs to review documentation from the investigation before making a decision.

Orsik, who has been on paid leave since September, has pleaded not guilty to a string of felony and misdemeanor charges ranging from bribery and solicitation to dereliction of duty and telecommunications harassment.

He’s accused of paying three women for sex between 2009 and earlier this year. One of those women acknowledged in an interview with The Chronicle-Telegram that she had sexual relations with Orsik and that he gave her money, but insisted that it wasn’t prostitution because the money wasn’t given for sex.

Orsik also arranged for her to be bonded out of the Lorain County Jail where she was being held on a drug charge.

The woman who has accused Orsik of stalking her has said that she first met him when he was assigned to investigate her concerns about a relative’s drug use.

That later led to him asking her for sex, calling and texting her and peeping in her windows, the woman has said.

Earlier this week, a county magistrate refused to grant a civil stalking protection order against Orsik that the woman had sought after he determined she hadn’t presented enough evidence to support the request. Orsik is still barred from having any contact with the woman under the terms of his bond.

The police union attorney representing Orsik in his disciplinary case could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is one of only two large cities in the country that do not equip officers with stun guns, a situation the city’s police chief wants to change after police fatally shot a knife-wielding stabbing suspect last week.

Police Chief Greg Suhr publicly renewed a call Wednesday night to add the weapon to his department’s arsenal, exactly one week after five officers shot and killed 26-year-old Mario Woods in the city’s Bayview neighborhood. The shooting was captured on video and circulated widely online, fueling community protests and calls for the chief’s resignation.

The police chief said the fatal shooting could have been avoided if the responding officers had been equipped with Taser stun guns, which deliver 50,000 electrical volts and are designed to temporarily incapacitate suspects without killing them.

Critics say the weapon sometimes kills suspects in poor health and officers can mistake it for a gun, with fatal consequences. Civil rights groups and community activists say that, instead of more equipment, police need additional training in crisis intervention and how to defuse confrontations between police and armed suspects who sometimes are mentally disturbed or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Suhr and three of his predecessors previously failed to win the police commission authorization for stun guns even as the vast majority of the nation’s law enforcement agencies have been outfitting officers with the weapon, which is shaped like a handgun and often is holstered on the officer’s gun belt. Previous police commissions rejected use of the Taser, saying they were concerned the weapon could kill and maim suspects, especially those with heart conditions.

Some law enforcement experts say Tasers cannot prevent all use of deadly force by police but are useful in some circumstances.

“It’s a good tool,” said Jay Wachtel, a criminologist at California State University, Fullerton. “The problem is that they don’t practice enough with them.”

Wachtel said stun guns are designed for the situation— a man with a knife surrounded in close quarters by police officer — that led to the fatal shooting of Woods.

In the Dec. 2 shooting, Suhr said the Taser probably would have been an effective tool in disarming Woods without gun fire.

Police encountered Woods less than an hour later on a street carrying a knife. Police said Woods ignored demands to drop the knife he was carrying, even after he was pepper sprayed and shot with bean bags full of lead pellets.

Suhr said police with guns drawn opened fire when it appeared Woods was raising the knife and approaching one of the officers.

The five officers who fired their guns have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of three investigations into the shooting, which was captured by video by at least two witnesses.

Suhr appeared at a police commission meeting Wednesday and publicly renewed his call for police officers to be equipped with Tasers and said that a group is reviewing the department’s use-of-force policies and should have a draft ready by January. The seven member board, which is appointed by the mayor and the city’s board of supervisors, disciplines officers and sets policy.

Commissioner Petra DeJesus said stun guns often “open up a lot more problems than they solve,” when officers misuse the weapon. DeJesus called for a review and revision of the police department’s use-of-force policies and procedures.

Hundreds of people outside the City Hall meeting demanded Suhr’s resignation and lit candles in Woods’ memory.

Woods’ cousin, Jeff Stewart, echoed the protesters’ calls for Suhr to resign and said the family also wants the five officers who fired their guns to be charged.

“He was a person. He deserves to be breathing,” Stewart shouted during the hours-long, emotional meeting that was at times interrupted by chants of “Fire Chief Suhr! Fire Chief Suhr!”

The family is asking that the police department pay for Woods’ funeral and that federal authorities investigate the case, Stewart said.

He said his family also wants Suhr to personally apologize to Woods’ mother.

Suhr said he has spoken to Woods’ mother and apologized for her son’s death.

“Why did they shoot?” asked Shawn Richard, head of the nonprofit Brother Against Guns. “There were a whole a range of things they could have done to defuse the situation before shooting.”

Richard said he supports outfitting police with Tasers.

But others do not want police in San Francisco to have stun guns.

Local NAACP President Rev. Amos Brown called Suhr’s plan to equip officers with Tasers and other gear such as plastic shields “too simplistic.” Brown said at an NAACP-organized meeting this week that the department has failed to implement diversity recruiting, sensitivity training and other suggestions made by the group.

“You don’t need a shield, you need sense,” Brown said. “Not just Tasers, you need trust. And this community does not trust the police.”

Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle said San Francisco and Detroit are the only two cities with populations of more than 500,000 that do not use stun guns. Detroit police were barred from using stun guns after community activists opposed their use on safety grounds.

“It’s by no means a magic bullet,” Tuttle said. “But it’s a useful tool for police.”

Nearly all police departments purchase stun guns from Taser, which is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Taser has sold 2.9 million Tasers since 1993, and 17,800 law agencies have them.

Some smaller departments don’t have the budget to acquire the weapons, which can cost about $1,000.

There also have been cases where officers said they confused their handgun with their Taser and ended up fatally shooting a suspect.

Northern California transit police officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after he shot to death passenger Oscar Grant on Jan. 1, 2009. Mehserle said he fired his service weapon when he meant to stun Grant with his Taser.

In San Francisco, Suhr said officers had no other weapons at their disposal except their handguns after pepper spray and bean bags failed to stop and disarm Woods. Suhr said it appears officers fired their guns after Woods refused commands to drop a knife and appeared to raise the hand holding it.

