Sheffield police are investigating a high-speed car chase overnight that went into Elyria.

Sheffield police Capt. William Visalden said that an officer on patrol saw a black sport-utility vehicle stopped in the middle of Colorado Avenue, near Sheffield Middle School at the intersection of Harris Road, around 1:33 a.m. The officer tried to pull the SUV over, and the SUV first tried to park in a driveway — almost going into a ditch — and then through a yard, speeding down Colorado.

The pursuit continued through Sheffield on Abbe, French Creek and East River roads before coming into Elyria on Gulf Road, Ohio Street and St. Clair Street. Visalden said the officer lost sight of the SUV.

Visalden estimated speeds reached 85 to 90 mph during the chase. “There weren’t a lot of cars on the road at that time,” he said.

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ELYRIA — The Lorain County Adult Probation Department is gathering donations for its “Project Backpack” holiday event that will help the homeless staying at St. Joseph Overnight Shelter in Lorain.

Chief Probation Officer Beth Cwalina said the goal is to fill 65 backpacks that will be given to those staying at the shelter as well as the Blessing House, which provides temporary housing to children in need.

“It’s just really good to give back to the community,” Cwalina said.

The probation officers are working with the Lorain/Medina Community Based Correctional Facility, Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, Lorain Municipal Court, Avon Lake Municipal Court, the city of Elyria’s Finance Department and the Lorain County Joint Vocational School’s early childhood education program.

They, along with individual donors, are collecting winter hats, gloves, socks, ponchos, lip balm, hand wipes, bandages, tissues, toothbrushes, toothpaste and food gift cards, according to a news release.

Cwalina said her agency is on track to collect more than it needs, but everything that comes in beyond filling the backpacks will be donated to other area charities, including the Lorain County Valor Home that helps veterans.

The deadline to make donations is 4 p.m. Dec. 23 and those donations can be dropped off at the Probation Department’s officers at the old Lorain County Courthouse, 308 Second St., Elyria. Those interested in making a donation can call the Probation Department at (440) 326-7202.

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BALTIMORE — As jurors deliberated the fate of one of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, Baltimore braced for a possible repeat of the protests, destruction and dismay that engulfed the city in April, when Gray died of a broken neck in the back of a police van. But instead of a dramatic conclusion, there was confusion.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams declared a mistrial Wednesday after jurors made it clear they were hopelessly deadlocked over whether Officer William Porter had committed any crimes due to actions he didn’t take prior to Gray’s death.

The mistrial leaves prosecutors, defense attorneys and a populace anxious to find closure back at square one. Lawyers are scheduled to meet in the judge’s chambers Thursday to discuss dates for a possible retrial.

Members of the community still trying to process the news gathered outside the courthouse Wednesday afternoon following the verdict and about 100 demonstrators carried signs of protest as they marched peacefully through the streets.

“I’m not expecting our community to repeat April,” said Erika Alston, a community leader who runs a children’s after-school program in the heart of West Baltimore, in reference to the violence, looting and unrest that erupted the day of Gray’s April 27 funeral. “But it is a bit of a kick in the chest.”

Jurors took three days to deliberate on the charges against Porter, which included manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. On Tuesday, after only nine hours of deliberation, they told Williams they were deadlocked. He sent them back to try again.

The message was the same on Wednesday, after roughly 16 hours of deliberation. The jurors said they were at an impasse on every charge. A unanimous verdict, they told Williams, was impossible.

For a week, Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had urged citizens to remain calm and peaceful no matter the outcome, while Police Commissioner Kevin Davis canceled leave for the department’s officers in anticipation of the jury’s decision.

But the mistrial was a disappointment for some residents in need of a definitive resolution. Small crowds of protesters gathered with signs and bullhorns. They marched through downtown, converging on City Hall, while scores of police followed, forming lines in the streets to keep them away from the courthouse. Two demonstrators were arrested outside the courthouse.

With the impact of the trial muted, that left many to wonder what comes next.

Gray died April 19, a week after his neck was broken in the back of a police van.

Prosecutors said Porter is partially to blame because he didn’t call an ambulance when Gray indicated he needed medical aid and didn’t buckle Gray into a seat belt, leaving him handcuffed and shackled but unrestrained in a metal compartment, unable to brace himself when the van turned a corner or braked.

Porter told jurors he didn’t think Gray was injured when he checked on him on the floor of the wagon, and helped him onto a bench inside. Instead, Porter told the van driver, Caesar Goodson, to take Gray to the hospital. Porter also said he didn’t buckle Gray in because it wasn’t his responsibility; the wagon driver is in charge of making sure the prisoner is strapped in while the van is moving.

But jurors couldn’t decide whether Porter’s failures amounted to a crime — an outcome legal analysts say isn’t surprising given the difficulty of proving a case with no eyewitnesses or unequivocal evidence as to exactly how or when Gray was critically injured.

Steve Levin, a Baltimore defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who followed the case, said the result was unfortunate for both sides. Prosecutors did not present strong evidence on the more serious charges against Porter, but the hung jury suggests that at least one juror wanted to convict him on those counts, Levin said.

“The state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Freddie Gray died. Beyond that, they weren’t able to prove anything,” Levin said. “They proved a tragedy, but I don’t think they proved a crime.”

Porter was the first of six to stand trial: Goodson, who faces the most serious charge of second-degree “depraved-heart” murder, is scheduled to go to trial Jan. 6. Prosecutors intended to call Porter to testify against Goodson and another officer whose trial is slated to begin after Goodson’s. The mistrial will likely complicate prosecutors’ plans, and as such, their strategy moving forward.

