Salon.com > Andrew Welsh-huggins

Steubenville football coach could be Ohio AG’s next target

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:38:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The head football coach at Steubenville High School and the owners of a house where an infamous 12-minute video was filmed could be investigated as Ohio prosecutors look into how adults responded to allegations of rape last year.

One day after a judge convicted two high school football players of raping the 16-year-old girl in August, Steubenville's top official said she welcomed a new, wide-ranging probe into possible wrongdoing connected with the rape.

The announcement of the guilty verdict was barely an hour old Sunday when state Attorney General Mike DeWine said he was continuing his investigation and would consider charges against anyone who failed to speak up after the summertime attack. That group could include other teens, parents, school officials and coaches for the high school's beloved football team, which has won nine state championships.

Authorities also said they won't put up with people harassing the accuser and took action Monday to prove it, arresting two girls suspected of threatening her well-being in Facebook and Twitter comments Sunday. The Jefferson County girls, ages 15 and 16, were being held in juvenile detention, Steubenville police Capt. Joel Walker said.

Steubenville rape trial begins

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:09:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two high school football players were scheduled to go to trial on charges they raped a 16-year-old girl after an alcohol-fueled party last summer, in a case that has drawn international attention over allegations more students should have been charged.

The case being heard Wednesday in Jefferson County juvenile court in Steubenville has led to questions about the influence of the local football team, a source of a pride in a community that suffered massive job losses with the collapse of the steel industry.

Attorneys for Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, and Trent Mays, 17, have denied the charges and are seeking to have the case dismissed.

Each teen is charged with assaulting the West Virginia girl, first in the back seat of a moving car after a party Aug. 11, and then in the basement of a house. Mays also is charged with illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.

Witnesses said the girl was so drunk she threw up at least twice and had trouble walking and speaking. She was also photographed being carried by the two young men.

In an excerpt of a videotaped interview with ABC's "20/20," Richmond said the photo was a joke, and the girl was awake and was a willing participant.

Ohio court spars with lawyers in school Bible case

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:24:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — In a heated hour of arguments, Ohio Supreme Court justices sparred with lawyers Wednesday over the extent to which a now-fired public school science teacher had the right to push his personal religious beliefs in class.

A lawyer for the school board that dismissed John Freshwater in 2011 said he waved a Bible at his students, handed out religious pamphlets and espoused creationism in his evolution lessons.

Freshwater violated the constitutional separation between church and state and was rightfully fired, said David Smith, an attorney for the Mount Vernon School Board.

"You can't teach evolution from a Christian perspective" without violating constitutional protections against government establishment of religion, he said.

Freshwater's attorney, Rita Dunaway, said accounts of Freshwater's class conduct were exaggerated and that the instructor was exercising his academic freedom to explore controversial ideas.

"A Bible on a desk hidden amongst other clutter does not a religious display make," she said.

Dunaway said Freshwater had a laudable teaching record and his students scored well on standardized science tests.

Ohio judge upholds right to death chamber lawyer

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:43:00 +0000

A federal judge refused to dismiss a claim by Ohio death row inmates that they have a constitutional right to last-minute consultations with their attorney.

At issue is whether lawyers in Ohio can react quickly when they perceive something going wrong with an execution, as with a 2009 attempt in which an inmate was pricked repeatedly with IV needles before the execution was finally called off after two hours.

Lawyers for the Ohio prison system had argued that death row inmates already have ample access to lawyers and that last-minute consultations could open the door to constitutional challenges of the death penalty.

But U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost said the conditions of an inmate's execution are different than the sentence that put them there.

"Pre-execution day inmate-counsel communication and a cell-front visit that can last only until 8:45 a.m. on the day of the execution obviously does not enable an inmate and counsel to address issues occurring from that point," Frost said.

Ohio executions take place at around 10 a.m.

Frost rejected lawyers' arguments that they should have access to cell phones in the death house in case something goes wrong. He said lawyers already have access to a nearby phone and that that distance didn't prevent attorneys from contacting him during the 2009 case.

$1 million bond set for Ohio kidnapping suspect

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:12:00 +0000

A judge in central Ohio has set a $1 million bond for an Ohio man accused of keeping a 13-year-old girl bound and gagged in his basement.

Thirty-year-old Matthew Hoffman, of Mount Vernon, faces a kidnapping charge. He did not enter a plea, and a public defender was assigned to represent him.

Hoffman appeared in Mount Vernon Municipal Court through a video link from the county jail, where he was wearing a green sleeveless shirt. He mostly stared straight ahead, and yawned at one point.

The 13-year-old girl went missing last Wednesday, along with her mother, her 10-year-old brother and a friend of her mother's. Authorities say she was found at Hoffman's home on Sunday. The others remain missing.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio man accused of keeping a 13-year-old girl bound and gagged in his basement spent six years in a Colorado prison for setting a fire to cover up a burglary and had been released from parole only a month ago.

The teenager's mother and brother, along with a friend of her mother's, remained missing Tuesday after authorities searched a lake and park near the suspect's home. Authorities offered little hope that they would be found alive but planned to continue their search.

Arizona got execution drug from England, AG says

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:12:00 +0000

The state attorney general's office said Tuesday that Arizona's supply of a drug used in lethal injections came from England, marking the first time a state has acknowledged obtaining sodium thiopental from an overseas source since a shortage of the drug started affecting executions in the U.S. this year.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Tim Nelson said the state revealed the drug's origins to let the public know it comes from a trustworthy source. However, he did not name the company that manufactured it.

"This drug came from a reputable place," he said. "There's all sorts of wild speculation that it came from a third-world country, and that's not accurate."

The execution of Jeffrey Landrigan had been scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday but it remained on hold after a federal judge issued a stay because of questions about the drug's origins.

Landrigan's lawyers are challenging the use of the English drug because it is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They contend he could be suffocated painfully if the sodium thiopental, one of three drugs in Arizona's lethal injection protocol, doesn't render him unconscious.