Community members and neighbors who have viewed the video argue that Woods appeared to be hurt and not a threat and have voiced their frustrations. The city’s public defender also said it appeared that the shooting was not necessary.

Suhr noted that London police were able to stop a knife attack this past week in that city’s subway by shooting the suspect with a stun gun.

“If that exact same incident happened here in San Francisco,” Suhr said, “we would have nothing but lethal force. So we would like to have Tasers.”

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The man accused of killing three people in an attack on a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic defied his own defense attorney in court, declaring himself a “warrior for the babies” who would not be silenced by the lawyer tasked with potentially saving his life.

Robert Dear, 57, repeatedly interrupted public defender Daniel King and accused him of seeking a gag order in the case to conceal what Dear portrayed as Planned Parenthood’s crimes that led to the Nov. 27 assault. The conflict added a new level of turmoil to a politically charged case that has already sparked debate about when political speech becomes a call for violence.

“You’ll never know what I saw in that clinic,” a bearded, unkempt and shackled Dear yelled on Wednesday in one of more than a dozen outbursts as King successfully argued for the gag order by contending that public discussion of the investigation could prejudice potential jurors. “Atrocities. The babies. That’s what they want to seal.” A deputy squeezed Dear’s shoulder in an effort to quiet him.

King appeared to be trying to follow the same playbook he used in his defense of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes, whom he convinced a jury earlier this year to spare from execution on the grounds of his mental illness. But, as Dear was formally charged with 179 counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and other crimes that could lead to the death penalty, he was having none of it.

“Do you know who this lawyer is?” Dear exclaimed of King. “He’s the lawyer for the Batman shooter. Who drugged him all up. And that’s what they want to do to me.”

Holmes was on anti-psychotic medication this year during his trial for the 2012 shootings that killed 12 people and wounded 70. He was sentenced to life in prison.

“Seal the truth, huh? Kill the babies. That’s what Planned Parenthood does,” Dear yelled later. At another point, he snapped at King: “You’re trying silence me.” Then he said: “Let’s let it all come out. Truth!”

King did not directly address the outbursts, though at one point during a break he leaned over to Dear and said: “I know what you’re trying to do; it’s not going to work.” King raised doubts about whether Dear is competent to stand trial, saying defense attorneys wanted investigators to turn over evidence as soon as possible so they could assess the “depth of his mental illness.”

Colorado Springs police have refused to discuss a potential motive in the Nov. 27 attack, which wounded nine and killed three. But even before Wednesday’s startling outbursts, there was mounting evidence that Dear was deeply concerned about abortion.

He rambled to authorities about “no more baby parts” after his arrest. And a law enforcement official told The Associated Press this week that Dear asked at least one person in a nearby shopping center for directions to the clinic before opening fire. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Dear interjected as Judge Gilbert A. Martinez discussed a pretrial publicity order, saying, “Could you add the babies that were supposed to be aborted that day? Could you add that to the list?”

At one point, Dear yelled simply, “Protect babies!”

Later, he accused his attorneys of being in “cahoots” with Planned Parenthood to “shut me up.”

“I want the truth to come out. There’s a lot more to this than for me to go silently to the grave,” he shouted.

Dear has lived in remote locations without electricity or running water and was known to hold survivalist ideas.

One of his three ex-wives, Barbara Mescher Micheau of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, said he vandalized a South Carolina abortion clinic at least 20 years earlier, announcing to her that he had put glue in the locks of its doors, a common protest technique among activists trying to shut down abortion clinics.

Killed in the attack were Garrett Swasey, 44, a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs officer who rushed to the scene; Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, an Iraq war veteran who was accompanying someone at the clinic; and Jennifer Markovsky, 35, who also accompanied a friend at the clinic.

Five other officers were shot and wounded in the rampage.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said Monday that responding officers rescued 24 people from inside the clinic building and helped remove 300 people from surrounding businesses where they had been hiding while the shooting unfolded.

Martinez set the next hearing for Dear for Dec. 23. A first-degree murder conviction can lead to life in prison or the death penalty.

At the end of Wednesday’s hearing, the judge looked at Dear and said, “Are you finished?”

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AVON LAKE — Authorities arrested a Sheffield Lake man for allegedly breaking into several Avon Lake businesses on Thanksgiving morning.

Brendon Jasko

Brendon Jasko, 20, is facing felony breaking and entering and burglary charges for breaking into a local liquor store, gas station and restaurant and burglarizing a Lear Road home earlier in November.

Police say Jasko stole cash, lottery tickets and cigarettes from the businesses, but did not indicate what was taken from the home.

The string of break-ins occurred at Larry’s Liquor Agency, Shell Gas and Salad Craze. Attempted break-ins also occurred at a Subway restaurant and Avon Lake Food Mart.

Nearby in Sheffield Lake on that same night, someone also broke into Shree Quick Mart. Store owners at the time told The Chronicle-Telegram that video surveillance appeared to indicate the same person who broke into the Avon Lake stores also was the culprit.

Sheffield Lake Police Chief Tony Campo said police are still gathering evidence on business break-ins in his city, but he declined to say whether Jasko is a suspect.

“We have a suspect and are putting a case together for a grand jury but we have not arrested anyone,” Campo said.

Avon Lake police Sgt. Reed Reikowski said Jasko initially denied any involvement in the Avon Lake crimes. But after additional questioning, Reikowski said Jasko confessed to breaking into three Avon Lake businesses, although he adamantly denied involvement in the break ins at Subway or Avon Lake Food Mart.

Reikowski said Jasko redeemed some of his stolen lottery tickets at the Speedway gas station on Walker Road, and police were able to retrieve clear video images of him doing so.

The images were shared on law enforcement social media sites, and many people in the public called police to identify Jasko, Reikowski said.

