The Medina County Sheriff’s Office has located a teenage girl who went missing Sunday night.

The 15-year-old girl, of Lance Road, Lafayette Township, was reported missing about 10:30 p.m. By 5:30 p.m. Monday she had been found.

Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Harhay said the girl left her Lafayette Township home with a 16-year-old boy from Brunswick around 2:30 a.m. Monday morning.

“The boy’s mother told him he wasn’t allowed to have anyone over but he snuck her into the house after she left for work,” he said.

When the Brunswick boy’s mother came home from work Monday afternoon she took her daughter to the Brunswick Police Department, which contacted the girl’s parents.

Harhay said the girl was returned home but is facing possible juvenile charges of unruliness.

The sheriff’s office posted a press release on Facebook on Monday morning stated she was last seen at her home and was “believed to have run away with an unknown male, she possibly met on Facebook.”

Sheriff’s deputies said her boyfriend told them he had not seen or talked to her since before 10:30 p.m. and that she was suppose to go to work with her mother Monday morning.

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WADSWORTH — Police engaged in a 40 minute chase with an unidentified man leaving a police cruiser disabled and ending with the man getting shocked with a Taser early Tuesday morning.

The man has not been identified and criminal charges are pending.

According to a Wadsworth police press release, the man was operating the vehicle in a very slow manner and had pulled to the side of the street.

The slow speed chase started when a patrol officer observed the man driving in the area of High Street and Brouse Drive and “appeared that the vehicle was having mechanical difficulties.”

The officer was preparing to provide assistance when the operator of the vehicle then fled from the area, driving over the street lawn and into a nearby parking lot before exiting onto High Street.

Patrol personnel then began to pursue the vehicle on northbound High Street.

“Near Weatherstone Drive the suspect struck a Wadsworth patrol car, disabling it, but not injuring the officer,” the press release stated. “Other officers continued the pursuit towards the traffic circle in Sharon Center.

“At this location, personnel from the Medina County Sheriff’s Office were able to deploy sticks designed to puncture car tires and flattened the two left side tires.”

The man continued eastbound on S.R. 162 at very slow speeds, which allowed another deployment of the sticks by a Wadsworth patrol officer.

The man continued eastbound and approached the intersection of Medina-Line Road. Personnel from the Copley Police Department and M.C.S.O. were able to deploy more sticks and deflated the two right side tires.

The man temporarily stopped and failed to comply with verbal commands. He then turned onto southbound Medina-Line Road and continued for a short distance before officers were able to box him in and stop him.

“He again failed to comply with verbal commands and was tasered, placed into handcuffs and medical treatment was sought,” the release said.

After being medically cleared, he was then transported to the Medina County Jail and incarcerated pending criminal charges. Until the suspect is formally charged, he is not being identified.

Assistance was provided by personnel from the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Copley Police Department, and the Copley E.M.S.

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Steve Fogarty and David Knox
The Gazette

Robert Schepis

Seven members of a suspected burglary ring that targeted affluent homes in Medina County and eight other Northern Ohio counties have been indicted on racketeering charges, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty announced Friday.

The indictment charges that between Nov. 1, 2012 and May 1, 2014, the ring was responsible for 39 burglaries in Cuyahoga, Medina, Lorain, Huron, Lake, Portage, Stark, Summit and Wood counties.

Total value of the goods stolen was estimated at more than $221,000.

Named as ring leaders are David A. Quinones, 31, of Stow, and Gregory Cochran, 39, of Kent.

Other members charged in the 73-count indictment, unsealed Friday, are Robert Schepis, 33, of Medina; Antonio Caraballo, 31, of Cleveland; Abel Guzman, 35, of Cleveland; and Justin Taylor, 35, of Cleveland.

Also charged was Joseph Sabo, 74, of Cleveland, who is accused of being the group’s fence, buying the items they stole and then reselling them from his booth at the Streetsboro Flea Market.

“These guys were organized, skilled and knew how to hit these places,” Assistant County Prosecutor James Gutierrez said. High-end homes in cul-de-sacs or on streets leading to cul-de-sacs were preferred by the thieves, according to the indictment.

Multiple residences were sometimes targeted on the same street or neighborhood. The group also would look for spots to park getaway vehicles and post lookouts, according to indictment.

Wooded areas sometimes were used to hide the thieves’ approach to homes. Most break-ins occurred Friday and Saturday nights, when it was believed most residents were away.

