ELYRIA — Elyria police Officer Jay Loesch pleaded not guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor assault charge that stems from an allegation he punched a suspect who was handcuffed to a hospital bed in January.

Loesch

Loesch wasn’t in court to deny the charge. Instead, his attorney, Bob Phillips, filed the not-guilty plea.

Loesch, who remains on the job working in the Police Department’s Detective Bureau, is accused of punching Johnny Smith Jr. on Jan. 27 at EMH Medical Center in Elyria.

Smith, 43, was injured when police had to forcibly remove him from the cab of a tractor-trailer. Smith nearly struck an officer who was trying to stop the truck because the passenger had stolen beer and steaks from the Apples grocery store on Cleveland Street.

Smith has said he didn’t struggle and has accused Elyria police officers of beating him, an allegation that police and a special prosecutor have rejected.

Smith, who had a blood-alcohol level of 0.355 percent, was handcuffed to a bed in a secure room when he arrived at the hospital after the incident and medical personnel have reported that he and police were hostile to each other.

According to witnesses, and Smith himself, Smith made a comment about how he wished that other officers, including Loesch, had died when Ronald Palmer gunned down Elyria police Officer James Kerstetter on March 15, 2010.

Loesch and Officer Donald Moss shot and killed Palmer after he refused to obey orders to surrender. A county grand jury later ruled the shooting was justified.

A nurse at the hospital told police that after Smith made the comment about Kerstetter, Loesch and Officer Richard Walker Jr. went into Smith’s room and shut the door. The nurse reported that Loesch then struck Smith once on the left side of the face.

Walker said the blow wasn’t that hard, while Smith has said he nearly blacked out from the hit. Special Prosecutor John Reulbach Jr. concluded that Smith wasn’t severely injured by Loesch’s punch.

Phillips said he is still reviewing what happened at EMH, but he added that Loesch’s side of the story hasn’t been told because police statements from officers facing internal discipline can’t be used against the officer if criminal charges are filed.

“There’s a little bit of difference of what the facts are,” Phillips said, although he declined to elaborate.

An internal police investigation led to Loesch being suspended for five days earlier this year for the events at EMH. Loesch, who didn’t appeal his punishment, will avoid being suspended for an additional five days as long as he gets in no further trouble for a year.

City officials, including Police Chief Duane Whitely, have largely declined to comment on the Loesch case because Smith has said he plans to sue the city.

Phillips said he believes that the criminal case can be resolved favorably for Loesch, who, even if convicted of the assault charge, won’t be in jeopardy of losing his job. He could get up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.

Smith has already pleaded guilty to failure to comply, obstructing official business and DUI charges in April in relation to the tractor-trailer incident and is awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors have said they won’t oppose a six-month sentence.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — Her nickname was “Tam Tom,” and she was the go-to person whenever a youth at Chestnut Ridge Baptist Church needed help.

Danielle Tomasheski and her father, Thomas Tomasheski.

In fact, volunteer youth leader Tammy Tomasheski was so trusted that she was the only adult welcomed into a clique of teenage boys who met to talk about their problems.

“It was man talk plus Tammy — the guys in our youth group are crazy and we needed somebody to talk to and it was always Tammy,” said J.D. Myers, 17. “She was the sweetest person.”

J.D. and his parents, the Rev. J. Darrell Myers and his wife, Laura, on Monday remembered 36-year-old Tammy Tomasheski and her 11-year-old son Tom Tomasheski III, who were killed in a crash Saturday that also severely injured her husband, 38-year-old Lorain County sheriff’s Cpl. Thomas Brian Tomasheski and their 13-year-old daughter Danielle Tomasheski.

Thomas Tomasheski and the driver of the other car, Gerald Wetherbee, 35, of Oberlin, were in critical condition Monday night at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, while Danielle Tomasheski was in critical condition at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

Tammy Tomasheski and her son, Tom Tomasheski III, in a family photo.

The church community is following the progress of medical treatment for Tom and Danielle, who have multiple internal injuries, while struggling to understand what happened, Darrell Myers said.

They also are praying for Wetherbee, although J.D. said he is struggling with it because Wetherbee is suspected of drunken driving in the crash.

“He’s taken something very precious from us,” J.D. said.

