Brunswick soon may switch undercover drug investigation agencies.

Members of City Council’s Safety Committee discussed Monday night the idea of discontinuing Brunswick’s contract with Medway Drug Enforcement Agency in favor of the Medina County Drug Task Force. The committee unanimously agreed to move the emergency motion to next Monday’s committee-of-the-whole meeting where all council members will be able to consider the proposal.

Carl DeForest

Both agencies conduct investigations into drug trafficking and help to convict suppliers, Brunswick Police Chief Carl DeForest said.

DeForest said Medway Director Donald J. Hall called him several weeks ago and expressed concerns the organization’s Wayne County headquarters and its high caseload meant that Brunswick might not be fully benefitting from the service.

“This is more of a dissolution than a nasty divorce,” DeForest said.

Medway is the oldest drug task force agency in the state and when Brunswick started using the service in 1984, options were fewer than today, DeForest said.

“Their operation has changed significantly in the last several years,” he said. “They’re headquartered in Wayne County and the majority of their responses are in the Wooster city area.”

DeForest said Brunswick uses about $94,400 of its share of county anti-drug levy revenue to pay for Medway services. The county levy, which voters renewed in November, brings in about $1.5 million annually.

DeForest said if the city switches to the Medina County Drug Task Force, that agency will be closer geographically to Brunswick and the move will allow the task force to receive the almost $100,000 that otherwise would go to Medway.

Though the staff of task force has stayed steady over the past 10 years, the funding would allow it to hire one more full-time agent, he said.

“It should actually increase our ability to fight that problem (drugs),” DeForest said.

Brunswick is the only Medina County city using Medway since Wadsworth switched from Medway to the Medina County Drug Task Force several years ago.

“Both entities are top-notch,” DeForest said. “I think it will be a seamless transition.”

A Medina County jury recommended Tuesday that James Tench receive the death penalty for killing his mother in 2013.

James Tench

“It’s a sad day,” defense attorney Kerry O’Brien said.

Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler will take the jury’s unanimous death penalty recommendation into consideration when sentencing Tench on April 25.

The judge will have the same sentencing choices as the jury: the death penalty, life without parole, life with parole in 30 years and life with parole in 25 years.

The jury deliberated for several hours Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning before announcing its recommendation at 11 a.m.

Jury members declined to be interviewed.

The body of 55-year-old Mary Tench was found Nov. 13, 2012, in a car not far from the Camden Lane home in Brunswick she shared with her son, now 30.

James Tench was found guilty March 23 on three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, and one count each of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

On Monday, friends, family and corrections officers testified on Tench’s behalf before the jury began deliberating whether Tench should receive the death penalty.

Friends described Tench as like a “brother” and his uncle, Gregory Tench, said James grew up in a troubled household with a substance-abusing father.

James Tench took the witness stand, asking the jury for his life and time to reflect on the loss of his mother, father and relationships with others.
County Prosecutor Dean Holman, who asked the jury Monday to recommend the death penalty, thanked members Tuesday for their service.

“We are appreciative of the jury’s service and diligence in this matter,” he said.

During the trial, prosecuting attorneys said Tench was stealing money from his mother and killed her to stop her from going to police.

Tench waited for his mother to get home from working late on Nov. 12, 2013, and struggled with her on their home’s front porch before running her over with her own SUV, Holman told the jury in closing arguments Monday.

Her body and car were found in a field off Carquest Drive near her home the next day.

The jury’s death penalty recommendation comes just more than three years after a jury made a similar recommendation for Steven Cepec, who was convicted in the 2009 death of a 73-year-old Chatham Township historian.

Judge James L. Kimbler — who is Joyce V. Kimbler’s husband and her predecessor on the court — sentenced Cepec to death in April 2013.

Cepec awaits execution at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. He is the first Medina County resident to sit on death row in 60 years.

Executions in Ohio have been on hold since early 2014 because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs.

The next execution in Ohio isn’t scheduled until January 2017.

HUNTINGTON TWP. — A woman whose skeletal remains were found in an overgrown area off state Route 58 in Huntington Township went undiscovered for two to 20 years, authorities said at a news conference Thursday.

“It could have been decades,” Chief Deputy Lorain County Coroner Frank Miller said. “It’s very difficult to estimate skeletons that have been outside many, many years.”

KRISTIN BAUER | GAZETTE Lorain County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Randal Koubeck points to a screen indicating what brand of clothing the woman was wearing at the time of her death, as Chief Deputy Coroner Frank Miller M.D. looks on during a press conference on Thursday morning, April 7. The Lorain County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the help of the public to identify the woman.

The woman’s identity remains a mystery, as does how she came to rest 40 or 50 feet off the side of the rural road.

“This is not someplace somebody would be out for a walk and have a medical event,” Miller said. “It’s on a farm behind a border fence next to a state highway, and that’s why we’re trying to find out who it is, because once we know who it is, we can find out when they went missing, what the circumstances were and try to work into how she came to be where we found her.”

The woman was either left on the surface of the ground where she was found or buried in a very shallow grave, but would have gone unseen because the property owner rarely used that part of his property and only mowed there once a year, according to Miller and Lorain County Sheriff’s Sgt. Randal Koubeck. When the property owner did mow, he backed into the area with his equipment, so he wouldn’t have seen the body.

The only reason the remains were discovered March 22, Koubeck said, is the property owner was checking the area for damage from an unrelated car crash.