“They would conduct surveillance and look for homes that were dark and where there was no one around,” North Ridgeville police Detective Pat West said Tuesday. “It is probably one of the most organized and prolific criminal operations I’ve seen.”

West said homes in North Ridgeville, Grafton, Amherst, Lorain and Carlisle Township were among the Lorain County communities victimized by the gang.

“They would typically enter by a rear door,” West said.

Forgoing large items such as TVs, the ring concentrated on money, jewelry and other items that could be carried away in a pillowcase, West said.
“They had a very distinct M.O.,” he said.

Quinones and Sabo were arraigned Tuesday, and others in the case are scheduled to be arraigned at various times through Jan. 6. The case has been assigned to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Steven E. Gall.

This is the first major case to be investigated by the Cuyahoga County Organized Crime Task Force, which was formed in 2013 to investigate and prosecute criminal enterprises. The Office of the Ohio Attorney General provides funding to support the Cuyahoga County Organized Crime Task Force through the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission.

Contact reporter Steve Fogarty at (330) 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com and David Knox at (330) 721-4065 or dknox@medina-gazette.com.

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The man involved in a slow-speed chase with multiple police departments has been identified by police.

Joseph Mast, 42, of the 400 block of Bicksler Drive, Wadsworth, is charged with failure to comply, a third-degree felony and is being held in the Medina County Jail on $10,000 bond.

Mast was seen driving slowly in the area of High Street and Brouse Drive by a Wadsworth police officer who tried to pull him over, suspecting mechanical difficulties.

When the officer approached Mast, police said he drove over the street lawn and into a parking lot before exiting onto High Street.

The slow speed chase lasted about 40 minutes.

At one point Mast “struck a Wadsworth patrol car, disabling it, but not injuring the officer,” a Wadsworth police spokesman said in a prepared statement.

Patrol officers tried to disable Mast’s car twice with sticks designed to puncture a vehicle’s tires. By the second attempt all four of Mast’s tires were flat.

Police were able to box Mast in on Medina-Line Road where he was shocked with an electronic stun gun.
“He failed to comply with verbal commands and was Tasered, placed into handcuffs and medical treatment was sought,” the release said.

After Mast was medically cleared he was taken to the Medina County Jail.

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

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A community group is asking residents to display a blue light on their porches as a symbol of support for local law enforcement officers.

The Medina Community Police Alumni Association, a volunteer group that assists police in sponsoring community events, is encouraging people to put a blue light on their porch for the month of January.

“There’s a nationwide Blue Light Week for the first week of January, but we’re asking people to shine a blue light for the whole month,” said Brian Haskell, vice president of the alumni association.

The blue light campaign, along with other rallies and demonstrations in support of police, followed the Dec. 20 killings of two New York City police officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. The officers were gunned down by a man vowing to avenge the deaths of two unarmed black men killed in encounters with police: Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Gardner, of New York City.

The deaths of Brown and Garner, sparked demonstrations around the county. In Cleveland, protests followed the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed Nov. 22 by a Cleveland police officer seconds after arriving on the scene. Rice was carrying an airsoft gun that shoots plastic pellets.

Haskell and other members of the Medina police alumni association participated in a walk Dec. 27 in Cleveland titled “Sea of Blue” to support law enforcement.

Haskell said the use of blue lights on your porch for the month of January would be a good way for Medina County residents to voice their support for law enforcement.

“The main goal law enforcement officers have is to get home alive at the end of their shift,” Haskell said. “It’s a tough job.

I think police are a little down and afraid of doing their jobs right now.”

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Seville police are investigating a suspected attempted robbery Saturday night at the Circle K on Center Street.

Seville police Sgt. Ivan Reed said a clerk at the Circle K reported that a man came into the store about 10:15 p.m. and told her to “give me what you’ve got.”

Reed said the clerk treated the demand as a joke, laughed and asked the man “What do you want?”

“He got kind of nervous and scared at that point and said he wanted cigarettes,” Reed said. “The clerk handed him a pack of cigarettes and he gave her money to pay for the cigarettes before running out the door and jumping into a white Kia Sonata.

The clerk said the man reached into his back pocket but did not brandish a weapon.

Reed described the man as white, about 5-foot-8, thin, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with a red bandana and sunglasses.

“We’re asking for anyone with information to give us a call,” Reed said. “We don’t know if this was a robbery attempt and he just got scared, or if he was just goofing around.

