THE PLAIN DEALER LORAIN COUNTY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1991 METRO City gives teen club reprieve Owners get time to make changes By MICHAEL K. McINTYRE PLAIN DEALER REPORTER LORAIN The troubled Mr. and Mrs. J's teen club, which faced closure at the hands of city officials because of rowdiness and fighting there, won a reprieve last night.
The club's owners were given until May 1 to straighten up their act. Lorain City Council voted to delay a decision on whether to declare the club a public nuisance until May. The declaration would have allowed city lawyers to begin court proceedings to close the club. Joe and Loretta Jones, the owners, said they were relieved. going to upgrade security and try to get the troublemakers out of there," Joe Jones said.
Loretta added: "We've done every. thing in our power. We need the parents and the city to work with Already they're getting help from the community. Glenn Coleman, youth pastor at Wings of Faith Pentecostal Church in South Lorain, said he would be at Mr. and Mrs.
J's this weekend. "I'm joining as a youth counselor to help them establish order and discipline," he said. In the debate over the ordinance, city officials made it known that they appreciate the efforts of the Joneses, but won't tolerate the violence and troublemaking forever. "What Mrs. Jones has tried to do is to be applauded, (but) many times, every police officer in the city has had to be dispatched to Mr.
and Mrs. J's," said Lorain police Capt. Craig Casteel. SEE Former principal begins sentence holidays behind bars. Judge Edward M.
Zaleski of Lorain County Common Pleas Court ordered the former principal of Hawthorne-Boone Middle School in Lorain to report to jail yesterday to begin serving his two-year. term. Noland, who was found guilty of stealing student activity money, had been free on bond Noland since he was convicted in July 1990. He was booked at the Lorain County Jail at 9:44 a.m. Zaleski's order came less than two weeks after the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear Noland's case.
The rejection exhausted Noland's appeals. In June, the Ohio Court of Appeals (9th District) upheld Noland's conviction. Noland is expected to be transferred this week from the County Jail to the state's Lorain Correctional Institution in Grafton. From there, he will be moved to another state prison to serve his term. In July 1990, a Lorain County jury found Noland guilty of two counts of theft, two counts of forgery and one count of theft in office.
He was accused of stealing student activity money from fund-raisers such as dances and candy sales and diverting it to his personal use, including buying tickets for professional basketball games. He was ordered to make restitution for $23,000. June, Noland sued the Lorain Board of Education in U.S. District Court, asking that he be reinstated and awarded compensatory damages. Noland has contended that the school system suspended him without pay because he is black.
School officials called the suit absurd, saying the only reason Noland was suspended and fired was because he stole money. By SCOTT STEPHENS PLAIN DEALER REPORTER ELYRIA Herman Noland will spend the JOE DIRCK off today. 3rd suspect gets plea deal in gun dealer's slaying By SABRINA EATON PLAIN DEALER REPORTER CHARDON An Elyria man accused of helping plan the slaying of a Bainbridge Township gun dealer pleaded guilty yesterday to obstructing justice and told a judge he had tried to talk his friends out of the plot. Christopher P. Crook, 26, was allowed to enter the plea in Geauga County Common Pleas Court in exchange for his testimony at the upcoming murder trials of Norman C.
Smith, 23, of Elyria, and Kenneth D. Vicks, 22, of Cleveland. Each is accused of two aggravated murder counts in the July executionstyle slaying of Richard K. Zeleznik and one aggravated robbery count in the theft of 26 of Zeleznik's guns, including automatic weapons. Smith and Vicks pleaded not guilty last week.
Both face the death penalty if convicted. "I owe it to the family, to Mr. Zeleznik's family, to be here," Crook told Judge Hans R. Veit during the hastily arranged court appearance. "I owe it to them so they can under'stand how this death came about.