“We got a ton of information and help from citizens who said it looked like Brendon Jasko,” he said. “We live in a digital age, and everything is recorded. The help from the public is appreciated.”

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ELYRIA — Police are investigating two burglaries that happened early Wednesday morning.

About 2:14 a.m., a woman was watching television in her home on the 800 block of Prospect Street when she heard a noise coming from the basement.

The woman told police when she opened the basement door, she saw a man wearing a mask. He then left the residence on foot, and the woman called the police.

Officers found a rear basement window broken, according to a report.

According to police, the man made off with a few presents that were being stored in the basement.

At 6:08 a.m., in the 100 block of Greenway Drive, a woman awoke to find a man rummaging through her husband’s closet.

The woman told police the man left after he noticed she was awake.

According to police, a suitcase filled with important personal documents was taken during the break-in.

In the second break-in, police said there was no evidence of forced entry. However, an exterior door to the house may have been left unlocked by mistake.

In both cases, the suspect did not say anything or harm the people in the house.

Police are unsure if the two incidents are related but did note the two homes are not close.

Both incidents remain under investigation.

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The attorney for a Medina man accused of leaving his deceased infant daughter in her crib for a month and a half has asked a Medina County judge to reduce bond so he can be free while awaiting trial.

Eric Warfel

Attorney Michael O’Shea asked Common Please Judge Christopher J. Collier to reduce bond from $1 million to $200,000. According to a motion filed Wednesday, O’Shea and the county prosecutor’s office have agreed on the reduced bond.

If bond is reduced, 34-year-old Eric Warfel would be released from jail and take up residence at an undisclosed mental health facility. His family would front $20,000 — 10 percent of his reduced bond — and he would submit to a GPS ankle bracelet while awaiting trial.

Warfel’s trial is scheduled tentatively for January.

He faces charges of gross corpse abuse, evidence tampering, cocaine possession and three counts of child endangering.

Warfel pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in August, but an evaluation by the Akron Psycho-Diagnostic Clinic found him fit to stand trial.

Ember Warfel

Warfel is accused of failing to contact law enforcement and medical professionals after he found his 20-month-old daughter, Ember, dead in her crib in mid-June. Her “badly decomposed” body was discovered July 29 in a Forest Meadows Apartment Homes unit, police said.

Ember’s body was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office, which has not yet ruled on her cause of death.

Prosecutors have said Warfel could face additional charges based on the results of the girl’s autopsy.

Another of Warfel’s children, 5-month-old Erin, was found dead in March 2013.

Her death was ruled “sudden unexplained infant death, sustained in a manner undetermined,” and no charges were filed.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The teenager’s mother clapped her hands and screamed with joy as she watched an Oklahoma City jury convict a former police officer of raping her daughter and sexually assaulting seven other women.

Minutes after 29-year-old Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty, the mother of his youngest accuser said she hoped the case would show that the problem of police sexual misconduct wasn’t limited to one officer or one department.

“It’s a problem for the nation,” she told The Associated Press.

Holtzclaw was convicted Thursday night of preying on the teenager and other women he met on his police beat in a minority, low-income neighborhood. He could spend the rest of his life in prison based on the jury’s recommendation that he serve a total of 263 years, including a 30-year sentence on each of four first-degree rape convictions.

In total, the jury convicted Holtzclaw of 18 counts connected to eight of the 13 women, all of whom were black, who testified against him. Jurors acquitted him on 18 other counts. He sobbed as the verdict was read aloud.

His case brought new attention to the problem of sexual misconduct committed by law enforcement officers, something police chiefs have studied for years.

Holtzclaw’s case was among those examined in an Associated Press investigation of sexual misconduct by law enforcement. The AP’s yearlong probe revealed about 1,000 officers had lost their licenses for sex crimes or other sexual misconduct over a six-year period.

The AP’s finding is undoubtedly an undercount of the problem. Not every state has a process for banning problem officers from re-entering law enforcement. And of those states that do, great variations exist in whether officers are prosecuted or reported to their state licensing boards.

A common thread among cases of police sexual misconduct was they involved victims who were among society’s most vulnerable: juveniles, drug addicts, and women in custody or with a criminal history.

That’s exactly who authorities accused Holtzclaw of targeting.

After receiving a report from a grandmother who said Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sex during a traffic stop, police identified a dozen other women who said Holtzclaw had victimized them.

The youngest was the 17-year-old girl. She was the last to testify at Holtzclaw’s trial.

The girl recalled Holtzclaw pulling up in his police car as she walked home one night in June 2014. Holtzclaw drove her to her family’s home and walked her to the porch, where he told her he had to search her. She said he grabbed her breasts, then pulled down her pink shorts and raped her.

She testified that he asked if it was the first time she had ever had sex with a cop. Her DNA was found on his uniform trousers.

Adams asked the girl during the trial about perceived inconsistencies in her testimony as well as her use of drugs. She pushed back at one point, telling him, “I’m really getting upset by the way you’re coming after me.”

The jury convicted Holtzclaw of first-degree rape, second-degree rape and sexual battery in the girl’s case.

Her mother said her daughter didn’t want to talk about the case anymore, but that she was relieved about the conclusion of a “long journey to justice.”

“I feel like justice has been served today,” she said. “It is a comfort to us all.”

The AP generally does not identify victims of sex crimes and is not using the mother’s name so as not to identify her daughter.

Several of Holtzclaw’s accusers had been arrested or convicted of crimes, and his attorney made those issues a cornerstone of his defense strategy. Adams questioned several women at length about whether they were high when they allegedly encountered Holtzclaw. He also pointed out that most did not come forward until police identified them as possible victims after launching their investigation.

Ultimately, that approach did not sway the jury to dismiss all the women’s stories.

Holtzclaw was convicted of one of two charges related to a woman who testified he gave her a ride home, then followed her into her bedroom where he forced himself on her and raped her, telling her, “This is better than county jail.”

That woman testified in orange scrubs and handcuffs because she had been jailed on drug charges hours before appearing in court. But the jury still convicted Holtzclaw of forcible oral sodomy in her case.

