MasonBuzz.com

Paul McKibben reports:

The Warren County judge who presided over Ryan Widmer’s three murder trials won’t seek re-election in 2012 and there’s already a candidate officially running for the seat.

Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson, a Republican, declined comment on Tuesday. Republican Carolyn Duvelius, Warren County Juvenile and Probate Court chief magistrate, said she’s filed petitions to replace him.

“This is a great opportunity to continue my career goal of serving and protecting the people of Warren County,” Duvelius said. “Warren County needs judges who are conservative and just. My whole career I have been both. I have dedicated my career to keeping criminals off of our streets and protecting the people of this county and I will continue to do so as judge.”

• Photos: Ryan Widmer speaks with The Enquirer
• Photos: Ryan Widmer convicted of murder

Bronson was appointed in 1987.

Duvelius has served as a magistrate for eight years and has heard more than 11,000 cases, her campaign said. Previously, she was an assistant Warren County prosecutor for 15 years. Her husband Mark is an investigator for the Warren County prosecutor’s office.

She is a member of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Lebanon, Warren County Republican Women and a board member of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Warren and Clinton Counties.

Republican Warren County Court Judge Donald Oda II has taken out petitions for the seat but hasn’t filed them, according to the Warren County Board of Elections. The filing deadline is Dec. 7. The primary is March 6.

Widmer’s last trial resulted in a jury convicting him in February of murder for killing his 24-year-old wife three years ago in their Hamilton Township homee. Widmer, 31, who last lived in Mason, has maintained his innocence and is appealing.  He is serving 15 years to life.

Posted in: Crime, News, Warren County, Widmer Trial |

Tags: Tags: bathtub murder, carolyn duvelius, election, judge neal bronson, lebanon, mason, probate court magistrate, re-election, ryan widmer, sarah widmer, warren county common pleas

MasonBuzz will be tweeting updates from the trial. Follow @Mason on Twitter for trial updates.

The trial of a Mason High School teacher accused of having sex with five students and providing them with alcohol resumes in its second day this morning.

• View photos of Schuler’s arrest and bond hearing

The Enquirer’s Paul McKibben has details from the trial’s opening day on Monday.

Stacy Schuler is not guilty of having sex with five Mason High School students because medical and psychological issues prevented her from knowing what she was doing, her attorney argued Monday in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

(more…)

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: abuse, alcohol, boys, mason, mason high school, sex, sex case, stacy schuler, teens, warren county common pleas

A man who spent 12 years in federal prison for a Florida bank robbery will now serve five more years for an April heist at a Deerfield Township bank.

Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler sentenced William Bernard Vore, 52, to the maximum term on robbery and grand theft charges in the April 20 incident at the Fifth Third Bank at 5208 Fields Ertel Road.

Prosecutors say that Vore used a note to demand cash from a bank teller and left with about $9,000 in cash.  No one was hurt.

Vore was released from prison in 2008 and was on parole when he came under investigation for the bank robbery, according to federal court documents.

He was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., where he served his time for the earlier robbery. In 2004 he threatened the life of the sentencing judge, court documents show.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: bank robbery, crime, deerfield township, fifth third bank, grand theft, judge robert peeler, warren county common pleas, william bernard vore, william vore

A Warren County judge sentenced a Mason man Tuesday to five years in prison for manufacturing methamphetamine.

In April, a Warren County jury found Timothy Baker, 44, guilty of illegal manufacturing of methamphetamine, illegal assembly of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine, aggravated possession of drugs and child endangering, all felonies.

Warren County Common Pleas Judge Robert Peeler sentenced Baker to five years in prison and ordered a $15,000 fine and $125 in restitution.

Prosecutors say that Baker and Michelle Eibeck, 43, operated a meth lab on Baker’s property on Frank Street in Mason.

Eibeck’s 14-year-old daughter was in the home while the meth was cooked, thus the child endangering charge.

Three other co-defendants pled guilty and were previously sentenced.  Another co-defendant, Jeffrey Grundy, has pled not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: child endangering, frank street, judge robert peeler, mason, meth, methamphetamine, sentenced, timothy baker, warren county common pleas

An ex-Mason High School physical education teacher now says she was “insane” at the time of alleged sex and alcohol crimes involving five teen boys, reports the Enquirer’s Janice Morse.

Stacy Schuler, who faces 19 charges, changed her plea from “not guilty” to “not guilty by reason of insanity.”

• View photos of Schuler’s arrest and bond hearing

Morse has more details about the latest development:

The change in plea, filed in a one-line document Monday, left Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell scratching his head Tuesday.