Prosecutors will have a harder time calling Porter to testify because of his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself, according to attorney Warren Alperstein. Options for the state could include granting Porter immunity in exchange for his testimony, trying to persuade the judge to postpone the other trials while retrying Porter or striking him from their witness list altogether.

David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh with expertise in policing issues, said State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby created a false impression about the simplicity of obtaining convictions with her swift decision to charge six officers in Gray’s death.

“It was never going to be easy. Prosecution of police officers is never easy, but when you look at some of the facts in this case, you’ve got to understand nothing here is a slam dunk,” Harris said.

Gray’s stepfather said at a news conference Wednesday that the family isn’t upset by the mistrial, and looked forward to 12 fresh jurors being given a new chance to evaluate the case.

“We are not at all upset with them and neither should the public be upset,” Richard Shipley said. “They did the best that they could. … We are confident there will be another trial with a new jury.”

Some residents who saw charging the police officers as a step toward justice and healing in the city said the mistrial was a failure to deliver on that promise.

Duane “Shorty” Davis, a community activist, said he was not surprised.

“If any of the officers get convicted, it will be a surprise to me,” Davis said, adding that he doesn’t think Mosby has been sincere in her vow to prosecute the officers but was compelled to bring charges after the April unrest.

“I think the state’s attorney put on a weak case. I think the state’s attorney went in there with the intention of losing,” Davis said. “The prosecution had no intention of winning the case because of their relationship with the police department. They’re not going to eat their own.”

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ELYRIA — The former Sheffield attorney accused of hypnotizing his female clients faces 17 new kidnapping charges in an indictment handed down by a Lorain County grand jury this week.

Michael Fine

Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will confirmed the new round of charges matches the victims and time frames covered in kidnapping charges from Michael W. Fine’s original 29-count indictment in August, but with the addition of a sexually violent predator specification that could increase the amount of prison time Fine could serve if convicted in the case.

Will said he couldn’t comment further on the case because of a gag order issued by the judge presiding over the case.

The original charges against Fine, which remain part of the case, accused him of rape, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, attempted kidnapping, attempted sexual battery, attempted gross sexual imposition, gross sexual imposition and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material in addition to the kidnapping charges.

Fine became the target of criminal and ethics investigations last fall after one of his legal clients noticed that she couldn’t recall the entirety of their conversations and began recording her interactions with her attorney.

The woman secured two recordings of Fine reportedly putting her into a trance and giving her sexual commands. She took those recordings to Sheffield police and Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will’s office.

Investigators set up a sting operation and the woman wore a wire and camera when she visited Fine’s office on Nov. 7, when he allegedly put her under his control again before law enforcement entered his offices.

The subsequent investigation led to numerous other people coming forward to accuse Fine of controlling them through hypnosis, and the indictment lists six victims Fine allegedly held against their will and engaged in some kind of sexual activity with them between 2013 and 2014.

Fine relinquished his law license after the Lorain County Bar Association sought and received an emergency suspension of his right to practice law from the Ohio Supreme Court. He also is being sued by several of his alleged victims.

Defense attorney Robert Housel previously has said his client has received treatment for his behavior and intends to defend himself against the charges.

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ELYRIA — After more than a decade of languishing in a bank account, money received by the city as partial reimbursement in the case of an Elyria police officer who stole from the Police Department’s evidence room is finally being distributed.

The $63,527.95 will be split, with 60 percent going to the Lorain County Drug Task Force and the rest going into a law enforcement trust account administered by county Prosecutor Dennis Will’s office.

The money, city officials said, largely comes from an insurance settlement that was paid out in 2000, three years after former Elyria police Officer John Payne was convicted in 1997 of stealing more than $140,000.

City Auditor Ted Pileski said that Payne, who served time in prison after pleading guilty in the case, drained his public retirement account of $35,000 to make a partial payment on the restitution ordered in the case and another $55,000 came from the insurance settlement.

In the early 2000s, Pileski said, $27,016 was distributed to other agencies, although because of how long ago that was and the inaccessibility of some paperwork, he couldn’t say exactly which law enforcement agencies got that money. The rest remained in an account gathering interest.

Will said the documentation he’s seen indicates the insurance settlement was only $22,000 and he wasn’t aware of money being taken out of the account in the early 2000s, but he added that figuring out exactly what happened proved difficult because of the age of the case and some federal court records that couldn’t be located.

Pileski said the money essentially had been waiting for someone to figure out what to do with it, but no one did anything until this year.

Assistant Elyria Law Director Amanda Deery said once city officials realized the money was simply sitting in the account, it became a question of who should get it.

“For a variety of reasons that money was never divvied up,” she said. “It was being held in escrow.”

Elyria Police Chief Duane Whitely said his department already has received its share of the money that Payne paid toward restitution and couldn’t keep the rest.

“Would I have liked to have kept it? Sure, but it wasn’t ours to keep,” he said. “In my opinion it was something that should have been taken care of years ago.”

If Pileski’s figures are correct, the total amount of restitution that the city and law enforcement agencies received in restitution totaled only $90,000, about $50,000 less than Payne was ordered to repay.

The court record shows there was a brief attempt by the city to have Payne held in contempt of court for not paying the remainder in 1999, but that effort was scrapped the same year because the city was fighting with its insurance carrier over how much that company would have to pay.

Will said because of the time that’s passed, it’s unlikely the county or city would be able to go after Payne for what he still owes in restitution.

“No, I don’t believe you can just arbitrarily try to go and get the rest of it because it should have been taken care of back then,” he said.

In the end, Will said, no single law enforcement agency is getting back everything Payne stole.