Adams declined to comment after the verdict was read.

Holtzclaw, who turned 29 on Thursday, was a former college football star who joined law enforcement after a brief attempt at pursuing an NFL career. He was fired before the trial began.

His father — a police officer in Enid, about 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City — his mother and sister were in the courtroom as the verdict was read. At least one accuser was present, as well as several black community leaders.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said after the verdict that Holtzclaw’s attorneys were responsible for ensuring there was an all-white jury considering the case. Some supporters of the women questioned whether the jury would fairly judge their allegations. Holtzclaw is half-white, half-Japanese.

Prater said he wanted a jury that was a “good cross-section of our community,” but defense attorneys eliminated every potential black juror during the selection process.

He added that he hoped the case showed that his office and local law enforcement will stand up for any one, no matter their race or background.

“I don’t care what they look like, where they go to church, what god they worship, or how much money they make,” he said. “We stand up for people in this community.”

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NEW YORK — A judge on Friday barred daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel from doing business in New York, ordering the country’s two biggest fantasy sports companies to stop taking bets after the state’s attorney general argued their operations were illegal gambling.

State Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez’s order siding with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman comes amid increasing debate about whether customers who participate in the popular online fantasy sports games are competitors or bettors.

Mendez noted in the order that the sites were still allowed to operate in other states where allowed.

“The balancing of the equities are in favor of the NYAG and the State of New York due to their interest in protecting the public, particularly those with gambling addictions,” Mendez wrote.

Schneiderman had argued that the sites were placing bets labeled as “entrance fees” to make it seem like it wasn’t gambling.

Messages seeking comment from Boston-based DraftKings and New York-based FanDuel were not immediately returned.

The companies have 30 days to respond.

Last month, Schneiderman sent Boston-based DraftKings and New York-based FanDuel cease-and-desist letters after it was revealed in October that a DraftKings employee won $350,000 in a fantasy football contest hosted by FanDuel, raising questions about insider training. The companies have since prohibited their employees from playing on rival sites and conducted an internal probe, saying there was no cheating.

In a court hearing last month before Mendez, lawyers for both companies argued daily fantasy sports were highly competitive games of skill and submitted numerous affidavits by game theory and mathematics professors who detailed how only a few players win a vast majority of the time.

But the attorney general’s office said that alone wasn’t enough to make the games legal, since ultimately how customers fare depends on events out of their control, such as professional athletes’ injuries, weather or even blown calls.

Other states have moved to regulate the online daily fantasy sports companies after both DraftKings and FanDuel mounted an aggressive advertising campaign ahead of the 2015 NFL season. In Massachusetts, lawmakers have proposed specific regulations to protect consumers while regulators in Nevada have restricted their business to existing casinos.

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ELYRIA — Tom Orsik was fired from his job as an Elyria police officer Friday, just weeks after he was indicted on charges he solicited sex from three women and stalked a fourth.

CHRONICLE FILE
Elyria police officer Tom Orsik appears in court with his attorney Kenneth Lieux, for an arraignment Thursday.

Safety Service Director Mary Siwierka wrote in her letter to Orsik that he was being fired not only for violating a string of Police Department policies, but also for insubordination because he refused to discuss the allegations against him as part of an internal probe into his actions.

Police officers are required to answer questions when they are the subject of internal investigations; the statements they make in those proceedings can’t be used against them in criminal cases.

Bob Phillips, the police union attorney representing Orsik, said he plans to file a grievance challenging the termination. He said the city should have waited to see how the criminal case against Orsik played out before deciding his fate with the Police Department.

Phillips also said the internal probe may have been “contaminated” by the criminal investigation, which led to Orsik being placed on paid leave in September.

“They’re supposed to keep a firewall between criminal investigations and internal investigations and I’m not sure that happened in this case,” he said.

Although Orsik declined to discuss the allegations against him when he was questioned, he did deny wrongdoing during a meeting with Police Chief Duane Whitely and other high-ranking officers last week.

“I want to apologize for all this time that has gone on here and all the grief and the embarrassment that it has caused the department,” Orsik said, according to a transcript of that meeting. “But, unfortunately, there is not a lot I can say in this situation, and I hope you guys understand.”

Orsik also said thanked the city for hiring him back in 2006.

“Even with all this, the only place I want to be is right here,” he said, according to the transcript. “I want to be back to work, and that’s what I want to do.”

Orsik, 41, fell under scrutiny earlier this year after police began looking into his relationship with three women, whom the indictment handed down in November accuses him of paying for sex. He’s also accused in one instance of bribing one of the women earlier this year.

That woman told The Chronicle-Telegram in an interview that Orsik arranged to bond her out of the Lorain County Jail, where she was being held on drug charges.

The woman didn’t deny she had sexual relations with Orsik and that he gave her money, but she insisted the money wasn’t given to her because of the sex.

Orsik is also accused of stalking another woman, whom he met when he was assigned to investigate her concerns about a relative’s drug use. The woman said during a court hearing earlier this week that Orsik came to her house a few weeks later and asked her to have sex with him, which she refused.

She said after that Orsik would drive by her house, peep in her windows, send her text messages and call her.

A magistrate refused to issue a civil stalking protection order against Orsik, which the woman had requested after finding that there wasn’t enough evidence to show her complaints against Orsik took place in a close period of time.

Orsik is still barred from having any contact with the woman because of a no-contact order that is a condition of his bond.

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NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a 51-year-old Cleveland man who was killed while walking on Lorain Road.

According to police, the 51-year-old man was attempting to cross Lorain Road, west of Lear Nagle Road, when he was struck by two vehicles around 9:13 p.m. Saturday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The name of the victim is being held pending notification of relatives.

The accident remains under investigation and no other information was provided.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three-quarters of California’s paroled sex offenders previously banned from living near parks, schools and other places where children congregate now face no housing restrictions after the state changed its policy in response to a court ruling that said the prohibition only applies to child molesters, according to data compiled at the request of The Associated Press.

