OHIO

February 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

OHIO

OSU pays $1.2M over Legionnaires’ death

COLUMBUS — Ohio State University has agreed to pay $1.2 million to a woman whose husband drank from a medical center water faucet, contracted Legionnaires’ disease and died.

The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by the man’s wife, Sharron Morris, who said legal action was the only way she could call attention to the problem.

Her husband, David Morris, 66, of Lima, died in April 2007, five months after drinking water out of a sink faucet at the Ohio State Medical Center. He was being treated for leukemia and drank water to wash down medication.

Nurses and other staff at the hospital knew water on the ninth floor could contain the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ but did not warn patients, according to the lawsuit.

State giving $1.1M to man wrongly convicted of rape

COLUMBUS — Ohio will give $1.1 million to a man who spent nearly 18 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit, lawyers in the case said.

Robert McClendon, 54, who was released in August 2008 after he was cleared by DNA testing, said he’s grateful for the settlement but it doesn’t make up for the time spent in prison.

“This is tragic. I had a third of my life stolen from me,” he said.

McClendon was convicted in 1991 of abducting and raping a female relative. A private lab agreed to conduct DNA tests after he and other inmates were profiled by The Columbus Dispatch in a series that exposed flaws in the state’s DNA- testing system.

The settlement still needs to be approved by the Ohio Court of Claims. State law provides for about $45,000 in compensation for each year an exonerated inmate was in prison.

PENNSYLVANIA

Ice rink’s roof collapses

ROSTRAVER — The roof of a skating rink partially collapsed while the ice was being resurfaced during a youth hockey tournament Sunday afternoon, but no one was injured.

The collapse happened at the Rostraver Ice Garden, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Rostraver Central Assistant Chief Justin Shawley said no one was found in the damaged building.

2 shot dead in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — Police are investigating a pair of shooting deaths that occurred two hours apart in different parts of the city.

Police say officers responding to reports of gunshots in the city’s Homewood neighborhood about 10:15 p.m. Saturday found 31-year-old William Ford, 31, of Penn Hills, dead of multiple gunshot wounds.

Police say Devin Gastion, 21, and his brother were walking to their car in the North Side neighborhood when he was shot about 12:15 a.m. Sunday. Police say about 10 shots were fired, and Gastion was hit multiple times and died about a half-hour later at Allegheny General Hospital.

Associated Press