Tuesday, August 17, 1999
Tristate digest
Candidate registers for board of education race
Accountant Louis Buschle, a former Forest Hills school board member, announced this week that he will run for the Cincinnati Board of Education this fall.
Mr. Buschle, of Columbia Tusculum, joins three other candidates who have registered:
• Incumbent Rick Williams, a North Avondale resident and consultant with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp. of Cincinnati.
• Florence Newell, a Roselawn resident and a University of Cincinnati College of Education professor.
• Roy McGrath, a Clifton resident and accountant.
The deadline to register is 4 p.m. Thursday.
Three of the board's seven seats are open. Besides Mr. Williams, incumbent Arthur Hull plans to run for re-election. Board President Lynwood Battle does not.
The district enrolls 47,200 students.
Aronoff pleads innocent to charge
COLUMBUS — Former Ohio Senate President Stanley Aronoff entered a plea of innocent Monday to a charge of driving while intoxicated in the Statehouse underground garage.
The Cincinnati Republican's lawyer, William Meeks, entered the plea on Mr. Aronoff's behalf. A trial date was not been set.
Mr. Aronoff, now a lobbyist, was traveling about 20 mph in a 5 mph zone when his 1999 Cadillac struck a concrete garage pillar last Tuesday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
Mr. Aronoff, 67, smelled of alcohol and failed three sobriety tests, the state patrol said. He declined to take a breath-analysis test.
Mr. Aronoff said he wasn't injured. He declined to comment further.
If convicted of drunken driving, Mr. Aronoff could face three days in jail or an alcohol-treatment program, and a $250 fine. Because he refused to take a breath test, his driver's license automatically was suspended for one year.
Two men shot outside Over-the-Rhine bar
Two men were shot just after 2 a.m. Monday outside a bar in the 200 block of West McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine, following an argument.
William Vandos, 34, Over-the-Rhine, was in fair condition at University Hospital with a wound in the leg. Andre Curry, 27, Fairmont, was treated for a wound in the lower back.
Police said four suspects who fled in a car were being sought.
Domestic violence suspect arrested
Another “Tristate's Most Wanted” suspect has been arrested, bringing the total to 839 suspects removed from the list of the 1,302 suspects featured in The Cincinnati Enquirer.
James Rathburn, 23, of Price Hill was arrested on a domestic violence charge.
The Enquirer publishes “Tristate's Most Wanted” each Monday. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Callers to 352-3040 can remain anonymous.
Woman pleads guilty to child endangerment
A Newtown woman pleaded guilty Monday to using a wire brush and bleach to punish her 15-year-old daughter.
Rhonda Ludlow, 33, entered the plea to one count of child endangering after prosecutors agreed to drop the more serious charge of rape. She faces up to five years in prison.
Ms. Ludlow was accused of scrubbing the girl's body with the wire brush and bathwater laced with bleach.
Police say the incident occurred in May at a house in the 3700 block of Carlton Avenue.
Fairfax police responded to a report of a child being beaten and found the girl crying, with multiple scratches on her shoulders and back.
City makes agreement in police abuse cases
COLUMBUS — The city announced Monday it has reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to resolve allegations of police abuse, possibly avoiding a federal civil rights lawsuit.
A Justice Department review of more than 300 complaints found that Columbus police officers engaged in a pattern of violations including use of excessive force, false arrests and illegal searches.
The settlement would be one of just a few in the country between a city and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and is notable because the alleged pattern of misconduct is not race-related.
City officials Monday said the proposed agreement, which includes a call for an independent monitor, needs Fraternal Order of Police approval because of unspecified union contract changes that would be required.
Indiana city cancels parade to avoid Klan
MONROE CITY, Ind. — Organizers of a fund-raising festival scheduled next month for a planned community center said they have canceled the event's parade rather than grant a Ku Klux Klan group's request to participate.
In addition, when center officials denied the request, a Klan representative made threats that were reported to state and federal law-enforcement agencies, said Kerry Dean Teverbaugh, president of the Blue Jeans Center board of directors.
“How dare a bunch of men running around with diapers on their heads compare themselves to our churches,” Mr. Teverbaugh said in a news release issued last week. “It will not happen in Monroe City on this property as long as this board, which includes most area churches, exists.”
The former South Knox Elementary School building, which was built about 90 years ago, is being renovated and converted to a community center to be called the Blue Jeans Center. The festival will be at the old school on Sept. 17-20.
Mr. Teverbaugh said a man identifying himself as a Ku Klux Klan leader from Murfreesboro, Tenn., called in July and asked for an entry form to march in the parade and distribute material along the route.
When center officials denied the request, the Klan representative made threats, Mr. Teverbaugh said. He declined to discuss the nature of the threats but said Indiana State Police were notified.
Officials of the Blue Jeans Center were confident that they would have the legal right to keep Klan members away from the festival site, which the nonprofit organization will own as of Sept. 1. They were less certain, however, of whether they could keep Klansmen from taking part in a parade on public streets.
Special prosecutor to handle judge's case
COLUMBUS — A special prosecutor was appointed Monday to handle the case of a judge accused of drunken driving.
Delaware City Prosecutor Peter Ruffing was assigned to the case against Judge John Connor.
City Attorney Janet Jackson, whose office normally would have handled the misdemeanor case in Franklin County Municipal Court, and Judge Connor are Democrats, and she wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, said Steve McIntosh, city prosecutor.
No trial date has been set, but a hearing is scheduled for Sept. 22 on Judge Connor's motion to dismiss the charges. He has pleaded innocent.
Judge Connor, 59, was charged with drunken driving May 25 after being stopped by police in suburban Bexley. He refused to take field-sobriety and breath tests.
Records and testimony show that Judge Connor is facing his seventh drunken-driving charge, but he denies being involved in or remembering five of the cases, the Columbus Dispatch reported Monday.
Two people missing as boats collide
Dalai Lama offers message of peace
Ohio tort reform struck down
Rats in all the wrong places - maybe yours
The ruling
Construction area watched
Newport's Bauer heartened by Iowa
Ramp key to ballpark
Taft praises school efforts
Tristate scenes: Bengals camp
Designer in run for Ky. quarter
Man sentenced to 18 years for shooting, robbery
N. Ky. chamber chief comes with list
Night football lost at Withrow
Residents meet with White Castle
Victim shows judge scars as slasher Johnson admits guilt
Woman's body found in old shed
Youth stabbed in Pleasant Ridge
ArtWorks not just painting by numbers
Church helps school solve parking problem
Decade-old prison lauded
Executive sentenced in attack of girlfriend
Friend to felines
Rudolph indicted in slayings
Anti-tax group targets fall levy
Church seeks OK for home for unwed moms
Different goals for Hamilton Co. levies
Fire levy on Liberty Twp. ballot
Lawson can go to trial in slaying
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