The rate is far higher than officials initially predicted. The state expected half of the 5,900 parolees would have restrictions on where they can live or sleep lifted when the corrections department changed its policy following the March ruling. Instead, data shows that 76 percent of offenders no longer are subject to the voter-approved restrictions.

Corrections officials said last spring that about half of the convicted sex offenders are considered child molesters who would still be subject to the housing ban.

But even some whose offense involved a child no longer face the 2,000-foot residency restriction, officials disclosed in explaining the higher number. That’s because the department’s new policy requires a direct connection between where a parolee lives and the offender’s crime or potential to reoffend. Only rarely is the assailant a stranger to the victim, the type of offender whose behavior might be affected by where he lives.

“A parole agent cannot simply prevent a parolee from living near a school or park because the offender committed a crime against a child,” Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Jeffrey Callison said in a statement.

The decision largely reverses a blanket housing ban imposed by California voters nine years ago. Many states impose a variety of residency restrictions on sex offenders, though states including Iowa, Georgia and Oklahoma rescinded or changed their residency restrictions and some now also tailor restrictions to individual sex offenders.

As a result of California’s policy change, more than 4,200 of the state’s 5,900 offenders no longer qualify for the residency restrictions, according to data compiled by the corrections department at the AP’s request. However, their whereabouts still are monitored with tracking devices and they must still tell local law enforcement agencies where they live.

One in five sex offenders who used to be transient have been able to find permanent housing because they are no longer subject to the rule, the department said.

“These numbers are absolutely astounding,” said state Sen. Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster, who co-authored the original ballot initiative. “Kids in kindergarten living across the street from a sex offender is not what the people voted for in Jessica’s Law. Seventy percent of the people voted to keep them away from schools and parks.”

The department spent months reviewing offenders’ criminal backgrounds before deciding that the ban should continue to apply to about 1,400 offenders. The department couldn’t provide the status of nearly 300 other offenders.

“That’s a pretty dramatic reduction in numbers, so that’s scary. That’s scary for victims,” said Nina Salarno, executive director of Crime Victims United of California.

She and Criminal Justice Legal Foundation president Michael Rushford, who represents crime victims, said the department is broadly interpreting the March court ruling, which applied only to San Diego County. Officials have refused to release the legal advice from the state attorney general that they are relying upon in making the decision.

In the March ruling, justices found that blanket restrictions violate offenders’ constitutional rights by making it difficult for them to find housing and other services, without advancing the state’s goal of protecting children. One of the San Diego County offenders sued after he was forced to live in a dry riverbed, while two others slept in an alley near the parole office.

Susan Fisher, a board member of the victims support group Citizens against Homicide, said she would have been surprised at the low number of parolees still facing residency restrictions had she not spent so much time as a parole commissioner and as victims’ rights adviser to former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Most people think “that around every corner is a child molester,” she said. Yet experts say most child molesters are family members or acquaintances of the victim.

Ending the blanket housing restriction tracks recommendations that have been made for years by the Sex Offender Management Board, an advisory panel made up of law enforcement and treatment professionals.

Board vice chairman Tom Tobin said California parole officers who are responsible for enforcing the prohibition are doing a much better job now of tracking sex offenders based on their individual risk.

Tobin, a psychologist who also is on the board of the California Coalition on Sexual Offending, said agents can still apply the housing ban where it makes sense, and the department said it still prohibits many offenders from having contact with minors or loitering near parks, schools or other places where children gather.

Tobin and Fisher said the public is safer with about 260 fewer transient sex offenders who now have been able to find housing since the rule changed.

“If somebody’s living under a bridge or going from one house to the next … we’re putting ourselves at greater risk,” Fisher said.

Runner disagreed. She intends to try again next year to pass stalled legislation that would let judges in each county decide if the 2,000-foot limit is too restrictive in their jurisdiction.

“Unfortunately, that many people coming from transient to living near schools is not good,” Runner said.

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LOS ANGELES — A black man who was fatally shot by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies kept holding a gun as he lay dying on the ground, authorities said Sunday in response to questions about why they continued to fire on the man after he fell to the pavement.

A close-up from security footage showed 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson stretched out on the ground with a gun in his hand. He died at the scene Saturday morning in the south Los Angeles suburb of Lynwood.

Two deputies fired 33 bullets at the man after he refused to drop the gun and walked across a busy street to a filling station where a family was pumping gas, homicide Capt. Steven Katz said.

“When he collapsed, his arms were underneath him, and the gun was still in his hand. There was never a time when the weapon was not in his possession,” Katz said.

Asked if the officers were white, Katz said no but would not elaborate. He said one had been working in the field for about a year, the other for about 18 months.

Police confronted Robertson as they investigated 911 calls from witnesses who saw a man firing a gun into the air. Witnesses said he was walking down a residential street and then through a busy commercial area holding the weapon and acting strangely.

Witnesses told authorities that Robertson reportedly fired six to seven rounds and briefly went into a car wash and a pizza parlor before deputies arrived.

Deputies spotted the man in front of the gas station, where two women and three children were inside a car, and they ordered him to drop the gun, Katz said. But he refused and at one point pointed the gun in the deputies’ direction, Katz added.

The gun was not registered to Robertson and has not been reported stolen. Detectives are trying to track it, Katz said.

Robertson may have been in a dispute at home with his spouse before he went out on the street, but authorities have yet to verify that report, Katz said.

Video, apparently from a cellphone, appeared on several media sites. It appears to show deputies firing about two dozen bullets, including several rounds after Robertson falls and is crawling on the ground.

“They shot him in his shoulder, and he was crawling,” Pamela Brown, Robertson’s mother-in-law, told Los Angeles television station KCAL. “He left three kids behind, two daughters and a son. What, they could have Tasered him or anything.”

Robertson’s wife declined to speak with the Associated Press, providing only a photo of their children. Earlier, she told the Los Angeles Times that her husband was a stay-at-home father who didn’t engage in crime.