“Nobody’s being made whole,” he said.

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A former Lorain city official accused of possessing a massive collection of child pornography also was producing child pornography, according to a new federal indictment handed down this week.

Robert Ray, who resigned as assistant superintendent of the Black River Waste Water Treatment Plant in August following an FBI raid on his home in late July, already was facing charges for possessing what federal officials have said could be millions of child pornography images and videos.

The latest allegations accuse him of forcing 13 different children to make pornographic material between 2009 and 2013.

Mike Tobin, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney for Northern Ohio Steven Dettelbach, said the victims were children Ray came into contact with personally and others who were being sexually exploited elsewhere and broadcast over the Internet. Ray allegedly recorded that sexual abuse.

In an interview with the FBI after the raid on his house, Ray did admit to fondling an underage girl he knew and that he paid to watch live sexual abuse that he recorded, according to court documents filed by prosecutors. Some of that material was stored in an electronic folder labeled “created by me.”

“Ray claimed he never directed the webcam host nor the participants, the child or adult, to engage in any specific sexual act,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian McDonough wrote.

Ray also told the FBI that he was addicted to adult pornography, including bestiality, but also had been viewing child pornography since the mid-1990s and began collecting it in the early 2000s, McDonough wrote.

The court documents also said Ray admitted to being involved in “Wonderland,” an online child pornography site that was active in the late 1990s until it was closed down by law enforcement.

After that site was shuttered, Ray told the FBI he became a “lurker” who only viewed illegal pornography, but didn’t post or comment, according to prosecutors. He also allegedly began using encryption and anonymizing software to avoid detection.

“Ray opined that over the years he has become lazy concerning his involvement with child pornography that resulted in the FBI coming to talk with him at home,” McDonough wrote.

Federal authorities have said that Ray came to their notice during an ongoing investigation into a child pornography site identified only as “Website A” in court documents. Ray admitted during his interview to using the website, according to prosecutors.

Defense attorney Jack Bradley did not return a call seeking comment Friday, but has filed a request to have Ray’s conversations with FBI agents thrown out of court because he contends his client was questioned illegally.

McDonough has argued that Ray was properly interrogated and read his rights.

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LORAIN — Kids whose only interactions with police have been the times 911 has been called to their homes saw police in a different light Saturday during the annual Shop with a Cop event.

ANNA NORRIS/CHRONICLE Lorain police officer Andrew Greszler helps Michael Humphreys, 5, of Lorain, decide which Lego set he wanted to pick out as Michael and his brother shopped for toys with Greszler and Officer Christian Franco Saturday afternoon at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lorain as part of the annual Shop with a Cop program.

School buses carrying 75 children, mostly from Lorain, pulled into the Wal-Mart on Leavitt Road accompanied by police and volunteers who escorted them through the store to purchase Christmas presents.

Dozens of officers and other volunteers helped kids pick out shoes, clothing and toys that were paid for with more than $12,000 that was collected for the event, which has steadily grown since two Lorain police officers started it five years ago.

Aisles were jam-packed with excited children who filled carts with items they otherwise wouldn’t receive, all with encouragement from those who know firsthand how little they and their families have.

Officers Jesse Perkins and Mike Gidich said the first year they took about 20 children shopping, and it felt like a huge accomplishment.

Five years later with 75 children present, the officers said they can’t believe how well the program has been received and they expect it to keep growing in the years to come.

Gidich said the reason Shop with a Cop exists stems from the hardships officers see children going through on a daily basis.

“It’s really hard in our line of work to go to these houses and literally see these kids with nothing,” Gidich said. “No presents, very minimal clothing and very sad situations. This was just a way to give back and hopefully help the kids have a Christmas.”

Perkins said beyond providing presents to children, the event offers kids a time to interact with police in a different environment other than the chaotic situations when they might normally see law enforcement.

“This gives the kids a different view of police,” Perkins said. “So many times they see us in situations where people are in crisis. They don’t often get to see the human side behind the person in the uniform with the badge.”

That human side was evident Saturday as most police wore jeans and sweatshirts rather than uniforms while reaching to grab toys from top shelves or kneeling to help a child try on a pair of shoes.

Sonya Higginbotham, 56, volunteered Saturday for the first time because her cousin, Lorain City Councilman Tim Howard, D-3rd Ward, asked her if she wanted to come along.

Higginbotham walked the aisles seeking out clothing for two sisters, 6 months and 4 years old. She said giving back is the best feeling in the world.

“As you get to be my age and you keep living in this life, you realize it’s all about giving and being around good people and food,” she said. “Those are the most important things, other than that it doesn’t really matter. The cycle of life is about reaching out and helping people that need it.”

The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 is accepting donations for next year’s Shop with a Cop. For more information call 204-2177.

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LORAIN—Lorain police are investigating the suspicious death of an 18-month-old child on Dec. 13.

Police say Summer Shalodi, 30, has been charged with endangering children and tampering with evidence, and that additional charges could be filed.

Shalodi called police to her home on the 400 block of Driftwood Dr., saying that a toddler she was babysitting was not breathing. Police said when they arrived, Shalodi was not answering the door, which was unlocked. Officers went inside the home and found both Shalodi and the child upstairs.

Police say the child was lying motionless on the floor next to the bed. Officers performed CPR on the child and called for medical help from LifeCare. Police say the child felt cold to the touch when they arrived.

When LifeCare got to the house, the child was pronounced dead at 6:47 a.m. The medical team estimated the child had already been dead for several hours.

