Eastern US Storms Kill 13, Cut Power to Millions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions across the mid-Atlantic region sweltered Saturday in the aftermath of violent storms that pummeled the eastern U.S. with high winds and downed trees, killing at least 13 people and leaving 3 million without power during a heat wave.

Power officials said the outages wouldn't be repaired for several days to a week, likening the damage to a serious hurricane. Emergencies were declared in Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, the District of Columbia and Virginia, where Gov. Bob McDonnell said the state had its largest non-hurricane outage in history, as more storms threatened. "This is a very dangerous situation," the governor said.

In West Virginia, 232 Amtrak passengers spent Friday night on a train that was blocked on both sides by trees that fell on the tracks, and they were waiting for buses to pick them up Saturday. And in Illinois, storm damage forced the transfer of dozens of maximum-security, mentally ill prisoners from one prison to another.

In some Virginia suburbs of Washington, emergency 911 call centers were out of service; residents were told to call local police and fire departments. Huge trees fell across streets in Washington, leaving cars crunched up next to them, and onto the fairway at the AT&T National golf tournament in Maryland. Cell phone and Internet service was spotty, gas stations shut down and residents were urged to conserve water until sewage plants returned to power.

The outages were especially dangerous because they left the region without air conditioning in an oppressive heat. Temperatures soared to highs in the mid-90s in Baltimore and Washington, where it had hit 104 on Friday.

"I've called everybody except for the state police to try to get power going," said Karen Fryer, resident services director at two assisted living facilities in Washington. The facilities had generator power, but needed to go out for portable air conditioning units, and Fryer worried about a few of her 100 residents who needed backup power for portable oxygen.

On Saturday night, the train passengers stranded near rural Prince, W.Va., were waiting for buses to pick them up after they got stuck at 11 p.m. the previous evening, said Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm. Kulm said the train bound from New York to Chicago has power, so lights and air conditioning are working. He says that since it's a long-distance train, it was stocked with food and crew members were able to get to town to buy more.

Kulm says passengers should be on the buses sometime Saturday evening.

About 170 miles to the northeast in Morgantown, W.Va., Jeff and Alice Haney loaded their cart at Lowe's with cases of water, extra flashlights and batteries, and wiring for the generator they hoped would be enough to kick-start their air conditioner. Even if they had to live without cool air, the family had a backup plan.

"We have a pool," Jeff Haney said, "so we'll be OK."

The storm did damage from Indiana to New Jersey, although the bulk of it was in West Virginia, Washington and suburban Virginia and Maryland. At least six of the dead were killed in Virginia, including a 90-year-old woman asleep in bed when a tree slammed into her home. Two young cousins in New Jersey were killed when a tree fell on their tent while camping. Two were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington.

Illinois corrections officials transferred 78 inmates from a prison in Dixon to the Pontiac Correctional Center after storms Friday night caused significant damage, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano said.

No one was injured, Solano said. Generators are providing power to the prison, which is locked down, confining remaining inmates to their cells.

Utility officials said it could take at least several days to restore power to all customers because of the sheer magnitude of the outages and the destruction. Winds and toppled trees brought down entire power lines, and debris has to be cleared from power stations and other structures. All of that takes time and can't be accomplished with the flip of a switch.

"This is very unfortunate timing," said Myra Oppel, a spokeswoman for Pepco, which reported over 400,000 outages in Washington and its suburbs. "We do understand the hardship that this brings, especially with the heat as intense at is. We will be working around the clock until we get the last customer on."

Especially at risk were children, the sick and the elderly. In Charleston, W.Va., firefighters helped several people using walkers and wheelchairs get to emergency shelters. One of them, David Gunnoe, uses a wheelchair and had to spend the night in the community room of his apartment complex because the power — and his elevator — went out. Rescuers went up five floors to retrieve his medication.

Gunnoe said he was grateful for the air conditioning, but hoped power would be restored so he could go home.

"It doesn't matter if it's under a rock some place. When you get used to a place, it's home," he said.

More than 20 elderly residents at an apartment home in Indianapolis were displaced when the facility lost power due to a downed tree. Most were bused to a Red Cross facility to spend the night, and others who depend on oxygen assistance were given other accommodations, the fire department said.

Others sought refuge in shopping malls, movie theaters and other places where the air conditioning would be turned to "high."

In Richmond, Va., Tracey Phalen relaxed with her teenage son under the shade of a coffee-house umbrella rather than suffer through the stifling heat of her house, which lost power.

"We'll probably go to a movie theater at the top of the day," she said.

Phalen said Hurricane Irene left her home dark for six days last summer, "and this is reminiscent of that," she said.

Others scheduled impromptu "staycations" or took shelter with friends and relatives.

Robert Clements, 28, said he showered by flashlight on Friday night after power went out at his home in Fairfax, Va. The apartment complex where he lives told his fiancee that power wouldn't be back on for at least two days, and she booked a hotel on Saturday.

Clements' fiancee, 27-year-old Ann Marie Tropiano, said she tried to go to the pool, but it was closed because there was no electricity so the pumps weren't working. She figured the electricity would eventually come back on, but she awoke to find her thermostat reading 81 degrees and slowly climbing. Closing the blinds and curtains didn't help.

"It feels like an oven," she said.