“Anytime you see him, you see him with the kids,” Nekesha Robertson said. “He’d take them to and from school. Help them with homework. He’s a daddy — that’s his job. He didn’t do nothing else.”

Nekesha Robertson said her mother-in-law had called her shortly before the shooting to say her husband was under the influence of alcohol. She said she was on her way to get him and had stopped at the same gas station to buy milk before the shooting happened.

Other relatives said the shooting was unjustified and that Robertson may not have heard the deputies’ call to drop the gun.

“This man never turned at you and looked at you or pointed the gun at you. Nothing,” said Nekesha Robertson’s cousin, Monica Reddix. “What they did yesterday was … point-blank murder.”

Robertson’s death comes at a time of increasing criticism of police use of force after several killings of black men by officers have been caught on video in California and throughout the nation.

On Dec. 2, five San Francisco officers shot and killed Mario Woods, 26, in the city’s gritty Bayview neighborhood after they say he refused commands to drop an 8-inch knife he was carrying. Police were responding to a stabbing report when they encountered Woods. The shooting was caught by several bystanders, and their videos circulated online widely.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell promised the investigation into Robertson’s death would be handled “with the utmost professionalism and integrity” and urged anyone with information to come forward.

“In this modern age of cellphone video and instant analysis on the Internet, I would ask that we keep in mind that a thorough and comprehensive investigation is detailed and time intensive,” he said in a statement. “It will involve, not just one source of information, but numerous sources, potentially including multiple videos, physical evidence and eyewitness accounts.”

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ELYRIA – Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll was sentenced this morning to one year in prison on endangering children charges that stemmed from him leaving three children, one of whom later died, alone in an apartment three years ago.

BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE
Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll gets emotional as he makes a statement during his sentencing on child endangering charges.

An emotional Walton-Kirkendoll apologized to the family of 2-year-old Demarius Boone before Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Michele Silva Arredondo handed down the sentence.

“I’m sorry,” Walton-Kirkendoll said. “I wish I could do things differently.”

Assistant County Prosecutor Paul Griffin had argued for a harsher sentence, saying that Walton-Kirkendoll “abandoned” the three children on Oct. 12, 2012, when he went to a neighboring apartment to drink and smoke marijuana. He was supposed to be watching the children while their mother ran an errand.

Defense attorney Michael Stepanik, however, argued that the apartment Walton-Kirkendoll was at is only 3 to 5 feet away from where the three children were supposed to be sleeping.

Demarius died from a high level of alcohol in his system, a broken back and other injuries. It was never determined exactly how or when those injuries occurred or how he ended up drunk.

A jury cleared Walton-Kirkendoll of an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter during a trial earlier this year.

Read Tuesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

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NORTH RIDGEVILLE — North Ridgeville police identified the 51-year-old Cleveland man who was killed Saturday after being struck by a truck and a car on Lorain Road as Robert Murdoch.

Police say Murdoch was crossing Lorain Road near the Motel 6 at 9:13 p.m. when he was first hit by a westbound truck. Murdoch landed on the road, and was struck again by a car going eastbound, police said.

According to officers, it is not common for pedestrians to be walking at this point in the road. Because of proximity to the highways and Ohio Turnpike, there is often heavy vehicle traffic.

Police believe Murdoch was crossing to go to the Speedway gas station across the street.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation is still on-going, so the names of the drivers are not yet being released.

Police say they do not anticipate any charges for both drivers.

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ELYRIA — Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll was sentenced Monday to one year in prison on endangering children charges that stemmed from him leaving three children, one of whom later died, alone in an apartment three years ago.

BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE
Timothy Walton-Kirkendoll gets emotional as he makes a statement during his sentencing on child endangering charges.

An emotional Walton-Kirkendoll apologized to the family of 2-year-old Demarius Boone before Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Michele Silva Arredondo handed down the sentence.

“I’m sorry,” Walton-Kirkendoll said. “I wish I could do thing differently.”

A jury cleared Walton-Kirkendoll of an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter during a trial earlier this year.

Assistant County Prosecutor Paul Griffin had argued for a harsher sentence, saying that Walton-Kirkendoll “abandoned” the three children when he went to a neighboring apartment to drink and smoke marijuana. He was supposed to be watching the children while their mother ran an errand.

“The long and short of it, your honor, is that we’re here today because on Oct. 12 of 2012, the defendant wasn’t there,” Griffin told Arredondo.

Defense attorney Michael Stepanik, however, argued that the apartment Walton-Kirkendoll was in was only 3 to 5 feet away from where the three children were supposed to be sleeping.

Throughout the case, Stepanik has argued that if Walton-Kirkendoll had lived in a house rather than an apartment complex and had been that distance away when Demarius began to have trouble breathing, he wouldn’t have been charged.

He also said that Lorain County Children Services had been to the apartment of Demarius’ mother, Latoya Tillman, prior to the boy’s death and had found the children alone, and she never faced criminal charges.

Stepanik also said it’s hard to argue points like those given the emotional nature of a child’s death.

“I get it,” he said. “A 2-year-old is dead, and someone needs to be prosecuted.”

Demarius died from a high level of alcohol in his system, a broken back and other injuries.

It was never determined exactly how or when those injuries occurred or how he ended up drunk, but Stepanik has suggested that alcohol could have been administered to the boy rectally in an effort to get him to go to sleep.

During the trial, prosecutors suggested that while Walton-Kirkendoll was out of the apartment, someone could have entered and sexually assaulted the boy.

Although there were signs of trauma on the boy’s rectum, no DNA evidence tied Walton-Kirkendoll to a sexual assault. Walton-Kirkendoll suggested to Elyria police that Demarius may have consumed a glass of vodka and juice he’d left on a table in the apartment when he left.

Walton-Kirkendoll also said that the boy smelled of alcohol when he found him upon his return to the apartment.

