Norwalk – The Norwalk Post of The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a three-vehicle head-on crash that occurred Wednesday April 19, 2023 at 11:30 AM on US Route 20 near milepost 23 in Townsend Township, Huron County.
Bryan J. Anable, age 45, of Mansfield, was driving a white 2003 Chevy pickup eastbound on US 20. Nathanael Y. Roy, age 46, of Plymouth was the front seat passenger. William L. Worcester, age 56, of Grafton, was driving a blue 2020 Volvo semi westbound on US 20. Stephen N. Biro, age 70, of Parma, was driving a white 2020 Hino semi westbound on US 20 behind Mr. Worcester. Mr. Anable’s Chevy pickup traveled left of center and sideswiped the Volvo semi before striking the Hino semi head on in the westbound lane. Mr. Worcester’s Volvo semi came to a stop on the north edge of the road. Mr. Biro’s Hino semi drove off the right side of the road and into the ditch. Mr. Anable’s Chevy pickup was disabled in the middle of the roadway.
Mr. Anable was not wearing a safety belt and was trapped in the pickup. He was extricated by mechanical means. He died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash. Mr. Roy was not wearing his safety belt. He sustained serious injuries and was flown by Metro LifeFlight to MetroHealth Medical Center.
Mr. Worcester was wearing a safety belt and was uninjured.
Mr. Biro was wearing a safety belt and sustained minor injuries. He was treated on scene by Citizen’s EMS.
It is unknown if alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash. The crash remains under investigation.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted by the Huron County Sheriff’s Office, Wakeman Fire District, Citizen’s EMS, North Central EMS, Metro LifeFlight, ODOT, The Huron County Coroner’s Office, Huron County EMA, Interstate Towing, and Norb’s Towing.
This is the fifth fatal crash in Huron County in 2023 and the fourth crash where the fatal victim was unbelted. The Patrol reminds everyone that wearing a safety belt is the best way to protect yourself from serious injury or death in a motor vehicle crash.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Files Amicus Brief Supporting States’ Power to Remove County Prosecutors Who Fail to Enforce Laws
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is leading a coalition of 15 attorneys general in urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to affirm states’ authority to remove local prosecutors who refuse to put the law ahead of their personal politics.
In an amicus brief filed today in Warren v DeSantis, the attorneys general maintain that states have a right to defend their constitutions against local prosecutors who, by pledging not to enforce laws they dislike, essentially wield a veto power over lawfully enacted legislation.
“Prosecutors have no right to exercise a veto over an entire law,” Yost said. “But some are acting as though they do – and they are breaking our system of government. The political preferences of a single prosecutor cannot be allowed to override a lawfully enacted statute.”
Warren v DeSantis centers on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ removal last year of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who “signed in his official capacity” a statement promising not to prosecute those who provide abortions in violation of Florida law.
Warren has appealed a lower court ruling rejecting his argument that the suspension violated the First Amendment.
The attorneys general argue otherwise, encouraging the appeals court to reject Warren’s claim of a First Amendment violation: “The official punishes the misconduct the speech proves, not the prosecutor’s speech itself,” the amicus brief says. Government employees do not have a First Amendment right not to enforce the law.
An appeals court ruling to the contrary would hinder states’ ability to protect their constitutional systems from wholesale prosecutorial abuse.
Specifically, the attorneys general say the First Amendment free-speech clause doesn’t limit states’ ability to remove prosecutors who refuse to do their jobs.
“A world in which each prosecutor is free to ignore the law in favor of his or her own individual sense of what the law ought to be,” Yost said, “is a world where what will get you arrested depends on who’s in office – a government of individual prejudices, not a government of laws.”
Joining Yost in the amicus brief were the attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Norwalk – The Norwalk Post of The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a two-vehicle head-on crash that occurred Thursday April 13, 2023 at 1:41 PM on State Route 162 near Lyon Road in Greenfield Township, Huron County.
Nathan G. Salazar, age 24, of Woodbine Street in Willard, was driving a black 1997 Dodge pickup eastbound on State Route 162. St even A. Overmeyer, age 62, of County Road 41 in Fremont, was driving a blue 2018 Republic Services Mack truck westbound on State Route 162. Mr. Salazar ’s Dodge pickup drove left of center and struck the Republic Services truck head-on. The Republic Services truck then drove off the right side of the road into the ditch. Mr. Salazar’s Dodge pickup truck landed in the road and caught fire.
Mr. Salazar was not wearing a safety belt at the time of the crash and was ejected from his pickup. He died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.
Mr. Overmeyer was wearing a safety belt and received possible injuries. He was treated on scene by Willard Fire and Rescue.
It is unknown if alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash. The crash remains under investigation.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted by The Huron County Sheriff’s Office, the Willard Police Department, Willard Fire and Rescue, ODOT, The H uron County Coroner ’s Office, Huron County EMA, and Wilcox Towing.
This is the fourth fatal crash in Huron County in 2023 and the third crash where the fatal victim was unbelted. The Patrol reminds everyone that wearing a safety belt is the best way to protect yourself from serious injury or death in a motor vehicle crash.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is suing a phony charity that falsely claimed to be collecting donations to benefit residents of East Palestine following the Norfolk Southern train derailment.
Yost’s lawsuit alleges that Mike Peppel, in soliciting contributions, presented his Ohio Clean Water Fund as a nonprofit organization acting on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley to provide residents with emergency aid and bottled water. Instead, Peppel and others have pocketed at least $131,000 of the roughly $141,000 raised from more than 3,000 donors.
“The idea that somebody would so brazenly exploit a disaster situation and the good hearts of people who want to help is unconscionable,” Yost said. “I’m mad as hell about this, and we’re going to make sure this sham charity gets shut down.”
