In Other News

Sixteen-Year-Old Killed in Wayne County Crash

Joe Lyons • April 1, 2023

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP – On Friday, March 31, 2023 at approximately 5:00p.m. the Wooster Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol was called to the scene of a severe injury traffic crash on Evans Road (Township Road 203) near the intersection of Nonpariel Road (Township Road 202) in Franklin Township of Wayne County.

The on-scene investigation revealed that a white 2004 Chevrolet Silverado was traveling eastbound on Evans Road. The Chevrolet Silverado traveled left of center and off the north side of the roadway, striking a mailbox. After the initial impact, the Chevrolet Silverado re-entered the roadway and traveled off the south side of the roadway, striking a ditch, fence, and tree.

The driver of the white Chevrolet, a sixteen-year-old juvenile, was pronounced deceased at the scene as a result of injuries sustained from the crash. The investigation revealed that both the front and side airbags had deployed in the Chevrolet. The sixteen-year-old juvenile driver was wearing his seatbelt at the time of impact.

Agencies assisting at the crash scene were: Fredericksburg Fire/EMS, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wayne County Coroner’s Office. Wooster Towing removed the vehicle from the scene.

Alcohol and drugs are not believed to be a factor at the time of reporting and the crash remains under investigation.

AG Yost Urges Ohio Elected Officials to Address Flaws in State’s Capital-Punishment System

Joe Lyons • March 31, 2023

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost used the release today of the “2022 Capital Crimes Report” to call on Ohio’s elected leaders to initiate a much-needed, long-overdue debate about our state’s broken capital-punishment system.

“I personally support the death penalty, especially for the most abhorrent offenders, but I am only one voice,” Yost said. “Let’s open up the conversation and allow victims’ families to be heard.”

The Capital Crimes report, an annual statutory requirement of the Attorney General’s Office, provides the procedural history and other information on every case that has resulted in a death sentence since Ohio’s death-penalty law was enacted in 1981.

From 1981 through Dec. 31, 2022, the report says, 336 people have received a combined 341 death sentences. Of those, only 56 sentences – just one in every six – have been carried out.

“The facts and trends illuminated in this report are an indictment of Ohio’s broken system,” the report’s Executive Summary says. “It is a system that is not fairly, equally or promptly enforced, and because of that it invites distrust and disrespect for the rule of law.”

Throughout his tenure as attorney general, Yost has become increasingly convinced that something must be done about the massive amount of time, money and litigation expended on death-penalty cases that linger.

On average in Ohio, a condemned inmate spends nearly 21 years on Death Row – mostly as a result of the numerous avenues for appeal – before an execution date is set. Juries impose death sentences on those responsible for heinous murders, then the state “spends years debating, reviewing, appealing and failing to act on those decisions,” the Executive Summary says.

Meanwhile, Ohio is spending millions and millions of dollars — ­a capital case costs the state between 2½ and five times as much as a noncapital case — on this system, which doesn’t achieve its purpose.

“If we were starting from scratch to design a system for the ultimate punishment — whether that punishment is execution or, instead, life in prison without parole — neither death-penalty opponents nor death-penalty supporters would create anything like Ohio’s current system, which produces churn, waste, and endless lawsuits and nothing else,” the Executive Summary says.

A microcosm of the system’s failure is the case of Danny Lee Hill, who has been on Death Row for 37 years and, in that time, has filed more than 25 appeals in an effort to avoid execution. On March 20, in response to yet another appeal, a federal appeals court agreed to reconsider a previous order allowing him to seek federal relief yet again.

“Danny Lee Hill raped, tortured and murdered a 12-year old Warren boy, Raymond Fife, in 1985,” Yost said. “His ability to delay – again and again and again – what a jury determined to be a just punishment for his unspeakable crimes is one example of many that reinforce just how broken the system is.

“Where is the closure for the young victim’s family?”

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who prosecuted Hill for his crimes, says the state has failed Raymond Fife’s loved ones.

“Justice is a journey, and it doesn’t end for a victim’s family until sentencing is carried out,” Watkins said. “The Attorney General’s Office has been fighting for the Fife family in federal court for over 20 years to see that Danny Lee Hill’s state court convictions and death sentence are upheld. It’s long past time for justice in this case.”

Yost said Ohio needs to find the political will to do something: Either make capital punishment an effective tool for justice or eliminate it.