Miller said an anthropological analysis of the remains indicate the woman was white and stood between 4 feet, 8 inches and 5 feet, 5 inches tall. He estimated she was in her late teens to early 30s at the time of her death.

The cause of the woman’s death remains under investigation. Miller said DNA analysis has not yet been conducted. He said given the state of the body, which contained no remaining soft tissue, such testing might be of limited use. He also said that a model of what the woman might have looked like in life might also be done if other efforts to identify her aren’t successful.

Miller said there were no obvious injuries found on the remains, although there was evidence of animal activity on the body.

A dental examination showed that the woman had all of her teeth, including four impacted wisdom teeth, Miller said. The crowding of the upper and lower teeth indicated she had not had any orthodontic work.

The woman was wearing a spaghetti-strapped top or short dress and a loose-knit, short-waisted, capped-sleeve overlay with a single button, according to a news release. She also had a sequin-and-pearl underwire bra and matching panties sold by Victoria’s Secret. The cup size of the bra was 38 B.

Koubeck said investigators are working with Victoria’s Secret to determine when that style of underwear was manufactured.

Investigators also found a white-faced Peugeot watch with a leather band, a metal wrist bangle, artificial nails with white tips and white flower patterns and a shiny center stone, a metal belt buckle with a pink flower pattern in the center and a single stud earring.

Miller said the model of watch found with the remains has been manufactured for about 30 years.

Anyone with information on the woman’s identity is asked to call detectives at (440) 329-3742.

A former peanut company executive serving a 28-year prison sentence won’t have to pay money to victims of a deadly salmonella outbreak linked to his Georgia plant, a federal judge ruled.

Former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell and three co-defendants were spared by the judge’s order Wednesday from paying restitution to corporate customers and the families of hundreds who got sick after eating tainted peanut butter in 2008 and 2009. The outbreak was blamed for nine deaths and 714 illnesses.

“There were nine that died in the U.S.,” said Randy Napier of Durham, N.C., formerly of Medina. “My mom was one of them. You wouldn’t expect it to happen to you.”

Napier

Nellie Napier died less than a month after her 80th birthday on Jan. 19, 2009, at a Medina nursing home where she had lived.

Randy Napier said he and the rest of his family still have fond memories of the birthday party. Almost all of the family was on hand. Nellie is shown in pictures with a big smile on her face.

Convicted of knowingly shipping tainted peanut butter and faking results of lab tests for salmonella, Parnell received the harshest criminal penalty ever for a U.S. producer in a food-borne illness case when he was sentenced to prison in September. His brother, food broker Michael Parnell, got 20 years in prison.

But the question of whether the Parnell brothers and two former managers of Peanut Corporation’s plant in rural Blakely, Ga., should compensate victims for financial losses dragged the case out for six more months.

Ultimately, U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands ruled victim loss estimates provided by prosecutors were invalid because they were based on civil claims and included costs — such as attorney fees — that can’t be recovered in a criminal case.

Parnell’s attorney, Tom Bondurant, said the same financial loss estimates the judge deemed too flawed for calculating restitution had played a big role in determining Parnell’s long prison sentence.

“In the big scheme of things, there seems to be a disconnect where you can find loss and send somebody to jail for the rest of their life but not order restitution,” Bondurant said.

The judge also noted an insurance policy held by Peanut Corporation paid out more than $12 million to victims. Peanut Corporation declared bankruptcy and shut down after the outbreak.

Randy Napier and Jeff Almer, whose mother also died, were hoping that restitution could have gone to a group called Safe Tables Our Priority, or STOP, that helped victims of food-borne illnesses.

“Jeff Almer and I got together to figure out a way to help the organization that helped us,” Randy Napier said. “We came up with the idea of forcing them to pay restitution. None of it was for us. I made the comment to Jeff, ‘Let’s kick them while they’re down,’ for all the heartache, pain and stress they put us through.”

Randy Napier said the bankruptcy settlement awarded an undisclosed amount of money to his family, and they divvied up equal shares to all.

“I can’t tell you how helpful (Safe Tables Our Priority was),” he said. “They were the most compassionate people I’ve ever dealt with. Without their help and guidance, I wouldn’t have known where to turn. We thought it was a good opportunity for (STOP) to get a good donation. We presented it to the judge. Unfortunately, he ruled they didn’t have to pay.”

Randy Napier is fine with the decision.

“(The Parnells) have no jobs,” he said. “As angry as we are, we don’t want their families to suffer for what they did — whether they knew about it or not. Had they come out and apologized up front, it would have been monumental.

“We were very angry. We’re not vindictive people. These organizations need the money. They do very, very good work.”

The ruling also means two former plant managers, Sammy Lightsey and Danny Kilgore, don’t owe victims any money.

They pleaded guilty to helping ship salmonella-tainted peanuts, peanut butter and peanut paste to customers who used them in products from snack crackers to pet food.

Three deaths linked to the outbreak occurred in Minnesota, two in Ohio, two in Virginia, one in Idaho and one in North Carolina.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hinckley Township trustees on Monday accepted the immediate resignation of Fire Chief Tim Potts. Potts submitted the resignation on March 29, Hinckley Trustee Martha Catherwood said.

Tim Potts

“We were aware he was looking forward to his second retirement,” Catherwood said.

Potts, who started the Hinckley position 4½ years ago, is no stranger to retirement. The former Olmsted Falls fire chief retired in 2010 after 41 years in the Olmsted Falls Fire Department. Less than a year later at age 60, Potts was sworn in as Hinckley fire chief, joking that his decision to return to work was “almost surreal.” He received a $35,000 annual salary.