Representatives of Second Harvest Food Bank complained to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office that they had not authorized the partnership cited by Peppel in soliciting contributions via mass emails and text messages.
Yost is seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt Peppel’s illegal activity, prohibit him from engaging in additional charitable solicitations and preserve existing charitable assets.
Second Harvest Food Bank twice confronted Peppel to tell him to stop advertising the non-existent partnership. To date, and only after he was called out, Peppel has paid only $10,000 to the food bank, a mere 7% of what Peppel admits he raised.
“Here’s a message for anybody else who might hope to profit from the situation in East Palestine: Don’t even think about it,” Yost said.
The Attorney General’s Office is privileged to protect and regulate the charitable sector, a role that the office’s Charitable Law Section fulfills by investigating abuses of charitable trusts and monitoring charitable registration.
For those wanting to make a charitable contribution, AG Yost encourages donors to research charities and ask the right questions. Follow these steps to ensure that your money is going to a reputable charity:
Visit the attorney general’s Good Giving Guidelines and Research Charities webpage to check whether charities have complied with registration requirements. Media articles and other postings can also provide useful details about groups, board members and key employees.
View 990 forms, which most tax-exempt groups must file with the Internal Revenue Service. These forms describe where organizations get their funding and how they spend it.
Support familiar, established organizations, or, if considering a donation to an unfamiliar group, check its website first. Does the information match what you received when you were asked to contribute? Do the group’s programs and services make sense?
Talk with friends and family about unfamiliar solicitations. Have they heard of the group? Do they know of anyone who has been assisted by it?
Ohioans who suspect misuse of charitable funds or fraudulent fundraising activities should contact the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at 800-282-0515 or charitable.ohioago.gov.
Vermilion – The Sandusky Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a single vehicle crash that occurred Saturday April 15, 2023 at 3:19 AM on US-6 near Decatur St. in the City of Vermilion, Erie County.
Tristin Gibson, age 21, of Hubert North Carolina, was driving a beige 2011 Chevrolet Malibu, and was eastbound on US-6 near Decatur St. Garrett Anderson, age 24, of Panama City Florida, was the front seat passenger of the vehicle. Mr. Gibson’s Chevrolet Malibu failed to negotiate a curve and crossed the center divider. His vehicle then went into the opposite lane of travel, struck a utility pole, and struck a private residence before coming to rest.
Mr. Gibson was not wearing a safety belt at the time of the crash. Mr. Gibson died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.
Mr. Anderson was wearing a safety belt and sustained serious injuries as a result of the crash. Mr. Anderson is currently being treated at Cleveland Metro Hospital and is listed in stable condition.
Alcohol and speed are believed to be factors in the crash. The crash remains under investigation.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted by Vermilion Police, Vermilion Fire and Rescue, Done Rite’s Towing, and Lorain County Technical Rescue.
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.
(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?”
Emergency order prompted by intelligence from the Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order directing the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy to immediately classify xylazine as a Schedule III controlled substance, making Ohio one of the first states in the nation to schedule xylazine as a controlled substance drug.
Xylazine is a central nervous system depressant used in veterinary medicine as a sedative, anesthetic, and muscle relaxant. The substance, which is not approved for human consumption, has increasingly been found in the illicit drug supply in Ohio, frequently mixed with heroin, fentanyl, or new synthetic opioids (NSOs) such as nitazene.
“This lethal drug has dangerous side effects which can’t be reversed by naloxone, so there is no way to reverse its impact on people,” said Governor DeWine. “The rate of overdose deaths involving a mixture of xylazine and other drugs is increasing at an alarming rate, which is exactly why we need to take action now.”
According to the Ohio Department of Health, overdose deaths involving xylazine have increased each year in Ohio since 2019, with 15 overdose deaths in 2019, 45 in 2020, and 75 in 2021. Although 2022 mortality data is not yet complete, the Ohio Department of Health recorded 113 xylazine-involved overdose deaths as of March 14, 2022. Of these 248 unintentional drug overdose deaths, 99.2 percent also involved fentanyl.
When used in combination with an opioid, xylazine may worsen respiratory depression in the event of a drug overdose. Human consumption of xylazine is also known to cause debilitating skin ulcers that cause tissue decay and bacterial infections, which can lead to amputation at higher rates than those who inject other drugs.
The emergency order was prompted by intelligence gathered as part of an early detection process developed by the Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center (ONIC) in partnership with RecoveryOhio, the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy, and local drug toxicologists and chemists. The early detection process, which includes the proactive collection of reports from Ohio’s criminal justice system and forensic labs, allows ONIC to identify, analyze, and triage information on emerging drugs of abuse that are not controlled substances. In 2022, ONIC intelligence led Governor DeWine and the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy to add nine emerging dangerous substances to Ohio’s controlled drug schedule. Xylazine is the first dangerous substance added to Ohio’s controlled drug schedule in 2023.
According to ONIC, some crime labs in Ohio estimate that 25 to 30 percent of today’s fentanyl cases also include xylazine. The presence of xylazine in illegal drugs and the number of overdoses involving xylazine, however, are believed to be underreported because most toxicology and crime labs do not test for the presence of uncontrolled substances. Scheduling xylazine as a Schedule III controlled substance will allow for more robust testing and will make the sale and trafficking of xylazine for illicit use a criminal offense.
If you believe you or someone else is in immediate danger of a drug overdose, call 911 immediately. Naloxone should always be administered anytime an overdose is suspected, even if the overdose is believed to be caused by xylazine. Multiple doses of naloxone may be needed to reverse an overdose involving an NSO.
For more information on obtaining free naloxone, visit: naloxone.ohio.gov.
For more information regarding the emergency scheduling of xylazine by the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy visit www.pharmacy.ohio.gov/xylazine.
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.
Joe Lyons •
April 19, 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.