“We think it’s less likely it was a joke because the clerk didn’t know him. She hadn’t seen him before.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Seville Police Department at (330) 769-4003.

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A Medina County Sheriff’s deputy sustained minor injuries in a crash on Spieth Road in York Township Saturday night.

Lt. Travis Colonius said Deputy Dan Kohler was treated at Medina Hospital and released.

“He’s a little sore but he’s OK,” Colonius said. “The damage to the cruiser was pretty serious.”

Colonius said Kohler was on patrol on Spieth Road near Abbeyville Road when he collided with a vehicle pulling out of a driveway.

Colonius said the Medina post of the Ohio Highway Patrol handled the crash investigation. A patrol spokesperson said Sunday the report wasn’t complete. The spokesperson said it did not appear the driver of the other vehicle was taken to a hospital.

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Firefighters assess damage at a home gutted by fire Monday morning at 7291 Stone Road in York Township. (KATIE ANDERSON / GAZETTE)

Katie Anderson, Loren Genson and Nick Glunt | The Gazette

A fire gutted a sprawling home at a $1.8 million estate on a private lake along Stone Road in York Township on Monday morning.

The fire was reported about 8:15 a.m.

Erhart-York Township Fire Chief Guy Roach said the owner, Kevin Sunde, and a cleaning service employee were in the house at 7291 Stone Road when the fire started. Sunde was taken to Medina Hospital with minor injuries.

Roach said Sunde told him he was lighting a fire in a propane gas fireplace. When he turned around, he said he heard a small explosion.

The Medina County Fire Investigation Task Force is investigating the cause of the fire.

Roach said the state fire marshal’s office was called in.

“It’s standard when we have a fire this large to call the fire marshal in to investigate,” the chief said.

Roach estimated the damage to the home at about $750,000.

“We were able to save a nice portion of the structure; but when you have that much damage, it’s just easier to rebuild,” Roach said. “It will be probably be classified as a total loss.”

Roach said his firefighters were able to pull some valuables from inside the home. He said the property was covered by insurance.

The 11,552-square-foot, eight-bedroom home sits on a 29-acre site, which includes a 4.5-acre spring-fed lake. The property is valued by the county auditor at $1.79 million — $1.17 million for the buildings and $618,650 for the land.

Sunde has been trying to sell the property, asking $2.5 million, according to the online listing of Keller Williams real estate agency.

According to the listing, the property includes the main residence, two guest houses, a deck, a pond, an air-conditioned garage, an indoor regulation basketball court and outside tennis courts.

Reached for comment Monday evening at a business phone number, Sunde declined to comment “at this time.”

FirstMerit Bank filed a foreclosure suit in October 2012 against Sunde and his wife, Sandra, claiming $624,000 in back mortgage payments and taxes. In August, Medina County Common Pleas Judge Christopher J. Collier ordered the home be sold.

The order was put on hold in November after Sunde filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Ohio.

Monday’s fire is the third major fire at the property in the last 20 years. In November 1996, a building at Sunde’s property that belonged to his business, Medina Ground Maintenance Landscaping Contractors, caught fire. The losses were valued at $350,000 and an apartment and offices were damaged, according to news stories.

In January 1998, the landscaping office including an attached garage caught fire and caused an estimated $175,000 in damages.

Roach said wind and cold temperatures made battling Monday’s blaze difficult, but all the firefighters who responded made it safely through the long day.

“All the firefighters are good. There were no injuries,” he said.

Erhart-York received mutual aid from Medina, Chatham, Valley City, Lafayette and Litchfield fire departments. The crews were on the scene until about 2:30 p.m.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

Contact reporter Loren Genson at (330) 721-4063 or lgenson@medina-gazette.com. Follow her on Twitter @lorengenson.

Contact reporter Nick Glunt at (330) 721-4048 or nglunt@medina-gazette.com. Follow him on Twitter @ngfalcon.

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Kaitlin Walters

A 13-year-old girl from Wayne County has been missing for nearly a week.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said Monday afternoon that Kaitlin Walters, of Burbank, left her home Dec. 30.

Walters is 5-foot-4 with blond hair and hazel eyes. She weighs about 110 pounds.

Anyone with information can call the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office at (330) 287-5701.

— from staff reports

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A pole barn caught on fire Monday afternoon on Erhart Road in Chatham Township. No one was inside the barn at the time. (LOREN GENSON / GAZETTE)

Firefighters from six departments responded to a Monday night pole barn fire on Erhart Road in Chatham Township.

