Ohio day-care center suspected of doping children

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
By Lisa Cornwell
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CINCINNATI -- Allegations that workers at a church day care put an over-the-counter dietary supplement in candy to help children sleep at nap time are under investigation, police said today.

Springfield Township police Lt. Dave Schaefer confirmed that police are looking into allegations that some workers at Covenant Apostolic Church Daycare in suburban Cincinnati gave melatonin to some children there. He did not give the ages of the children. Police have sent a letter to parents and guardians of children who attend the day care, informing them of the investigation.

The letter dated yesterday says the investigation had just begun and police did not know which staff members allegedly gave the supplement to children or how many of the 40 or so children who attend the day care allegedly received the supplement.
The letter said the information was being provided to parents and guardians so that they could "take whatever actions you deem necessary to protect your child or children in the event that they were given melatonin on one or more occasions." It suggested parents or guardians contact their family physician or the Poison Control Center if they have questions about the effects of melatonin.

The letter also said the Hamilton County prosecutor's office had been notified and the day care is cooperating in the investigation. Messages seeking comment were left today at the church and at a phone number listed for the church pastor in the letter police sent to parents. Schaefer referred calls seeking any additional information to the prosecutor's office in Cincinnati. Prosecutor spokeswoman Julie Wilson said she only could confirm that there was an ongoing investigation into the day care.

Melatonin is a hormone made by a small gland in the brain. It helps control sleep and wake cycles and is not FDA-approved or regulated, according to the Mayo Clinic Web site. Possible side effects include dizziness, abdominal discomfort, headaches, confusion, sleepwalking and nightmares.

The site also says that long-term effects of melatonin are not known and it may not be safe for anyone who is pregnant, breast-feeding or younger than age 20.

Sheriff finalizing plans to demote lieutenants

By Mark Puente, The Plain Dealer
November 28, 2009, 5:02AM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A plan to demote seven sheriff's lieutenants has taken longer than expected, but it is moving forward and could occur in January, Sheriff Bob Reid said.

The seven lieutenants were promoted from sergeant and given a $7,000 pay raise in January, when former Sheriff Gerald McFaul abolished the entire rank of sergeant and laid off 18 deputies. Several of the sergeants promoted to lieutenant had personal ties to McFaul and his family.

Reid announced in August that he planned to force the lieutenants back to their former rank of sergeant because they should not have been promoted without a competitive process under those circumstances.

He plans to only have four lieutenants. Only one of the remaining two lieutenants will remain in his position and another retired. A promotional exam will be offered for all sergeants to compete for the other three lieutenant positions, Reid said in August.

Reid said this week that he plans to meet with the lieutenants and sergeants next week to discuss the reclassification and promotional exam. Agreements needed to be reached on the process with the unions before the moves could be made, Reid said.

Without the agreements, he feared union grievances and unfair labor charges could burden the process. He is hopeful the moves will occur in January.

"I am disappointed that we haven't done the promotional process," Reid said. "I want a very clean process. It's better to move a little cautiously on this."

The office is finalizing an agreement with a company to provide the promotional exams. The deputies will be given about three weeks to study for the exam, Reid added.

The lieutenants attempted to unionize this year after a state labor board ruled that McFaul violated the law by axing the sergeants when they were trying to unionize. They eventually voted to join the Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. The union called Reid's plan "a fair and viable resolution."

Former Parma police officer guilty of theft in office, tampering with evidence

By Donna J. Miller, Plain Dealer reporter

Cleveland Plain Dealer

PARMA, Ohio — Former Parma patrolman Mark McCombs pleaded guilty today to theft in office and tampering with evidence. He will be sentenced Jan. 11 to up to 7½ years in prison.
McCombs, when he was a Parma patrolman, stole night-vision goggles worth nearly $3,000, flashlights and chargers, a 30-round magazine, 23 bags of gun parts and three lasers, prosecutors said.

He then removed serial numbers from the goggles. The thefts occurred from June 2000 through May 2007, when he was fired. McCombs, 47, has already served time in prison for tampering with evidence. He tried to destroy photographs that were evidence in a rape allegation filed against him. He was accused of raping a drunken woman in his patrol car.
He was acquitted of rape, but found guilty of tampering with evidence. He was sentenced June 12, 2008, to two years in prison, but on June 17 was granted an early release.

He still faces charges in federal court, where he's accused of owning two unregistered machine guns and a silencer with scratched off serial numbers.