Potts did not reply to messages for comment Thursday.

Catherwood said the 34-person paid volunteer department will operate without an interim chief. The department’s six lieutenants will take on day-to-day duties and Catherwood will coordinate with contractors to finish the new fire department building on 1616 Ridge Road.

Catherwood said the department is accepting applications for the part-time chief’s position until April 18. The time it will take to fill the position “depends on the caliber of applicants,” she said, adding that the trustees don’t want to rush the decision.

Potts was instrumental in pushing for the construction of the new fire department and will be missed, Catherwood said.

“He had expectations of the quality of service the fire department provided,” she said. “He will be missed extremely.”

Mr. Chicken is rallying to help the family of a Brunswick woman whose 4-year-old daughter was killed in an apartment building fire last month.

The local chain announced a three-day fundraiser promotion will be held this weekend for Jordan Sullivan, an employee for more than five years.

Sullivan’s daughter Keagan died March 7 when a fire began at 10:30 p.m. The family lived on the ground floor of the Hickory Hill Apartments on Hemlock Court near Pearl Road.

“Jordan Sullivan and her children are part of the Mr. Chicken family,” said the restaurant group’s owner and CEO, Michael Simens.  “Our hearts go out to the Sullivan family in this very difficult time and we hope any monetary support … will provide some comfort to ease the tremendous stress of this heartbreaking situation and help the Sullivan family.”

For every large dish sold at the restaurant’s eight Northeast Ohio locations today through Sunday, Mr. Chicken will donate 100 percent of the sales to the family.

Also, the Twinsburg Fire Department will be at the Mr. Chicken at 9010 Darrow Road in Twinsburg — near Routes 82 and 91 — from noon to 2:30 p.m. Sunday with a fire truck to collect donations for the family.

Sullivan’s arm was injured when she broke through a window to escape the fire. She also suffered smoke inhalation.

Sullivan and her boyfriend, Russell Roper, survived the fire with Kye Sullivan, 2, and Kylee Sullivan, 6. The family lost all of their belongings in the fire.

First responders arrived within four minutes of a call about the blaze, where flames shot up an estimated 27 feet. It took an hour to contain.

The fire is believed to have started in or around a patio, which could have kept the fire hidden because of a cinder block wall. Residents pounded doors to evacuate the complex, which didn’t have sprinklers.

The Ohio Fire Marshal’s office is investigating.

Nearby residents quickly began posting on social media about collection donations. The fire displaced about 60 residents and injured six people.

To donate to the Keagan Sullivan fund, checks may be made payable to the St. Ambrose Community Outreach Fund with a memo line stating “Jordan Sullivan.”

Checks may be dropped off at any Mr. Chicken store or mailed to St. Ambrose Catholic Church, 929 Pearl Road, Brunswick, OH 44212.

Mr. Chicken is family-owned and operated with locations in Maple Heights, Solon, Painesville, Willoughby, Northfield Village, Twinsburg, Euclid and Parma.

Wadsworth police said Monday that the department is investigating a series of thefts from vehicles in the southeast portion of the city.

Police said streets involved are Cedar, East Bergey, East Walnut, Main, Northpark and Southpark.

Lt. Rob Wyrick told The Gazette it appears there is a pattern when the weather breaks.

“More people are out and about, including the bad guys,” he said.

Police records show that on April 6, five thefts from vehicles were reported.

On April 8, the police department posted on its Facebook page about a “rash of thefts from unsecured vehicles.”

Wyrick said Monday cash and other valuable items have been stolen, typically in cars that are not locked at night.

Wyrick stressed that residents should keep vehicles locked and urged people not to leave anything of value in their cars.

“If it’s visible and someone sees it, they may be tempted,” he said.

Wyrick said residents can call (330) 334-1511 with any concerns.

The trial of a Hinckley Township man accused of killing his siblings was pushed back four months Monday, from April 18 to Aug. 15.

Dean Simms, 43, who pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and four counts of murder in the deaths of 52-year-old Cynthia Gesaman and 45-year-old Randy Szychowicz, waived his right to a speedy trial Monday in Medina County Common Pleas Court, allowing attorneys more time to submit and examine evidence.

ELIZABETH DOBBINS / GAZETTE
Dean Simms, who faces murder charges, sits in court Monday next to his attorney Robert Campbell and Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman.

Defense attorney Robert Campbell did not object to the delay or county Prosecutor Dean Holman’s request for tests on a cellphone and several swabs taken from the scene of the Feb. 5 deaths in Hinckley Township.

According to court documents filed by the prosecution April 7, Simms was holding a cellphone when he was arrested the early morning of Feb. 5. Holman said law enforcement believes Simms made several calls before calling 911 at 2:37 a.m. the same day.

During the 911 call, he told the dispatcher he used a shotgun to kill his brother and sister, prompting police to search the siblings’ shared Babcock Road home.

Police found Gesaman and Szychowicz each dead from a gunshot wound to the head, the county coroner said.

The swabs were taken from a shotgun and shotgun shell police seized from the home, according to court documents filed by the prosecution. Prosecution also said law enforcement found “biological material” on a jacket Simms was wearing at the time of his Feb. 5 arrest.