Shalodi told police the child was dropped off to be babysat around 3 p.m. on Dec. 12. According to police, Shalodi told officers the toddler was fine until 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 13. She said she started to think something was wrong and get worried when the child wasn’t moving.

Police created a secure scene at Shalodi’s residence and stayed until 12:30 p.m.

Police are not saying if Shalodi was an experienced babysitter, or what her specific relationship to the child was. The official police report states Shalodi was a friend of the child’s mother.

The Lorain County Coroner’s Office is also investigating.

Read Tuesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

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LORAIN — A Lorain woman has been charged with endangering children and tampering with evidence after an 18-month-old child died while in her care Dec. 13.

Summer Shalodi

Summer Shalodi, 30, called police to her home about 6:30 a.m. and told officers she became concerned about the child, Nadia Nicole Gibbons, around 5:30 a.m.

When police arrived at her home in the 400 block of Driftwood Drive, they found Shalodi and Nadia upstairs. Because Shalodi could not find signs that the child was breathing, the 911 dispatcher instructed her on how to do CPR over the phone, according to a recording of the call.

Along with police, medical help from LifeCare was also called and CPR was performed on Nadia, who was pronounced dead at 6:47 a.m.

Police said the child was lying motionless on the floor next to the bed and felt cold to the touch.

STEVE MANHEIM/CHRONICLE
Lorain police are investigating the death of a child in this home on Driftwood Drive.

According to a police report, it is estimated the child had been dead for several hours by the time authorities arrived.

Shalodi spoke with officers and said the child was fine since her mother, also named Nadia Nicole Gibbons, dropped her off about 3 p.m. Dec. 12.

She became worried in the early morning of Dec. 13 and told the 911 dispatcher she wasn’t sure if the child needed help or was just in a deep sleep. She said the child was very still and making “gurgling” noises.

Police are not saying whether or not Shalodi was an experienced babysitter or what her specific relationship to the child or to Gibbons was. The official police report states Shalodi was a friend of the child’s mother.

Police declined to say if anyone else was in the home with Shalodi and the child during the time she was babysitting.

The Lorain County Coroner’s Office is also investigating, although officials there said test results, including toxicology reports, could take several weeks to complete.

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LORAIN — A Lorain woman who allegedly led police on a high-speed chase that ended with her driving her car into Lake Erie has been charged, according to Lorain Municipal Court records.

Kimberely Muskiewicz

Kimberely Muskiewicz, 52, was charged with improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle and failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer-elude to cause harm. Both are felony charges.

Police were called Dec. 9 by a family member who said Muskiewicz had a loaded gun and was possibly going to kill herself.

When police got to her home on the 2400 block of East 35th Street, officers said she was holding the gun against her head and began advancing towards officers. In a dash-camera video, police can be heard saying “drop the gun” several times.

Muskiewicz allegedly held onto the gun and got in her car, leading police to a backyard near the intersection of Root Road and East Erie Avenue, where she then drove her car off a 35-foot cliff into Lake Erie.

She survived the plunge, and officers say they saw Muskiewicz begin to swim out into the middle of the lake rather than to shore.

“I can’t believe she didn’t die. I can’t believe she didn’t kill herself going off of that cliff,” Lorain police Capt. Roger Watkins said.

Officers then got into the lake to get Muskiewicz out.

“Officers voluntarily put themselves at risk by going into pretty cold water,” Watkins said.

At jail arraignment Friday, Muskiewicz entered a not guilty plea on both charges.

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ELYRIA — The driver of a car that crashed into an Amherst Township home and killed a mother sitting on a couch inside has been indicted.

Adrianna Young

Adrianna Young, 24, of Oberlin, is charged with felony counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and vehicular assault and a misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana in an indictment handed down last week.

Young was booked Friday into Lorain County Jail and released on a personal bond.

Young was driving south on state Route 58 in her 2002 Toyota Camry when the car went off the road around 7:45 a.m. July 28. The Camry went through a field before ramping off a basement doorway and crashing into the living room of 8788 Leavitt Road where Ohio Highway Patrol troopers said 34-year-old Debra Majkut was sitting on a couch with her infant son, Jaxon.

Troopers said the boy was trapped under the car, and Majkut’s older son, Jacob, who was one of two other children in the house, was able to reach under the car and, with the help of neighbors, pull Jaxon to safety.

A lawsuit filed against Young by the family last month said Jaxon was badly burned in the crash and that some of the injuries are permanent.

Young, who troopers have said had marijuana in her system, has said she was on her way to work when she swerved to avoid an animal. Troopers said Young told them that when she hit the embankment, her air bags deployed, and she couldn’t see what was in front of her.

James Majkut, who has publicly called for charges against Young in his wife’s death, said he was glad to learn that the case was moving forward, although he worried the criminal case could take a long time to resolve.

“The only thing that makes us still uncomfortable is she’s still walking around,” instead of being in custody, he said.

Young is scheduled to be arraigned later this week.

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HEMPSTEAD, Texas — A grand jury decided on Monday that no felony crime was committed by the sheriff’s office or jailers in the treatment of a black woman who died in a Southeast Texas county jail last summer.

But prosecutor Darrell Jordan said the Waller County grand jury reached no decision on whether the trooper who arrested 28-year-old Sandra Bland should face charges. The grand jury will return in January to consider that issue.

The Chicago-area woman was pulled over July 10 by a Texas state trooper for making an improper lane change. Dashcam video showed their interaction quickly became confrontational and she was arrested for assault.

Bland was taken in handcuffs to the county jail in nearby Hempstead, about 50 miles northwest of Houston, and remained there when she couldn’t raise about $500 for bail. She was discovered dead in her jail cell three days later, hanging from a cell partition with a plastic garbage bag used as a ligature around her neck.