Chatham Assistant Fire Chief Tim Vaughn said crews were able to knock down the fire in about an hour because there wasn’t much to allow the flames to spread.

“He had some grain, wagons and farm equipment,” Vaughn said.

A damage estimate was not available Monday.

Vaughn said it appears the fire started on the north side of the barn, at 5546 Erhart Road, between Egypt and Smith roads. There was a wood-burning heater in operation at the time at the southeast corner of the barn. He said he wasn’t sure if the wood-burning stove caused the fire, but said he would have fire investigators on the scene to examine the cause.

Fire departments from Chatham Township, Erhart-York Township, Spencer Township, Litchfield Township, Lafayette Township and the Village of Lodi responded to the fire. Many arrived with water tankers because there was no water supply nearby.

“We asked for the extra response out of caution,” Vaughn said.

He said he expects fire calls to increase as the weather remains cold this week.

“We see a lot of people using extra heaters, lighting their wood burners,” Vaughn said. “We just ask people to be careful and be safe.”

Contact reporter Loren Genson at (330) 721-4063 or lgenson@medina-gazette.com. Follow her on Twitter @lorengenson.

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CLEVELAND — Cleveland’s mayor said he didn’t trust a state agency to investigate the fatal police shooting of a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a pellet gun, because he believes the agency mishandled the investigation of a different shooting that led to charges against officers and a settlement with the families of two people killed.

Mayor Frank Jackson explained Sunday how his thinking on the Tamir Rice case was influenced by the review of a November 2012 chase that ended with police killing two unarmed suspects in East Cleveland by firing 137 rounds at them, the Northeast Ohio Media Group reported.

Jackson said the city decided to hand over the investigation of Tamir’s Nov. 22 shooting to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office because he wasn’t confident a proper, transparent investigation would be conducted if the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Ohio’s attorney general handled it.

“I don’t think the state attorney general handled the East Cleveland shooting properly,” said Jackson, a Democrat. “It wasn’t done in a way that I think gave me confidence that this would have been done properly. So that’s why we turned to the county.”

A U.S. Department of Justice review conducted after the East Cleveland chase found a pattern and practice of Cleveland officers using excessive force and violating people’s civil rights. Negotiations have begun on a court-ordered agreement to make changes within the police department.

Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican, on Monday defended how the East Cleveland case was investigated. He said his office was asked to take the lead and completed “a thorough investigation with a great deal of transparency” and that nothing has raised questions about the validity of that work.

DeWine declined to respond directly to Jackson’s comments, saying he doesn’t want to get into an argument with the mayor.

— from wire reports

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A member of the grand jury that declined to indict a Ferguson police officer in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown contends in a lawsuit filed Monday that the prosecutor in the case wrongly has implied that all 12 jurors believed there was no evidence to support charges.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of the unnamed juror, who wants to be allowed to talk publicly about the case but could face charges for doing so because of a lifetime gag order. The juror also said he or she came away with the impression that evidence was presented differently than in other cases, with the insinuation that Brown, not Officer Darren Wilson, was the wrongdoer. No grand jurors have spoken publicly about the case.

Brown, who was black, was unarmed when he was fatally shot after an Aug. 9 confrontation with Wilson, who is white. The shooting in the St. Louis suburb led to widespread unrest, including some protests that resulted in local business being burned and looted. Protests again turned violent Nov. 24, when St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch publicly announced that the grand jury investigating the case had decided there wasn’t enough evidence to indict Wilson. Wilson has since resigned from the department.

“In Plaintiff’s view, the current information available about the grand jurors’ views is not entirely accurate — especially the implication that all grand jurors believed that there was no support for any charges,” the lawsuit says.

The suit was filed against McCulloch, who oversaw the investigation, because his office would be responsible for bringing charges against the juror. McCulloch’s spokesman, Ed Magee, said his office had not seen the lawsuit and declined immediate comment.

“Right now there are only 12 people who can’t talk about the evidence out there,” ACLU attorney Tony Rothert said. “The people who know the most — those 12 people are sworn to secrecy. What (the grand juror) wants is to be able to be part of the conversation.”

The suit also contends that legal standards in the case were discussed in a “muddled” and “untimely” manner. Jurors could have charged Wilson with murder or manslaughter, but nine of 12 would have needed to agree.

