Driver charged in Ohio trooper’s death pleads not guilty

Driver charged in Ohio trooper’s death pleads not guilty

CLEVELAND

A driver accused of fatally striking a state trooper along a Cleveland interstate has pleaded not guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide charges.

Cleveland.com reports 37-year-old Joshua Gaspar entered the plea Friday in county court for the collision that killed Trooper Kenneth Velez on Sept. 15.

Velez was hit while conducting traffic enforcement on Interstate 90. Prosecutors say Gaspar was driving about 78 mph and had taken a dose of methadone shortly before the collision.

Gaspar’s doctor said in a letter to defense attorney Jon Sinn that Gaspar has a prescription painkiller addiction, and the methadone they used to treat it wouldn’t impair his driving. The doctor says a test conducted on Gaspar the day after the crash showed he had only a therapeutic level of methadone in his system.

Man sent to prison for posing infant daughter with a handgun

EASTON, Pa.

A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to at least two months in jail for posing his 6-month-old daughter with a handgun.

Agustin Baez of Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County took a photo of the scene and emailed it to his ex-girlfriend, writing, “Look, she’s packing.”

The (Allentown) Morning Call reports that a Northampton County judge sentenced the 43-year-old father of six Friday, telling him, “This was about one of the dumbest things I’ve had to deal with in a long time.”

Baez pleaded guilty in July. He says the gun was a BB gun, not a real handgun, and that it wasn’t functional. He apologized for his actions.

Court records show Baez was charged in April after the mother of his daughter called Bethlehem police to report he’d been threatening her in a custody dispute.

2 Pittsburgh animal rescue organizations to merge next year

PITTSBURGH

Two Pittsburgh animal shelters are combining to create what officials say will be the largest animal rescue organization in western Pennsylvania.

Officials from the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and the Animal Rescue League announced that the merger was approved Thursday. It’ll take effect Jan. 1.

Rescue league Executive Director Dan Rossi says the merger will strengthen the organizations’ ability to serve the community. He says the organizations are expected to have a combined budget of about $7.5 million.

Humane society officials say the groups will save about $600,000 and no staff will be cut.

Rossi says the rescue league plans to move into a new East End facility by the end of the year. It will continue to operate its Verona wildlife sanctuary and pet cemetery while the humane society maintains its location on the North Side.

Police: Arrest made after fake cop abducts, assaults girl, 9

MASSILLON

A man who police say abducted and sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl in northern Ohio has pleaded not guilty to rape and kidnapping charges.

Forty-five-year-old Dennis Menefee Jr., of Port Washington, appeared Friday in Massillon Municipal Court, where a judge set a $2 million bond.

He’s being assigned a public defender.

Police say the girl was walking home from the library Monday in Massillon when a man impersonating a police officer told her she’d been reported missing. Police say it was Menefee who forced her into his pickup truck and sexually assaulted her in a parking lot.

Menefee was arrested Wednesday near Columbus while working as a flag man on a road construction project. He told a Fairfield County judge Thursday he wasn’t in Massillon.

Associated Press