Judges’ ratings

Judges’ ratings

COLUMBUS

The Ohio State Bar Association’s Commission on Judicial Candidates has rated three Ohio Supreme Court candidates as highly recommended, one as recommended, and two as not recommended.

Highly recommended are Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Judges Cynthia Westcott Rice and Patrick F. Fischer.

Recommended is Judge John P. O’Donnell.

Not recommended are Judges Colleen M. O’Toole and R. Patrick DeWine.

Rice and O’Toole are judges on the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals.

School sites sold

AUSTINTOWN

The Austintown Board of Education agreed Wednesday to sell both the old Austintown Middle School and former Lloyd Elementary School properties.

The school board sold the former Austintown Middle School, originally Austintown Fitch High School, on Mahoning Avenue for $2.6 million to a company that operates the Meijer store chain.

The company plans to tear down the old building and build a new one pending a 180-day investigation to find any zoning problems that could prevent it from building.

OLOM Management, the company that operates the Austintown Plaza, purchased the former Lloyd property on Norquest Boulevard for $115,000.

Child-porn charges

CAMPBELL

Authorities with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Campbell man this afternoon in connection with a child-pornography investigation.

Jason Gruber, 36, faces a felony charge of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.

Officials searched Gruber’s Woodland Avenue home on a warrant today and seized electronic devices.

The investigation is ongoing, and additional charges are possible, according to an attorney general’s office news release.

Deception case

BOARDMAN

Township police are investigating a theft-by-deception case reported Wednesday in which an elderly man with dementia purportedly was deceived into signing a $100,000 loan for someone. A report says a known suspect coerced the 78-year-old man into signing the loan for him and putting up some of his property as collateral.

A family member of the victim reported the incident to police and provided them with the victim’s medical evaluation and loan paperwork.

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