The suit does not seek to allow grand jurors in all Missouri cases to be free to discuss proceedings. But it argues that the Ferguson case was unique, and that allowing the juror to speak would be valuable to the national debate about race and police tactics that followed the shooting.

“The rules of secrecy must yield because this is a highly unusual circumstance,” Rothert said. “The First Amendment prevents the state from imposing a lifetime gag order in cases where the prosecuting attorney has purported to be transparent.”

After the decision was announced, McCulloch took the unusual step of releasing thousands of pages of witness testimony provided in secret to the grand jury. Grand jurors usually hear a condensed version of evidence that might be presented at trial, but the Ferguson grand jury heard more extensive testimony.

The panel — which included nine white and three black members — met on 25 separate days over three months, hearing more than 70 hours of testimony from about 60 witnesses, some of whom provided inconsistent versions of events. McCulloch acknowledged in a radio interview last month that some of the witnesses obviously lied to the grand jury.

Rothert said the grand jury convened in May and heard hundreds of other cases before devoting its attention to the Wilson case in August. The suit contends that McCulloch’s office handled the Wilson case far differently than the others, with “a stronger focus on the victim.”

Jim Cohen, associate professor at Fordham University Law School and a grand jury expert, said the lawsuit will add to concerns about how the case was handled.

“Believe me, there’s already more than a fair amount of skepticism about whether this process was fair, notwithstanding Mr. McCulloch’s cynical attempt to pretend that it was fair,” Cohen said.

Cohen believes the juror has a strong argument in the lawsuit.

“This matter has been discussed by virtually everybody in the universe with the exception of any person actually subjected to the presentation of evidence,” he said.

Last month, state Rep. Karla May, a St. Louis Democrat, asked a joint House and Senate committee to investigate whether McCulloch “manipulated” the grand jury. It wasn’t clear if the committee would take up that request. Messages were left Monday with May and state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, the committee’s chairman.

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Firefighters wait for orders Tuesday night before entering a buring house at 879 Brook Road in Wadsworth. (ANDREW DAVIS / GAZETTE)

Fire departments from across southern Medina County battled flames for more than two hours at a Wadsworth house fire Tuesday evening.

The Wadsworth Fire Department received the call about a house fire at 879 Brook Road about 6 p.m. By 7 p.m., five other fire departments were working with Wadsworth to combat the flames.

“At this point, we still don’t know what caused the fire,” Wadsworth Assistant Fire Chief Ron Likley said.

Two small children in the home escaped without injury, he said.

Likley said the fire started in the first-story garage of the home and had progressed into the attic before crews arrived.

Using pickaxes, firefighters tore vinyl siding off the house’s attic to expose the inner hot spots where the fire had spread.

“It had a good head start on us,” he said.

Firefighters went into the blazing home in shifts. As firefighters exited the home to get fresh air and drink coffee, other firefighters entered through the charred front door to expose hot spots on the second floor.

Trucks from Norton, Rittman, Chippewa Township, Seville-Guilford and Sharon Township fire departments assisted with the blaze.

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

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Firefighters meet outside the scene of Monday’s fire at 7291 Stone Road. The state fire marshal’s office has ruled that the blaze was caused by arson. (GAZETTE FILE PHOTO)

The state fire marshal’s office has concluded the Monday morning fire at a $1.8 million estate on Stone Road in York Township was deliberately set.

Lindsay Burnworth, a public information officer for the fire marshal’s office, said, “The fire was ruled an arson.”

She said investigators were on the scene Tuesday collecting evidence.

Reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, the owner of the home, Kevin Sunde, declined to comment on the arson ruling, saying he was “talking to an investigator right now.”

Medina County Sheriff Tom Miller said his office would support the investigation.

“We’ll be assisting in any way they ask,” Miller said. “If they need any help conducting interviews, we can do that.”

According to Erhart-York Township Fire Chief Guy Roach, the report of the fire at 7291 Stone Road came in about 8:15 a.m. Monday.

Roach said Sunde and a cleaning employee were in the home when the fire started. Sunde told the chief he was lighting a fire in a propane gas fireplace when he heard a small explosion. Sunde was taken to Medina Hospital with minor injuries.

The sprawling 11,552-square-foot home was one of three buildings on the 29-acre site, which includes a spring-fed lake. A guest home and office and garage area belonging to Sunde’s landscape business, Medina Ground Maintenance Landscaping Contractors, were not affected by the fire.