“The current state of limbo is unfair to victims’ families, unjust to communities, and disrespectful to jurors who did their duty and followed the law in deciding that the ultimate punishment fit the crime,” he said. “Ohioans deserve to know – will death sentences be carried out or won’t they?”

The 2022 Capital Crimes Report is available on the attorney general’s website.

Patrol Investigates Fatal Crash on Burkhart Road

Joe Lyons • March 28, 2023

Patrol Investigates Fatal Crash on Burkhart Rd. west of Tannerville Rd. in Baughman Township in Wayne County

Baughman Township – The Ohio State Highway Patrol is currently investigating a one vehicle fatal crash that occurred at 4:23 p.m. on Burkhart Rd. west of Tannerville Rd. in Baughman Township in Wayne County.

The crash involved a white 2010 Dodge Avenger driven by John C. Woodruff, 71, of Orrville, Ohio.

Initial investigation revealed Mr. Woodruff was traveling eastbound on Burkhart Rd. Mr. Woodruff’s vehicle traveled off the right side of the roadway striking the ditch and overturned several times ejecting the driver.

Mr. Woodruff was transported to Aultman-Orrville Hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.

Alcohol may be a factor in this crash. The driver was not belted at the time of the crash. The crash remains under investigation.

AG Yost Pushes Back on Biden’s Attempt to Rescind Protection for Student Religious Groups

Joe Lyons • March 27, 2023

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost authored a letter sent Friday to the U.S. Department of Education, co-signed by 21 other states, urging the Department to keep a rule that requires public universities to comply with the First Amendment or lose grant funding – a provision put in place to protect religious groups on campuses nationwide.

The Biden Administration is threatening to rescind this protection.

“Day after day, we see school administrators across the country targeting student religious groups as unworthy of existence,” Yost said. “Our county was founded on an entirely different principle – that Americans can practice their religion without fear of government reprisal.”

The existing rule, established in 2020 to implement Supreme Court precedent, prohibits public universities from denying religious student groups “any right, benefit or privilege that is otherwise afforded to other student organizations at the public institution” because of a group’s “beliefs, practices, policies, speech, membership standards or leadership standards, which are informed by sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The Biden Administration believes the existing policy is too confusing and burdensome, but AG Yost argues otherwise.

“Religious freedom is neither confusing nor burdensome,” he said.

The coalition’s letter says student religious organizations are being singled out for attack, reinforcing the need for the protection provided by the existing rule.

“The religious practice of student groups and individuals is under immense fire at universities,” it says. “Religious students have greatly enriched campus communities, through charity, service, temperance, and commitment to learning. They are owed the right to freely exercise their religion, however out of fashion with an increasingly anti-religious bureaucratic regime that might be.”

Removing the rule, the letter continues, would conflict with Supreme Court rulings forbidding the government from weaponizing the government against religion.

“The department is blessing the targeting of religious groups. That is wrong.”

In addition, the letter says that the rule change would impose “irreparable harm to students for no federal benefit.”

Joining Yost on the letter sent Friday were the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center Warns of Emojis Symbolizing Potential Drug Activity

Joe Lyons • March 23, 2023

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – The Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center (ONIC) released a public safety bulletin today alerting parents that emojis are being used by youth on social media and electronic communications to market, sell, and buy illegal drugs.

Emojis used in drug communications commonly refer to the physical, psychological, or physiological characteristics of the drugs. The presence of these emojis in communications can be one indication of possible drug activity, though it is important to note that these meanings are not definitive and emojis can be used in other ways.

“The use of emojis in this manner is a nationwide trend, and our analysts are seeing it here in Ohio as they analyze electronic devices seized in ongoing drug investigations,” said Cynthia Peterman, ONIC Executive Director. “Although use of these emojis is most often harmless, it’s important that parents keep this alert in mind, especially if their child is showing other signs of withdrawal or drug abuse.”

Emojis can refer to specific types of drugs such as a peeled banana for oxycodone/Percocet, a step ladder for alprazolam/Xanax, a snail for fentanyl, or a palm tree for marijuana.

Emojis are also used in generic ways to denote a drug dealer with an electrical outlet plug or the price of a drug by using a concert ticket stub. Other general references include using a flame, gasoline pump, or goat to depict the high potency of a drug and an astronaut, rocket, or face with an exploding brain to describe the euphoria of drug use.

To report a drug tip to ONIC, please call 1-833-OHIO-NIC (644-6642).