I have to be here to testify." Crook, who authorities said supplied the weapon used in the slaying, was originally charged with conspiring to commit aggravated murder and conspiring to commit aggravated robbery. Veit is expected to sentence Crook on the reduced charges after he testifies against Smith and Vicks. Veit said Crook faces up to years in prison and a $2,500 fine for obstructing justice. Law enforcement sources say Smith and Vicks, who are black, wanted to use the stolen guns to randomly kill white people at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport but abandoned the plan and instead tried to get the guns to criminals who would commit crimes in white suburbs. The suspects have told authorities they sold four guns in Charleston, PD file CHRISTOPHER P.
CROOK: Pleads guilty to obstruction of justice. 000 a OWENS No time to quit Kris Sooy of Elyria tries to restart his snow blower after removing snow from most of his driveway on Cascade St. yesterday. After a few more pulls, the blower started, and Sooy was able to clear his driveway. 8 suburbanites, 6 from city are arrested in drug blitz A CLEVELAND The first blitz on drugs was Nov.
29 in the 4th Eight suburbanites and six Clevelanders arrested District, where police made 22 drug-related arrests, Lt. Friday night in the second week of a police blitz Martin Flask said. Nine of those suspects were from against drug buyers appeared in Cleveland Munici- the suburbs. pal Police Court not yesterday only went on after charges of soliciting for after drugs. Police Chief Edward Kovacic, who called the plan a fic offenders, issuing 124 drug tickets so buyers but night in traf- a pilot program, said officers refined operating techcrackdown on speeding on city streets Friday where the niques during the November sting to make Friday's smoother.
speed The limit sting is 25 operation mph. was conducted by officers from Part of the refining included speed traps along E. the three East Side districts' vice, strike force and de- 89th St. and Superior E. 125th St.
and Superior, tectives units, under the direction of Cmdrs. Rocco E. 55th St. and St. Clair Ave.and St.
Clair and Addison Pullutro of the 6th, William Tell of the 5th, and Pullutro said. Anthony Jackson of the 4th. The eight suburbanites arrested Friday drove in on The multidistrict force was the brainchild of the the freeway and propositioned undercover police at a East Side commanders, Pullutro said. The operation drug-sales spot on E. 140th St.
and Othello said pools officers from all three districts and from police Capt. John A. Firtha. headquarters. Pullutro declined to provide the num- "Drug buyers will never know for sure if the person ber of officers involved.
they're dealing with might be an undercover The stings were conducted in the 6th District from 8 policemen," said Firtha. "This is a full-court press." p.m. to 2 a.m., Pullutro said. SEE COUNTY WATCH IN BRIEF TODAY SKIING: A free workshop on cross-country skiing will be held today from 7 to 9 p.m. at the French Creek Interpretive Center on Ohio 611 in Sheffield.
Beginners will learn the basics of the sport, including equipment, clothing, technique and costs. MUSIC: Students at four Lorain schools will present holiday music programs today. The schools and performance times are: Washington and Irving Middle schools, 1:30 p.m.; Lakeview Academy, 2 p.m.; and Masson Middle School, 7 p.m. READING: Children's storytime at the Elyria Public Library will be at 7 p.m. today.
LORAIN 4B, is having its Christmas party night at 6 at Concord Manor on St. in Oberlin. PARTY: The Licensed Practical Nurse Association of Ohio, Division W.Va., and the rest were stolen from them in Miami by potential gun buyers who shot Vicks in the thighs. Crook told the judge he tried to talk Smith and Vicks out of killing Zeleznik. He said the pair told him they had abandoned the idea, but they went through with it anyway.
"They broke that trust," Crook said. "That's part of the reason I'm here today." Crook, who has worked at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Lorain for five years, said he also decided to testify so he could "continue with my life knowing I did the right thing. "To be honest, I'm scared, but I have to face this," Crook continued. "It is the only way.
If I run, the problem would only get deeper and I would let too many people down." Veit reduced Crook's bail from $500,000 to personal recognizance. He was released yesterday from the Geauga County Safety Center. Jury trial to start for man accused in drug killing By SCOTT STEPHENS PLAIN DEALER REPORTER ELYRIA The tale of a grisly, drug-related slaying on a rainy August morning is to be told today in a Lorain County courtroom. Lenworth 0. Edwards, 19, of Queens, N.Y., is charged with aggravated murder in the death of Marsha Blakely.