Sunde has been battling financial problems for several years. Creditors filed a foreclosure suit on his Stone Road property in 2012. In October 2014, county Common Pleas Judge Christopher J. Collier ordered the property sold to pay $624,000 in mortgage and other debts and back taxes.

The sale was put on hold in November when Sunde filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Ohio.

In the bankruptcy documents, Sunde acknowledged $613,000 in liabilities — including mortgage debts of $255,000 to PNC Bank and $192,000 to FirstMerit Bank, $82,000 to Litchfield Business Park and about $6,000 for a vehicle lease. Also listed as a debt was $75,000 in back property taxes owed to Medina County.

The Stone Road property was listed for sale with Keller Williams real estate agency, with an asking price of $2.5 million. The online listing featured photos of the main residence, two guest homes, a pond, air-conditioned garage, indoor regulation basketball court and outside tennis courts.

According to the county auditor’s office, the property was valued at $1.79 million — $1.17 million for the buildings and $618,650 for the land.

Two previous fires damaged the landscaping business on the property in 1996 and 1998. Damages in those fires were valued at $350,000 and $178,000 respectively. Those fires were ruled accidental.

The state fire marshal’s office said anyone with information about Monday’s fire, or who may have witnessed anything suspicious, should call the fire marshal’s tip line at (800) 589-2728.

Reporter Nick Glunt contributed to this report.

Contact reporter Loren Genson at (330) 721-4063 or lgenson@medina-gazette.com. Follow her on Twitter @lorengenson.

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This 7-year-old pitbull was one of two dogs rescued from a Greenwich Road home in Guilford Township. The dog had little muscle mass and weighed half of what it should, according to the Medina County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (GAZETTE FILE PHOTO)

A Guilford Township couple will spend time in jail for neglecting two dogs that were rescued from their Greenwich Road home in September.

Burdett and Augusta Crandall pleaded no contest last month to two charges each of cruelty against animals, first-degree misdemeanors punishable by up to six months in Medina County Jail. Four other charges were dismissed.

Wadsworth Municipal Judge Stephen B. McIlvaine sentenced the couple Monday to three months in jail, but suspended all but 15 days for Burdett Crandall and 10 days for Augusta Crandall, according to court records.

In addition, the couple is barred from owning pets and must spend five years on probation, during which they will be subject to inspections to ensure their compliance with the terms of their sentence.

Finally, they were ordered to pay $5,304.17 in restitution to the Medina County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in order to make up for medical bills associated with the animals’ recovery.

The dogs — a 7-year-old pit bull and a 3-year-old boxer — were discovered in August after the SPCA received a tip from an anonymous caller. The dogs weighed half or less than normal and their bones were visible under their skin.

SPCA humane officer Mary Jo Johnson said the couple told her they couldn’t afford to feed the dogs.

Cruelty against animals is a misdemeanor in Ohio. Several bills have been introduced to the Ohio Legislature to make it a felony, but none have passed.

Contact reporter Nick Glunt at (330) 721-4048 or nglunt@medina-gazette.com. Follow him on Twitter @ngfalcon.

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A Montville Township man is suing several businesses from around the nation, accusing them of illegally obtaining information about his credit history.

Robert Nieto, of Hedgewood Drive, filed two lawsuits Dec. 26 against four firms: Pinnacle Consumer Group, based in Dallas; Island Group Partners, based in Brooklyn, New York; the Law Offices of Brett E. Stevens, based in Cuyahoga Falls; and the Davis Law Group, based in Staten Island, New York.

He accuses the companies of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Ohio Telephone Solicitors Act, the Ohio Credit Services Organization Act and the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act by using his personal information to “target” him with mailers soliciting him to hire their services.

In his lawsuit, Nieto said the firms indicated on mailers that they obtained his personal information from a “consumer reporting agency” but refused to answer his questions.

Nieto said his personal information included details of his “credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living,” according to the suit.

Attorneys were not listed in court records for any of the six firms, and calls to the firms were not returned Tuesday.

Attorneys for Nieto also did not return a call for comment.

Nieto seeks statutory and actual damages, attorneys’ fees, declaratory judgments that the firms violated the laws, and permanent injunctions to stop them from collecting any more credit information.

Nieto made similar accusations and requests in an Oct. 22 lawsuit against two other businesses, Lord Heal Our Land Inc., based in Carson City, Nevada, and U.S. Enrollment Group, based in San Diego, according to Medina County Common Pleas Court records.

