Candle likely source of Ada fire: Ada Head Start teachers thought fire alarm was drill (Story & Video)

 

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Candle likely source of Ada fire

Ada Head Start teachers thought fire alarm was drill

By BOB BLAKE

ADA — Sixteen young children and two teachers were finishing a tornado drill inside the First United Methodist Church in Ada early Tuesday afternoon. Then, the fire alarm sounded. Thinking it, too, was a drill, the collection of preschoolers and their teachers walked calmly to their normal meeting spot.

It was then as the scent of smoke wafted through the air, the sound of windows cracking and crashing that reality set in for the members of the HHWP Community Action Commission-run Head Start program.

“The fire alarm went off. I thought my assistant pulled it, she thought I pulled it. We didn’t know, we hadn’t had the opportunity to ask,” said Tara Swaney, the Head Start teacher. “We just grabbed our papers and headed out as normal. We could not see smoke but as soon as we got out our emergency exit door we could smell smoke. We thought, ‘Oh, that’s strange.’”

Once the children and two adults were safely to their meeting location on Main Street, Swaney said she turned around and could not believe her eyes.

“I turned completely around, looked at the church and smoke was coming out the front doors and out the top of the steeple,” Swaney said. “Dee’s [Nichols] yelling at me at the same time, she’s my assistant, she’s like, ‘It’s for real.’”

As the fire raged and began consuming the iconic Ada church, Swaney and Nichols moved the children first to the Ada Public Library. As the heat increased and smoke and burning embers began falling in the neighborhood near the church, the children evacuated the library to a spot on North Johnson Street, where parents met up with their children who hadn’t already been picked up at the library, Swaney said.

“I don’t even really remember a lot of my reaction. I just remember the crying and wondering if he’s OK,” said Jessica Short, whose 3-year-old son, Donovan, was at the Head Start program. “He had been hearing sirens for more than half an hour. The folks from the program hadn’t gotten to us to call us yet. At that point, someone had called my husband, who is one of our best friends, and said that he had our son, that he was at the library.”

It took more confirmation for Short to believe her son had made it out of the inferno unscathed, she said.

“I stayed on the phone with my husband and I still didn’t believe that my son was OK until he got there. When he got there I heard him say to him, ‘Donovan,’ and I heard my son say, ‘Daddy, daddy,’” Short said. “I was just in tears. It’s a relief to know they’re OK. The teachers were amazing to get 16 kids, 16 3- and 4-year-olds out of that building that quickly.”

Dennis LaRocco, executive director of the HHWP Community Action Commission, said for now the Head Start program will not operate until temporary arrangements can be made at a nearby facility. The group has already started working toward securing a new, permanent location in Ada, he said. One option that is being pursued is the possibility of using a site about 10 minutes away in the Upper Scioto Valley school district for the Ada program. Nothing definitive has been determined, he said.

“They want to get it going as quickly as possible,” LaRocco said. “There’s a lot of logistics they have to work out. It’s going to be several days before we get that accomplished.”

Published in The Lima News: March 15, 2012

 

Candle likely source of Ada fire: Bishop Ough holds prayer service on corner (Story & Video)

 

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Candle likely source of Ada fire

Bishop Ough holds prayer service on corner

By BOB BLAKE

ADA — An unattended candle near combustible material is being blamed for igniting a fiery blaze Tuesday that destroyed the 113-year-old First United Methodist Church in Ada, a state fire marshal’s spokesman said Wednesday.

Even as firefighters continued to periodically spray the remaining hot embers, an investigation by the Division of State Fire Marshal concluded the fire was accidental. Sixteen children and two teachers in a basement day care and other people who were in the church at the time escaped unharmed.

“Officially the fire will be ruled undetermined because investigators were not able to complete their examination of the scene due to safety concerns with the structure of the church,” said Shane Cartmill, a spokesman for the state fire marshal’s office. “A few homes nearby the church suffered minor radiant heat damage, including burned roofs, melted siding and scorched vegetation. The nearby library suffered similar minor damage. A home a block away from the fire also suffered damage when blowing embers drifted onto the home’s roof.”

Bob McCurdy, a church trustee, said the church will in all likelihood have to be demolished, possibly as early as today. Despite losing a landmark, McCurdy said there’s more to the church than bricks and mortar.

“The focus is on life, on humanity, life goes on,” McCurdy said. “This is a building and the building is very important to the community and a building that our members cared about deeply and invested in tremendously, especially in the last few years.”

Even as the fire raged Tuesday, the administration at Ohio Northern University was busy extending offers of assistance to the church, its congregation and the firefighters battling the inferno, university President Daniel DiBiasio said.

