No foul play in death

No foul play in death

WARREN

Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk said there is no evidence of foul play in the death of Heidi Gill, 47.

Gill, of Liberty, died Wednesday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Warren.

She became national news after a Warren police officer repeatedly used a stun weapon on her outside a bar in 2007. Gill settled a high-profile lawsuit against Warren in 2010 for about $300,000.

Additional research, such as drug testing and review of medical records, will determine Gill’s exact cause of death. Dr. Germaniuk said that process should take about eight weeks.

New pound policy

WARREN

After a heated discussion Wednesday between animal-rights activists and Trumbull County officials over a method of euthanasia used at the county dog pound last week, Commissioner Dan Polivka issued a news release Thursday indicating a new pound policy.

“The new policy states that, while kennel employees are trained to perform [euthanasias], they are to do so only under extenuating circumstances, such as an emergency situation,” the release says.

“In the unfortunate event that a dog does need to be euthanized, the new policy mandates that the procedure be performed by a licensed [veterinary] technician.”

The activists spoke at the commissioners’ regular weekly meeting, complaining that a worker attempted to euthanize a dog using a shot into a muscle, but pound officials agreed earlier to never again euthanize with a shot into a muscle because it can take hours for the dog to die and is inhumane.

Homicide ruling

WARREN

The Trumbull County coroner has ruled the death of James E. Dotson Jr., 33, of Perkinswood Boulevard Southeast and Syme Street in Masury a homicide due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Dotson was shot in the back of the J&L Lounge on Highland Avenue Southwest in Warren Township at 1:57 a.m. Monday and ran toward the front, where he was found in the parking lot, police said.

He died later at ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital.

There was a birthday party going on at the tavern at the time, but many people had fled the scene before officers arrived.

Dotson had spent most of his adult life in prison after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting a man in the eye in North End Park in Warren in 1999. He was 16 but tried as an adult. He also spent five years in prison from 2010 to 2014 for killing a man outside the Big Apple Convenient Mart.

His death is the county’s second homicide of the year.

Woman sues WRTA

YOUNGSTOWN

A passenger who said she was thrown from her seat to the bus floor and broke her hip when a Western Reserve Transit Authority driver negligently sped through a Boardman roundabout has sued the authority for more than $25,000.

Betty Gregory and her husband, Ray, of Jean Street, filed the complaint Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, saying Betty Gregory needed a total hip replacement and had difficulty walking after her March 5, 2015, fall, as the bus went through the traffic circle at Mathews and Sheridan roads.

A Boardman police records clerk said she could find no reports of emergency responders being called to the scene. The lawsuit demands a jury trial.

Marianne Vaughn, WRTA treasurer, declined to comment on the complaint.

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