Danielle is a softball player and will be an eighth-grader in the Midview Schools. Tommy, who would have been a sixth-grader at Midview East Elementary School, was athletic — just like his dad and sister — and was remembered for his laugh and shock of bushy hair. He played baseball, football and basketball.

Both adults and Danielle sustained fractured pelvises and Thomas Tomasheski sustained broken legs and a shattered ankle, Myers said.

“There was some talk early on of having a leg amputated, but they have pinned his leg back together and got a pulse back in his foot so that’s good news,” he said.

Myers said Danielle suffered a fractured vertebra and other internal injuries.

“They woke her up enough to see she had movement,” Myers said. “She’s moving the right side, but not the left — it might have something to do with swelling on her brain.”

Funeral arrangements are incomplete for the Valley City family but will be handled by Bauer Laubenthal Funeral Home, Myers said.

He said he is struggling to find the words to comfort his flock and the community mourning the loss of Tammy and Tommy Tomasheski, even though it is hard to see anything but “the darkness of this moment.”

“Scripture tells us that God can work all things for good,” Myers said.

“They weren’t just good church folks, they were fantastic community folks,” Myers said. “Tom coached softball, baseball and football, and Tammy was involved in Midview North (school activities) and Midview softball and baseball and was the treasurer of Midview Youth Football League.”

Whenever any of the youth at the church were involved in any activities, whether it be school plays or sports, Tom Tomasheski was there with his camera and would give that teen a disc full of photos.

The Myers family learned of the crash while they were at a wedding in North Carolina that the Tomasheskis had also been planning to attend.

Before Laura Myers left, she asked Tammy to ride along in their van, but Tammy stood firm.

“They absolutely adored each other and I couldn’t get her to go without him,” Laura Myers said.

The couple met while attending Midview High — Tom graduating in 1991 and Tammy in 1993 — and married in 1995.

Tammy worked at a doctor’s office in Sheffield and as an office manager for a trucking company, according to family members.

She is survived by her parents, Vicky and Richard Roche, a brother, Daniel, and a large extended family.

While the Myers family was out of town, other church members rushed to hospitals after the crash including Keystone High graduate Calab Wagner.

Wagner, 18, said the Tomasheskis helped him get his life back on track when his grades and behavior slipped and he was ineligible for football his junior year.

“Tom and Tammy were my rock,” Wagner said. “Every Friday night, Tom and I would pick a different game to go watch and I honestly don’t know where I would be without him.”

Now Wagner is going to Defiance College on a scholarship to play tight end for the football team and power forward for the basketball team.

In addition to their family and church family, members of the Sheriff’s Office family also are spending lots of time at the two hospitals doing what they can to provide solace to a grieving family.

Lt. Jack Hammond said he is very worried about his co-worker, whom he called “an emerging leader” in the Sheriff’s Office.

Cpl. Tomasheski’s father, also named Thomas Tomasheski, was a longtime sheriff’s deputy, retiring in 2001 with the rank of sergeant, and Hammond said father and son are very similar in appearance and dedication to the job.

The elder Tomasheski plans to speak publicly about what has happened in the coming days, Chief Deputy Dennis Cavanaugh said.

The Sheriff’s Office does not know if Cpl. Tomasheski and his daughter know what happened to their loved ones, Cavanaugh said.

“The family’s going to have to find its own way to let them know,” Cavanaugh said. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

In the meantime, Cavanaugh said the Sheriff’s Office will be there for Cpl. Tomasheski, who works as a supervisor at the Lorain County Jail.

“We hope for a speedy recovery for him and his daughter,” Cavanaugh said. “We’re one big family.”

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — Gerald Wetherbee shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of the Kia Optima that smashed into a Honda Civic on Saturday night, a crash that killed two people and critically injured Wetherbee and two others.

Wetherbee

Wetherbee’s driver’s license has been suspended since November because he hasn’t made court-ordered child support payments, according to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Wetherbee, 35, of Oberlin, was listed in serious condition Monday at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. The two other survivors of the accident on state Route 83 in Grafton, Tom Tomasheski, a 38-year-old corporal with the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, and his 13-year-old daughter Danielle Tomasheski, were listed as critical in Cleveland hospitals.

