ELYRIA — The State Highway Patrol will conduct a drunken driving checkpoint in Elyria tonight.

The checkpoint, on state Route 57 near Bell Avenue, will be set up from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Federal money pays for the effort, which is planned to intercept and deter impaired drivers.

Their will also be additional patrols in areas nearby the checkpoint, according to the Highway Patrol.

“Based on provisional data, there were 364 OVI-related fatal crashes in which 397 people were killed last year in Ohio,” Lt. Travis Hughes, Elyria post commander, said in a news release. “State troopers make an average of 25,000 OVI arrests each year in an attempt to combat these dangerous drivers. OVI checkpoints are designed not to not only deter impaired driving but to proactively remove these dangerous drivers from our roadways.”

The Highway Patrol asks that anyone who plans to drink designate a driver or make other travel arrangements before they begin to drink.

ELYRIA — Three teenage girls were sent to the Detention Home last night after they attacked an Elyria woman.

The girls, ages 15, 16 and 17, are charged with aggravated menacing, assault and violating a protection order.

According to a police report, the girls showed up at the woman’s Parmely Avenue home about 9 p.m. with another girl, who the woman knew only by her first name, and five males.

The teenagers, who were carrying a baseball bat, picked up the 37-year-old woman’s address sign and slammed it into the back window of her van and threw a brick at her neighbor’s house, the report said. Neither window was broken.

According to the report, the girls were believed to be looking for someone inside the woman’s home.

When the woman wouldn’t let them in the home, one of the girls punched her in the face, and she threw a punch back to defend herself, the report said.

The girls then took turns swinging the bat at the woman, but none of them were able to hit her, according to the report. After that, they all jumped on her, and she was knocked to the ground, the report said.

The woman told police the teens were upset due to a court case involving her niece.

The woman’s sister said that at least three of the four girls had shown up at her house earlier in the evening.

About 6:20 p.m., they went to her home, in the 800 block of West Avenue, and kicked her fence and threw rocks at her home when she would not allow her daughter to go out and fight them, according to a separate police report.

LORAIN — A Lorain man who has been on the run from U.S. Marshals for a year was arrested this week in North Carolina.

Leiva

Luis Leiva, 49, was picked up Monday in Raleigh, N.C., using a fake identity, according to Marshals.

Leiva was wanted for charges of domestic violence, violating a protection order, burglary and assault stemming from an April 2009 incident and was added to the U.S. Marshals’ “Dangerous Dozen” most wanted list.

Deputy Tony Keffer, U.S. Marshals Service task force coordinator for Lorain County, said Leiva was taken into custody without incident by Marshals and Raleigh law enforcement. He was booked in the Wake County Jail.

When arrested, Leiva thought he was being arrested for an immigration violation Keffer said. Keffer didn’t have information on Leiva’s citizenship status but said Leiva was born in Peru. If convicted of a felony, it’s likely he could be deported, Keffer said.

Leiva’s year on the Dangerous Dozen list is long and is due to the fact that he left the area and changed his identity, Keffer said.

Keffer attributed his arrest to “a lot of investigating” and “good work by the Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S. Marshals.”

Following Leiva’s arrest, U.S. Marshals released their latest Dangerous Dozen list, which for the first time doesn’t contain any Lorain County criminals.

Keffer explained that while Marshals try to include wanted individuals from all areas the task force covers, there were more pressing needs elsewhere.

Four individuals are new to the list:

• Thomas Propst is a former corrections officer from Ashtabula County who is wanted for the murder of his wife.
• Derek Watson, from the Toledo area, is wanted for assault.
• Kennard Gay, from the Akron area, is wanted on two warrants for murder and attempted murder from two separate incidents that occurred over the last few months.
• Billy Farmer, from the Mansfield area, is wanted for sex offender registration violation.

View the entire Dangerous Dozen:

Download the list.

EATON TWP. — Multiple departments responded to a fire in Eaton Township overnight.

The fire, at 37795 West Capel Road, was reported at 4:48 a.m.

Eaton Township Fire Chief Jason Brooks said residents of the home called in the fire and were able to evacuate by the time the Fire Department arrived.

The fire, which is believed to have started in a utility room in the home’s basement, primarily damaged the home’s lower level but also caused smoke damage throughout the home, Brooks said.

The home’s five residents — the homeowner and her grandson, her grandson’s wife and two kids — won’t be able to stay in the home. Brooks said he was unsure where they planned to stay but said “all sorts of friends and family” were at the scene to help them out.

Brooks said the fire is believed to be accidental but remains under investigation. He didn’t have a damage estimate. Brooks said the fire was under control quickly but added that Eaton Township firefighters stayed on the scene for about five hours to make sure it was completely out and to assist the family and investigators.

Firefighters from the village of Grafton as well as Carlisle and Grafton townships were called in to assist Eaton Township.

Capel Road was completely blocked for about three hours. At 7:40 a.m., firefighters reported one lane had opened back up.