“It’s certainly an interesting development,” Fornshell said, noting Schuler previously denied the incidents happened and now, in essence, is admitting they occurred but says she should not be held legally responsible.

Schuler’s lawyer, Charlie H. Rittgers, declined to discuss why he changed the plea on behalf of Schuler, 33, of Springboro. The so-called insanity defense is highly unusual and rarely succeeds, experts say, although there’s typically some basis for it when it is attempted.

“Generally, when I’ve seen these pleas, there’s something behind this – it tells me something came up that’s cause for concern,” said Akron lawyer Carmen Roberto, past president of the Ohio State Bar Association. During his 38-year law career, Roberto estimated he had seen fewer than 10 such pleas amid thousands of cases as both a defense lawyer and prosecutor.

Because the defendant is admitting the offense occurred in an insanity plea, “you start off a little bit behind the eight-ball,” making the case difficult to win, Roberto said.

As of 2002, only about 2 percent of all suspects pursued an insanity defense — and only about one-third of them secure an acquittal for mental-health reasons, Rita J. Simon, a professor of public affairs and law at American University in Washington, D.C., told the Enquirer previously.

Under Ohio law, Rittgers must show “by a preponderance (majority) of the evidence” that his client suffered a mental problem that blocked her ability to understand right versus wrong.

By filing the insanity plea, Rittgers opened the door for Schuler to possibly undergo three separate mental evaluations. The defense, prosecutor and judge may each request a separate one.

Attorney Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a Sacramento-based organization that advocates “swift and certain punishment” of convicted criminals, said “most people are skeptical and reasonably so,” when they hear of an insanity plea being filed. The insanity plea may be a “last-ditch argument” by a desperate defendant, he said.

But Simon has said that insanity pleas tend to draw a lot of attention, leading to a misperception that they are more common than they actually are.

Fornshell said the case is his first involving an insanity plea since he was appointed county prosecutor in February. He said Judge Robert Peeler could take some action related to the plea when the case heads to its next hearing July 21 in Common Pleas Court in Lebanon.

Schuler, who resigned from her job, is set for trial Aug. 8. She’s accused of 16 counts of sexual battery, which allege she had sexual contact with boys, plus three counts of providing alcohol to minors. The sex charges carry up to five years in prison if she’s convicted; each alcohol charge is punishable by six months in jail.

Authorities allege the incidents happened between August and December last year.

Schuler was released in February from the Warren County Jail on her promise to appear in court. Schuler’s location is being electronically monitored, officials said.

Posted in: Crime, News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: abuse, alcohol, boys, mason, mason high school, sex, sex case, stacy schuler, teens, warren county common pleas

A trial date has been set for a Mason woman charged with the attempted murder of her husband.

Scarlet Lewis, 52, is accused of attempted murder, felonious assault and domestic violence in connection with the Feb. 23 incident that occurred in the 800 block of Autumn Lane, Mason.

A three-day trial is set to begin Aug. 4.

Lewis is accused of using a small folding knife to slit her husband’s throat and stabbing him following a minor domestic dispute that occurred earlier in the evening with her husband.

Roger Gibson, 50, received 10 stitches in his neck and was treated for a puncture wound in his chest, prosecutors say.

Gibson has implored the court to show his wife of only a few months leniency.  He wrote a heartfelt letter last week imploring a Warren County judge to order probation and drug treatment instead of prison.

“NO PRISON,” Gibson scrawled in capital letters on the handwritten document filed last week in Common Pleas Court, adding, “I need my bunny back – my soul mate. She is worth the risk to me.”

Gibson says he thinks his wife’s drug-abuse problem caused her to become violent, and he forgives her for stabbing him in his sleep Feb. 23.

“I do realize that she has a lot of proving that she is truly in recovery from her addictions and it will be a long time of sobriety before I could ever be in her presence and it will be a long time of sobriety before I will live with her again,” he wrote. “When she was off all drugs for three years she was the best woman I have ever known.”

Gibson said he fears Lewis  would not survive prison because she has health problems. Further, he said his wife called him the day after the stabbing, “asked me how bad she hurt me, said she was sorry and told me she still loved me.”

When asked whether the letter would affect how authorities handle the case, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said: “We understand the victim’s position in this matter and appreciate his concern for his wife. However, given the serious nature of the allegations – the fact that she allegedly slit his throat while he was sleeping and stabbed him in the chest with a knife -we believe the attempted murder charge is appropriate.”

Posted in: Crime, News |

Tags: Tags: assault, attempted murder, autumn lane, crime, david fornshell, domestic violence, mason, roger gibson, scarlet lewis, throat, trial, warren county common pleas