ELYRIA — A fight involving at least 15 inmates broke out Saturday night at the Lorain County Jail.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jack Hammond said in a news release that the incident, which took place in an area where high-risk inmates are held, appears to have been spurred by tension between inmates from Elyria, Lorain and Cleveland. Gang involvement is also being investigated, he said in the release.

Hammond said two corrections officers responded within seconds to the fights breaking out and nine other corrections following soon after that. The incident was under control within a few minutes of it beginning at 9:29 p.m., he said.

“The responding officers’ tactical approach was textbook which prevented the outburst from escalating to a full blown riot like event,” Hammond wrote.

He said only one inmate was injured in the melee and was treated at the jail by on-duty medical personnel at the jail.

Fifteen inmates have been placed into disciplinary lockdown while an investigation into the incident takes place.

Read Tuesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

ELYRIA — Holly Brinda, a lifelong resident of Elyria and Elyria Schools board member, formally announced her bid for mayor today.

Brinda

Brinda, 52, will seek the Democratic nomination and will face Mayor Bill Grace in the May primary.

“I made the decision to run for Mayor, because I cannot just sit back and watch what is happening in our community,” Brinda said. “Despite Elyria’s many strengths, our city is de-clining. Not because we don’t care, but because we don’t trust. We have experienced wasteful spending and the Grace administration’s misguided priorities, placing aesthetics over basic city services and business development.”

Brinda is kicking off her campaign with a plan for reform – The Putting Elyrians First: The Brinda Reform Plan to Make Elyria City Government Work.

Read Tuesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

Download the report.

McCloud

ELYRIA — Ronald McCloud Jr. has been sentenced to life without parole for the 2005 rape and murder of church worker Janet Barnard.

McCloud, 30, could have faced the death penalty.

Judge James Burge refused to order death. Judges Edward Zaleski and Raymond Ewers had wanted to impose the death penalty, but a unanimous decision was required for a death sentence.

McCloud made a rambling statement in which he blamed being “inflicted with the disease of being born to mentally torturous parents” for his actions. He said his subsequent lifestyle as a male escort put him in contact with “such wildity, many women over countless encounters, 300 to be exact.”

McCloud referred to “my father, Supreme Allah,” and said he wanted to “ask my father for forgiveness” for “the pain that I may have caused unknowing in the physical flesh.”

Barnard’s sister, Sharon Kaczmarczyk, told the court, “We accept your sentence of a more lenient sentence.”

Burge said his aunt had been raped and murdered in her home.

“Naturally, the family circled the wagons like Ms. Barnard’s did,” he said.

Prosecutors chose to seek life without parole for his aunt’s 19-year-old attacker, Burge said, and he asked Barnard’s family not to hate McCloud.

“When we hate, it’s like taking poison,” he said.

Kaczmarczyk said, “He needs to serve his punishment.”

Burge replied, “I agree, 100 percent.”

Read Wednesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

Elaine Georgas announces $5.6 million for mental health treatment in Lorain at a City Hall press conference today in Lorain. (CT photo by Bruce Bishop.)

LORAIN — Lorain is one of three communities across the nation chosen for a federal grant to promote mental health treatment for individuals and students, officials announced at a City Hall press conference this morning.

Lorain will receive $5.6 million — $1.4 million a year for each of the next four years — because the city was considered to be hit especially hard by the recession, according to Elaine Georgas, executive director of the alcohol and drugs addiction services board.

A recent study by the U.S. Census Bureau found that more than 25 percent of Lorain residents live below the federal poverty level.

Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko said Georgas approached him last fall, and the program looked like a perfect fit for the city.

One thousand people will be screened beginning Feb. 1 at a number of locations, and assistance will be provided by numerous agencies and health care facilities.

Read Friday’s Chronicle for more on this story.