At the AT&T National in Bethesda, Md., trees cracked at their trunks crashed onto the 14th hole and onto ropes that had lined the fairways. The third round of play was suspended for several hours Saturday and was closed to volunteers and spectators. Mark Russell, the PGA Tour's vice president of rules and competition, couldn't remember another time that a tour event was closed to fans.

"It's too dangerous out here," Russell said. "There's a lot of huge limbs. There's a lot of debris. It's like a tornado came through here. It's just not safe."

The outages disrupted service for many subscribers to Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest when the storm cut power to some of Amazon Inc.'s operations. The video and photo sharing services took to Twitter and Facebook to update subscribers on the outages. Netflix and Pinterest had restored service by Saturday afternoon.

The storm that whipped through the region Friday night was called a derecho (duh-RAY'-choh) , a straight line wind storm that sweeps over a large area at high speed. It can produce tornado-like damage. The storm, which can pack wind gusts of up to 90 mph, began in the Midwest, passed over the Appalachian Mountains and then drew new strength from a high pressure system as it hit the southeastern U.S., said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"It's one of those storms," Jackson said. "It just plows through."

Man Gets Life Without Parole in Gruesome Ohio Murders

(CNN) -- An Ohio man pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to life without parole for killing and dismembering a woman, her son and her friend and hiding their bagged remains in the hollow of a tree.

Matthew Hoffman, 30, pleaded guilty to all 10 counts, including three counts of aggravated murder and the kidnapping of one of the victim's 13-year-old relatives, in Knox County, Ohio, in November.

According to his attorney, Hoffman said he committed the crimes after encountering Tina R. Herrmann when he entered the house during a burglary attempt.

But the sister of Stephanie Sprang, one of the other victims, said there was no excuse for him killing Herrmann and waiting for the other victims to come to the house.

"Death is too easy for him and we would rather pay tax dollars and let him suffer and live and deal with what he did every day," Sherrie Baxter told CNN affiliate WSYX.

The remains of Herrmann, 31, her son, Kody, and Stephanie Sprang, 41, were found November 18 in a rural area after they had been missing 10 days from Herrmann's home. Autopsy results indicated they had been stabbed to death and dismembered.

Hoffman, who worked as a tree trimmer, was indicted Monday and the plea and sentencing agreement were detailed during a hearing Thursday.

"The indictment alleges that Hoffman purposely caused the deaths of Tina R. Herrmann, Ms. Herrmann's son Kody Maynard, age 11, and her neighbor Stephanie L. Sprang, on November 10, 2010," prosecutors said about the indictment. "The aggravated murder charges further allege that Hoffman murdered the victims while he was committing the offense of aggravated burglary in Herrmann's residence."

The indictment did not include death penalty specifications, authorities said, "in accordance with the wishes of the victim's families."

CNN left a message for Hoffman's attorney, Bruce Malek, who told WSYX that Hoffman had remorse for what he did and felt it was important for the victims' remains to be found. Police previously had said Hoffman provided information leading to the recovery of the remains.

The 13-year-old girl was found bound and gagged in the basement of Hoffman's home in Mount Vernon, Ohio, about 20 miles from Herrmann's home in Howard, Ohio. Hoffman was charged with one count of rape for allegedly assaulting the girl, prosecutors said.

Besides the aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and rape charges, Hoffman faced a charge of tampering with evidence for allegedly removing some clothing and bedding from Herrmann's residence in order to hinder the investigation, authorities said.

He also pleaded guilty to three counts of abuse of a corpse. Prosecutors those charges were filed because "the victims' remains were not intact when recovered by authorities in a hollow tree" in Kokosing Lake State Wildlife Area.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, in a statement read by Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher, the girl said: "This has changed my whole life and my family's life, too." In the statement, the teen related memories of the victims and said she's no longer frightened of Hoffman.

"This is so sickening, Matthew, to know you even had the guts to do this to a family," she said in the statement.

Herrmann failed to report to work at a Dairy Queen in Mount Vernon on November 10, Knox County Sheriff David Barber told CNN affiliate WBNS. A deputy twice went to her home and saw her pickup truck there. No one answered the door, though lights were on in the home.

Later in the week, blood was found in the home, leading authorities to suspect foul play.

Sprang's father, Steve Thompson, said he was satisfied with the sentence.

"They are many answers that I still need," he told WSYX. "I am confident and sure we will find them later on down the road."

Pastor Charged with Over 100 Counts of Child Porn

It's pretty sad I'm at the point that hearing about pastors and priests involved in child sexual ceases to surprise me.

CLEVELAND — Rev. Dr. Mark Griggs, pastor of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Olmsted Falls, has been charged with trading in child pornography.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason announced that Griggs, 48, faces 112 counts that include downloading, trading and possessing child pornography.

Griggs is one of 27 adults, along with three juveniles, charged in a six month investigation called "Operation Lake Effect." The investigation has been conducted by the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

Prosecutors charge that Griggs downloaded and saved images of children being sexually abused onto his computer. They say Griggs traded child porn images from both his home and church computers.

"Shocking...always," Mason says of a pastor being indicted on such charges.

But Griggs', attorney, Jay Milano, says his client will fight the charges.

"Reverend Griggs is going to plead and he's going to defend himself," says Milano. "He's not a child pornographer."

Milano says Rev. Griggs was on "Limewire" -- an internet file-sharing program.