The discovery of the bodies of Gesaman and Szychowicz came just hours after police were called to the home for a domestic dispute. According to a report released by the Hinckley Police Department, Simms was intoxicated and throwing beer bottles at Gesaman around 12:30 a.m. Police separated the two, left the house and marked the incident as “verbal only” on the report.

Hinckley Police Chief Tim Kalavsky told The Gazette in February that the department was familiar with the residents from previous calls.

Simms, who was born with the last name Szychowicz, changed his name for unknown reasons, Kalavsky said.

Kalavsky said Simms did not resist when he was arrested outside his residence.

In February, Simms pleaded not guilty to the charges in Judge Christopher J. Collier’s court. He is being held at the Medina County Jail on a $1 million bond.

A former Brunswick insurance agent was sentenced to nine years in prison Monday for a string of bank robberies in Medina and Lorain counties.

ELIZABETH DOBBINS / GAZETTE
Larry Gore Jr., was sentenced to 9 years in prison Monday for a series of bank robberies. His attorney, David Sheldon, sits next to him in Judge Christopher J. Collier’s court.

Larry Gore Jr., 48, pleaded guilty in February to 18 felony counts for his involvement in four bank robberies from July 2014 to March 2015. The charges included robbery, burglary, license plate theft and criminal tools.

“The length of time is appropriate,” Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman said. “Nine years is a lot of time to spend in prison.”

Defense attorney David Sheldon asked Common Pleas Judge Christopher J. Collier to sentence Gore to five years in prison. He said Gore’s worsening financial issues and loans with high interest rates motivated the robberies after his success as a Brunswick Allstate Insurance agent faltered as a result of the 2007-09 recession.

“He felt the only way he could make these payments would be to go ahead and rob the bank,” Sheldon said.

Gore had no prior convictions.

Sheldon said Gore’s first robbery on July 23, 2014, at a FirstMerit Bank in Medina coincided with the due date of a high interest payment. Gore said he tried to conceal his financial issues from his family.

“The stress was unbearable,” Gore said in court Monday. “I snapped and completely lost touch with reality.”

Gore also was sentenced for three more bank robberies. On Nov. 21, 2014, a masked man thought to be Gore jumped over the counter at the PNC Bank in Liverpool Township and took cash from tellers’ drawers.

Just more than two weeks later, on Dec. 8, Gore robbed Fifth Third Bank in Columbia Station. In March of the next year, Gore robbed another FirstMerit Bank, also in Columbia Station.

Sheldon said Gore was angry at FirstMerit Bank after his $450,000 home was devalued during the mortgage crisis and, as a result, he made that bank the target of two robberies.

Holman, who asked for a 12-year sentence, said Gore also threatened at least one of the bank tellers.

“In at least one of these robberies … he said to a teller, ‘I know where you live,’” Holman said in court.

Sheldon said family, friends and several of the girls he coached in Little League softball wrote letters in support of Gore.

“The Larry Gore that robbed four banks … is not the Larry Gore they know,” Sheldon said.

Collier noted it was Gore who robbed the banks and the same Gore whom Sheldon said coached softball and made breakfast for his three children.

“This isn’t about financial distress. This is about pride and greed,” Collier said.

Holman said he suspects if Gore had not been arrested as he fled the scene of the second FirstMerit robbery, he likely still would be robbing banks.

Collier agreed.

“He’d stop when? When the economy turns around? When he finally wins that big one?” Collier said.

“When I’m sentencing him, I’m sentencing the Larry Gore who did that time after time after time,” he added.

Gore received 385 days credit of time already served in jail toward his prison term.

“I feel horrible for his family,” Sheldon said. “He was always there for his children.”

PHOTO PROVIDED
Wadsworth police are looking for Jenna Kaczynski, left, and Jeremiah Reeves, last seen around 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The Wadsworth Police Department asked for the public’s help Wednesday in locating two juveniles believed to be runaways.

Jeremiah Reeves and Jenna Kaczynski last were seen in Wadsworth at approximately 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to a post on the police department’s Facebook page. Their ages were not disclosed.

The post had been shared nearly 1,000 times as of 6 p.m. Wednesday.

According to the post, the teens left the area together on a 1996 black Harley-Davidson motorcycle with skulls on it.

The motorcycle was found in Hinckley and it is possible the juveniles are on foot or that they were picked up where they left the bike, police said on Facebook.

Wadsworth police said anyone with information may call (330) 334-1511.

Brunswick City Council unanimously decided to sever its ties with the Medway Drug Enforcement Agency in favor of becoming part of the Medina County Drug Task Force.

The move ended a partnership with Medway, based in Wooster in Wayne County, that has existed for more than 30 years.

The emergency resolution was passed after one reading in Council on Monday

Carl DeForest

Police Chief Carl DeForest said the quick turn-around means Brunswick, which needs to give 60 days notice to Medway, can join the Medina County Drug Task Force before the start of a new budgeting season July 1 to help ensure a smooth transfer of funding.

Brunswick used $94,400 of its share of the county anti-drug levy revenue to pay for Medway services.

After the switch, the money will go to the Medina County Drug Task Force. DeForest said the funds could be used by the task force to hire another full-time agent.

DeForest said contention between Brunswick and Medway did not drive the split. When Brunswick began using Medway services in 1984, there were fewer options than today.

Currently, DeForest said, Medway has a high caseload. Also, the distance between Brunswick and the Medway agency was a factor, he said, compared with the operations of the Medina County Drug Task Force.

