Oak tree in ‘Shawshank Redemption’ cut up, hauled away
MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — What remained of a 200-year-old oak tree made famous by the movie “Shawshank Redemption” has been cut up and hauled away by an owner of the north-central Ohio property.
The Mansfield News-Journal reports Dan Dees said last week he plans to use some of the wood to make a table. The tree was rotted in the middle when high winds knocked down a portion in 2011. It was further damaged during a storm last July.
The tree was in one of the final scenes of the 1994 film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. It’s underneath the tree that Freeman’s character finds an important letter buried by Robbins’ character.
Fans could view the tree as part of a series of places in the Mansfield-area related to the film.
Ohio State trustees extend president’s contract by 2 years
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State University trustees have extended the contract of university president Michael Drake by two years.
Trustees voted Friday to extend Drake’s contract until June 30, 2021, two years after his five-year contract was set to expire.
The move was a first for the university, which typically looks at contract extensions in the last year of a president’s term.
The extension maintains Drake’s salary of $832,000 but raises current benefits including a car and social-club memberships to $100,000 annually.
Trustees also provided Drake with medical care for life through the university’s Wexner Medical Center, and created a retirement benefit through a life insurance package.
Drake is also eligible to buy football and men’s basketball tickets for life.
Authorities: Boy killed in crash while mother on cellphone
CAMDEN, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say a 10-year-old boy has been killed in southwest Ohio in a one-car accident that occurred while his mother was using a cellphone.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol says the boy wasn’t wearing a seat belt when he was thrown from a car driven by 49-year-old Carlo Jo Kingsley, of Eaton. Kingsley and a 12-year-old daughter were taken to a hospital for injuries. The accident occurred Sunday afternoon in Somers Township, about 30 miles west of Dayton.
The first names of Kingsley’s children haven’t been released.
The Highway Patrol says Kingsley lost control of the car and drove into a ditch and a wire fence before the car overturned.
Officials say Kingsley and her daughter also weren’t wearing seat belts.
Report: Ohio village tickets based on false speed limit
WHITEHOUSE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio village is examining the practice of its police officers ticketing drivers for speeding based on a fake speeding sign that sets a limit below the actual posted limit for a village street.
The police chief in Whitehouse near Toledo has acknowledged the 35 mph sign doesn’t match the 50 mph limit set by state law.
The sign was placed to slow drivers down, and Chief Mark McDonough says police only cite drivers who drive over 50 mph.
But a review of traffic tickets by The Blade found 10 drivers ticketed in the past three years for going over the fake limit but who were below the actual limit of 50 mph.
Mayor Donald Atkinson says village lawyers are looking at the situation.
Fingerprints lead to arrest in 1985 slaying of Ohio woman
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Authorities say fingerprints obtained in 2015 have led to the arrest and indictment of a man in the fatal shooting of a central Ohio woman in the mid-1980s.
The Columbus Dispatch reports the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office in Columbus announced Monday that 63-year-old Douglas Krumlauf has been charged with aggravated murder in the slaying of 24-year-old Sharla Spangler.
Prosecutors say Spangler was last seen leaving a lounge in the Columbus suburb of Gahanna in January 1985. Employees notified authorities when they noticed her empty car, with the engine running, in the parking lot. Her body was found in a vacant gas station parking lot.
Prosecutors say fingerprints from an unrelated arrest matched prints found in Spangler’s death.
Court records don’t indicate if Krumlauf, of Mount Vernon, has an attorney.
Attorney says stay rejected for Mexican mom’s deportation
CINCINNATI (AP) — An attorney says U.S. immigration authorities have refused to halt deportation for a Mexican mother of four U.S.-born children.
Attorney Kathleen Kersh says the Board of Immigration Appeals denied an emergency stay for Maribel Trujillo-Diaz. Kersh of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality says the woman faces deportation as early as Tuesday.
Federal authorities say she entered the United States illegally in 2002 and has exhausted legal appeals.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has appealed for mercy. It says she has made positive contributions to church and community in Butler County, just north of Cincinnati.
Her advocates say she has no criminal history and has children ages 14 to 3, the youngest with special needs.
They are urging Ohio’s political leaders to try to intervene for her.
Ohio student-athlete badly hurt in makeshift pool at party
OXFORD, Ohio (AP) — Authorities and family members say a freshman basketball player at Wright State University was critically injured after hitting his head while jumping into a shallow, makeshift pool during an off-campus party in another Ohio university town.
The family of Ryan Custer issued a statement Monday on Facebook saying Custer suffered severe trauma, including a fractured cervical vertebrae, and underwent spinal surgery Saturday night at a Cincinnati hospital. The statement says Custer has regained some sensation in his upper extremities and can bend his arms but has no feelings below his waist.
Police say Custer was hurt at a large party Saturday afternoon at a rental property near Miami University and that the makeshift pool was built from bales of straw and a blue tarp.
Ohio man drowns saving boy during Indonesian church mission
NILES, Ohio (AP) — A former Ohio man who a brother says survived explosions and battles as a U.S. Army combat engineer in Iraq and Afghanistan has drowned while saving a 6-year-old boy during a missionary trip in Indonesia.
WKBN-TV reports 35-year-old Tim Adams, of Warren, drowned last month while swimming with a group of children in the sea off the island of Sumatra.
A pastor at the Niles church sponsoring Adams as a missionary intern along with Liberty University in Virginia says Adams put the boy on his shoulders to keep him from going under.
Pastor Roy Mack says Adams had decided to dedicate his life to children and considered working in an overseas orphanage someday. Adams was majoring in global studies at Liberty University.