Contact reporter Nick Glunt at (330) 721-4048 or nglunt@medina-gazette.com. Follow him on Twitter @ngfalcon.

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A Lorain man released early from a three-year prison sentence for killing an Elyria man in a car crash is fighting a Cuyahoga County judge’s order late last month that returned him to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Ryan Fye was ordered back to prison after the family of William Fekete, who died in the March 23, 2013, crash, complained about an image Fye posted on Facebook after he was released from prison last month.

In the image Fye can be seen extending both of his middle fingers.

“Prison didn’t break me. It MADE me,” he wrote. “Im (sic) a new man. Don’t (sic) come at me like before. Yes im (sic) skinny and muscular now.

7 months of working out everyday. Love my real friends an (sic) fam. Shout outs to my fam behind bars. Ill (sic) see ya when youre (sic) time is near! Miss you brothers!”

Reanna Karousis, a spokeswoman for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle ordered Fye back to prison after seeing the Facebook post.

“The family was upset by the posting and so was the judge,” she said.

Defense attorney Michael Stepanik said his client wasn’t trying to be disrespectful to family, but was instead responding to online threats, including one where a person posted on Facebook “I sure can’t wait to bump into you on the streets prison better made u (sic) tough man cuz I fee really bad for u (sic).”

Fye himself wrote in another Facebook posting last month that the controversial post had nothing to do with his case.

“Its (sic) directed towards all the Fake friends i (sic) had and have, all the people trying to snoop and talk (expletive) about me like im (sic) some sort of monster,” he wrote.

Stepanik has asked McMonagle, who agreed Dec. 9 to give Fye early release, to reconsider the order sending his client back to prison.

He wrote that the probation rule that Fye was accused of violating, which requires him to conduct himself in an orderly manner in court or in dealings with probation officers, has nothing to do with the posting. Stepanik said Fye made the post on Facebook before he had even met with his probation officer.

“This court has ex post facto made a condition of his probation that Fye should permit individuals who are threatening him to continue to do so and not respond in any way to threats on his safety,” Stepanik wrote.

He also wrote that calling Fye’s conduct “ ‘outrageous’ is insufficient to constitute a probation violation.”

Karousis said her office still is reviewing Stepanik’s court filing but will prepare an answer before a court hearing set for Jan. 15.

Fye was behind the wheel of a 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution when he lost control and the car went off the road and hit a tree at Bradley Woods Reservation in Westlake.

Fekete, 22, was killed in the crash, and three other passengers were injured.

Fye, who was treated and released after the crash, pleaded guilty in April to aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges. He was sentenced to prison in May.

Contact reporter Brad Dicken at (440) 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com .

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Kevin Sunde

A spokesperson for the state fire marshal’s office has retracted reports that a Monday fire at a $1.8 million estate in York Township was deliberately set.

“I would like to make a correction to previous reports from our office that the fire at 7291 Stone Road in York Township was ruled arson,” spokesperson Lindsey Burnworth wrote in an email at 4:08 p.m. Wednesday. “That fire remains under investigation and the cause is undetermined at this time.”

In a phone interview shortly after the email was sent, Burnworth said the error was the result of “a miscommunication between myself and our investigators,” she said. “We’re all human, I guess, and I take responsibility for the mistake.”

Burnworth declined further comment, saying only that the fire “remains under investigation.”

The home’s owner, Kevin Sunde, said Wednesday afternoon that he didn’t understand how the state fire marshal’s office could make such a mistake.

“They’ve ruined my life. I’m getting calls from my kids crying, from friends asking if I’m OK, if I’ve been arrested,” Sunde said. “I just don’t understand how a government organization can make a mistake of that magnitude and ruin a person’s reputation and their life.”

He said he’s had a good reputation in the community.

“I’ve had a place of integrity in the community for 30 years,” he said. “The rest of my life, I get to walk through town with people talking behind my back that I burned my house down for some money.”

Sunde, who said he filed for bankruptcy in November to save his house in the wake of a heated divorce, said: “I can’t wait for all these haters to see they were wrong about me. I’m willing to cooperate and I look forward to seeing the investigation come out to show I’m innocent.”

Two earlier fires — in 1996 and 1998 — damaged Sunde’s landscaping business building on the Stone Road property. Both fires were ruled accidental.

Sunde said he expected the same ruling on Monday’s fire.