"If you're downloading files from Limewire, you don't have any control of what's coming into your computer," Milano says.

Prosecutor Mason rejects the notion that Griggs made innocent mistakes.
"The amount of downloading and file sharing he has is significant," Mason says.

The church's website talks about Griggs' "commitment and love of children."

In a statement released Thursday, the Presbytery of the Western Reserve said the following about Griggs' arrest: "We do not have much information about this situation yet but the Presbytery takes allegations of misconduct very seriously and will cooperate with authorities in their investigation."

All of these cases are in Cuyahoga County, indicating how pervasive child porn can be. 34 other cases have been sent to other jurisdictions.

Prosecutor Mason says the investigation shows the need for parents to monitor what their children do online. And he also says that predators should be aware that, if they continue trading in child porn, they may well be caught.

An initial court date for Griggs and the other defendants has not been set yet.

Teen Rapist Sentenced To 28 Years In Prison

HAMILTON -- A teen convicted of assaulting and raping a neighbor was sentenced Friday morning to 28 years in prison.

Alex Ramirez was 14 when he beat, robbed and raped a 64-year-old woman who lived near his home.

Ramirez, standing trial as an adult, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of the assault in August.

He faced up to 83 years in prison. Ramirez, who will not be eligible for parole, was determined to be in the country illegally and will be deported when he completes his sentence.

Prior to sentencing, Ramirez, his mother, his victim and his victim's son all made statements to Judge Keith Spaeth.

"Basically, her heart hurts for what he did," said the teen's mother, Ava Ramirez, through an interpreter.

His victim, Phyllis Mays, told the judge that Ramirez was after only one thing that night, sex.

"I offered him $5; it was all I had," said Mays, who has agreed to be identified in media reports. "I offered him a diamond ring and he wouldn't take that, and I offered him a charge card and he wouldn't take that. either. He was there expressively for sex."

Ramirez, speaking publicly for the first time, did not ask for mercy or leniency, but he apologized and said he wanted to change.

"What can I do to make her stop suffering? I don't know what to do," Ramirez told the court. "I can't live with myself. I hate myself. I can't change what I did. People look at me as a monster. They have every right to. I did something wrong. I hurt her."

The judge described Ramirez, who must remain in prison until he is 43 years old, as someone whose internal compass was broken and could not be repaired.

The victim's son said the teen's crimes continued to have an impact on his family.

"It sent a shockwave, like if you drop a rock in a pond and you just see the ripples, and it's still rippling," said John Feltner.

Ohio High School Under Scrutiny After Spate of Suicides

MENTOR, Ohio (Oct. 8) -- Sladjana Vidovic's body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom.

Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window.

The 16-year-old's last words, scribbled in English and her native Croatian, told of her daily torment at Mentor High School, where students mocked her accent, taunted her with insults like "Slutty Jana" and threw food at her.

It was the fourth time in little more than two years that a bullied high school student in this small Cleveland suburb on Lake Erie died by his or her own hand - three suicides, one overdose of antidepressants. One was bullied for being gay, another for having a learning disability, another for being a boy who happened to like wearing pink.

Now two families - including the Vidovics - are suing the school district, claiming their children were bullied to death and the school did nothing to stop it. The lawsuits come after a national spate of high-profile suicides by gay teens and others, and during a time of national soul-searching about what can be done to stop it.

If there has been soul-searching among the bullies in Mentor - a pleasant beachfront community that was voted one of the "100 Best Places to Live" by CNN and Money magazine this year - Sladjana's family saw too little of it at her wake in October 2008.

Suzana Vidovic found her sister's body hanging over the front lawn. The family watched, she said, as the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket - and laughed.

"They were laughing at the way she looked," Suzana says, crying. "Even though she died."

Sladjana Vidovic, whose family had moved to northeast Ohio from Bosnia when she was a little girl, was pretty, vivacious and charming. She loved to dance. She would turn on the stereo and drag her father out of his chair, dance him in circles around the living room.

"Nonstop smile. Nonstop music," says her father, Dragan, who speaks only a little English.

At school, life was very different. She was ridiculed for her thick accent. Classmates tossed insults like "Slutty Jana" or "Slut-Jana-Vagina." A boy pushed her down the stairs. A girl smacked her in the face with a water bottle.

Phone callers in the dead of night would tell her to go back to Croatia, that she'd be dead in the morning, that they'd find her after school, says Suzana Vidovic.

"Sladjana did stand up for herself, but toward the end she just kind of stopped," says her best friend, Jelena Jandric. "Because she couldn't handle it. She didn't have enough strength."

Vidovic's parents say they begged the school to intervene many times. They say the school promised to take care of her.

She had already withdrawn from Mentor and enrolled in an online school about a week before she killed herself.

When the family tried to retrieve records about their reports of bullying, school officials told them the records were destroyed during a switch to computers. The family sued in August.

Two years after her death, Dragan Vidovic waves his hand over the family living room, where a vase of pink flowers stands next to a photograph of Sladjana.

"Today, no music," he says sadly. "No smile."

Eric Mohat was flamboyant and loud and preferred to wear pink most of the time. When he didn't get the lead soprano part in the choir his freshman year, he was indignant, his mother says.

He wore a stuffed animal strapped to his arm, a lemur named Georges that was given its own seat in class.