Statements made by a woman accused of manufacturing methamphetamine in a Medina apartment while her 2-year-old child was present will not be admissible in the trial of her co-defendant, a man also accused of making meth.

Jerry Canfield

Jerry Canfield, 37, of Medina, was arrested after their unit at Liberty Plaza Apartments, 253 Abbeyville Road, was raided Jan. 6. He pleaded not guilty in January to seven counts of illegal manufacturing of drugs, all first-degree felonies, and one count of endangering children, a third-degree felony.

During the raid, the Medina County Drug Task Force found Erica Grabowski, 32, her child and an alleged meth lab inside the apartment.

Canfield, who was not present the time of the raid, was arrested later.

County Assistant Prosecutor Matt Razavi said Medina resident Grabowski made a statement to police during the raid discussing her and Canfield’s involvement in the alleged lab.

Erica Grabowski

Defense attorney Richard Barbera made a motion to exclude this testimony in March. In court Thursday afternoon, Barbera and Razavi agreed this testimony could not be used in a trial because it classifies as hearsay.

“We can’t admit that hearsay testimony,” Razavi said in Medina Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler’s court.

Grabowski, who faces the same charges as Canfield, pleaded not guilty in January.

In 2013, Canfield was convicted of heroin possession in Medina Common Pleas Court.

The child was placed in emergency custody and caseworkers from Medina County Job & Family Services were contacted after the raid.

Canfield is being held in Medina County Jail on a $100,000 bond with a trial scheduled for 9 a.m. April 25.

Grabowski is being held in Medina County Jail on a $75,000 bond. Her trial is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday.

With the expiration looming for one of Brunswick’s income taxes for safety forces, city officials are studying the financial future of the police and fire departments.

“I can’t tell you where it’s going yet, but obviously there are some serious discussions that we’re going to have,” said Ward 2 Councilman Nick Hanek, who chairs City Council’s Safety and Environment Committee.

LAWRENCE PANTAGES / GAZETTE
Brunswick Police Chief Carl DeForest and Fire Chief Jim Baird spoke to city council committee leaders about their departments as part of council’s efforts to gather information on expenditures.

Discussions on the income tax and funding are in early stages in the safety and audit committees, Hanek said.

The 0.5 percent city income tax for safety forces brings in $4.35 million annually for Brunswick fire and police. If not renewed by voters, the four-year tax, first passed in 2009, will expire at the end of 2017.

A 0.35 percent continuous income tax for safety forces — meaning it does not expire — was passed in the 1990s. Together, the two taxes bring in $8.6 million a year for police and fire service, city Finance Director Todd Fischer said.

The departments received another $1.3 million for their 2015 budgets through a 0.3-mill property tax and billing revenue.

But all the revenue combined did not cover the approximately $11.5 million spent by the safety departments in 2015 and won’t cover this year’s projected $12 million in spending, Fischer said.

He said income tax revenue from the general fund covers the difference, but using money from the general fund for the safety departments means less funding for other projects, such as infrastructure improvements.

“What that does is tug on everything else,” he said.

Fischer said the city often did not replace retiring employees from 2004 to 2012, meaning many departments have a smaller staff compared with 12 years ago, which leaves little room for cuts.

He said the cost of the city’s non-safety departments cannot be cut further without eliminating the department.

“We didn’t really reduce our services, but we reduced our positions,” he said.

At a recent meeting of the safety and audit committees, Fire Chief Jim Baird and Police Chief Carl DeForest discussed their departments’ needs and spending.

Baird said the fire department employs 30 people, 24 of which take shifts staffing the city’s two fire departments around the clock. At any particular time, four firefighter-paramedics and two lieutenants are on duty — enough staff to respond to two calls at once.

“As far as staffing goes the … model is one line firefighter per 1,000 residents. So that model would say that we’re thin,” Baird said.

Brunswick has 34,438 residents according to the 2014 American Community Survey, about 180 more people than the population total reported in the 2010 U.S. Census. Baird said though the population is relatively stable, the senior population, which uses the department most, has grown.

In 2010, there were 4,079 people in Brunswick older than 65, according to the 2010 census. In 2014, that number had risen to 4,491, according to the American Community Survey.

“More than anybody else, those age groups will increase our call volume,” Baird said. “As our call volume increases, it just takes our units out of service more often.”

He said he expects an increased senior population with the completion of more senior housing projects, including one along Center Road and another at Brunswick Town Center.

The department can call on mutual aid from surrounding departments, but in some instances, including the Hickory Hill apartment fire last month, quick response is essential, he said. All of the six firefighters were available when the report came in of the apartment fire that killed a 4-year-old girl and injured seven people.

“Had we been missing one squad, that would not have gone the way it did,” Baird said, suggesting there might have been more injuries or deaths if both of the three-person squads hadn’t been immediately available.

A thin staff means Baird needs to pay overtime if a firefighter is injured, sick or on vacation.

“It takes a significant amount of overtime to keep those two stations manned with three men each and if I sustain even one long-term injury, it raises my overtime significantly,” he said.

Baird said his vehicle fleet, which includes two engines and four squads, is in good condition.

The opening of several emergency rooms in Brunswick in the past decade means the fire department gets less revenue from transport services, which are charged by mileage. He said he is happy to make this trade if it means faster access to care.

“I’ll take that any day,” he said.

DeForest said his vehicles are also in good condition, but, similar to the fire department, the police department’s staff has remained static for the past decade.

The police department has 40 full-time officers, four who are part time, and 15 civilian employees, which include dispatchers and the animal control officer.

