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Christopher Wise Photo/Montgomery County Jail

Christopher Wise has had better months.

The 22-year-old Kettering man racked up eight felony charges in a one-month period.

Wise’s troubles began April 29 in Warren County, when police say he presented fraudulent receipts to Mason Municipal Court.

Wise had been ordered to make payment of $640 to the court after pleading guilty in May 2012 to disorderly conduct. In that case, police say Wise pulled a fire alarm after he said he was locked out of a Deerfield Township apartment.

A Warren County grand jury last week indicted Wise on one count of tampering with records, a fifth-degree felony punishable by up to 12 months in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Then, on May 28, police say Wise kidnapped his adoptive mother and assaulted her in their Kettering home.

Authorities were first alerted to the alleged crimes by a liquor store drive-through clerk, who said he saw a female passenger in a vehicle driven by a man mouth the words, “Help me,” Dayton’s WHIOTV reports.

The store clerk gave police the vehicle’s tag number, which led them to an address on Hollendale Drive in Kettering, but no one was home, according to WHIOTV.

Later that evening, a concerned co-worker of the victim checked on the woman at her home and told police she answered the door with her face bloodied and mouthed, “Help me, my son is trying to hurt me,” WHIOTV reports.

When police arrived, Wise fled the scene in a Chevrolet Tahoe. The pursuit was later called off.

Police, acting on a tip, finally apprehended Wise the next morning at his Kettering home. Wise was taken into custody after a brief foot pursuit, police records show.

He’s been charged with seven felonies in that case: two counts of kidnapping and one count aggravated robbery, all first-degree felonies; one county felonious assault, a second-degree felony; one count tampering with evidence and failure to comply, both third-degree felonies, and theft, a fourth-degree felony.

Wise faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted of the charges in Montgomery County.

He’s being held at the Montgomery County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: assault, christopher wise, crime, felony, hollendale drive, kettering, kidnap, mason, mason municipal court, tampering with records

Warren County Court Judge Joseph Kirby. The Enquirer/ Tony Jones

Paul McKibben reports:

Warren County wants to know if it needs all of its part-time courts.

The county has three municipal courts (Mason, Lebanon and Franklin, each of which has one part-time judge) and a county court with two part-time judges.

Municipal and county courts in Ohio handle preliminary hearings in felony cases and adjudicate misdemeanor charges. The courts also hear civil cases in which the money disputed is less than $15,000.

Under one proposal, the Franklin and Lebanon municipal courts would divide between them the cases once handled by Donald Oda when he was a part-time Warren County Court judge. He was elected to the Warren County Common Pleas Court bench last year. Gary Loxley, an assistant Warren County prosecutor, will take over Oda’s county court seat in May. Common pleas court judges are full-time.

The plan also calls to keep vacant the seat of Warren County Court Judge Joseph Kirby and split his cases between the Franklin and Lebanon municipal courts. Kirby’s seat will become vacant when he takes over as Warren County probate/juvenile court judge April 29. Probate/juvenile is full-time.

Mason Municipal Court, with its one part-time judge, would not be affected; it could become full-time at any time because of the large population it serves (Mason and Deerfield Township), according to Franklin Municipal Court Judge Rupert Ruppert.

(more…)

Posted in: News, Warren County |

Tags: Tags: consolidation, courts, dave young, franklin, gary loxley, joseph kirby, judge, lebanon, mason, mason municipal court, pat arnold smith, warren county

Warren County Sheriff’s deputies found Thursday morning a West Chester man who didn’t return to the county jail following his work release Tuesday evening.

Deputies and a canine unit searched the bank of the Little Miami River in the Kings Mills area after receiving a tip about 27-year-old Keith Jim Boyer’s whereabouts. He was arrested without incident shortly after 6 a.m.

Boyer was returned to the jail. He was charged with escape, a felony.

Mason Police arrested Boyer on March 24 on a warrant for failure to appear on a theft charge.  He had been in the Warren County Jail since his March arrest, but was granted work release.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: crime, escape, felony, found, keith jim boyer, kings mill, mason, mason municipal court, theft, warren county jail, west chester

via cincinnati.com

Four men are charged with public indecency after complaints of “lewd activities” in a state park, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday.

The sheriff’s office worked with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources after state officials received complaints about incidents along the Carl A. Rahe Access, formerly known as Glenn Island, along the Little Miami River. The location is near the Old 3 C Highway in Deerfield Township.

The sheriff’s office identified the arrestees as: William K. Johnson, 47, of Maineville; Larry Short, 70, of Lebanon; Frank Courtney, 70, of Lebanon; and Daniel Huff, 56, of Cincinnati.