Bland’s relatives, along with supporters fueled by social media postings, questioned a medical examiner’s finding that Bland killed herself.

Cannon Lambert, an attorney representing Bland’s family, said Monday the decision is consistent with what the family believes has so far been an attempt by authorities to cover up the events after Bland’s arrest.

“They continue to do things we are disappointed in,” he said.

Bland’s mother and sisters spoke at a news conference in Chicago before Monday night’s announcement, where they said they had no faith in the grand jury.

Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said she wants to see all the evidence and is frustrated by delays in the case. Attorney Larry Rogers acknowledged grand juries usually meet in secret, but said the process “screams of a cover-up.” He said lawyers haven’t been able to examine a Texas Rangers report on the incident because it’s grand jury evidence.

In the days after her death, county authorities released video from the jail to dispel rumors and conspiracy theories that Bland was dead before she arrived at the jail or was killed while in custody. County officials said they themselves received death threats.

Her arrest and death came amid heightened national scrutiny of police and their dealings with black suspects, especially those killed by officers or who died in police custody.

“After presenting all the evidence as it relates to the death of Sandra Bland, the grand jury did not return an indictment,” Jordan said after the grand jury met Monday for about 11 hours. “The grand jury also considered things that occurred at the jail and did not return an indictment.”

Jordan is one of five special prosecutors appointed by the county’s district attorney, Elton Mathis.

“Having an independent committee to evaluate the case, that can be a positive thing in a situation like this,” Brian Serr, a law professor at Baylor University said.

Among evidence presented in the secret grand jury proceedings were the findings of a Texas Rangers’ investigation.

“There’s nothing in there that shows anything happened but she killed herself,” Mathis had said.

Lambert said late Monday he believes prosecutors’ decision to have the grand jury return in January is another attempt to delay releasing the report. He said he expects to ask a federal judge to compel Texas authorities to turn over the document.

Bland’s sister didn’t immediately respond to a phone message requesting comment on the grand jury’s decision, and Reed-Veal couldn’t be reached for comment late Monday.

Royce West, a Dallas Democrat who has been a vocal leader in the case, and one of two black Texas state senators, also had said he was “comfortable” with the medical examiner’s determination.

Bland’s mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court in Houston against the trooper, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Waller County and two jail employees. State lawyers have asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. A judge last week set it for trial in January 2017.

The Bland family attorneys contend Waller County jailers should have checked on her more frequently and that the county should have performed mental evaluations once she disclosed she had a history of attempting suicide. In her lawsuit, Reed-Veal also contends that the trooper who arrested her daughter, Brian Encinia, falsified the assault allegation to take Bland into custody and that jail personnel failed to keep her daughter safe.

County officials have said Bland was treated well while locked up and produced documents that show she gave jail workers inconsistent information about whether she was suicidal.

Encinia, who in June completed a year-long probationary stint as a new trooper, has been on administrative duty since the Bland death.

Dashcam video from his car showed Encinia at one point holding a stun gun and yelling at Bland, “I will light you up!” after she refuses to get out of her car. The director of the Department of Public Safety, Steve McCraw, has said Encinia violated internal policies of professionalism and courtesy.

Melissa Hamilton, visiting criminal law scholar at the University of Houston, said Bland had no legal right to remain in her car after the trooper ordered her out.

“Whether you like it or not, the Supreme Court has made it clear police are in charge at a traffic stop, and they can make anybody get out of the car — driver or passenger — for no reason whatsoever,” she said. “The idea for that is to allow police to control a potentially dangerous situation.”

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PITTSFIELD TWP. — An Elyria resident was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland on Tuesday and two Norwalk residents died after a motor vehicle accident Tuesday.

BRUCE BISHOP / CHRONICLE
Members of the Ohio Highway Patrol and rescue workers respond to a fatal two-car head-on collision on U.S. Route 20 in Pittsfield Township on Tuesday. Two Norwalk residents died in the crash.

Ohio Highway Patrol Lt. Carlos Smith said the accident took place about 3:48 p.m. near Precision Automotive and Performance, 45250 U.S. Route 20.

According to Smith, Leon Clowtis, 63, of Settlement Road in Norwalk, was driving a 2007 Chevy Aveo east on Route 20 when the vehicle went left of center, striking a 2011 Ford Edge driven by Benny Riggs, 75, of Elyria. Riggs attempted to avoid the crash but was struck head-on by Clowtis.

Riggs, of Columbia Avenue, had to be extricated from his vehicle.

Leon Clowtis, and his passenger, Susan Clowtis, also of Settlement Road in Norwalk, were pronounced dead at the scene by the Lorain County coroner’s office. Riggs was listed in fair condition, a nursing supervisor said.

Alcohol and drugs are not suspected as factors in the crash. The incident remains under investigation.

A second accident took place as officers were diverting traffic from Route 20 to the state Route 511 exit ramp.

According to Ohio Highway Trooper Matthew Gramlich, a traffic accident call came in at 4:37 p.m. after Bobby Kraudy, 21, of Wakeman, was driving a 2013 Ford Fusion and struck a Ford E250 van driven by Richard Groot, 42, of Wellington. Kraudy then struck a 2003 Dodge Ram driven by Gerald Price, 42, of Jacksonville, Fla. Kraudy’s vehicle continued moving and careened over the median before coming to a stop in eastbound lanes of Route 20. Kraudy was not wearing a seat belt.