“Could we use more people? Yes. Do we need more people? Probably, but we’re probably not going to get any,” he said.

The department has 19 marked cars, five unmarked cars, a MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected) vehicle that came from the U.S. Army and two refurbished military Humvees.

“I think we do a very, very good job with our budget,” DeForest said.

There is a nervous excitement for firefighters responding to a fire.

It was no different for members of the Brunswick Hills Township Fire Department, which was dispatched to a fire at the Hickory Hills apartment complex in Brunswick on March 7.

PHOTO PROVIDED
Eric Sigmund, left, was awarded a medal of bravery from Brunswick Hills Township Fire Chief Anthony Strazzo for his actions at the fatal fire in Brunswick March 7. Here he is shown with his family — wife Jeanna and daughters Brianna and Mikayla, front.

That excitement changed to anxiousness when the dispatcher informed the firefighters a 4-year-old girl was trapped inside.

“There was dead silence,” Brunswick Hills fireman Eric Sigmund said.

Suddenly, the activity became intense. When responders arrived at 4279 Beverly Hills Drive and saw flames whipping into the sky, they knew they were in for a battle.

The Brunswick Fire Department was the first to respond, with Brunswick Hills right behind. Medina, Medina Township, Valley City, Hinckley, Strongsville, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls and Middleburg Heights departments also provided aid.

Keagan Taylor Sullivan, 4, died in the fire.

“You hope you only encounter something like this once in your career,” Brunswick Hills Fire Chief Anthony Strazzo said.

The 32-year-old Sigmund twice went into the burning apartment trying to find the little girl. The second time he went in, it almost cost him his own life.

For his actions that night, he was awarded a medal of bravery from Strazzo. He also was given a resolution for bravery from the Brunswick Hills Township trustees.

The trustees praised everyone who responded in an ambulance or fire engine that night. Strazzo presented the rest of fire department with a letter of recognition.

“It was terrible,” Sigmund said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that. Later, I saw video of the fire. We all had tunnel vision. We were set on finding that little girl.”

Sigmund said when Brunswick Hills’ fire truck arrived, the first person he encountered was Keagan’s father. He explained he thought his daughter was in her bedroom.

“I broke out the window and saw bunk beds,” Sigmund said. “Obviously, it was a kid’s room. I didn’t find her. It was smoky and hot. The dad said she might have been in the parents’ room. But they pulled us out of there. Flames were burning through the wall. They thought the whole room would ignite.”

Firefighters seemed to get the flames under control. They were going to make a second attempt to find the little girl.

“I was watching it burn and knew she was in there,” Sigmund said. “It was not an easy issue to deal with. I hated standing there watching that. The Medina fire chief was going to send in three of his guys for a search.”

Sigmund suggested that he go with them.

“I ended up back in there,” he said.

He said the smoke was so thick, he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in there long.

“A beam fell from the second story and hit me on the head,” Sigmund said. “It knocked me out for a minute. I blacked out. One of the Medina firefighters had to help me get the beam off my legs. I couldn’t get it off by myself.”

He said the outcome could have been a lot worse.

“I could have been paralyzed,” he said.

He was taken to the hospital and had an X-ray and a CAT scan. For a few days after the fire, he suffered some dizziness and hung out on the couch.

“I’m fortunate,” he said. “I didn’t really get hurt.”

He was proud to receive the bravery award.

“That was nice,” Sigmund said. “My whole family was there. I felt weird because I didn’t get hurt, but you don’t need to be seriously injured to get recognized.”

Besides being a firefighter, he’s also a nurse at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.

Sigmund couldn’t stop thinking about his own children when searching for Keagan. He and wife, Jeanna, have two daughters — 6-year-old Brianna and 3-year-old Mikayla — and live in Brunswick.

“I’d never been a part of a fatal fire, much less one involving a child,” he said.

His courage didn’t go unnoticed, especially by his chief.

“He was very lucky,” Strazzo said. “He went in the second time trying to find the missing girl. Obviously, he’s married and has two kids of his own. He was risking his life for a child, someone else’s child, which is pretty brave.”

Sigmund said he didn’t get any counseling after the life-changing event.

“We had a debriefing session at the station,” he said. “Different guys from the department got together. That was better than therapy. They understand better because they were there. They experienced some of the same issues.”

Fourteen of the department’s 41-person roster responded to the fire.

“We brought everybody together and they told their story,” Strazzo said. “We got the whole picture of what went on. It seemed to help the guys work through it.

“We hope we never have to go through it again, especially with a child. We all have kids.”

There was another fire in Brunswick three days later at Laurel Hill Apartments. Strazzo is amazed how the community has helped the families displaced by the fires.

“With all the bad stuff that goes on in world, when you have a tragic event, everyone comes together,” he said. “It makes you proud to be in the United States.”

Police say the death of a 25-year-old woman found in a Brunswick apartment is being investigated as suspicious.

Police found Starr Pawliczka unconscious in a unit in RHM Manor on 1685 Stoneybrook Lane after a man who lives in the apartment called 911 at 3:46 a.m. Monday.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her. Maybe she’s having a seizure,” he said during a 911 call to Brunswick dispatch.

The man said she was conscious at the time of his call. According to a police report, members of the Brunswick fire department found her unconscious with injuries “possibly related to blunt force trauma.”

She also had symptoms consistent with a drug overdose, the report said.