“Our association with the church in general and our particular association with this church has a long history,” DiBiasio said. “So many of our university community members are members of this church, our students worship here. From the get-go from the first that we heard of it we wanted to do all we could to provide support.”

The church will take up temporary refuge in the university’s English Chapel beginning this Sunday, DiBiasio said. There will be space for worship services, Sunday school classes and day care. The university is also offering office space and technology support. All of it will be offered as long as the church needs it, DiBiasio said.

Members of the church community received a morale boost just before noon Wednesday when Bishop Bruce Ough, of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, arrived at the corner of Main Street and Highland Avenue, across the street from the burnt remnants of the church, for an impromptu prayer service.

“Now that would be quite a miracle if we could take it down and rebuild it in three days, right? What Jesus was really trying to remind them is who the real temple is,” Ough said. “Even though this is a structure that many of us are attached to and you are attached to, this is really about remembering that Jesus is ultimately the temple. That temple cannot be destroyed and neither can this temple. Bricks are gone, the building’s down, the roof’s caved in, but this can never really be destroyed.

“It’s not ultimately about this building it’s about the fact that Jesus lives and because of that he will raise up this congregation and give you another spiritual home. It may not look like this one. It may not even be on this site, who knows what God has in store, but the promise remains and that is that Christ will raise you up.”

Published in The Lima News: March 15, 2012

Children escape Ada fire (Story & Video)

 

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Children escape Ada fire

Landmark Methodist church completely destroyed

By BOB BLAKE

ADA — Smoke and flames were visible from miles away Tuesday afternoon as an Ada landmark burned to the ground.

Fire consumed and destroyed First United Methodist Church, 301 N. Main St., just after noon Tuesday. Teachers and about 16 children from a head start day care center, operated by the Hancock Hardin Wyandot Putnam Community Action Commission, escaped without injury.

From all angles, onlookers flocked to the scene, snapping photos and video on their cellphones and cameras as the fire raged. There were hugs and tears exchanged as residents and visitors alike watched events unfold.

“Whether I was a member of the church or not, this is a very sad day for Ada. This is a landmark building, a beautiful old church,” said Michael Elliott, a church member who lives across the street. “They just don’t build them like this anymore, they won’t build them like this anymore. It’s just so sad to have lost that. I really feel bad, I feel bad for this whole community.”

LeAnn Pryer, 41, has lived in Ada her entire life.

“I went from Lima Memorial Hospital to here to the church to be baptized,” she said. “It was my first public appearance.”

She said the church was more than a place of worship, it was a community center. Scout meetings and overnights, pancake breakfasts and more were all held at the center.

Elliott’s house was one of a number of adjacent structures with damage from the heat and flames. Those repairs, however, weren’t Elliott’s focus Tuesday afternoon.

“My house can easily be repaired and easily fixed but the church over here — I mean, it’s gone,” he said. “It’s gone. It’s just tremendously sad.”

A 911 call was placed reporting the blaze at the same time Ada Police Department Patrolman Matt Purdy noticed smoke coming from the roof of the church and told dispatch to get firefighters to the scene, Police Chief Michael Harnishfeger said.

“It was a significant event even before we discovered it really. We called the Fire Department,” Harnishfeger said. “We’ve had three or four structures that have had some damage. We were dousing them with water, the Fire Department was.”

Ada Firefighter Dave Zimmerly was one of the first on the scene. He said firefighters went up the stairs into the sanctuary area and were met with intense heat, forcing them to their knees. Black smoke prevented them from seeing much, and debris was falling from the ceiling. “At that point it was a safety issue. We knew it was in the sanctuary, but we couldn’t get to it,” he said.

Firefighters from Alger, McGuffey, Kenton and Dunkirk in Hardin County, Bluffton and Lafayette in Allen County along with Mount Cory and Jenera in Hancock County responded to assist the Ada Liberty Fire Department.

Harnishfeger said the Division of State Fire Marshal was on scene to aid in the investigation into what caused the blaze. No cause had yet been determined late Tuesday, he said.

He said investigators and insurance representatives will inspect the building today. A crane was on site in case the structure became unstable. Harnishfeger said the front wall of the church was the biggest concern.

The church, a recognizable town icon, was first formed in 1852, according to information on the church website. The congregation moved into the current building on June 18, 1899.

Church members, community members and well-wishers spent part of the evening at a prayer vigil downtown.

“That was kind of a healing prayer service,” church trustee Bob McCurdy said.

Church board members met at Ohio Northern University on Tuesday night to figure out the next steps for the 300-member congregation.