Red-light Cameras Shot Down in Heath, Chillicothe

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 3:11 AM
By Josh Jarman
The Columbus Dispatch

Voters yesterday ended a contentious debate between Heath officials and a group of residents upset by the city's installation of 10 red-light and speed-enforcement cameras this summer. A ballot issue to restrict the use of the cameras passed with 51 percent of the vote yesterday, according to final, unofficial results.

Heath Mayor Richard Waugh, who narrowly lost his re-election bid after a campaign that focused on the camera issue, said the drop in tickets resulting from the cameras between their installation in June and last month show that they are working to reduce speeders.
Camera opponents say the numbers actually reflect a growing number of motorists who are avoiding the city.

"I hope our group gains some credibility," camera opponent Ronnie Kidd said. "We want a safer Heath, but we want it done the right way."

Chillicothe voters approved a similar issue against the cameras, with 72 percent choosing yesterday to limit them in final, unofficial results. Several members of the group, Citizens Against Photo Enforcement, also sought election to City Council seats, and many said public anger about the cameras is sure to work against the incumbents.

In Heath, where cameras generated $554,729 in fees in their first two months of operation, Waugh said he thinks the council should leave $100,000 in the city's general fund and devote another $100,000 to safety improvements along Rt. 79. The rest should be used to pay down debt, he said.

U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach holds swearing-in ceremony at Cleveland school

By Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer
October 26, 2009, 1:46PM

Photo by Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Fighting public corruption and upholding civil rights will be among Steven Dettelbach's priorities as the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Dettelbach, 43, was privately sworn in as U.S. attorney in September but chose Martin Luther King Jr. High School at East 71st Street and Hough Avenue in Cleveland for a public ceremony this morning. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown administered the oath of office. Dettelbach selected the school because of its emphasis on law and municipal careers. He plans to begin an internship program between his office and the school.

Among the morning's speakers was 16-year-old sophomore Dontea Gresham, who proclaimed his intention to one day run for U.S. president. Dontea reminded the few hundred invited guests of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous admonition, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Dettelbach comes to his new job with extensive civil rights experience, having served in the criminal section of the Justice Department's civil rights division. One noteworthy case he prosecuted involved Thai immigrants brought illegally to the United States and enslaved in a southern California sweatshop. Dettelbach will serve as chairman of the subcommittee on civil rights for the U.S. Attorney General's advisory committee.

As a former federal prosecutor in Cleveland, Dettelbach helped prosecute Nate Gray, a close friend to former Cleveland Mayor Michael White. Gray was convicted of paying bribes to public officials in several cities, including former East Cleveland Mayor Emanuel Onunwor. Dettelbach has been recused from his office's ongoing probe of public corruption in Cuyahoga County because his former firm, Baker & Hostetler, represented parties involved in the investigation. His pick for first assistant U.S. Attorney, Carol Rendon, will likely have to do the same when she comes on board because of her representation of probe targets at her firm. In his speech, Dettelbach promised to root out public corruption to ensure taxpayer money is spent "on the best product, not someone's best friend."

While there were plenty of glowing comments about Dettelbach, friend and former federal prosecutor Craig Morford offered up some lighter insight. He called Dettelbach "a bit of a goofball" who took his job seriously, but not himself. He recalled a story from Dettelbach's former Harvard Law School roommate who said Dettelbach once recorded the sound of a vacuum cleaner to play while going to bed because the white noise helped him sleep.
Dettelbach went to Dartmouth College before entering Harvard Law School, where he became friends with another future lawyer named Barack Obama. Dettelbach did not stay in touch with Obama over the years, but he did become active in his presidential campaign.

States Pressed Into New Role on Marijuana

By Kirk Johnson

New York Times
Published: October 25, 2009

Photo by Dana Romanoff for NY Times

GREELEY, Colo. — Health and law enforcement officials around the nation are scrambling to figure out how to regulate medical marijuana now that the federal government has decided it will no longer prosecute legal users or providers.

Mayor Ed Clark supported a ban on marijuana dispensaries in Greeley, Colo., which the City Council passed last week. Medical marijuana is legal in Colorado, as cards in a Garden City dispensary explain, but some cities ban distribution.

For years, since the first medical marijuana laws were passed in the mid-1990s, many local and state governments could be confident, if not complacent, knowing that marijuana would be kept in check because it remained illegal under federal law, and that hard-nosed federal prosecutors were not about to forget it. But with the Justice Department’s announcement last week that it would not prosecute people who use marijuana for medical purposes in states where it is legal, local and state officials say they will now have to take on the job themselves.

