It was a tumultuous year in northwest Ohio.
Top leadership positions are poised to receive fresh blood after voters flocked to ballot boxes in November, while members of the old guard either lost elections or were cast aside amid controversy. Tragic crimes left communities reeling, but some victims saw their cases creep closer to justice, if not at least to a sense of closure. Public agencies continued to grapple with deeply entrenched issues like the public health hazard posed by lead paint, and homelessness among Toledo’s youth.
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The region even found itself embroiled in one of the nation’s most tragic stories: The death of a woman — and the wounding of many others — protesting against a white nationalist rally in Virginia.
Through it all those who live here pressed on, mourning the losses, confronting the difficult, and making due with the world around them. They also celebrated many bright spots offered by 2017, like miraculous births at the Toledo Zoo that helped bolster the populations of some of the world’s must vulnerable species.
A lot happened in 2017, and a lot more is sure to come with the new year.
Charlottesville
In a year punctuated by widespread political divisiveness, a man with ties to Toledo is charged with playing a key role in a tragedy that underscored America’s deepest divides.
James Fields, Jr., 20, is accused of smashing his car into a group of people protesting against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring dozens. Samantha Bloom, the man's mother, told The Blade that he had moved out of her home near Maumee “five or six months” before the Aug. 12 incident to his own apartment in Toledo.
Ms. Bloom said they had moved to northwest Ohio from Florence, Ky., about a year earlier for her job. A Blade investigation spanning from Virginia, to Kentucky, and back to northwest Ohio uncovered details of Mr. Fields’ past run-ins with the law. It also detailed reaction to the tragedy from those who know Mr. Fields, those affected in Charlottesville, and communities in the Toledo region that marched against hatred and bigotry in the wake of the Charlottesville attack.
Mr. Fields awaits trial on a charge of first-degree murder, among other offenses.
Toledo’s new mayor
Within Toledo city limits, the year’s news culminated in unendorsed Democrat Wade Kapszukiewicz, the 45-year-old Lucas County treasurer, claiming a decisive victory in the Toledo mayor’s race. He defeated the Democratic Party’s chosen candidate, incumbent Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson, in the November election.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz, 45, of Old Orchard, relentlessly accused the current administration of failing to move the city forward, even while Toledo’s private sector was busy adding downtown development and new manufacturing projects. Mayor Hicks-Hudson, 66, of the Old West End, the city’s first black female mayor, battled to claim credit for the uptick in economic vitality in the city.
Mayor Hicks-Hudson’s campaign was battered by questions about why more than $8 million sat idle in a fund for five years, when the Hicks-Hudson administration knew about that money, and if the cash was moved properly.
Toledo officials admitted in July that the $8.2 million was in fact not restricted tax-increment financing funds — reversing weeks of maintaining that assertion. The money was eventually shifted around with municipal accounting corrections that let the city use it. Toledo Finance Director George Sarantou resigned in August after his department made a number of flipflop statements on the money.
Progress on mitigating lead hazards remains slow
As officials from Toledo and around the state continue to grapple with the public health hazards caused by lead paint in homes and apartments, The Blade found progress toward better protecting Ohio families from the old paint’s negative effects often remains elusive.
A Blade investigation in May found more than half of the homes in Toledo ordered vacated because of lead hazards were occupied, many with children in them. Many residents said they were unaware of the vacate orders or lead issues entirely. Similarly, a subsequent Blade investigation of homes around Ohio’s largest metropolitan areas showed that about 30-50 percent of houses that should be vacant because of untreated lead hazards were occupied.
Since then, the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department has changed its procedures to better track properties and began pursuing criminal charges against non-compliant landlords.
The city's lead ordinance — which City Council approved in August, 2016 and requires certain rental properties and home day care centers to be certified “lead-safe” — was amended in April to stagger the deadlines after it became clear the thousands of affected properties would not be inspected in time. The law became the target of a legal challenge in November when a Toledo landlord and the Property Investor’s Network filed a lawsuit against City of Toledo and the health department board calling the lead-abatement ordinance unconstitutional.
State Sen. Cliff Hite resigns over ‘inappropriate behavior’
Women across the country this year spoke out against the sexual assault and harassment they suffered at the hands of men in positions of power. Amid this backdrop, one of northwest Ohio’s state senators resigned over concerns about his own behavior.
State Sen. Cliff Hite (R., Findlay) admitted to “inappropriate behavior” with a female state employee and accepted blame, but stressed there had been no “inappropriate physical contact.” The senator surprised many with his sudden resignation Oct. 16.
Sources identified the employee as being with the separate Legislative Service Commission, which helps lawmakers in both chambers draft proposed legislation.
Rep. Wes Goodman (R., Cardington), a married lawmaker, also resigned after being caught in inappropriate but consensual sexual behavior in his state office.
Three Toledo pastors, ex-Lucas County administrator charged in case of sex trafficking minors
An FBI investigation last spring led to the indictment of the Rev. Cordell Jenkins, 47, the Rev. Anthony Haynes, 38, and the Rev. Kenneth Butler, 37, for sex trafficking of children and production of child pornography. Federal prosecutors alleged the three men sexually assaulted a girl who was just 14 when the activity began in 2014. It is alleged that some of the crimes occurred at Mr. Jenkins' church, Abundant Life Ministries, and at Mr. Haynes' church, Greater Life Christian Center.
Two weeks after being fired by Lucas County commissioners, former county administrator Laura Lloyd-Jenkins was arrested on federal charges alleging she interfered in a child sex trafficking investigation involving her husband, Mr. Jenkins.