The church will resume regular Sunday activities at ONU’s English Chapel, including Sunday school, nursery and worship, all at the same hours, McCurdy said.

He said the university and many other individuals and groups, like Habitat for Humanity and the Ada Ministerial Association, have reached out to help the church.

“ONU made the offer almost instantly,” McCurdy said. “They’re pretty amazing when it comes to community responsiveness. They’ve offered office space, they’ve offered technology.”

McCurdy said nearly everything the church had was lost in the fire.

“There were some church records retrieved, but very little,” he said. “We’re all hoping that once we gain permission to go into the building, we may find something. Right now we’re not expecting that.

News of the church’s destruction brought quick reaction from folks both near and far.

“What a terrible tragedy,” wrote Tom Matteson, of Oxford, Mich., on LimaOhio.com. “This was a beautiful church!”

Reporter J.D. Bruewer contributed to this story.

Published in The Lima News: March 14, 2012

Robbery mirrors murders (Story & Video)

 

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Robbery mirrors murders

Mendon crime has similarities to Grube killings

By BOB BLAKE

CELINA —Nearly three months after an elderly man and his caretaker daughter were bound and shot to death, investigators were looking into a weekend robbery with eerie similarities at the other end of Mercer County.

Sheriff Jeff Grey said authorities were called to 12617 Dutton Road, north of Mendon, shortly after midnight Saturday on report that three individuals, including one with a gun, forced entry into the home.

The two men and a woman who broke in attempted to bind Kathy Fair, 47, and her father, William Fair, 79, with duct tape, Grey said. The intruders also threatened to kill the elderly man if the pair did not tell them where the money was.

“I’m concerned for a couple of things. Obviously, Mercer County is not a place where we deal with this kind of stuff so when homicides happen or home invasions happen it traumatizes the community,” Grey said. “I’m concerned about the fear the residents have right now especially when I’m standing here telling you I can’t tell you who did it. I want people to be very aware of their surroundings.”

Grey said Kathy Fair answered the front door and a short, stocky man, a little shorter than 5-feet 7-inches with reddish blond hair asked if an individual was home and when she looked out she could see someone, taller than 5-feet 7-inches behind him in a ski mask. They then forced their way in.

After the two men were inside, Kathy Fair heard a loud vehicle approach and a third person — a woman around 5-feet 2-inches tall entered, also wearing a ski mask, Grey said.

“There was a struggle with both of the victims,” Grey said. “Both victims had minor scrapes and cuts on their wrists and forearm, no serious injury.”

The Fairs told deputies the suspects left in a dark-colored, boxy sport utility vehicle with a loud exhaust that fled south on Dutton Road.

The case is eerily similar to the Nov. 30 double murder of Robert Grube, 70, and his caretaker daughter, Colleen Grube, 47, at their home near Fort Recovery. In addition to the victims being similar in age, a vehicle matching the description from the Mendon case was seen in the area of the Grube homicides, Grey said.

“We don’t know whether this case is connected to the Grube case,” Grey said. “At this point we are assigning it to the same three detectives, we’re going to investigate it like it is part of the Grube case until we can show otherwise. That’s because there are a lot of similarities.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 567-890-8477.

Published in The Lima News: Feb. 28, 2012

Bones uncovered (Story)

Bones uncovered

Demolition of dead suspect’s home reveals Lima remains that could be Nicholle Coppler, missing since 1999

By BOB BLAKE

LIMA — The family of Nicholle Coppler has spent nearly 13 years in limbo, not knowing the fate that met their daughter, sister, granddaughter. The 14-year-old Lima girl ran away from home in May 1999 and never came home. The decade-old wait for answers may soon come to an end.

A planned demolition of a city-owned house — the last place police were able to link to Coppler — yielded one last surprise Wednesday afternoon. In a development first reported by The Lima News on its website, LimaOhio.com, demolition crews and police detectives discovered what were believed to be human remains in a basement crawl space area of the house.

“We’re looking for any type of remains,” said Maj. Richard Shade, of the Lima Police Department. “Clearly we don’t know if we’re looking at a single incident or multiple incidents. We don’t know where this will lead but we will take our time and use all exhaustive efforts.”

Shade said the discovery of bones was made mid-afternoon. Demolition work immediately stopped, yellow police tape went up and the property at what used to be 735 S. Elizabeth St. became a crime scene, he said. The house had once been the residence of Glen Fryer, a man suspected in Coppler’s disappearance. Fryer committed suicide in the Allen County Jail in February 2002 after pleading no contest to rape charges involving a 12-year-old girl.