Pawliczka was transported to the Brunswick campus of the Cleveland Clinic and later flown to Cleveland MetroHealth. She died in the hospital on Tuesday, a news release from the Brunswick Police Department said.

Community Policing Coordinator Nick Solar said the death was being investigated as suspicious, but said he could not release further details.

Solar said the department is unsure where Pawliczka was living, but officials do not believe it was the apartment where she was found.

“We’re still trying to find out where she was residing,” he said.

The department is asking anyone with information to contact Brunswick Detective Sarah Merhaut at (330) 225-9111.

Wadsworth is the location of tomorrow’s sobriety checkpoint, according to a release from Medina County OVI Task Force.

The exact location and time of the checkpoint, which is funded by federal grants, will be announced Friday morning.

Commander of the task force Lt. Brian Ohlin said the checkpoint program is meant to deter and intercept impaired drivers.

“Citizens of our county continue to be injured and killed as a result of impaired drivers on our streets and highways. OVI checkpoints are designed to not only deter impaired driving, but to proactively remove these dangerous drivers from our roadways,” Ohlin said.

The Medina County OVI Task Force and the Ohio State Highway Patrol announced the location of a sobriety checkpoint, starting at 9 p.m. today, will be in the 700 block of High Street in Wadsworth.

The location is south of I-76 on High, which is also state Route 94.

Officials said the program, funded by a federal grant, is set up to deter and intercept impaired drivers.

The checkpoint will be held in conjunction with nearby saturation patrols, officers said.

New narcotic strains that may have caused six overdoses in 24 hours in Lorain County haven’t been discovered in Medina County, but that doesn’t mean the county won’t see evidence of them, said Gary Hubbard, the director of the Medina County Drug Task Force.

“Can it come this way? It typically does,” Hubbard told The Gazette on Thursday. “Hopefully, it won’t.”

While the numbers of cases of suspected overdoses have been down in April, he said agents have seen a difficult period of several months for opiate overdoses in the county. Since Jan. 1, there have been 56 suspected opiate overdoses and nine suspected opiate overdose deaths.

“We had 53 in the first quarter (January through March) so we’re double where we were last year,” Hubbard said.

The number of suspected opiate overdose deaths exceeds the number of car crash deaths in Medina County this year, which is currently two.

“It’s probably three (suspected overdose deaths) to one (car crash death) … this year even more than that,” he said.

March saw the highest number of overdoses in the past three months with 26 suspected opiate overdoses and two deaths.

Hubbard said the spike wasn’t limited to Medina County, with Lorain County and Cleveland also seeing a similar increase. An influx of homemade fentanyl, which is a drug 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, was likely to blame, Hubbard said.

This month two strains of narcotics new to Lorain County have Elyria police concerned. The first, which is called U4700, is reported to be seven and a half times more potent than morphine.

The second, 3-methylfentanyl, is usually only used in lab research and thought to be 7,000 times more potent than morphine.

Elyria police reported Tuesday that the city had experienced 40 overdoses this year, including 12 in the last week. Toxicology test results will determine if the new narcotics were involved, police told the Chronicle-Telegram on Tuesday.

Hubbard said compared with March, Medina County opiate overdose numbers have dropped, suggesting the new narcotic strains are not in the county. Hubbard said in the month of April police have received reports of three suspected opiate overdoses and one suspected opiate overdose death.

“I say only three, but one is too many,” he said.

Hubbard said he is unsure the reason for the decrease but arrests and investigations into supply sites by his organization, local police departments and the Drug Enforcement Administration may have helped.

A Brunswick man convicted of killing his mother learns today whether he will receive the death penalty or life in prison.

James Tench

James Tench, 30, is scheduled to be sentenced by Medina Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler at 1 p.m. for the 2013 death of his mother Mary Tench, who was 55.

The jury recommended the death penalty for Tench earlier this month after finding him guilty of three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, and one count each of aggravated robbery, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

Kimbler will have the same sentencing choices as the jury:

•  death penalty;
•  life without parole;
•  life with parole in 30 years;
•  life with parole in 25 years.

Tench first was questioned in the case on Nov. 13, 2013, the same day his mother’s body was discovered in the back of her SUV in Brunswick.

County Prosecutor Dean Holman alleged during closing comments in the case that Tench struggled with his mother on the front porch of their shared Brunswick home after she came home from work on Nov. 12. He took her to an unknown location and ran her over with her own car before leaving the car and her body at Carquest Lane not far from their Camden Lane home, he said.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution argued Tench killed his mother to stop her from telling police he was stealing from her bank accounts. The prosecution presented several bank statements, testimony from Tench’s former girlfriend and a list of check numbers found in his mother’s room to suggest his mother knew Tench was making withdrawals from her accounts.

Tench took the witness stand during his trial and acknowledged he was forging his mother’s checks, but said it was to cover for his ex-girlfriend’s overspending on his debit card. He said his money troubles were the motive for a robbery in October 2013 in Strongsville for which he received a five-year prison sentence.

Defense attorneys Kerry O’Brien and Rhonda Kotnik argued that while Tench was not perfect, he did not kill his mother. During the trial, they suggested law enforcement began treating Tench as the main suspect too quickly after the discovery of his mother’s body.

During a hearing after the jury reached its guilty verdicts, friends described Tench as acting like a brother to them. The hearing, called “mitigation,” allowed evidence to be presented before sentencing.

Tench, who called his mother an “angel,” asked the jury for a chance to live out his natural life.