Jury selection was to begin this morning before Common Pleas Judge Floyd D. Harris. The body of the 23-year-old Lorain woman, who had a history of prostitution and burglary arrests, was found dumped behind a run-down shopping center at W. 21st St. and Leavitt Rd.
Aug. 8. She had been stabbed 15 times in the neck, and her throat was slashed. A car had run over her body. Less than a mile away, the body of Floyd Epps, 47, was found eight hours earlier.
Epps also had been run over. The two shared an apartment on Sunset Dr. in Lorain. 21, of Mapleview was killed left of center on an icy stretch of W. and struck the salt truck at about 8:45 pronounced dead at Lorain Community exceeding the 50 miles-per-hour speed probably going too fast for conditions," Commissioner Les George.
"She was 100 feet before she hit the truck." There in Hawkes' car. The truck driver was Officer's drug hearing is rescheduled ELYRIA Michelle Hawkes, when her car went Erie Ave. in Lorain p.m. She was Hospital. 4 "She wasn't limit, but she was said Lorain Traffic out of control for were no passengers not injured.
A pretrial hearing for a Lorain narcotics detective, accused of consuming large amounts of cocaine from the police evidence locker, was rescheduled yesterday. Leonard L. Gerace, 33, will appear in Lorain County Common Pleas Court Friday morning. Gerace, an 11-year officer, is charged with three counts of aggravated drug trafficking, four counts of theft in office and one count of tampering with evidence. He has pleaded not guilty.
Gerace allegedly admitted he used cocaine and crack cocaine from the police evidence locker. The department is trying to determine how much evidence Gerace allegedly consumed. As many as 40 drug cases could be in jeopardy because of 1 the missing evidence, police say. Edwards was originally charged with assaulting Blakely before her death. The charge was changed 1 to aggravated murder after Lorain police detectives traveled to New York to investigate the killings.
While there, they found Benson Davis, 28, of Queens, in jail. He was charged with felonious assault in the Blakely case and is expected to be sent to Ohio to stand trial. Other indictments may soon follow, authorities say. Yesterday, on the eve of Edwards' trial, Chief Assistant County Prosecutor Jonathan E. Rosenbaum asked Harris to place a key prosecution witness, William Avery in protective custody.
Harris granted the motion, and Avery was in jail last night. 44 In pretrial documents filed in court last week, the prosecution listed Avery as a possible witness in the Edwards case, but would not reveal Avery's address, because doing so "could subject the witness to physical harm." i -t Lorain council members block redistricting plan LORAIN Republicans on Lorain City Council banded together and, with the help of one Democrat, blocked legislation drawing new ward boundaries in the city. Republicans Woodrow Mathna, Anthony Ramey and James Rufo, and Democrat Ralph McCue last night voted against the redistricting plan. The four votes were enough to prevent a two-thirds majority and block the legislation. Service Director J.
Rocky Ortiz will now be responsible for drawing new ward boundaries, which would go into effect in 1994. The boundaries are redrawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census is taken. Republicans were rankled because the plan, devised by Democrats including City Democratic Party Chairman Edmond Skimin, sliced up the 7th Ward, a Republican stronghold. And blacks, including the president of the NAACP, complained that the black vote was weakened because of the splits.
Snowstorm blamed for fatal car crash LORAIN to- An early-evening Vine for the death of a Vermilion her car swerved into the i I To pay or not to pay Elyria City Council's Finance Committee last night continued to weigh the wisdom of paying damages to a man who claims his car had to be repaired because of city road 2-B High cost of seats Election finance reports reveal that two inner-city ministers who had never run for public office before spent nearly $200,000 to win seats on the Cleveland school Cuyahoga Page, 3-B Minority elderly gather More than 200 people, including many elderly people, gather to discuss the special problems of aging 4-B a More Metro News on Page 3-C. snowstorm Sunday is being blamed woman who was killed when path of a city salt truck. A.
