Ohio News Briefs

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Ohio sues imprisoned businessman over dumping drilling waste

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s attorney general is suing the owner of a northeast Ohio company who was sent to prison over the dumping of oil-field waste into a storm sewer in 2012 and 2013.

The lawsuit is seeking to recover financial penalties from Ben Lupo of Poland, Ohio, along with two of his companies and three of his employees.

The Vindicator in Youngstown reports the civil lawsuit was filed last week in a Mahoning County court.

A message seeking comment was left with Lupo’s attorney on Tuesday.

Lupo was accused of ordering workers to pour toxic sludge and brine containing diesel oil and several chemicals into a storm sewer that reached a Mahoning River tributary. He pleaded guilty in 2014 to a federal dumping charge and is serving a 28-month sentence.

85 face discipline over cheating at Ohio State vet school

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Eighty-five students are facing disciplinary action over an alleged cheating conspiracy at Ohio State University’s nationally prominent veterinary school.

The Columbus Dispatch reports an investigation began in February after university officials received claims that students at the College of Veterinary Medicine were sharing answers on online take-home tests.

University officials declined to name the courses involved or discuss specifics of the discipline because of student-privacy laws. Punishment for unauthorized collaboration ranges from a warning to dismissal from the school.

Some of the disciplined students are appealing their punishments to the provost’s office.

The Office of Academic Affairs is probing other tests and quizzes at the veterinary school that use the same software as the tests on which the cheating was found. The college also changed some testing practices.

Police make off-campus stops in Cincinnati despite agreement

CINCINNATI (AP) — University of Cincinnati police have made off-campus traffic stops even after agreeing not to do so following a campus policeman’s fatal shooting of a driver stopped for a minor violation.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports records show campus officers stopped nine cars near campus since August, for violations such as erratic driving and not yielding to pedestrians. Campus officials say those cases involved immediate public safety concerns that jeopardized people’s lives.

The city and university had an agreement to avoid off-campus traffic stops by UC police. It was signed last August, weeks after a white officer, Ray Tensing, killed a black motorist, Samuel Dubose.

The university subsequently fired the 26-year-old Tensing, who pleaded not guilty to murder.

The school and DuBose’s family settled a wrongful death case for $4.9 million.

Ohio ex-trooper accused in stalking case pleads not guilty

MARIETTA, Ohio (AP) — A former State Highway Patrol commander accused of stalking a subordinate’s wife after an affair has pleaded not guilty to abduction, criminal trespassing and other charges in southeast Ohio.

Forty-seven-year-old William Elschlager also pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of theft, criminal mischief, menacing by stalking and receiving stolen property.

He’s out of jail on $25,000 bond but remains on home confinement. His trial is Aug. 3.

Elschlager’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a message Tuesday but previously raised questions about the alleged victim’s credibility.

The veteran trooper led the Marietta post and was fired after officials learned about the allegations.

He was charged separately in Delaware County with stealing two guns in evidence that were supposed to be destroyed or returned when he was a patrolman in central Ohio.

Cleveland gets free office space for cops at GOP convention

CLEVELAND (AP) — Space being used as staging grounds for police in Cleveland during next month’s Republican National Convention will serve as a home base for downtown patrol officers during the next five years.

Cleveland.com reports city council passed legislation Monday allowing the city to accept the free office-retail space for police use. The space is beside a hotel on Public Square.

The council’s Public Safety Committee chairman says it’s similar to mini-stations created in the 1990s to connect officers and residents and help authorities better understand crime in neighborhoods. Officers worked out of special offices at recreation and other neighborhood centers, but those mini-stations were closed in 2005.

Several council members upset about the downtown space say if mini-stations are being reopened, it should happen in downtrodden, poorer neighborhoods first.

Family sues after police shoot, kill Ohio man with machete

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — The family of a northeast Ohio man who confronted four police officers with a machete has filed a federal lawsuit alleging he was wrongly shot and killed.

Kent officers shot 25-year-old Douglas Yon in December. Police say the Kent man ran at the officers with the machete and refused orders to stop.

Cleveland.com reports Yon’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Akron against the officers and the city of Kent last week.

The suit says Yon was holding the machete at his side and pointing it at the ground when he was shot.

The family seeks at least $100,000 in damages and assurances that future responses and arrests will abide by legal use of force limits.

City officials said they haven’t seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.

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