Evidence, including a hair identified as Coppler’s, her school identification card, and a diary with entries several days after she disappeared were found in Fryer’s house in previous searches.

“We had detectives down here watching the scene at the time,” Shade said. “There was nothing abnormal with the house construction but when they got into the basement area, what would have been a crawl space area we did recover items that are bones.”

Authorities contacted Coppler’s mother, Krista Coppler, in Florida.

“I don’t know who else it could be,” Krista Coppler said.

Krista Coppler said she suspected all along Glen Fryer killed her daughter and hid her body on his property despite previous attempts by police to find her body, including using ground-penetrating radar.

“If this is her, I knew she was there,” she said.

Shade said in addition to detectives from the Lima Police Department, agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation were called to process the scene. By late afternoon, three state crime scene trucks, a local police and fire command center, and more than a dozen law enforcement officers converged on the scene.

Tents were erected to protect the site along with the retrieved evidence. The city brought in floodlights to help with planned overnight collection and processing efforts.

“Obviously we wouldn’t be here if it didn’t appear to be” human remains, Shade said. “There is no confirmation. Absolutely, it is being handled as a crime scene.”

Shade said it would take time to process the scene, collect all the evidence and remains as well as conduct all the forensic tests, including DNA analysis, needed to determine if the remains were Coppler’s.

The flurry of activity was met with plenty of onlookers, among them were relatives of Nicholle Coppler. All said they were hoping the discovery can help lead to closure for the family.

“This hopefully will bring closure to our family. We always had a hope maybe she was still alive,” said Diana Coppler, Nicholle’s grandmother. “Then after Sunday’s paper knowing if she was what she’d be going through, it may be a blessing she never made it out of Lima.”

In another story first reported by The Lima News a week ago, an investigator with the FBI’s Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force confirmed there is a federal investigation into people connected to Fryer. The investigator said federal charges for human trafficking related to Coppler’s disappearance could be forthcoming.

“It’s been pretty hard not knowing what happened,” said Rob Coppler, Nicholle’s older brother. “You usually hear little things here, little things there. The uncertainty of where she’s at, what happened to her, it’s been hard.”

Diana Coppler described Nicholle as a sweet, loving, fun-loving girl.

“She was loving. She always had a hug for Grandma and that smile of hers just would melt you,” she said. “She, again at the age she was, she was a teenager, and she felt confined so she spread her wings before she realized she wasn’t old enough to understand what was going on and ended up in a bad place.

“We know she wanted to come back home according to her diary. I just know God was with her, whatever happened to her. He will be with us and get us through all this.”

Published in The Lima News: Feb. 9, 2012

 

It happens in Lima (Story)

It happens in Lima

Local coalition working to raise awareness about human trafficking issues

By  BOB BLAKE

LIMA — Human trafficking used to be an issue associated with exotic locales abroad. It was something that happened in major urban centers. It wasn’t something that happened here.

Those assumptions were shattered in 2009. That’s when a foreign national in hiding spent a year at a Crossroads Crisis Center shelter. It’s also how a few in the Lima community got a first-hand crash course in the $32 billion a year issue of human trafficking — the world’s second-largest criminal enterprise.

“That was the first experience I was aware of that touched us,” said David Voth, executive director of Crime Victim Services. “That person wasn’t from Allen County it was someone in hiding from another state that kept getting moved because they kept getting found. It still brought it home to us.”

The next year, Voth and Emily Wrencher, director of the crisis center, were both at a conference on the topic. Their interest in the topic coupled with the experience of having a victim in Lima helped facilitate the creation of the Northwest Ohio Human Trafficking Rescue and Restore Coalition.

Comprised of members from Crime Victim Services, Crossroads, Safe Harbor Runaway Shelter, the Lima Police Department and the Partnership for Violence Free Families, among others, the local initiative aims to raise public awareness, aid in survivor recovery and strengthen the judicial response to the crimes.

“I guess coming from a domestic violence arena I’m not surprised,” Wrencher said. “I’m not surprised that it’s kind of been an issue that’s always been there but has always been covered up or looked the other way or we as a society, and even social service agencies, just haven’t devoted the attention that is needed. I would say this issue is where domestic violence was 30 years ago.”

Even with the awareness of the issue, Voth said he didn’t anticipate it would be something he saw with any regularity here. Last year, Crime Victim Services was involved in six cases — two involving individuals from outside the area and four involving Allen County residents.

“To have six in one year last year was a shock to me,” Voth said. “I had this concept that it was going to be foreign, adult women. It’s tended to be white, middle class youth and young adults and local. I wasn’t expecting that.”