In New Hampshire, for instance, where some state legislators are considering a medical marijuana law, there is concern that the state health department — already battered by budget cuts — could be hard-pressed to administer the system. In California, where there has been an explosion of medical marijuana suppliers, the authorities in Los Angeles and other jurisdictions are considering a requirement that all medical dispensaries operate as nonprofit organizations.
“The federal government says they’re not going to control it, so the only other option we have is to control it ourselves,” said Carrol Martin, a City Council member in this community north of Denver, where a ban on marijuana dispensaries was on the agenda at a Council meeting the day after the federal announcement.
At least five states, including New York and New Jersey, are considering laws to allow medical marijuana through legislation or voter referendums, in addition to the 13 states where such laws already exist. Even while that is happening, scores of local governments in California, Colorado and other states have gone the other way and imposed bans or moratoriums on distribution even though state law allows it.

Some health and legal experts say the Justice Department’s decision will promote the spread of marijuana for medical uses because local and state officials often take leadership cues from federal policy. That, the experts said, could lead to more liberal rules in states that already have medical marijuana and to more voters and legislators in other states becoming comfortable with the idea of allowing it. For elected officials who have feared looking soft on crime by backing any sort of legalized marijuana use, the new policy might provide support to reframe the issue.
“The fact that the feds are backing off is going to allow changes that are going to make it more accessible,” said Bill Morrisette, a state senator in Oregon and chairman of a committee that oversees the state’s medical marijuana law. Mr. Morrisette said he expected a flurry of proposals in the Legislature, including a plan already floated to have the state grow the marijuana crop itself, perhaps on the grounds of the State Penitentiary in Salem.
“It would be very secure,” he said. Here in Greeley, anxiety and enthusiasm were on display as the City Council considered a ban on dispensaries.

Most of those who testified at the hearing, including several dispensary operators, opposed the ban and spoke of marijuana’s therapeutic benefits and the taxes that dispensary owners were willing to pour into Greeley’s budget, which has been battered by the recession.
But on the seven-member Council, the question was control. Mr. Martin, for example, said that he hated to see the spread of marijuana, but that the barricades had fallen. Still, he said he opposed a local ban on dispensaries.

“If we have no regulations at all, then we can’t control it, and our police officers have their hands tied,” Mr. Martin said. Mayor Ed Clark, a former police officer, took the opposite tack in supporting the ban, which passed on a 6-to-1 vote. “I think we do regulate them, by not allowing dispensaries,” Mr. Clark said.

The backdrop to the debate here in Colorado is a sharp expansion in marijuana dispensaries and patients, fueled in part by the State Board of Health decision in July not to impose limits on the number of patients handled by each marijuana provider. The state attorney general, John W. Suthers, said the federal government’s retreat, combined with the growth in demand, had created a legal vacuum.

“The federal Department of Justice is saying it will only go after you if you’re in violation of state law,” Mr. Suthers said. “But in Colorado it’s not clear what state law is.”

In New Hampshire, by contrast, where the state legislature is scheduled to meet this week to consider overriding the governor’s veto and passing a medical marijuana law, government downsizing has colored the debate. The state agency that would be responsible for licensing marijuana dispensaries has been battered by budget cuts, said Senator Sylvia B. Larsen, the president of the New Hampshire Senate and a Democrat. Concerns about the department, Ms. Larsen said, have made it harder to find two more votes in the Senate to reach a two-thirds majority that is needed to override a veto by Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.
An even odder situation is unfolding in Maine, which already allows medical marijuana and where residents will vote next month on a measure that would create a new system of distribution and licensing.

The marijuana proposal, several political experts said, has been overshadowed by another fight on the ballot that would overturn a state law and ban same-sex marriage. The added wrinkle is that opponents of same-sex marriage, said Christian Potholm, a professor of government at Bowdoin College, have heavily recruited young, socially conservative voters, who by and large tend to not be concerned about medical marijuana expansion.

“The 18- to 25-year-old vote is going to be overrepresented because of the gay marriage situation, so overrepresented in favor of medical marijuana,” Professor Potholm said.
Some legal scholars said the federal government, by deciding not to enforce its own laws (possession and the sale of marijuana remain federal crimes), has introduced an unpredictable variable into the drug regulation system. “The next step would be a particular state deciding to legalize marijuana entirely,” said Peter J. Cohen, a doctor and a lawyer who teaches public health law at Georgetown University. If federal prosecutors kept their distance even then, Dr. Cohen said, legalized marijuana would become a de facto reality.

Senator Morrisette in Oregon said he thought that exact situation — a state moving toward legalization, perhaps California — could play out much sooner now than might have been imagined even a few weeks ago. And the continuing recession would only help, he said, with advocates for legalization able to promise relief to an overburdened prison system and injection of tax revenues to the state budget.