Walton-Kirkendoll told police that when he found Demarius, the boy appeared to have vomited and was struggling to breathe. Prosecutors were highly critical of his decision to try to revive the boy by splashing water on his face instead of calling 911.

Tillman contacted the authorities after she called Walton-Kirkendoll when she was a few minutes from home, and he told her that Demarius was ill.

Arredondo said children are vulnerable and deserve protection from the adults in their lives.

“Adults are expected to put the needs of children ahead of their own wants and needs,” she said.

Stepanik said his client intends to appeal his conviction.

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NEW YORK — While big-city jails get most of the attention, lockups in small and medium-sized counties have actually driven the overall explosion in the U.S. inmate population, according to a new analysis of 45 years of jail statistics.

U.S. jails now hold nearly 700,000 inmates on any given day, up from 157,000 in 1970, and the Vera Institute of Justice found that smaller counties now hold 44 percent of the overall total, up from just 28 percent in 1978.

Jail populations in mid-sized counties with populations of 250,000 to 1 million residents grew by four times and small-sized counties with 250,000 residents or less grew by nearly seven times, Vera’s analysis shows. In that time large county jail populations grew by only about three times.

Exactly what’s behind that trend is not clear but experts say a range of factors likely contribute, from law enforcement’s increased use of summonses and traffic tickets to the closing of state mental hospitals in that time.

“Everyone’s jail problem is a little different,” said Vera’s Christian Henrichson.

Unlike state prisons that hold inmates doing lengthy terms, local jails and county lockups are generally used to house pretrial detainees or those who have been sentenced to serve stints of a year or less for relatively minor crimes.

Jail use continues to rise though crime rates have declined since peaking in 1991, the analysis shows. Blacks are jailed at nearly four times the rate of whites and the number of women locked up in jails has grown 14-fold since 1970, according to the Vera report.

The number of jails with 1,000 beds or more has soared from 21 in 1970 to 145 in 2014, and the average number of days people stay locked up in jail has grown from nine in 1978 to 23 in 2014, according to the statistics.

“To understand what’s going on you have to look at the local context,” said Nancy Fishman, who heads the New York nonprofit’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections. “A lot of the things we see, we don’t have answers for yet.”

To give local corrections officials and sheriffs better information about jail trends over time, Vera drew on federal statistics to create an online tool that maps a range of data for all of the roughly 3,000 county lockups. That will allow officials to compare their jail incarceration rates to similarly-situated counties based on total population, median income and arrest rates.

The push for more information comes as advocacy groups, federal prosecutors and others are forcing counties across the country to reform their local criminal justice systems to make them fairer — and cut ever increasing costs dedicated to running decades-old lockups that are often overcrowded.

The sheriff in Oklahoma City for example, wants to build a new $360 million jail to replace the current nearly 3,000-inmate jail that the U.S. Justice Department cited for unconstitutional conditions in 2008. But business leaders and others have opposed the proposal, arguing officials should instead study policy approaches that might lock up fewer people and better serve those with mental illnesses.

A parallel phenomenon has played out at the similarly-sized jail in Marion County, Indiana, where advocates and others in Indianapolis fought back efforts to expand inmate beds, instead asking local officials to examine what’s driving jail growth.

“People don’t think about the jail most of the time until these moments when the question is: Do we build another one?” said Fishman. “Then the question is, Wait a minute, how are we using our jails for in the first place?”

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ELYRIA — Two Lorain men have been found guilty of attempted murder and other charges for shooting an Oklahoma man in Lorain last year.

Kashaun Sibley

Defense attorney Anthony Baker promised to appeal the convictions of Kashaun Sibley and Nichalos Potts, both 19, after the jury returned its verdict in the case Monday following a trial that began last week.

Baker said that he didn’t think there was enough evidence to justify the convictions of his two clients, who were charged with shooting Marcus Delaney when he arrived at a Gary Avenue home Dec. 23 to meet with a friend.

According to court documents filed in the case, Delaney had gone to the house after the pair and a juvenile lured him to the house.

“The victim was an innocent individual who did nothing to provoke the defendants and thought he was meeting the juvenile to drink and hang out,” prosecutors wrote in one court filing.

When Delaney arrived he was “ambushed” and Sibley and Potts opened fire. Delaney was critically injured after bullets struck his spine and kidney according to the documents.

Nichalos Potts

Baker disputed that his clients were involved. He said there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime and no guns were ever recovered.

Instead, he said, prosecutors relied on witnesses, including a juvenile who was involved and cut a deal to testify against Sibley and Potts. Baker also said that witness accounts changed between when they talked to police and when they took the stand.

He also rejected the idea that Delaney was targeted because he was gay and had been communicating with someone Sibley and Potts knew, something prosecutors had suggested as a motive in the shooting.

“It wasn’t a gay thing,” Baker said. “It was a robbery.”

Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will did not return calls seeking comment on the verdict.

Sibley and Potts are due back in court next week for sentencing.

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LORAIN — Lorain police pulled a reportedly stolen delivery van from Lake Erie on Tuesday morning.

BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE
Tow operators and police work to recover a van at the end of the boat ramp at Hot Waters Marina in Lorain.

The van was found submerged in the water just past the pier near Hot Waters Marina.

Police were called at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after a man came down to the pier and saw the roof of the white van sticking about 2 feet out of the water.

The police dive team was called in case there was someone inside the van, which proved not to be the case.

Patrolman Mike Tomlin was in the 47-degree water for about an hour to get the van out.

Officers ran the license plates and discovered the van was reported stolen that morning in Erie County.

The Erie County Sheriff’s Office said the van likely belongs to Corso’s Flower and Garden Center in Castalia.

At 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, the owners of the business called police to report that their delivery van, which contained three spools of copper piping, was missing along with several hand and power tools that had been in the business’s garage.

The break-in likely happened between 5 p.m. Monday when the business closed and Tuesday morning.

Lorain police will turn the van over to the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. Officers said there were several items in the van, but they were not able to confirm what they were.