At the time of the second accident, Gramlich said, traffic was only moving in the three westbound lanes of U.S. Route 20. All eastbound traffic was closed due to the fatal crash, Gramlich said.

BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE
A helicopter responds to U.S. Route 20 to transport Benny Riggs of Elyria to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland after he was involved in a two-car crash Tuesday.

Kraudy also was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center where he was listed in fair condition by a nursing supervisor.

Groot and Price suffered non-life threatening injuries and were treated at the scene.

The incident remains under investigation, but Gramlich said Kraudy may face charges of no seat belt and failing to assure clear distance.

The roadway was closed for approximately 2½ hours. The stretch of Route 20 where Tuesday’s accident took place is dotted with homemade roadside memorials to remember the lives lost in traffic accidents. Nearly 100 feet to the east of where Tuesday’s accident took place, flowers marked the location of another fatal accident.

As Ohioans prepare for holiday festivities, the patrol and Ohio Department of Transportation are urging safety while driving on the roadways, especially remembering to always drive sober, to avoid fatalities for the rest of the year.

Last year in Ohio, 24 people died in 23 crashes between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. Of those crashes, nine involved alcohol, resulting in 10 deaths.

As of Monday, 1,070 people have been killed on Ohio roadways this year. That’s a 9 percent increase over the same time last year, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.

The patrol will be out in full force this holiday season removing dangerous and impaired drivers. It arrested 628 drivers on drunken-driving-related charges last year between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.

“We want motorists to understand that you have the power to make Ohio roadways safer,” Col. Paul A. Pride, patrol superintendent, said. “Every time you designate a sober driver, prevent a drunk friend from driving home, put on your safety belt or put down your phone while at the wheel, you are contributing to safer roads and a safer Ohio.”

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ELYRIA — Just before they were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences Tuesday, two 19-year-old Lorain men denied they were responsible for shooting an Oklahoma man last year in what prosecutors have described as an ambush.

STEVE MANHEIM/CHRONICLE Defense attorney Anthony Baker, left, stands with Kashaun Sibley, and Nichalos Potts as they are sentenced for attempted murder in Judge James Miraldi’s court at Lorain County Justice Center on Dec. 22.

Nichalos Potts was ordered to serve 17 years in prison by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Miraldi, who also sentenced co-defendant Kashaun Sibley to 16 years behind bars.

As the two men stood to face sentencing, their family and friends in the courtroom rose behind them. When Sibley was sentenced, one woman cried out “Oh my, god!” and, after the hearing concluded, another woman called out to police and prosecutors that what they had done would be exposed before leaving the courtroom.

Potts said before the sentence was handed down that there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. He also asked Miraldi to allow him to be freed for at least some time so he could bond with his young child, a request the judge denied.

“I understand the seriousness of these allegations and acknowledge violence has no place in our community,” Potts said. “But with all due respect to the jury and its decision, the case lacked physical evidence placing myself at the crime scene.”

Police never recovered the guns used in the shooting, but Assistant County Prosecutor Donna Freeman said it was apparent that two guns were used in the Dec. 23, 2014, shooting of Marcus Delaney.

Sibley said while Delaney would get to spend the holidays with his family, he would not have that ability.

“I know I’m not no angel or saint, but to get found guilty on a shooting I was not present for or did had to be the worst feeling I ever felt,” he said.

Sibley also said that he forgave Delaney for saying he shot him because he understood the victim wanted justice for being shot.

Freeman said neither Sibley nor Potts expressed remorse for the shooting, and they deserved lengthy prison sentences. She also noted that witnesses in the case had been threatened, which prompted Miraldi to warn the pair that if anything happened to those involved in the case, it could impede their chances of winning a possible early release.

Potts and Sibley were convicted of attempted murder and other charges last week after a jury trial in which prosecutors said they were responsible for shooting Delaney when he arrived at a Gary Avenue home.

Freeman argued that they, along with a teenager who has already pleaded out in juvenile court in the case, lured Delaney to the house. Delaney was critically injured when bullets struck his spine and kidney.

Prosecutors argued during the trial that Delaney was targeted because he was gay and had expressed an interest in a 16-year-old relative of Potts.

Defense attorney Anthony Baker urged Miraldi not to sentence his clients to prison, but instead to throw out the jury’s verdict and grant Sibley and Potts a new trial.

He argued that the evidence in the case didn’t support their convictions. He said several witnesses told conflicting accounts to police and when they took the stand, and some were on drugs when the shooting happened.

He also questioned Delaney’s testimony because he argued that Delaney identified Potts based on a tattoo that his client didn’t get until after the shooting.

Baker said he was concerned that jurors may have been biased against his clients and didn’t appear to listen to the evidence in the case, something he argued was proven by the speed in which the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts.

“It’s a problem when you have a five-day trial and a three-hour deliberation,” Baker said.

Freeman said there was nothing wrong with the jury selection in the case, and it’s up to jurors to decide which witnesses to believe.

Miraldi rejected the request for a new trial, saying he found that the evidence in the case supported the verdict, which Sibley and Potts already have appealed.

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CLEVELAND — An Avon Lake man was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in federal prison for obtaining nearly $11 million in fraudulent loans that authorities said helped cause one of the biggest credit union failures in U.S. history.

A jury found Gezim Selgjekaj, 44, guilty in February of 27 counts that included conspiracy, bank fraud, bribery and money laundering. Selgjekaj was accused of obtaining the loans from St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union in Eastlake between 2003 and 2010, including some during the four years he spent in prison for tax evasion.

Federal prosecutors said most of loan money was never repaid. Regulators liquidated the credit union in 2010, resulting in a $170 million loss to the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.