"It was a gag," says Mohat's father, Bill. "And all the girls would come up to pet his monkey. And in his Spanish class they would write stories about Georges."

Mohat's family and friends say he wasn't gay, but people thought he was.

"They called him fag, homo, queer," says his mother, Jan. "He told us that."

Bullies once knocked a pile of books out of his hands on the stairs, saying, "'Pick up your books, faggot,'" says Dan Hughes, a friend of Eric's.

Kids would flick him in the head or call him names, says 20-year-old Drew Juratovac, a former student. One time, a boy called Mohat a "homo," and Juratovac told him to leave Mohat alone.

"I got up and said, 'Listen, you better leave this kid alone. Just walk away,'" he says. "And I just hit him in the face. And I got suspended for it."

Eric Mohat shot himself on March 29, 2007, two weeks before a choir trip to Hawaii.

His parents asked the coroner to call it "bullicide." At Eric's funeral and after his death, other kids told the Mohats that they had seen the teen relentlessly bullied in math class. The Mohats demanded that police investigate, but no criminal activity was found.

Two years later, in April 2009, the Mohats sued the school district, the principal, the superintendent and Eric's math teacher. The federal lawsuit is on hold while the Ohio Supreme Court considers a question of state law regarding the case.

"Did we raise him to be too polite?" Bill Mohat wonders. "Did we leave him defenseless in this school?"

Meredith Rezak, 16, shot herself in the head three weeks after the death of Mohat, a good friend of hers. Her cell phone, found next to her body, contained a photograph of Mohat with the caption "R.I.P. Eric a.k.a. Twiggy."

Rezak was bright, outgoing and a well-liked player on the volleyball team. Shortly before her suicide, she had joined the school's Gay-Straight Alliance and told friends and family she thought she might be gay.

Juratovac says Rezak endured her own share of bullying - "name-calling, just stupid trivial stuff" - but nobody ever knew it was getting to her.

"Meredith ended up coming out that she was a lesbian," he says. "I think much of that sparked a lot of the bullying from a lot of the other girls in school, 'cause she didn't fit in."

Her best friend, Kevin Simon, doesn't believe that bullying played a role in Rezak's death. She had serious issues at home that were unrelated to school, he says.

After Mohat's death, people saw Rezak crying at school, and friends heard her talk of suicide herself.

A year after Rezak's death, the older of her two brothers, 22-year-old Justin, also shot and killed himself. His death certificate mentioned "chronic depressive reaction."

This March, her only other sibling, Matthew, died of a drug overdose at age 21.

Their mother, Nancy Merritt, lives in Colorado now. She doesn't think Meredith was bullied to death but doesn't really know what happened. On the phone, her voice drifts off, sounding disconnected, confused.

"So all three of mine are gone," she says. "I have to keep breathing."

Most mornings before school, Jennifer Eyring would take Pepto-Bismol to calm her stomach and plead with her mother to let her stay home.

"She used to sob to me in the morning that she did not want to go," says her mother, Janet. "And this is going to bring tears to my eyes. Because I made her go to school."

Eyring, 16, was an accomplished equestrian who had a learning disability. She was developmentally delayed and had a hearing problem, so she received tutoring during the school day. For that, her mother says, she was bullied constantly.

By the end of her sophomore year in 2006, Eyring's mother had decided to pull her out of Mentor High School and enroll her in an online school the following autumn. But one night that summer, Jennifer walked into her parents' bedroom and told them she had taken some of her mother's antidepressant pills to make herself feel better. Hours later, she died of an overdose.

The Eyrings do not hold Mentor High accountable, but they believe she would be alive today had she not been bullied. Her parents are speaking out in hopes of preventing more tragedies.

"It's too late for my daughter," Janet Eyring says, "but it may not be too late for someone else."

No official from Mentor public schools would comment for this story. The school also refused to provide details on its anti-bullying program.

Some students say the problem is the culture of conformity in this city of about 50,000 people: If you're not an athlete or cheerleader, you're not cool. And if you're not cool, you're a prime target for the bullies.

But that's not so different from most high schools. Senior Matt Super, who's 17, says the suicides unfairly paint his school in a bad light.

"Not everybody's a good person," he says. "And in a group of 3,000 people, there are going to be bad people."

StopCyberbulling.org founder Parry Aftab says this is the first time she's heard of two sets of parents suing a school at the same time for two independent cases of bullying or cyberbullying. No one has been accused of bullying more than one of the teens who died.

Barbara Coloroso, a national anti-bullying expert, says the school is allowing a "culture of mean" to thrive, and school officials should be held responsible for the suicides - along with the bullies.

"Bullying doesn't start as criminal. They need to be held accountable the very first time they call somebody a gross term," Coloroso says. "That is the beginning of dehumanization."

Severe Weather Rakes Midwest; 5 Dead

(CNN) -- Five people were killed in Ohio as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes raked the Midwest on Saturday and early Sunday, authorities said.

The deaths came in Wood County, Ohio, when a tornado touched down there overnight, state Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Kelli Blackwell told CNN. Wood County is about 30 miles south of Toledo.

A 4-year-old child was among the deaths in Millbury, Ohio, Blackwell said. A man was also found dead in the street in Millbury, and two adults died in a van in Lake Township, about five miles from Millbury. Blackwell said she did not have details on the fifth fatality.