Laurel Neufeld Weaver, the rape crisis coordinator for Crime Victim Services, said this whole region needs to have an awakening to the issue.

“In our area we have to wake up to the fact we are very close to an interstate highway system that has the movement of people happening on a daily basis,” Weaver said. “ We think because we don’t see it, it doesn’t happen. The reality is it is happening.”

Members of the local coalition said they have been working the last couple of years to familiarize themselves with the services available around Lima to aid victims. Those services include free shelter, counseling and 24-hour emergency response.

They have also been trying to spread the word among vulnerable youth in and around the community, according to Tara Nagy, who is part of Safe Harbor Runaway Shelter’s street outreach program.

“We look for high-risk youth,” Nagy said. “We’re going out into the schools, giving out the information talking about the drop-in center, talking about Safe Harbor. They know they have a safe place to go and maybe they won’t take that other route.”

The bottom line is that despite the challenges in identifying human trafficking and the obstacles victims have in getting away from the traffickers, there are resources available locally to help.

“We want anyone who might hear about this to know it is happening,” Voth said. “If it’s you, you’re not alone. There are people who believe you and will help you.”

Published in The Lima News: Feb. 6, 2012

‘Modern-day slavery’ (Story)

‘Modern-day slavery’

Trafficking task force eyes charges in Coppler case

By BOB BLAKE

L IMA — Nicholle Coppler ran away, leaving her home on Broadway Street in May 1999. She never returned. Nearly 13 years later, a federal crime task force is closing in on charges against individuals who may have played a role in why the Lima teenager never came home.

Three times law enforcement officials have conducted raids at sites in Allen and Hardin counties looking for clues or for Coppler herself. The searches never found Coppler, though traces of her — a human hair and her school identification card — were found inside the home of Glen Fryer at 735 S. Elizabeth St.

Fryer, who reportedly was going to talk to authorities about Coppler, committed suicide in the Allen County Jail in February 2002 — four days after pleading no contest to rape charges involving a 12-year-old girl.

Coppler’s case remains open and active for the members of the Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force. Comprised of members of the FBI, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and other local law enforcement agencies, including the Lima Police Department, the task force has continued its work to determine what happened to Coppler and bring those responsible to justice.

“The task force is investigating Coppler’s activities prior to her disappearance. Other persons of interest involved with Glen Fryer are being looked into for possible state and federal charges,” said Investigator David Gillispie, a member of the task force and the Lima Police Department. “No information has been received that [she] is alive, however she cannot be presumed deceased at this time. I would welcome any information from the public.”

The Coppler investigation now centers on individuals believed to be involved in human trafficking. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center calls it a modern-day form of slavery where victims are “subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.”

Unlike prevailing public perceptions, human trafficking isn’t just a problem in exotic locations abroad or in major urban areas. It’s a problem in the United States, Ohio and Lima, too. In fact, human trafficking is the second-largest criminal enterprise in the world, second only to the drug trade, officials said.

How big is the problem?

Advocates of human trafficking awareness and prevention said the scope of human trafficking is staggering.

Statistics from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center estimate between 600,000 and 800,000 people annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who has continued an Ohio Human Trafficking Commission initiated by his predecessor Richard Cordray, said by some estimates human trafficking is a $32 billion a year international enterprise.

“It’s a nasty, nasty crime. All crimes are nasty. I think what particularly makes this offensive is that most of the victims are young, most of them are under 18, there’s someone who is dominating them,” DeWine said in an interview with The Lima News. “There is someone who is older who is making them work against their will or making them have sex against their will. It’s something that we all should be concerned about, that should affect all of us. It should make us all mad. We all should have a sense of indignation about this.”

As many as 100,000 children in the United States are thought to be involved in the sex trade, according to DeWine’s office. Most of the girls involved begin between the ages of 12 and 14.

“It’s a quiet, silent, insidious crime. It’s very difficult to detect,” DeWine said. “What our office has started to do now since I became attorney general is focus more on the criminal side of this. Frankly, we have a ways to go and we need help.”

Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey, president of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association, said the organization has offered training specifically on the issue within the past year. Grey, however, said he wasn’t aware of any cases of human trafficking in Mercer County or in the surrounding counties.

“It’s hard from a law enforcement perspective because we’re mostly reactionary. We certainly go out on patrol, we certainly try to do crime prevention type activities and educate the community,” Grey said. “When a crime is happening most of the time we find out when a victim tells us or someone else who’s seen the activity tells us. It makes it very difficult because if nobody is telling us about the problem, it’s hard for us to react to the problem.”

An Ohio problem, too

Gillispie said the work of the federal task force out of Toledo has shown the prevalence of the issue not only in the United States but also in Ohio.