Selgjekaj’s federal public defenders said Tuesday they were outraged that their client would be penalized so harshly after invoking his right to have his case heard at trial while others who had played bigger roles in the institution’s collapse got considerably shorter sentences by agreeing to cooperate.

More than two dozen people have been convicted of federal crimes in connection with credit union’s failure. The U.S. attorney in Cleveland said in a statement that Selgjekaj “abused the trust” of credit union members.

Defense attorney Edward Bryan questioned why the chief operating officer of the credit union, whom he called the architect of the collapse, received only 14 years in prison at his sentencing in November 2012. Bryan pointed out that while Selgjekaj was ordered to pay $16 million in restitution, the judge ordered Anthony Raguz to pay $71 million. It was Raguz who ultimately controlled who got the loans that led to the credit union’s failure, Bryan said.

Raguz testified at Selgjekaj’s trial that he took bribes from numerous people who received loans. Prosecutors said Selgjekaj paid $200,000 in bribes to Raguz.

“Anyone who asked got loans from the credit union,” Bryan said, referring to Raguz’s management.

Selgjekaj used loan proceeds to start businesses that provided jobs, Bryan said.

“It wasn’t like he got credit union loan proceeds and frittered them away,” said Selgjekaj’s other attorney, Caroline Kucharski.

The attorneys said Selgjekaj repaid the credit union between $400,000 and $500,000 of the $10.6 million lent to him.

Selgjekaj has lived in the U.S. under a grant of political asylum after fleeing his native Albania in the early 1990s, his attorneys said.

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BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE
North Ridgeville police officers investigate an accident scene on Bainbridge Road.

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — A head-on collision between two cars on Bainbridge Road on Tuesday sent the drivers of both cars to the hospital.

One of the drivers was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland for further treatment.

Police declined to identify the drivers or say what caused the crash. Both cars had significant damage to the fronts of the vehicles, and neither car had a passenger.

North Ridgeville police said it is likely more information will be released today.

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ELYRIA — Police arrested two Lorain men after gunshots rang out about 4:23 p.m. Monday at Garden Street and Infirmary Road.

Kacy Thorpe, 28, and Robert Beane III, 24, were arrested after police say they were riding in a red Dodge Magnum and shooting at a gray Chevrolet Suburban.

According to Elyria police, Thorpe and Beane were the only two people in the Magnum, and they believe three people were in the Suburban. They are still looking for the three, as well as the car they were driving.

The incident began near Westway Garden Apartments on Infirmary Road. Police dispatch received a call stating someone heard gunshots. As police were driving to the apartment complex, they were told the Magnum was leaving.

Witnesses said they saw the vehicle traveling down Garden Street, with one man sitting halfway out of the passenger’s side window shooting at the Suburban.

Officers tried to stop the vehicle near Lorain Boulevard and Louisiana Avenue, but police said the driver didn’t pull over.

Robert Beane III

Near state Route 57 and Louisiana Avenue, the car stopped, and the passenger, identified by witnesses as Beane, began to run through backyards of homes on Louisiana Avenue.

Thorpe, who was driving, stayed in the car and was arrested by officers, police said.

Officers found Beane a few blocks down Louisiana Avenue, still on foot.

Police said the area is highly populated, and many people were outside when the shots were fired.

“It’s beyond comprehension how they could just randomly fire at each other in a populated area without any consideration for people in the area,” said Elyria police Capt. Chris Costantino.

Kasey Thorpe

Police suspect Beane may have dropped the weapon he was using as he fled. A casing was found in a driveway on the 1000 block of Barbara Street.

The red Dodge Magnum had bullet holes in it when police found it.

Beane was charged with obstructing official business and having weapons under disability. Thorpe was charged with obstructing official business. Costantino said more charges are possible for both men.

Police said they are not sure why the altercation began and said Thorpe and Beane have not cooperated in revealing the identities of other parties involved or why the incident happened.

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LAS VEGAS — A woman from Oregon accused of intentionally plowing her car with her 3-year-old daughter in the back seat through crowds of pedestrians on a Las Vegas Strip sidewalk faces a judge Wednesday on felony murder, hit-and-run and child abuse charges.

But one key question is likely to remain unanswered during Lakeisha Nicole Holloway’s initial court appearance: What might have driven a 24-year-old former model of accomplishment by at-risk teens to what authorities call a homicidal act that put her child in danger?

One of her public defense attorneys, Joseph Abood, said Holloway plans to plead not guilty. In Nevada, the plea is assumed during an initial court appearance. Holloway won’t be asked to answer the charges against her until a preliminary hearing in coming weeks.

“We can all agree this is a shocking and tragic event,” Abood said as he expressed sympathy for the families of Jessica Valenzuela and at least 35 people injured in the Sunday evening crash near the Paris Las Vegas resort.

Valenzuela, 32, was from Buckeye, Arizona. Officials said the more than 35 other people who were hurt were from California, Colorado, Florida, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington state, Mexico and Quebec, Canada. Three were still in critical condition Tuesday, and five others remained hospitalized.

Abood, who represented another driver after a similar crash at nearly the same place in September 2005, said he and his defense colleague, Scott Coffee, will need to see police reports, witness accounts and video — and confer with Holloway — before deciding her defense.

The defense lawyer acknowledged that Holloway’s mental health could become an issue, but said she hadn’t had a psychological evaluation.

Holloway remains on suicide watch in jail, where she is being held without bail.

Authorities say casino and streetscape video shows the 1996 Oldsmobile running down a sidewalk and hitting tourists — but avoiding street signs, light poles and other vehicles — before it swerves back onto Las Vegas Boulevard and then onto the sidewalk again.