In Michigan, 11 people were injured when a storm struck Monroe County, Michigan, and damage to the exterior wall of the Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant prompted an automatic shutdown, said Dan Smith, spokesman for the county's emergency management division. The plant will remain closed until crews have assessed the damage, he said.

Ten people were taken to hospitals by ambulance, and one was flown, after the storm struck about 3 a.m. Sunday, Smith said. Field crews were assessing the number of homes and businesses damaged in Dundee Village and Dundee Township, he said.

Up to 500 people staying at a water park resort were evacuated safely to a middle school, Smith said.

Several other communities in Illinois were hard-hit by severe weather. The town of Streator, Illinois, looks "like a war zone," Mayor Jimmie Lansford said. A total of 50 people were triaged, and 17 were transferred to hospitals and later released, Lansford said.

Thirty homes sustained major damage, and several others had minor damage, Lansford said. Animal rescue officials were set to begin searching through the rubble.

Officials are not sure whether the damage was caused by a tornado, pending confirmation by the National Weather Service, he said. "All we know is, it cut a path from the west side of town all the way through to the east side of town."

Many trees and power lines were downed, he said, and "a couple of businesses sustained some damage but we don't know to what extent."

"If it would have been two blocks farther north, St. Mary's Hospital would have been right in the path and it would have been devastating," Lansford said. "It could have been a lot worse."

A tornado touched down in Elmwood, Illinois, Saturday night, according to the Peoria County Sheriff's Office. Pictures from CNN affiliate WMBD showed a twisted gas station awning and streets covered with debris, branches and broken glass. The tornado ripped through downtown Elmwood, tearing the second stories off buildings in some cases, WMBD said.

Footage of storm damage across several states showed buildings with roofs ripped off, other structures reduced to rubble and overturned school buses and RVs.

The severe weather may continue Sunday, forecasters said, as there is a moderate risk of severe storms and tornadoes over areas of the northeastern United States. A tornado watch, meaning conditions are favorable for tornadoes, was issued until 8 p.m. Sunday for an area stretching from New Hampshire and Vermont southward to Virginia. The watch includes the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.

'70s Musician Faces New Sex Charges

(CNN) -- A musician who played in the 1970s pop music group KC & the Sunshine Band will be in court Friday to face an indictment on 16 sex charges involving "multiple male juveniles," an Ohio prosecutor said.

Richard Finch was arrested last month in Licking County, Ohio, after a 17-year-old boy said he had sexual contact with him. Investigators said they were looking into other possible victims.

A grand jury indictment this month charges Finch with 10 counts of sexual imposition. Assistant prosecutor Tracy Van Winkle said the charges involve having sex with someone when it is harmful to them.

Finch also faces three counts of compelling prostitution involving offering money to minors for sex, Van Winkle said. Two counts involve asking a minor to engage in sex, and one count is a charge of sexual contact with a minor, she said.

A teenager said he had sexual contact with Finch at Finch's house in Newark, Ohio, the Licking County Sheriff's Office said in a statement after the arrest.

During an interview with detectives, Finch "disclosed that he did in fact have sexual contact with the juvenile, along with multiple other male teenage juveniles as well ranging from ages 13 to 17," the office said.

A pretrial hearing will be held Friday. Finch is in the Licking County jail; no trial date has been set, she said.

A statement from Finch and his lawyer was posted on his website soon after his arrest: "They would like to remind everyone that these are just allegations and that Mr. Finch is presumed innocent."

A more recent posting asking fans to donate to his legal defense fund said Finch had to cancel his plans for "an impending tour" and "a catastrophic economic hardship has taken their place."

"Those revenue generating possibilities are now gone, and as of this time, Mr. Finch's attorneys are in the early stages of their investigation," it said.

Finch played bass and drums with KC & the Sunshine Band. The group is known for hits such as "That's the Way (I Like It)," "Get Down Tonight" and "I'm Your Boogie Man." He co-wrote many of the band's biggest hits with Harry Wayne "KC" Casey. He left the band in 1980.

Casey disputed that Finch co-founded the band, saying that he started it in 1973 and Finch joined a year later. However, singles from the band's first album, "Do It Good," were released in 1973 and feature Finch.

Man Charged in 11 Deaths Indicted on New Charges, Prosecutor Says

(CNN) -- An Ohio man already charged with murder in the deaths of 11 women has been indicted on new charges of kidnapping, attempted murder and felonious assault, a prosecutor announced Thursday.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said that a grand jury indicted Anthony Sowell on those charges in connection with the alleged assault of a 42-year-old woman.

No further details were released.

Sowell was already facing 85 charges -- including murder, rape and kidnapping -- following the discovery of 11 sets of human remains at his Cleveland, Ohio, home in October and November.

He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in December. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Sowell is a registered sex offender who served 15 years in prison before being released in 2005.

Mason told CNN that the new charges are separate from those brought last year. "It's a whole new case," he said, adding that he expects these charges to be tried separately from the 85.

The new charges are related to an incident that allegedly occurred on April 21, 2009, Mason said.

Sowell and a woman, now 43, were "drinking and partying in the afternoon," the prosecutor said. "Later he attacked her, choked her, beat her a little bit."

"She was able to escape through some creative thinking," he said, explaining that the woman, whom he would not identify, pretended she was on the phone with a daughter. Sowell then allowed her to leave, Mason said.