If Tench’s sentence is for the maximum penalty, he will become the first Medina County resident placed on death row since 2013 when Steven Cepec received the death penalty for beating Frank Munz to death with a hammer at Munz’s Chatham Township home.

Judge James L. Kimbler — who is Joyce V. Kimbler’s husband and predecessor on the common pleas bench — passed down the Cepec sentence.

Prior to Cepec, it had been 60 years since the Medina County courts assigned a death sentence.

Cepec and 137 other men on death row are awaiting execution at Chillicothe Correctional Institution. Executions in Ohio have been in hold since 2014 because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. The next execution is scheduled for January.

James Tench showed no emotion Monday as Medina County Common Pleas Judge Joyce V. Kimbler announced the 30-year-old Brunswick man’s sentence — death.

LAWRENCE PANTAGES / GAZETTE Medina County Common Pleas Court Judge Joyce V. Kimbler on Monday reads her finding of a death penalty sentence for James Tench, 30, of Brunswick, for the conviction of aggravated murder of his mother, Mary Tench. The crime occurred in November 2013.

A jury in March convicted Tench of killing his 55-year-old mother, Mary, in November 2013, and earlier this month recommended he receive the death penalty.

Kimbler sentenced Tench to death on one count of aggravated murder. The judge also sentenced him to 43 years in prison on one count of kidnapping with a repeat offender specification, one count of aggravated robbery with a repeat offender specification and one count of tampering with evidence.

Tench already is serving a six-year sentence for a 2013 robbery at a Strongsville restaurant. The 43 years will run consecutive to the robbery sentence.

“It’s a very, very sad day,” defense attorney Kerry O’Brien said.

Before he was sentenced, Kimbler asked Tench if he wanted to make a statement.

Tench spoke calmly and in a low voice for about five minutes. He begged the judge to grant him one of three life sentence options: life without parole, life with parole in 30 years or life with parole in 25 years.

“I’m not a perfect person, but I did not do this. I am innocent in this,” he said.

Tench said he could help others if he was allowed to live out his natural life. Tench told the court how he adopted a dog that was about to be euthanized several years ago from an animal shelter and said he could be a positive influence on other inmates.

“There’s young men that come into jail (from) bad situations … and I continually affect them in a positive way,” he said.

Tench said he would appeal his sentence.

County Prosecutor Dean Holman said following the sentencing hearing that appeals are common in death penalty cases.

Holman said he asked Kimbler to sentence Tench to 43 years in prison in addition to the death penalty to ensure Tench will stay in prison even if a higher court eventually overturns the death penalty sentence.

Just hours before the sentencing hearing Monday afternoon, O’Brien and defense attorney Rhonda Kotnik made two motions before Kimbler.

The first urged a mistrial because a juror spoke to county Assistant Prosecutor Michael McNamara during a chance encounter at the courthouse.

The juror testified Monday that she passed McNamara when she was in the courthouse for a juvenile case involving her 17-year-old son.

“I think I said, ‘Hello,’” she said, and added she may have joked she wasn’t there for her own case.

The first of her son’s several cases was based on charges from January, more than a month before the Tench trial began. She said her son’s legal troubles did not affect her work on the Tench case.

Kimbler denied the defense’s motion and also struck down a second motion that asked for a four- to six-week delay to investigate a letter from Tench’s cousin received Friday.

O’Brien said the letter suggested Tench may have been sexually abused by his father, James K. Tench, as a child.

The letter writer said her sister — who was 15 in 1996 when she was involved in a misdemeanor case with James K. Tench over a gross sexual imposition charge — could provide more information.

Holman argued both the prosecution and defense had police reports and documents from Medina County Job & Family Services outlining the accusations prior to the trial. In the documents, Tench denied he was ever molested or raped by his father.

O’Brien argued Tench may have repressed the memories, and if the accusations are true, the information could have been presented to the jury to argue against the death sentence.

“It’s obvious what the defendant wants after losing the trial. He wants another bite at the apple,” Holman said, adding he believed the decision not to include the materials in the trial was a strategic choice by the defense team.

Kimbler said the information must be new to warrant delaying sentencing.

“From what I’m hearing, there’s nothing contained in (her) letter that you didn’t know before,” she said.

Tench was arrested after his mother’s body was found not far from their shared Camden Lane home in Brunswick on Nov. 13, 2013.

During the trial, Tench admitted to stealing from his mother’s bank accounts, but said he was trying to cover for spending by a girlfriend.

The prosecution argued Tench ran his mother over with her own car to keep her from reporting his theft to police.

“It’s a horrible case,” Holman said.

“The sentence was justified by the facts in the law. He viciously beat (his mother),” he said.

Tench will be held at the Medina County Jail for the next two weeks as he discusses his next steps with his lawyers. Tench will receive court-appointed lawyers for his appeal.

Prior to Tench’s case, Steven Cepec was the most recent person to receive a death sentence in Medina County for killing a 73-year-old Chatham Township historian.

Cepec was sentenced to death by Judge James L. Kimbler — who is Joyce V. Kimbler’s husband and her predecessor on the court — in April 2013.

Cepec’s appeal in the Ohio Supreme Court still is pending, Holman said.

It’s been more than 60 years since anyone has been executed after being sentenced to death in Medina County. According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Max Amerman, who was executed in November 1951, was the most recent case.

Executions in Ohio have been on hold since early 2014 because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. The next execution in Ohio is scheduled for January.