The video may not be made public until a preliminary hearing.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, who has said he expects “a great number” of charges will be filed as the investigation continues, said Tuesday that Holloway could face more than 30 charges of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon.

“I’ve personally seen the videos from a variety of angles, and I’m appalled at the callousness of this defendant’s conduct and what appears to be an intentional act,” Wolfson said.

The felony child abuse and neglect charge accuses Holloway of endangering her daughter her in the vehicle. The child wasn’t hurt in the crash and was placed in the custody of a county child protective services agency.

In Oregon, where she changed her name in October to Paris Paradise Morton, Holloway won honors for overcoming a rough childhood and homelessness to graduate from an alternative high school in Portland.

She was featured in a 2012 video produced by the nonprofit Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, which helps at-risk youths with education and job training. She said she was going to college and entering the workforce.

“Today I’m not the same scared girl I used to be,” she said in the video. “I’m a mature young woman.”

After her arrest Sunday, she told Las Vegas police she was broke, homeless and tired of being shooed away from casino parking garages with her car and her daughter. Authorities said she might have been on her way to Texas to find the estranged father of her daughter.

The Strip was “a place she did not want to be,” according to an arrest report.

“She would not explain why she drove onto the sidewalk but remembered a body bouncing off her windshield, breaking it,” the report said.

People jumped on the car and banged on its windows, but Holloway kept driving, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told reporters. She went about a mile with the broken windshield and a flattened tire before pulling into an off-Strip hotel and telling a valet to call 911.

Holloway didn’t resist when police arrived, and she spoke coherently about what happened, the sheriff said.

A police drug-recognition expert concluded that she wasn’t drunk but may have been under the influence of a stimulant.

Wolfson said results of blood testing for drugs and alcohol were not yet known.

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ELYRIA — Two men believed to be responsible for a string of break-ins in several townships have been indicted.

Chad Blackburn

Chad Blackburn, 28, of Lorain, and Shannon Matheny, 25, of Elyria, each face charges of burglary, theft, safecracking and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

The pair was arrested Dec. 2 after a neighbor spotted them breaking into an Oberlin Road home in New Russia Township and alerted Lorain County sheriff’s deputies, although the indictment this week doesn’t include that incident.

According to an affidavit seeking a search warrant to obtain a sample of Matheny’s DNA, the pair was driving away from the scene in a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt that matched the description of a vehicle used in previous area break-ins.

The Cobalt didn’t initially pull over, but finally stopped when other vehicles on Oberlin Road stopped. Matheny, the driver, was ordered to turn off the engine and throw the keys out the window.

Shannon Matheny

Matheny later admitted to breaking into the house along with Blackburn and said that he was “dope sick” when they first pulled into the driveway.

Deputies found jewelry valued at more than $9,000 in the Cobalt, as well as video game systems, a car amplifier, a fire safe, a water cooler jug filled with loose change and other items that were traced back to the burglary.

Detective Jason Smith said Matheny and Blackburn have been tied to seven break-ins in LaGrange, Carlisle, Pittsfield and New Russia townships and are facing charges in a separate case for the burglary they were caught fleeing. He also said that Elyria and North Ridgeville police are looking at the pair to connect them to break-ins in those communities.

“If you come into the townships of Lorain County and commit burglaries, you’re going to be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Smith said.

Blackburn and Matheny, who remain in the Lorain County Jail, are scheduled to be arraigned next week.

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BRUCE BISHOP / CHRONICLE
Adrianna Young appears in court Wednesday for her arraignment.

ELYRIA — Three high-profile criminal defendants, including an Oberlin driver accused of crashing into a house and killing an Amherst Township woman, pleaded not guilty at their arraignments Wednesday.

Adrianna Young, 24, said nothing as a not guilty plea was entered on her behalf to charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and possession of marijuana charges stemming from the July 28 crash that killed 34-year-old Debra Majkut.

The Ohio Highway Patrol said that Young’s 2002 Toyota Camry ran off state Route 58 and slammed into Majkut’s house, killing her and injuring Majkut’s  then-5-month-old son, Jaxon. Young later told troopers she swerved to avoid an animal, and her airbag deployed when she hit an embankment, causing her to be unable to see.

BRUCE BISHOP / CHRONICLE
Michael Fine appears in court Wednesday for a hearing.

Also appearing Wednesday before Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery was former attorney Michael W. Fine, whose attorneys pleaded not guilty on his behalf to updated charges in a case in which he is accused of hypnotizing legal clients for his own sexual gratification.

Fine, 58, surrendered his law license earlier this year before he was indicted on charges ranging from kidnapping to rape for allegedly putting six different women into trances and giving them sexual commands.

Fine fell under scrutiny last year after one of the women became concerned that she couldn’t recall everything that happened when she spoke with Fine and recorded conversations he had with her in which he allegedly used hypnosis on her and took them to law enforcement.

Fine had earlier pleaded not guilty to an earlier set of charges and is scheduled for trial next year.

Ronald Svec

Ronald Svec, a 74-year-old North Ridgeville man accused of fatally shooting his wife Nov. 6, also had a not guilty plea entered on his behalf during arraignments Wednesday.

Svec appeared via a video uplink with the Lorain County Jail, where he has been held since he allegedly shot 69-year-old Gloria Svec at the couple’s Jaycox Road home.

Defense attorney Kenneth Nelson has previously said his client acted in self defense when Gloria Svec came at him with a knife, a claim county Prosecutor Dennis Will has said isn’t backed up by the evidence in the case.

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