A growing awareness of the scope of the issue and the connections between Toledo and Lima helped precipitate Gillispie’s assignment full-time to the task force in early 2009, he said.

“This issue came about as a result of numerous complaints of juveniles, especially juveniles from the Lima and Allen County area, being lured away from this area by the Internet or being actively involved in prostitution outside of Ohio,” Gillispie said. “Girls from Toledo as well as Detroit are often recruited and sent from the Toledo area to Lima and to Beaverdam to the truck stops under pimp control. I wouldn’t say our problem in Lima is prostitution within our city as far as the juveniles. The cases I’ve been running, girls from Lima have been recruited and sent outside the area to include Fort Wayne, Covington, Ky. and elsewhere for the actual prostitution.”

A report from the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission to former Attorney General Richard Cordray found that Toledo is No. 4 in the country in terms of the number of arrests, investigations and rescue of domestic minor sex trafficking. Only Miami, Fla., Portland, Ore. and Las Vegas rank higher.

“It’s a huge problem globally and nationally. The most important thing is it’s here. I’ve seen two cases firsthand,” said Mark Ensalaco, associate professor of political science and director of the Human Rights Studies Program at the University of Dayton. “One a foreign national and one a U.S. citizen, an American girl at a local high school who was trafficked into sex beginning at the age of 14. It was two years before we were able to extricate her from that.”

A 2009 conference at the University of Dayton on the issue of human trafficking sparked enough interest to get a new group, Abolition Ohio, formed to address modern-day slavery. The group has generated support from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, students, other civic groups and social service agencies, Ensalaco said.

“They know it’s here. They’ve seen it, they’re concerned about it. We’re very happy there’s a multiple level of awareness that modern slavery exists here but also the commitment to try to abolish it,” Ensalaco said. “It’s a very difficult phenomenon to identify. Victims are afraid to come forward. It’s a clandestine criminal enterprise. It’s very profitable. It’s very hard to track this.”

Ensalaco said one of the problems that has been identified is the lack of safe havens for those who are rescued from traffickers.

“The big problem now is what do you do when you rescue them. They need protection,” he said. “There are homes for runaways, but they may not have the expertise to deal with the broad range of issues facing these people.”

A safe haven

Recognizing the need for a safe haven for victims of human trafficking, Gracehaven, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2008 with the goal of opening Ohio’s first shelter.

Theresa Flores, director of training and education for Gracehaven, said the goal is to open the house — at an undisclosed location in Logan County — yet this year. In the years since its founding the group, with an office in Dublin, has been focused on increasing awareness of the issue.

“Pimps are traffickers. A lot of people don’t realize that,” Flores said. “We as a society just don’t label it as that. That’s part of the problem.”

Flores said studies have shown the average pimp involved in human trafficking makes $300,000 a year in cash through threats, coercion and violence toward the people they are trafficking.

“To me human trafficking is a big deal. You’re using a person continuously, nightly. Rape in the first degree could be a one-time thing,” Flores said. “It’s just sad from a victim’s perspective. That’s what they’re faced with. That’s why it’s so hard to heal sometimes because society doesn’t believe you and everything is against you. It’s like you have to convince people that this is a problem. How many crimes are out there that the victims have to convince people that this is wrong, that they were a victim?”

Flores knows. She’s been there. She was just 15 and a sophomore in high school in an affluent suburb of Detroit when a boy she had a crush on drugged and raped her. Male family members of the boy took photographs and told her she’d have to “earn them back,” threatening to show them to her parents, her dad’s boss and others if she told anyone.

For two years, Flores endured the threats, beatings, being drugged and raped associated with human trafficking. The experience changed the course of her life as she pursued a career as a social worker. It wasn’t until a convention several years ago that she realized her experience had a name — human trafficking.

“No one would choose this. I didn’t,” Flores said. “It just gets bigger and bigger and you don’t know how to get out.”

It was an instantaneous decision to get involved in raising awareness of the issue, Flores said. As she puts it, human trafficking awareness and prevention became her life’s purpose.

Flores said she was shocked when she realized just how much of an issue human trafficking is in Ohio.

Studies through the Ohio Human Trafficking Commission estimate more than 1,079 children are being trafficked currently in the state. The studies have also estimated more than 700 immigrants are being trafficked. Current estimates put the number of people who are being trafficked either in the sex or labor trades around 4,000, Flores said.

While it has been difficult to tell her story and be identified as a human trafficking victim, it has been part of her healing process, Flores said.