Sowell's defense attorneys did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The woman came to authorities as the bodies in Sowell's house were being discovered and authorities later corroborated her statement, Mason said.

The prosecutor also said that his cold case unit is reviewing unsolved murders that occurred during the time Sowell lived in Cleveland and East Cleveland. Mason said the group is about two-thirds of the way through 75 cases.

He said evidence is not scheduled to be presented until June for the case involving the 85 charges.

In addition to the charges related to the deaths of the 11 women whose remains were found at his home, Sowell is also charged with assaulting three other women and raping two of them, authorities said. Most of the women whose remains were found were strangled by ligature -- which could include a string, cord or wire -- and at least one was strangled by hand, officials said. Seven still had ligatures wrapped around their necks. A skull is all that remains of one victim. It was found wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the home's basement.

Family Begs Killer to Give Up Body

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Harold Barker, 55, has been asked dozens of times where he put the body of Shelly Sue Turner. She disappeared in 2006, and was last seen with Barker, her boyfriend at the time. Turner's family gave it one last shot at Barker's sentencing Wednesday, September 9.

"We have a right to know where she is," said Jessica Turner, the victim's daughter. "You have nothing to lose now. So I ask you, where is my mother? Whether you choose to answer that today or ten years from now, sometime before you yourself has to answer to God, I hope you can find it in yourself to let us know where she is."

Barker stood quietly as Turner begged him for answers. When given his chance to speak, he maintained his innocence.

"For the family's sake, I hope you don't close this case," said Barker. "If I knew where Shelly was, I wouldn't be facing the time I am now. A deal was offered and I couldn't produce Shelly."

Barker was last seen leaving Shag's Tavern on South Smithville Road with Turner in September 2006. Barker told police that Turner left with another man, but during his trial, Barker's friends told the jury that he later admitted to killing his girlfriend.

"I believe the only time you've told the truth is when you told your friends you killed her," said Judge Barbara Gorman.

Gorman told Barker in court that she didn't believe he had a conscience, and that calls for a maximum sentence. Gorman sentenced Barker to 28 years to life in prison.

Turner's mother has been taking care of the youngest of her three children since she disappeared.

Mom Denies Killing Baby to Hide Father's Age

HAMILTON, Ohio -- A 26-year-old woman accused of murdering her 5-week-old son, to hide the identity of the baby's father, has plead not guilty.

Investigators say Asuncion Avila-Villa killed her son, Israel Santos, and put his body in a garbage can.

Avila-Villa is also charged with one count each of gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

According to the indictment, the father is under the age of 16.

Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper refused to say anything about who the alleged father may be.

The indictment accuses Avila-Villa of killing the child to hide evidence of unlawful sexual conduct.

Avila-Villa was arrested Aug. 25 after police found her baby's body in a garbage can in an alley behind her home.

A coroner says the baby had a crushed skull and broken arm.

According to investigators Avila-Villa needed to help identify the child's father if she wanted to continue receiving public assistance.

Israel was found dead just days before a DNA test was to be conducted.

Piper says he will seek the death penalty.

A judge is expected to appoint an attorney for Avila-Villa who is being held on a $1-million bond.

Couple Sentenced After Foster Child Dies In Unsafe Home

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP -- A couple previously convicted of child endangerment involving their foster daughter has been sentenced again after the girl's death.

David and Melody Smith were sentenced Wednesday on a child endangerment conviction after Malake Dancer, 11, died of natural causes in February.

Investigators said at the time that the Smith home was "unsanitary and dangerous." The couple had been convicted of child endangerment charges involving the girl in 2004.

The couple was sentenced to 18 months suspended sentence, five years probation, a $1,000 fine and must complete a four to six month course at a community-based corrections facility.

The judge also said the Smiths cannot have any more foster children or pets, "not even a goldfish."

Small Plane Crashes Near High School Football Field

(CNN) -- A small plane crashed Friday near an Ohio-area high school during a football scrimmage.

Spectators at a practice game at Harrison High School watched from the bleachers as the plane went down at 8:08 p.m. ET, said police officer Jennifer Coyle, who witnessed the incident.

Two people on the plane died at the crash scene, authorities said.

According to CNN affiliate WLWT, witnesses said the plane was heading toward the football field when it suddenly dropped, crashing in a gravel pit near the school.

"It looked like he was going straight for the boys on the field, but then just did a straight nosedive," Mindy Brinson told WLWT.

It is not yet known what caused the plane to crash. Harrison is in the southwest corner of Ohio.

Clemency Denied For Thrill Killer, Marvallous Keene

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The State Parole Board has denied clemency for Marvallous Keene, one of the so-called "Thrill Killers" in Dayton.

Keene, now 36, was among four people convicted of going on a killing spree during the Christmas holidays of 1992 that left five people dead. The victims were: Joseph Wilkerson, 34, Danita Gullette, 18, Sarah Abraham, 38, Wendy Cottrill, 16, and Marvin Washington, 18.

Keene was convicted of multiple charges including five counts of aggravated murder and sentenced to death by a three-judge panel.

At a clemency hearing June 17, Keene asked his lawyers not to ask for clemency because he did not want to cause the victim's families any more pain. Keene also refused to be interviewed by the Parole Board.

Keene is scheduled to be executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville on July 21.