Police said they did not receive any witness reports related to what might have happened at the pier. They plan on reviewing surveillance footage from surrounding businesses to find out how the van ended up in the water.

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WASHINGTON — The number of people executed in the United States this year dropped to the lowest level since 1991, as states impose fewer death sentences and defendants in capital cases get access to better legal help.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes capital punishment and tracks the issue, said 28 inmates were executed as of Dec. 15, down from 35 last year and far below the peak of 98 in 1999.

Another 49 criminal defendants received death sentences this year, down 33 percent from 2014 and the lowest number since the early 1970s.

The numbers reflect a steady decline in death sentences over the past 15 years and a broad shift in public attitudes that has made capital punishment increasingly rare, said Robert Dunham, the group’s executive director.

“What we’re seeing is the cumulative effect of falling public support for the death penalty,” Dunham said.

About 61 percent of Americans support the death penalty in murder cases, according to a Gallup poll in October, but that share has inched downward while opposition has crept up.

While capital punishment remains legal in 31 states, only six states accounted for all the executions this year — Florida, Missouri, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. That’s the fewest since 1988.

Texas led the way with 13 executions, followed by six in Missouri and five in Georgia. But Texas imposed only two new death sentences this year, while Georgia and Virginia had no new death row inmates.

The total number of death row inmates nationwide is now below 3,000 for first time since 1995.

A shortage of lethal injection drugs has meant de facto freezes in several states, including Ohio and Nebraska. In Arkansas, a judge halted executions of eight inmates amid a legal fight over whether the state can keep secret the identity of manufacturers and sellers of its execution drugs.

Oklahoma recently said it was halting all executions until well into next year while officials investigate two botched lethal injections and a third that was called off because the wrong drug was delivered.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court upheld Oklahoma’s use of a controversial sedative in lethal injection executions, but two justices said for the first time they think it’s “highly likely” the death penalty itself is unconstitutional.

Death penalty opponents are hoping the high court eventually will abolish the penalty as cruel and unusual under the Constitution. Even Justice Antonin Scalia, a longtime defender of capital punishment, told an audience this year that he wouldn’t be surprised if the court invalidates the death penalty.

Another factor in the recent decline is improved legal representation for defendants. Georgia, Texas and Virginia have all created statewide capital-case defender programs staffed by attorneys who specialize in those cases.

Since 1973, more than 150 people who had been sentenced to death have been exonerated after presenting evidence of their innocence. Six death row prisoners were cleared of all charges this year.

“There is a very significant relationship between providing defendants good representation and the outcomes of capital cases,” Dunham said.

Other factors cited in the decline of executions include the high cost of death penalty prosecutions and states such as Texas and Virginia now instructing juries that they have the option of sentencing capital defendants to life without the possibility of parole.

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BALTIMORE — Jurors said they were deadlocked Tuesday as they weighed manslaughter and other charges against a police officer in the death of Freddie Gray. The judge told them to keep deliberating and they went home for the night without reaching a verdict.

The jury reported its difficulty in a note to Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams after about nine hours of discussions over two days. It wasn’t clear if they were stuck on one or more of the four charges Officer William Porter faces. He is the first of six officers to stand trial.

Armored vehicles and police were stationed around the city, and officials promised they were prepared for any unrest. Parts of the city burned last spring after Gray’s death triggered frustration over the department’s alleged mistreatment of black people, and authorities were determined to prevent a repeat.

Earlier Tuesday, jurors requested highlighters, an easel and sticky notes, suggesting a businesslike approach to assessing Porter’s role in Gray’s arrest and death. They also received computer speakers to improve the sound quality of recordings in evidence, including Porter’s videotaped interview with Baltimore police detectives, police radio transmissions on the day Gray was arrested and cellphone videos made at two of the wagon’s six stops.

In all, the jury heard from 28 witnesses and received about 100 pieces of evidence in the trial, which began Nov. 30. They even took a trip to see the police wagon where Gray had been placed face-first on the floor, with his wrists cuffed behind his back and his ankles shackled.

If the jury remains deadlocked, a mistrial would be declared and prosecutors would have to decide whether to put Porter on trial again.

Gray, who was arrested while fleeing from police, died April 19, a week after his neck was broken while the seven-block trip turned into a circuitous, 45-minute journey around West Baltimore. The autopsy concluded that Gray probably suffered the injury from being slammed against the compartment’s metal wall during cornering or braking.

The charges carry maximum prison terms totaling 25 years, but convictions on some of the lesser charges could be merged for sentencing purposes.

The judge denied renewed defense requests to declare a mistrial or try Porter outside of Baltimore. Porter’s lawyers also sought in vain to ask jurors if they’d seen a letter the city schools chief sent home with children Monday, warning against violent responses to a verdict.

The judge said asking jurors about the letter would not be appropriate. The jury has not been sequestered, but they have been warned not to read news articles about the case or talk about it with anyone other than fellow jurors.

Prosecutors concluded that Porter could have saved Gray’s life with two clicks: one to buckle him in with a seat belt and another to summon medical help with his police radio. Instead, they said Porter’s indifference makes him criminally responsible for Gray’s injury.

The defense characterized Porter as a conscientious officer who told supervisors to take Gray to the hospital, even though he testified that the detainee showed no signs of pain or distress before he arrived at the police station critically injured.

Prosecutors said this was a blatant lie.

“Freddie Gray went into the van healthy and he came out of the van dead,” prosecutor Janice Bledsoe said in her closing argument. The transport van “became his casket on wheels.”

Bledsoe showed jurors the unfastened seat belt: “It’s got Gray’s blood on it,” she said.

“Don’t fall for that,” defense attorney Joseph Murtha countered. Expert witnesses disagreed on exactly whenGray’s neck was broken during his trip, and this alone should give jurors reasonable doubt, he said.

Gray’s death was indeed a “horrific tragedy,” he said, but “there is literally no evidence” Porter is responsible.

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