Ms. Lloyd-Jenkins, 43, of Toledo, who also formerly was a board member with the county’s Children Services Board, was indicted by a federal grand jury for obstructing a sex trafficking investigation and making a false statement. Ms. Lloyd-Jenkins obstructed by notifying a defendant — presumably her husband — of the investigation, according to the indictment. She is also accused of making false statements April 12 to law enforcement officers.
Ex-superintendent Patrick Hickey elected to Washington Local school board
Often when a prominent public official is pushed out during an internal investigation into misconduct, they either fight it in court or quietly recede into the background.
Patrick Hickey did neither. Instead he ran for— and won — a seat on the school board.
Mr. Hickey resigned as Washington Local's superintendent in December, 2015, shortly before the school board could consider a resolution to fire him because of 37 charges compiled by a board-hired law firm. Those charges included accusations of inappropriate relationships with staff, harassment of employees, and allegations he failed to inform the district that he left Addison Community Schools in Addison, Mich., in 1990 after accusations surfaced that he had inappropriate relationships with students.
A separation agreement limits his access to district property for events other than those related to his children, although the superintendent or board president can waive that restriction. The board then banned him from all district property after an altercation between Mr. Hickey and school officials at a basketball game.
But, Mr. Hickey ended up throwing himself back into the WLS ring in 2017, running for the Board of Education, arguing that if he won that the ban would be effectively lifted through the will of the people. He was elected, and so far, the ban is still in place. But a new board will be seated in January, meaning the drama will likely continue.
Tokes family seeks changes; Bruck family gets answers
Reagan Tokes, 21, a former Monclova Township woman attending Ohio State University, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in February. She was last seen leaving work in the Short North area of Columbus. Ms. Tokes was heavily involved in mission trips at Maumee United Methodist Church. She was a four-year varsity tennis player at Anthony Wayne high school, and also played on the varsity lacrosse team.
Brian Lee Golsby, a convicted sex offender, is facing the death penalty in the murder of the OSU senior. Among the evidence against Golsby, 29, police said they were able to retrace his steps using data from an ankle GPS monitoring device the registered sex offender had been wearing. He had recently been released from prison on an attempted rape conviction and was staying at a halfway house at the time of the murder.
House Bill 365 — a bill named for Ms. Tokes — would reinstate sentence ranges with minimums and maximums for specific violent crimes, using the threat of additional time to convince inmates to behave and improve themselves while behind bars. It would also require better supervision and mandate restrictions on those with GPS ankle bracelets. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio testified in November that there hasn’t been enough discussion on the potential costs of implementing sentencing and parole reforms under the bill.
In another case involving the death of a young woman, Daniel Clay was found guilty in May and sentenced in July to life in prison without parole for killing Chelsea Bruck, 22, of Maybee, Mich., in the early morning hours of Oct. 26, 2014.
He was convicted of first-degree felony murder when prosecutors successfully argued Miss Bruck died after Clay beat and raped her. Judge Daniel White of Monroe County Circuit Court said Clay callously discarded Miss Bruck’s body to conceal his crime and “sat on his hands” while the community desperately searched for her. He noted Clay’s story continued to change throughout the investigation.
Toledo Public Schools leads state in homeless students
The Toledo community this year learned its public school system reported more homeless students than any other district in the state, prompting forums and heightened community discussion.
Toledo Public Schools reported 2,690 homeless students during the 2015-2016 school year, more than the 2,607 in Columbus, 2,550 in Cincinnati, and 2,229 in Cleveland, state data show. Those students could be living in shelters, couch-surfing, or doubled up with other families.
This year, TPS received $400,000 in federal funding awarded by the Ohio Department of Education as part of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The one-year grant restored and more than doubled the $170,000 in homelessness aid the district previously received.
The money will allow the district to hire more staff and bring more programming into the schools. School officials say the next step is for key players in the region to come up with a plan to end homelessness.
Toledo records 39 homicides after I-75 motorist killed by falling sandbag
Toledo was relatively violent in 2017 compared to recent years, with 39 homicides recorded. That number is just one shy of the 40 homicides Toledo last recorded in 1994, when the city’s population was tens of thousands of residents larger than it is today.
The 39th slaying stemmed from a Dec. 19 incident, when a sandbag smashed through a car’s windshield on I-75. The sandbag struck passenger Marquise Byrd, 22, of Warren, Mich., who later died from his injuries.
Four teens — Pedro Salinas, 13; Sean Carter, 14; Demetrius Wimberly, 14, and William Parker, 15 — are accused of killing him by dropping the sandbag from the Indiana Avenue bridge over I-75. They face murder charges.
Toledo Zoo
The Toledo Zoo this year said goodbye to a few beloved animals but also welcomed the birth of others. Louie, a 14-year-old African elephant bull that was the first successful elephant birth in Toledo, was transferred in June to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha to participate in a conservation breeding program. The zoo bid farewells to J.J., a 45-year-old orangutan in August and Sam, a 44-year-old southern white rhino in October after they died from age-related maladies.
There were several significant births at the zoo in 2017. Female Masai giraffe calves Kipenzi and Binti were born in April and September, respectively. Dariga arrived in June and was the first snow leopard cub born in Toledo in 25 years.
Most recently, the first western lowland gorilla baby since 2003 was born overnight after Thanksgiving. He was named Mokonzi. The zoo in October took in three rescued cougar cubs named Ranier, Cascade, and Columbia that were orphaned in Washington state.
First Published December 29, 2017, 11:30 a.m.