Grandmother Says Rescued Girl Won't Return to Mother

(CNN) -- A 4-year-old, whose mother took her cross-country with her sex-offender boyfriend, won't be handed back to her mother, according to the girl's maternal grandmother.

"There's no way that I would do that," Mary Watson said Wednesday on HLN's "Nancy Grace."

Watson said she plans to follow the decisions of social services agencies overseeing the well-publicized case of young Haylee Donathan and will not let Haylee see her mother, Candace Watson.

"If (she) is not allowed to see her, she is not allowed to see her," Mary Watson said. "That's the way it is going to be."

Candace Watson, 24, and her boyfriend, Robbie Potter, 27, were arrested Tuesday in a raid at The Morning Star Ranch, a Christian communal farm in a rural part of San Diego County, California.

Authorities also found Haylee at the ranch and said they plan to return the girl to her grandmother.

Haylee had been missing for 27 days and the search to find her had been highlighted by national television current-affairs shows.

The grandmother, who received temporary court-ordered custody of the girl so an Amber Alert could be issued during the search, said she had not seen Haylee since she was found because she was being examined in California. Shortly after she was found, the girl was said to be in good condition.

"I want to tell her how I love her and we all love her and want her to come home soon," Mary Watson said.

Acting on a tip from former retreat visitors who saw a billboard of Haylee in the Las Vegas area, law enforcement stormed the usually placid ranch, whose members work the land, do household chores and share Christian beliefs and teachings.

The search for Haylee was sparked by authorities' concern for her safety.

Investigators say the three left Mansfield, Ohio, by car on May 28. The same day, Candace Watson and others allegedly had helped Potter escape from a halfway house, according to officials.

After she was arrested, Watson said she "was in love with him and knew she would help him any way she could," Pete Elliott, the U.S. marshal for the northern district of Ohio, told "Nancy Grace."

Haylee Donathan Is ALIVE! YES!

(CNN) -- A tip from an isolated communal farm in rural San Diego County, California, may have led police to solve the well-publicized case of a missing 4-year-old Ohio girl.

Authorities stormed the ranch in a dramatic Tuesday afternoon raid to find young Haylee Donathan; her mother, Candace Watson; and Robbie Potter, Watson's boyfriend and a registered sex offender who had escaped from a half-way house.

Haylee had been missing for 27 days, and the search for her had been spotlighted on national television current affairs shows.

In a news conference Tuesday, police did not say what lead them to the remote Morning Star Ranch to rescue Haylee.

Despite exhaustive media coverage and hundreds of law enforcement agencies on the case, Haylee and the two adults had spent more than a week on the ranch without raising suspicions, said Kevin Carlin, a member of the ranch in the neighborhood of Valley Center.

Ranch members became suspicious when a former guest saw billboards urging help in finding Haylee and the two adults while traveling in Las Vegas, Nevada, Carlin said during a phone interview.

The ranch contacted police, who coordinated the secret rescue mission pulled off Tuesday.

"We cooperated fully," he said.

In an Ohio news conference, Peter Elliott, United States marshal for the northern district of Ohio, said of the many tips that came in, one in particular helped break the case. But he did not elaborate.

Before ranch members became suspicious, Haylee, her mother and Potter seemed like a happy family, Carlin said.

"We thought they were a couple," Carlin said. "We thought she was their child. We treated them as guests. They helped us and we provided for their basic needs," said Carlin, explaining that no one at the ranch knew Watson and Potter were wanted.

They told their hosts they were married, he said.

"They seemed nice enough," Carlin said, adding that it is not in the group members' nature to be suspicious of others, so they take people at their word and do not grill new members about their lives or background.

"We pray to be delivered from evil every day, and we obviously were. We're just so thankful."

Watson and Potter kept a low profile, doing their chores in the kitchen and on the farm, Carlin said. He described Haylee as a sweet little girl who played well with the other children on the ranch, a 66-acre plot in rural San Diego County.

According to Carlin, the 6-year-old community is part of a worldwide messianic Christian organization known as The Twelve Tribes.

Just before the raid, Carlin said the other families were moved to safety but went about their own business, even going for a swim.

"It was pretty tense because there were armed men on our property and helicopters overhead," he said. '"The couple didn't resist arrest, and it went smoothly."

A few families live on the ranch in several separate homes, according to Carlin, who declined to give an exact number of people.

Haylee, Watson and Potter slept in the same room, but Carlin said he was not sure if they slept in the same bed.

Last week, in an interview on HLN's Nancy Grace, Watson's roommate said she saw all three in one bed the morning they disappeared, a revelation that further alarmed authorities.

Cops: Man Offered $100 For Sex With 10-Year-Old

ABC.com - A Cheviot man is is facing a criminal charge for allegedly offering a girl money inside a local UDF store to have sex with him.

Timothy Moellinger, 41, allegedly offered the girl $100 on Saturday morning inside the store on Glenmore Avenue. The alleged act was also witnessed by an adult and the girl's 16-year-old sister, according to Cincinnati police.

Moellinger allegedly ran home to change clothes in an effort to avoid being arrested.

He is charged with felony importuning.

Moellinger is scheduled to appear in court on Monday after posting a $5,000 bond over the weekend.

Suspected Serial Killer Facing Another Murder Charge

CINCINNATI -- A man accused of killing three women in the Cincinnati area since 2006 has been indicted in another homicide.

