Ohio News Briefs

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Restored lighthouse on Lake Erie shore in Ohio dedicated

PORT CLINTON, Ohio (AP) — An historic lighthouse on the shore of Lake Erie is once again functioning after years of work to restore the 120-year-old structure.

Hundreds of people attended Monday’s lighting ceremony to dedicate the renovated Port Clinton lighthouse in northwest Ohio.

An honor guard from the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marblehead Station stood at attention during the ceremony hosted by the Port Clinton Lighthouse Conservancy. The conservancy oversaw the restoration and return of the lighthouse to the Lake Erie shore from its former site at a Portage River marina where it had deteriorated over several decades. Restoration work began in 2011.

Officials say the lighthouse is one of the last wood-framed structures of its kind on the Great Lakes. It now beams light 4 to 5 miles over Lake Erie.

Police: Woman, son charged after ex’s body found in trunk

CLEVELAND (AP) — A woman and her son have been charged with aggravated murder after police say the decomposing body of the woman’s former boyfriend was found stuffed in the trunk of a car parked behind her Cleveland home.

Cleveland.com reports Pearl Hatley and her son, 18-year-old Larry Camp-Hatley, have been charged in the Sept. 15 killing of 43-year-old Marvin Kimmie.

Police say a police dog found Kimmie’s body last week wrapped in a sheet in a car parked behind Hatley’s home. Officers had noticed a strong smell emanating from the car.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner hasn’t released Kimmie’s cause of death.

The 40-year-old Hatley was arrested over the weekend. Camp-Hatley wasn’t immediately in police custody.

Court records don’t list attorneys for the mother and son.

Ex-professor gets 8-month term for soliciting teen for sex

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A former northeast Ohio professor has been sentenced to eight months in prison after admitting he solicited a 15-year-old boy for sex in the parking lot of an elementary school last year.

Prosecutors say Willie Harrell Jr., of Akron, was sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty in July to importuning.

The former associate professor of English at Kent State University will be listed as a Tier 1 sex offender.

Harrell was fired from his position following his August 2015 arrest. Authorities say Harrell was caught trying to flee to Canada after posting a bond to get out of jail.

Harrell’s attorney had said his client should be sentenced to probation because Harrell has already lost his job and his home.

Harrell declined to speak at his sentencing.

Man indicted on DUI-related charges in state trooper’s death

CLEVELAND (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a man on aggravated vehicular homicide and DUI charges in the death of an Ohio state trooper who was struck and killed on a Cleveland interstate.

Authorities say Joshua Gaspar was driving under the influence of drugs when he hit 48-year-old State Highway Patrol Trooper Kenneth Velez on Interstate 90 earlier this month. Velez had been conducting traffic enforcement.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted the 37-year-old Gaspar on Monday.

Defense attorney Jon Sinn tells WKYC-TV Gaspar has a methadone prescription as part of his treatment for an addiction to painkillers.

Sinn says his client wasn’t under the influence of any drugs that day and that test results support that contention.

Gaspar has been jailed on a $500,000 bond since his arrest.

Ohio elections chief: About 806,000 ask for absentee ballots

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Nearly 806,000 Ohioans have asked for an absentee ballot ahead of the November presidential election.

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted says more than 13,000 of the requests for an absentee ballot are from military and overseas voters.

Residents in the swing state can vote absentee by mail or in person without having to give a reason.

Husted’s office says the absentee ballot applications he’s received so far this year are up compared with the same time during the 2012 election. Nearly 83,000 more requests have been received.

Military and overseas voters can already cast ballots for the Nov. 8 election. Early voting for other Ohioans begins on Oct. 12.

University in Ohio to study PTSD in emergency room patients

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Researchers at the University of Toledo are getting a $3.4 million federal grant to study post-traumatic stress disorder in trauma patients.

The research will focus on people treated at local emergency departments who’ve been hurt in car crashes, workplace accidents and other incidents involving blunt-force trauma.

The lead researcher in the study tells The Blade newspaper that they will look at the early development of PTSD in trauma victims.

He says they want to be able to identify the early changes in the brain and behavior to predict the PTSD diagnosis.

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