“The biggest part of my healing has been finding my purpose and trying to make sure this doesn’t happen to others,” Flores said. “The biggest factor has been finding my calling. Something like Gracehaven is a very tangible way to heal, to have something for these young girls that I didn’t have when I was their age.”

Changing the culture

Increasing awareness of the issue is one way advocacy groups and law enforcement officials are working to get a handle on and stamp out the issue of human trafficking.

“We’re trying to change the culture and trying to change people’s attitudes. It’s not that people don’t care,” DeWine said. “It’s just a police officer’s got a ton of things to do that are coming at him or at her every single day. This one doesn’t necessarily jump up and hit them in the face.

“You get a burglary report, you take the report. You get a rape report, you take the report. You investigate it. These, you don’t get reports on. The victim is not calling you. The victim is not saying solve my crime because the victim is being coerced and so you have to get evidence someplace else.”

That’s exactly what the members of the Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force in Toledo have been doing in the Coppler case.

“It’s an active investigation. We have made progress in the case,” Gillispie said. “We’re hoping to be able to charge people shortly with that and not so much in the missing juvenile but possibly in the area of human trafficking.”

Gillispie said any indictments will be sought in U.S. District Court and will be announced by the FBI’s Cleveland office since it is a federal investigation.

“The public perception on prostitution ranges from disgust to legalization. It’s viewed by some as a victimless crime,” Gillispie said. “When I speak to girls involved in prostitution, I ask them why. I have been told many reasons including supporting of a drug habit, doing for the love of their boyfriend/pimp and needing money. I have never been told that they are doing it for enjoyment.

“The victimization can continue for years. Victims are reluctant to provide information on their abusers out of fear, loyalty or the belief that no one cares about them. The victimization is downplayed by media. TV shows, music have glamorized the life of the prostitutes and pimps. The reality for victims is something entirely different. Physical and mental abuse, drug addiction and rape are the norm.”

Published in The Lima News: Jan. 29, 2012

Former deputy settles lawsuit with suspended Shelby County sheriff (Story)

Former deputy settles lawsuit with suspended Shelby County sheriff

By BOB BLAKE

SIDNEY — A settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit filed by a former Shelby County deputy sheriff against her boss and another supervisor at the department.

According to court documents, Jodi Van Fossen, the former deputy, reached the agreement with suspended Shelby County Sheriff Dean Kimpel and former Capt. Michael Eilerman last week. Under the terms of the agreement, the county’s insurance will pay Van Fossen $105,000 to settle her job discrimination suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Van Fossen had sought more than $300,000 in damages.

According to Van Fossen’s complaint, Kimpel “maintained an inappropriate working environment that was hostile to [Van Fossen] and demeaning to females. Kimpel had a reputation for sexual indiscretion in the past, having been disciplined by a previous law enforcement agency for an inappropriate relationship with a female who was his subordinate.”

In the lawsuit, Van Fossen claims on her birthday, July 24, 2010, while she was intoxicated, Kimpel sexually assaulted her at her Wapakoneta area home. Following the alleged assault, Van Fossen complained to an officer at the Sidney Police Department. Upon hearing of the allegations, Kimpel and another supervisor at the sheriff’s office, Capt. Michael Eilerman, harassed, intimidated and investigated Van Fossen for misconduct based upon information they knew to be false, according to the lawsuit. Eilerman was also named as a defendant in the suit.

“Although I was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, I specifically denied and continue to deny any wrongdoing, as indicated in my answer to the complaint and in the settlement agreement,” Eilerman said in a prepared statement. “The decision to settle was made by Shelby County and its insurers. I do not agree with the decision to settle, nor with the amount of the settlement. However, I was left with no choice but to acquiesce in the settlement because I do not have the resources as an individual to fight what would surely have been a long and costly battle to restore my name and reputation.”

Kimpel, who was suspended from office in September, currently faces criminal charges in two counties.

In Auglaize County, Kimpel is charged with sexual battery, a third-degree felony, stemming from the alleged sexual assault. In Shelby County, Kimpel is charged with five counts of unauthorized use of the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway for allegedly using the state computer system outside the scope and authority of his official duties as sheriff. Kimpel has entered not guilty pleas to all charges.

Published in The Lima News: Dec. 6, 2011

Victims were bound, shot in Fort Recovery double murder (Story, Video & Photo)

Check out the video: Lima News video by BOB BLAKE.

Victims were bound, shot in Fort Recovery double murder

By BOB BLAKE

FORT RECOVERY — Colleen Grube was late. It wasn’t like her to be late to arrive to baby-sit her sister-in-law’s daughter. After repeated phone calls went unanswered, Cassandra Grube drove to the rural Fort Recovery home shared by her sister-in-law and father-in-law, Robert Grube.