As News 5 reported last month, the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office announced Monday afternoon that Anthony Kirkland has been accused of killing Kimya Rolison.

Rolison's skeletal remains were found in North Fairmount in June 2008. Prosecutor Joe Deters said Kirkland and Rolison were acquainted prior to her death.

Kirkland is accused of killing 14-year-old Casonya "Sharee" Crawford and 45-year-old Mary Jo Newton in 2006 and 13-year-old Esme Kenney in March 2009. He is due to stand trial on those charges in October.

Kirkland has already served a prison sentence for killing Leola Douglas in 1987.

"I hope this, in some small way, gives the Rolison family some peace. Their loved one became a victim to a vicious predator. Kirkland needs to be brought to justice for these hideous acts committed against innocent victims," Deters said in a news release.

News 5 and WLWT.com will have the latest on this story later today.

Mammone III Pleads Not Guilty to Killing his Children, Ex-Mother-In-Law

CANTON — James Mammone III appeared before a judge Friday at the Stark County Jail and denied guilt to three counts of aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications and other crimes.

The hearing was Mammone’s first chance to enter a plea to charges that he killed his two children and his ex-mother-in-law on June 8, and tried to break into his ex-wife’s home.

“The charges don’t get any more serious than they are in this case,” Common Pleas Judge John G. Haas told Mammone before reading the seven-count indictment aloud.

If convicted of any of the aggravated murder charges with an accompanying death-penalty specification, Mammone could be sentenced to death. Other options would be life in prison without parole, life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years and life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years.

Police have said he confessed to the slayings, saying he was trying to punish his ex-wife, Marcia Mammone, following their recent divorce.

Stark County Public Defender Tammi Johnson and defense attorney Derek Lowry have been appointed to represent James Mammone III.

They declined to comment on the case, as did Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Chryssa Hartnett.

Haas set a tentative January trial date.

The judge held off on imposing a gag order, but said he is sensitive to how publicity about the case might effect potential jurors.

“The less said, the better,” he told the attorneys.

Haas also asked Mammone how he was being treated in jail and if he had any concerns.

Mammone said his only problem is getting food that fits his strict vegetarian diet.

Neither Mammone’s relatives, nor the family of his ex-wife, attended the hearing.

George Urban, spokesman for Marcia Mammone and her father, James Eakin, said they are still coping with the loss and didn’t want to make the hearing a public spectacle.

Prosecutors have said they believe James Mammone III stabbed to death his children, 5-year-old Macy Mammone and 3-year-old James Mammone IV, sometime before fatally shooting his former mother-in-law, 57-year-old Margaret J. Eakin.

Reached at her home, the defendant’s mother, Gilise Mammone, said she wanted to be at the hearing, but had been told it wasn’t open to the public, although it was.

“He’s still my son, and I love him,” she said.

In her first public comments since her son’s arrest, an emotional Gilise Mammone said her heart is broken.

“I’m just absolutely crushed. I lost my grandkids, my only grandkids, and my son, my only child,” she said.

With a trial pending, she wouldn’t discuss details about her son, his marriage and divorce, or the allegations against him, but said the side of him accused of these crimes, “I never saw, I never knew.”

“He always did so well with the kids,” she said. “I just don’t understand. I just don’t understand.”

[previous articles on Mammone]

Mom Accused Of Shaking Child In Courtroom

CINCINNATI -- Deputies didn't have to go far from the Hamilton County courthouse to arrest a woman on charges of child endangering on Thursday.

Deputies said Ranisha Jones was in Judge Richard Bernat’s courtroom on Thursday morning when her 1-year-old daughter started crying.

Jones was ordered to leave the courtroom, but became agitated and disorderly, deputies said.

Jones was taken to another courtroom to be issued a disorderly conduct citation.

While in the courtroom, deputies said Jones continued to be disorderly. When her daughter started crying again, deputies said Jones held the girl up by her armpits, shaking the child back and forth as she screamed at the child to shut up and continued to blame the child for her troubles.

Deputies quickly took the child from Jones, who was charged with disorderly conduct and child endangering.

The girl was placed with another family member by Children Services.

911 Calls Provide Disturbing Details in Death of 2-Year-Old Cleveland Girl

Fox 8- Shocking 911 calls show the chaos that occured when the unidentified adults with the child, called for help.

One caller says, "Lady I told you, maybe the little girl is dead, you know, died."

A 911 dispatcher tries to give the adults in the room with the two year old, instructions on how to perform CPR.

The dispatcher senses the adults are not following her instructions. "Are you doing what I'm asking you to do?" she asks.

Emergency responders seem to be shocked by what they find when they arrive at the apartment complex.

They immediately tell dispatchers that the child is dead and that this is a clear case of child abuse.

One first responder tells the dispatcher about the child's condition.

"The kids got bilateral burns on the hands, bruising across the whole forehead," he said.

He went on to say, "She's got a bitemark on the right elbow. She's got, what else, a lot of bruising."

The Cuyahoga County Coroner's office has identified the little girl as, Iris Rivera .

The Director of Children and Family Services tells Fox 8 News, "Iris died of blunt force trama to the abdomen." Her death has been ruled a homicide.

We're also told that the other four children have been placed in the emergency custody of their father.

Police say the child's mother was in the hospital at the time of her death.

So far, police have not identified any suspects in this case.