Killed in the crash were Tomasheski’s 36-year-old wife, Tammy Tomasheski, and his 11-year-old son Tom Tomasheski III.

Ohio Highway Patrol troopers have said that Wetherbee’s northbound car veered off the right side of the road before crossing the center line and hitting the southbound Honda. The crash remains under investigation.

Wetherbee, whom troopers suspect may have been drinking, hasn’t been charged in connection with Saturday’s fatal crash, but he isn’t a stranger to law enforcement.

Not only does Wetherbee have two prior DUI convictions — one in 1999 and another in 2000 — he also is a registered sex offender with a history of crimes of violence, drugs, theft and forgery.

Wetherbee has been on parole since he was released from prison last May after serving a five-year sentence on charges of gross sexual imposition and pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor.

In that case, Wetherbee was accused of sexually molesting an 8-year-old girl he knew with a candle he’d carved and sexual lubricant in 2005, according to court documents.

Wetherbee told Elyria police that he had given the girl the candle to use as a sexual aid but denied that he had used it to molest her, according to a summary of his interview with a detective in the case.

He also told the detective that he is routinely aroused during normal activity, including while “driving his car,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.

Wetherbee’s only conviction in the year he’s been on parole — according to court records in Lorain County — came in April in Oberlin Municipal Court, when he paid $150 in fines and costs for dumping trash in a state area.

Wetherbee has had prior stints in prison for a domestic violence conviction in 2002 — he violated the conditions of his parole and was later returned to prison to serve additional time in that case — and for criminal nonsupport in 2005, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records.

JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, said parole officers will likely wait to see what happens with the crash investigation before deciding whether Wetherbee violated his current parole status.

Failure to pay child support to his two children had landed Wetherbee in trouble with the court system again recently. During a May appearance in county Domestic Relations Court, he was ordered to begin paying some of the $6,987 in back child support he owed at the time or be held in contempt of court.

Tina Keith, Wetherbee’s ex-wife — who was listed as the victim in domestic violence cases in the court records — had sought and received a divorce while he was serving time in the sex case.

In one of those cases, Wetherbee’s mother, Christine Wetherbee, noted in a witness statement that her son and his friend got drunk and wouldn’t let Keith and her children leave.

“My son has a problem,” she wrote. “He really needs (professional) help.”

In another case, Wetherbee was accused of choking Keith when she refused to drive him from Lorain to Oberlin.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

GRAFTON — A mother and her 11-year-old son were killed and her husband and daughter severely injured after a head-on car crash about 10:30 p.m. Saturday on state Route 83 in front of the Grafton Correctional Institution.

Wetherbee

Tammy Tomasheski, 36, and 11-year-old Tom Tomasheski III, of Valley City, were killed in the crash. Lorain County sheriff’s Cpl. Tom Tomasheski Jr., 38, and his daughter, Danielle, 13, were critically injured in the accident, according to Sgt. Paul March of the Elyria post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

Tom Tomasheski was driving southbound in a Honda Civic when he was struck by a northbound Kia driven by Gerald Wetherbee, 35, of Oberlin. March said Wetherbee veered to the right side of the road then left before striking the Honda. March, who wasn’t at the crash scene, said troopers suspect Wetherbee may have been drinking and that a blood test was taken from him after he was transported to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland where he was in critical condition Monday.

Wetherbee has an extensive criminal record, including two convictions for drunken driving. March said troopers on Monday will apply for a warrant to get a sample of Wetherbee’s blood to determine if he was driving drunk before the crash.

A decision on whether to charge Wetherbee won’t be made until the results of the blood test are completed in a few weeks.

“We’ll wait until the dust settles and make sure all our reports are completed and presented to the prosecutor’s office,” March said.

Tomasheski, who joined the sheriff’s office in 1997, was in critical condition at MetroHealth on Sunday night. Danielle was in critical condition at Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.

In a news release, Sheriff Phil Stammitti and Chief Deputy Cavanaugh said the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office staff is praying for Tomasheski and Danielle and grieving for Tammy Tomasheski and her son.

“We are all one large family,” Stammitti and Cavanaugh said. “Through our devoted and caring support we will get through this devastating event together.”

Contact Evan Goodenow at 329-7129 or egoodenow@chroniclet.com.