It was immediately evident something was very wrong.

“Please help me!” a panic-stricken Cassandra said through sobs to a 911 operator. “It looks like there was a break-in. They killed my sister-in-law and my father-in-law!”

Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey said Cassandra Grube made the 911 call around 9 a.m. Wednesday after finding Colleen Grube, 47, and her father, Robert Grube, 70, bound with duct tape and shot to death inside their home at 2216 Burrville Road, three miles east of Fort Recovery in a rural area surrounded by farmland.

“When we were in the residence we found that some items were strewn about the rooms kind of indicating like the perpetrator or perpetrators were looking for something,” Grey said. “At this point we haven’t been able to determine if anything is missing from the home.”

Grey said there were no immediate signs of forced entry into the home. He said investigators believe the attacks

A deputy guards the scene of a double murder near Fort Recovery. BOB BLAKE/The Lima News

happened sometime between 5 p.m. Tuesday, when Colleen left her sister-in-law’s house to go home, and when the bodies were discovered. Grey said it was possible the attacker was already in the house when Colleen arrived home, but said it was too early in the investigation to say so conclusively.

“The screen door was open to the house so I knew something was going on,” Cassandra told the 911 operator. “Then the house door was open and I knew right away something was bad.”

Grey said Colleen lived at the house as caretaker for her father, who was disabled. A day into the investigation, Grey said his detectives and crime scene investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation have yet to turn up evidence that points to a suspect.

“As far as the public’s concerned, right now I can’t really tell them what to look out for other than it appears that either the perpetrators came through an unlocked door or maybe were allowed into the house if they knocked on the door and someone let them in,” Grey said. “I would encourage people to make sure they keep their homes locked whether they are home or not. Don’t allow somebody into your house that you don’t know.”

Evidence collection efforts by the Sheriff’s Office and Ohio BCI&I agents remained ongoing, Grey said. The sheriff said investigators were conducting an exhaustive search looking for any and all evidence that will help solve the case.

“I feel confident we’ll come to a resolution,” Grey said. “Having said that, this isn’t going to be an easy case. I don’t think tomorrow we’ll be having a press conference saying we’ve arrested somebody. I think it’s going to take some time.”

Published in The Lima News: Dec. 2, 2011

Court overturns police chief’s conviction (Story)

Court overturns police chief’s conviction

By BOB BLAKE

LIMA — A state appeals court overturned a former Putnam County police chief’s conviction on a pair of theft in office charges.

In a split decision released Monday, the Ohio 3rd District Court of Appeals in Lima overturned the conviction of Forest Gordon, 46, the former police chief in Kalida and Ottawa. A jury convicted Gordon in January 2010 on two counts of theft in office.

The charges stemmed from the sale of firearms from the property room of the Ottawa Police Department as well as the alleged theft of equipment belonging to the Kalida Police Department that Gordon kept when he left the department to take over in Ottawa.

The appellate court ruled Gordon’s sale of firearms had nothing to do with his official duties as Kalida police chief and thus couldn’t be theft in office. The court also ruled there was insufficient evidence of “Gordon’s criminal intent” to sustain theft in office related to the Kalida Police Department property.

“Gordon did not have to be a police officer to obtain the firearms from his friend, [then Ottawa Police Chief Richard Knowlton], nor did he have to be a police officer to sell the firearms to third parties,” Judge John Willamowski wrote for the majority. “And, whether or not he accurately accounted for all of the funds he may have received was in no way related to his position as a public official. Therefore, the nexus between the wrongdoing and the public office is nonexistent.”

Gordon was ordered to serve a year in prison in April 2010, but was granted an appellate bond at the time of sentencing pending the appeal.

“We are very pleased with the decision,” said Stephen Chamberlain, Gordon’s attorney. “Probably the case is over. But I have not heard back from the special prosecutor.”

Kenneth Egbert, a special prosecutor from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, prosecuted the case and could not be reached for comment.

“The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is disappointed in the ruling and is reviewing this matter with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation’s Special Investigations Unit, who conducted the investigations in this case,” said Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

Judge Stephen R. Shaw dissented from the majority opinion.

“Specifically, I find that the majority’s conclusions are, in many instances, based upon interpretations and speculation weighted heavily in favor of the defendant’s version of events, the credibility of which has been determined adversely by the jury,” Shaw wrote. “In my view, this approach has led the majority to the application of improper standards of appellate review in some instances and more importantly in other instances, to an incomplete and flawed analysis of significant portions of the record.”

Published in The Lima News: Nov. 9, 2011