The men were arrested Wednesday. Their cases are being handled in Mason Municipal Court.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: carl a. rahe access, deerfield township, glenn islamd, little miami river, mason municipal court, ohio department of natural resources, old 3c highway

Mason Municipal Court is poised to become the scene of a legal showdown in a case regarding free speech.

Ryan Stephens, 25, of Mason was charged April 3 for teasing a police dog after police say he barked back the dog in a cruiser.

His attorney, Jim Hardin, says his client is protected by free speech and intends to defend Stephens on the city misdemeanor charge, which could get Stephens up to 60 days in jail.

“The issue is … that he was doing nothing like striking the vehicle, striking the animal. It was simply barking,” Hardin said. “And, whether you consider that to be intelligent speech or not, it’s still speech.”

Stephens’ case resembles an Athens County case that a state appeals court threw out in 2003 on free speech issues.  State legislators tried to fix the law then and Mason followed suit with changes to a similar city law.

But, as the Enquirer’s Sheila McLaughlin reports, Hardin says those revisions didn’t patch the constitutional hole.

Stephens was charged under Mason’s former police dog law, not the one updated to mirror the state’s changes, Hardin said.

He made his first court appearance on the charge Thursday and Hardin is waiting on a new court date so he can argue his case before it even gets to trial.

There are more legal issues than just the First Amendment, says Hardin.  He’ll file a motion to dismiss the case on that point and is also filing a motion to suppress evidence against Stephens.

“Not only are there constitutional issues, but an officer still has to have probable cause to stop a person to begin with,” Hardin said.

McLaughlin spoke with police officials and has more details:

He said Mason Officer Bradley Walker wrote in his report that Stephens was intoxicated, yet there were no field sobriety or breath tests done to back up that allegation.

“What we have is simply an individual who was walking away from a bar,” Stephens said.

However, the offense report obtained by The Enquirer indicates that Walker heard the police dog barking and turned around and saw Stephens, with his face two inches away from the rear window of the cruiser, barking and hissing at the K-9 named Timber. Walker’s report said Stephens told him, “The dog started it.”

Walker was at The Pub on Reading Road early that morning to investigate a crash.

Mason Police Chief Ron Ferrell wouldn’t talk about the case against Stephens. But he said there’s good reason teasing a police dog is against the law.

“A lot of different things can happen when you start teasing a dog in a car. I think. You do have to be conscious that the dog easily can harm themselves,” Ferrell said.

The police dog may get hurt trying to get through a window or by bashing into the cage that separates the front and back seats, he said.

“Those dogs are pretty focused with the mission they are on. They are going to do anything they can to try to do the job they are hired to do,” Ferrell said.

MasonBuzz will update this case as it continues.

Posted in: News |

Tags: Tags: court, free speech, jim hardin, k-p, mason municipal court, misdemeanor, police dog, ryan stephens

A Mason man charged with barking at a police dog may be able to claim the right of free speech.

Enquirer reporter Janice Morse reports that a state law forbidding barking at a police dog might not have any teeth, according to the ACLU of Ohio.

The case of Ryan Stephens, set for a hearing Thursday in Mason Municipal Court, resembles an Athens County case that a state appeals court threw out in 2003, notes James Hardiman, an ACLU attorney.

Both cases involved men charged with misdemeanors under an Ohio law forbidding taunting a police dog. Both defendants were reported to have been drinking alcohol prior to the alleged unlawful barking. And both cases raise free-speech issues, Hardiman said, adding, “The taunting statute may not be constitutional.”

Barking at a police dog – or a police officer, for that matter – “may not be the wisest thing to do, but it probably would be protected speech,” under the U.S. Constitution, Hardiman said.

Stephens, 25, of Mason was charged with the misdemeanor taunting office on April 3 after a police officer said Stephens was “making barking noises and was hissing at the police dog inside of the car,” a police report says.

Officer Bradley Walker was outside the car investigating a car crash at the Mason Pub when he said he heard the animal “barking uncontrollably” in response to Stephens’ alleged taunting, a report says.

“Timber (the dog) responded as trained and started to bark,” the officer wrote. Walker alleges that he attempted to confront Stephens but Stephens walked away and ignored commands to stop. The officer said he asked Stephens why he was harassing the animal, and Stephens replied, “The dog started it.”

Walker said Stephens showed signs of being “highly intoxicated,” and he warned Stephens he was being detained and ordered him to sit in the rear of another officer’s cruiser.
The report says officers told Stephens that “deliberate teasing would result in the (dog) responding aggressively and that response could potentially injure the (dog).”

Stephens was released to a bar employee who promised to drive him home.

Stephens is being represented by attorney Jim L. Hardin. Neither could be reached for comment Monday.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: aclu of ohio, barking, janice morse, mason, mason municipal court, police dog, ryan stephens