“The other previous fires at the same residence were investigated with the same scrutiny as this one and it was found I didn’t do it,” he said. “That’s the same thing with this fire. I was there.”

According to Erhart-York Fire Chief Guy Roach, the report of the fire came in about 8:15 a.m. Monday.

Roach said Sunde and a cleaning employee were in the home when the fire started. Sunde said he was lighting a fire in a propane gas fireplace when he heard a small explosion. Sunde was taken to Medina Hospital with minor injuries.

The 11,552-square-foot home was one of three buildings on the 29-acre site, which includes a spring-fed lake.

A guest home and office and garage area belonging to Sunde’s landscape business, Medina Ground Maintenance Landscaping Contractors, were not affected by the fire.

According to the county auditor’s office, the property was valued at $1.79 million — $1.17 million for the buildings and $618,650 for the land.

The state fire marshal’s office said anyone with information about Monday’s fire, or who may have witnessed anything suspicious, should call the fire marshal’s tip line at (800) 589-2728.

Contact reporter Nick Glunt at (330) 721-4048 or nglunt@medina-gazette.com. Follow him on Twitter @ngfalcon.

The post Fire marshal retracts arson report, York Twp. estate fire remains under investigation appeared first on The Medina County Gazette.

Investigators haven’t determined the cause of a fire that severely damaged a home at 879 Brook Road Tuesday evening in Wadsworth.

Wadsworth Fire Chief Carl Rommel said the state fire marshal’s office is assisting in the investigation.

Rommel said two “young adults” were in the home when the fire started about 6 p.m. and were able to get out unharmed.

“I believe everyone else (in the home) was at work,” Rommel said.

Rommel did not have the ages of the two people who escaped the fire. In an initial report, Wadsworth Assistant Fire Chief Ron Likley described them as children.

According to the Medina County Auditor’s Office, the house is owned by Kevin and Tammy Pateos. Neither was able to be contacted for comment Wednesday.

The split-level home was engulfed in flames about 6 p.m. Tuesday after a fire started on the first floor in an area of the home that had been converted from a garage into living space.

“That is where we think it started,” Rommel said.

Rommel said none of the firefighters from the six departments who responded were injured during the almost two-hour fight.

“They responded well,” he said.

Trucks from Norton, Rittman, Chippewa Township, Seville-Guilford and Sharon Township fire departments assisted with the blaze.

Contact reporter Andrew Davis at (330) 721-4050 or adavis@medina-gazette.com.

The post Cause of Wadsworth house fire still undetermined appeared first on The Medina County Gazette.

Sharon MacKay

Brunswick Hills Police Chief Sharon MacKay, Medina County’s first female chief of police, has retired.

The 56-year-old MacKay, who joined the Brunswick Hills department in 2009, announced her retirement Wednesday.

“I am proud and honored to have served as Chief of Police of the Brunswick Hills Police Department for the past five and a half years,” MacKay said in an email. “After much thought and deliberation, I have decided to leave the department to pursue other personal interests effective Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015.”

Township Trustee Michael Esber said MacKay’s retirement was expected.

“She announced her resignation to the trustees in November that she was going to be leaving in 2015,” Esber said. “She accelerated it and decided she was ready to retire.”

Esber said Lt. Tim Sopkovich will be acting police chief.

“Until we decide which way we’re going on this, that’s how it’s going to stay,” Esber said.

Sopkovich couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

MacKay said she already is collecting a pension from the Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund. She was earning $75,000 a year in Brunswick Hills, she said.

MacKay, of Parma, has been a Northeast Ohio police officer for 34 years. Before leading the Brunswick Hills department, she worked for the Cleveland Division of Police, starting in 1981.

MacKay said one of her greatest accomplishments was the work she did in Medina County.

“I’ve worked on making the Brunswick Hills Police Department a more current, more professional police department that interacts with other law enforcement agencies to address key issues affecting the township,” MacKay said in an email. “I am proud of the service I provided and want to thank the community for all the support offered to me during my tenure.”

Other accomplishments MacKay listed in the email included her 14 years as a patrol officer in Cleveland, being an instructor for the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy and the Cleveland Heights Police Academy, and becoming a lieutenant in the Cleveland department.

“I want to wish the trustees, township employees and the community continued success,” MacKay wrote in her email.

Contact reporter Katie Anderson at (330) 721-4012 or kanderson@medina-gazette.com.

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