Governor DeWine signed an executive order in July 2019 creating ONIC, a specialized criminal intelligence unit to assist local law enforcement in conducting intelligence-driven drug trafficking investigations. Operated as part of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, ONIC has locations in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo. ONIC’s criminal intelligence analysts and computer forensic specialists provide investigative, analytical, and digital forensic support to local law enforcement agencies and drug task forces throughout Ohio.

Car Drives into House in Mansfield

Joe Lyons • March 23, 2023

As I was driving to my Dr. appointment in Mansfield this afternoon around 1pm, I heard over the Police scanner that a car had just crashed into a house, at 581 Burns Street.

I thought, “Hmmmm, do I have enough time to check it out?” Then the scanner boomed out, “Driver is running from the crash!” Then a few seconds later, “Driver just ran back to the crash and removed his temporary tags and is once again running away.”

Ok! I thought, “Well, I will just have to go get a few pictures, I still have a few minutes before my appointment.”

When I pulled up to the scene and saw this I thought, “Hey! You can’t park there!”

A witness at the scene told me it was unbelievable, why would you run back to your car to get the temporary tags?

The owner of the house had bought it to remodel it. He said he had already fixed the porch roof, but after all, his last name is “Murphy” like in “Murphy’s Law,” which is an old adage or epigram that is typically stated as: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

No injuries were reported.

Mansfield Police Division is investigating but hasn’t released any information as of yet.

AG Yost Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Adopt Legal Test for Presidential Immunity

Joe Lyons • March 21, 2023

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and two other state attorneys general are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to establish a legal test for determining the limits of a “very broad” presidential immunity.

In an amicus brief filed today in Trump v. United States, Yost and his counterparts from Alaska and Wyoming argue that such a test is necessary because future prosecutions, both civil and criminal, implicating presidential immunity are likely to arise in the wake of this unprecedented case. Defining the extent of presidential immunity now, the brief says, would establish constitutional guardrails to guide future legal proceedings.

“A line of normal behavior has been crossed – the special counsel actually boasts in his own brief that a president has never before been criminally prosecuted,” Yost said. “In the same way that impeachment has apparently been normalized, it seems likely that we will see future cases in which a prosecutor charges a chief magistrate.”

Yost added that the framers of the Constitution “understood that a president cannot fulfill the oath of office without reasonable immunity from criminal charges. That immunity is very broad, but not unlimited – and the nation needs clear and steady-handed guidance from its highest court.”

In February, the Supreme Court agreed to decide in Trump v. United States whether – and, if so, to what extent – a former president is immune from criminal prosecution for conduct allegedly involving official acts during the former president’s tenure in office.

In the brief, Yost proposes a two-factor legal test that courts would apply in cases examining questions of presidential immunity:

The first factor would consider how closely an alleged criminal action is linked to the president’s core powers under Article II of the Constitution.

The brief notes how the diverse duties of the president translate to a wide range of situations that may require immunity from prosecution. Therefore, it says, the test should examine the relationship between the action and the president’s official responsibilities; the closer an action relates to a core presidential power, the stronger the case for immunity.

Under the second factor, courts would determine whether the urgency of the situation warranted the president’s actions. The brief argues that times of heightened urgency, such as war, call for a greater degree of immunity for the president.

In their brief, the attorneys general ask the Supreme Court to adopt this legal test and remand the matter for further proceedings and fact-finding.

Police Believe There Are More Victims with Marion County Man Charged in Rapes of Children

Joe Lyons • March 20, 2023

Michael Ray Stith, 49, of Prospect, was indicted in Marion County Common Pleas Court

(MARION, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Marion County Sheriff Matt Bayles today announced the indictment and arrest of a Marion County man on multiple rape charges involving children.

Michael Ray Stith, 49, of Prospect, was indicted in Marion County Common Pleas Court and taken into custody last week.

Stith was charged with seven counts of rape, each a first-degree felony, in an indictment that was unsealed today. The charges specify that the victim(s) were less than 13 years old.

The case, investigated by the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, remains an active investigation. Detectives believe there may be additional victims with information about Stith, who has connections to Marion and Crawford counties.

Anyone with information about Stith and these allegations is encouraged to contact the Marion County Sheriff’s Office at 740-382-8244 ext. 5114 or BCI at 1-855-BCI-OHIO (855-224-6446). Tips may also be submitted anonymously online.

Marion County Prosecutor Ray Grogan’s office is prosecuting the case.

Indictments merely contain allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.