CLEVELAND — Grady Sizemore isn’t going anywhere — except back to center field for the Cleveland Indians as soon as he is fully recovered from knee surgery.

Sizemore

New general manager Chris Antonetti refuted trade rumors involving Sizemore, a three-time All-Star, during a meeting with fans Thursday night in a town hall setting in downtown Cleveland.

“I don’t comment on individual players, but in this instance I will say we have had absolutely no discussions with any team regarding Grady,” Antonetti said. “His rehab has gone as well as can be expected. He’s already in our training camp in Goodyear, (Ariz.), doing baseball-related activities. It is hopeful he will be in spring training games by mid-March.”

Antonetti said a healthy Sizemore and Carlos Santana, a switch-hitting catcher who was in the midst of a strong rookie season before getting hurt, can help boost the Indians into AL Central contention this year. Both players had their 2010 seasons cut short by knee surgery as Cleveland finished fourth with a 69-93 record.

“Certainly a lot of things must go right, but I don’t think there should be a limit on our expectations,” Antonetti said. “We were disappointed last year and will be disappointed this year if we’re not in the playoffs.”

Cleveland manager Manny Acta said he’s eager to show that the Indians can contend. He pointed to a young pitching staff that had the fourth-lowest ERA in the AL in the second half of 2010 as being a good starting point, but acknowledged he’ll be trying to find both a starting third baseman and second baseman during camp.

“The competition at third is up for grabs,” Acta said. “I like competition.”

Entering his second year in Cleveland, Acta will be looking at several rookies at both open infield spots, including Lonnie Chisenhall, Jared Goedert, Jason Kipnis and Cord Phelps. Veterans Jayson Nix, Jason Donald, Luis Valbuena and Adam Everett are among others in the mix.

Antonetti’s only major signing since replacing Mark Shapiro as GM in October was free-agent outfielder Austin Kearns, who started the 2010 season with Cleveland and was dealt to the New York Yankees in June.

“We don’t want to bring in a guy just to say we can,” Antonetti said. “We had the youngest team in the league last year and believe the nucleus is in place. We’ll start with the guys we have internally. We hope some of them (rookies) can force our hand and earn playing time this year.”

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.

FAIRPORT HARBOR, Ohio— Built-up pressure in natural gas lines led to a house explosion in an Ohio town this morning, caused a series of fires and prompted a brief evacuation order for the village of about 3,000 people.

A dozen or more fires were reported in Fairport Harbor, northeast of Cleveland along Lake Erie, but only two were still burning by late morning and were under control, said Tom Talcott, deputy chief of the fire department in nearby Mentor.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, Mayor Frank Sarosy said.

The fires affected homes, apartments and other buildings and severely damaged at least two, Talcott said. Authorities received more than two dozen calls from people reporting gas odors.

An evacuation had been ordered, but residents instead were soon directed to instead turn off gas lines and stay inside when the situation stabilized. Nearly the whole village was affected, Talcott said, but he didn’t have an estimate of how many residents had evacuated.

Residents who had gathered at a community center began returning home, and some were told gas company representatives would check each home and repair any damage.

The Dominion East Ohio gas company sent out crews. Spokesman Neil Durbin said he had no immediate details.

Sarosy told WJW-TV that a main gas line that had sent gas back into some homes has been shut off. All schools in the village closed, and Sarosy was urging businesses to close, too.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a $625,000 judgment against Ohio prison officials who did nothing to prevent a guard’s sexual assault of an inmate and then punished the victim.

The justices unanimously agreed that a federal appeals court was wrong to throw out the award to Michelle Ortiz of Elyria. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati had “no warrant” to override the jury’s verdict.

Ortiz was serving 12 months at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in November 2002 when she reported that a male guard fondled her breasts and warned, “I’ll get you tomorrow, watch.” He did, returning when Ortiz was asleep to molest her again.

When Ortiz discussed the attacks with other inmates, she was shackled and sent to solitary confinement.

But the appeals court found by a 2-1 vote that one official, Paula Jordan, could not be held liable even though she did not take immediate action when Ortiz reported the first incident. The court said the other official, Rebecca Bright, did not violate Ortiz’s rights by sending her to solitary confinement. A dissenting judge called the outcome “a legal travesty.”

Bright and Jordan tried to get the case against them dismissed before the trial. A judge refused to do so and they did not appeal then. The legal issue in the case is whether they could wait until after the trial to appeal the judge’s ruling.
The Supreme Court said they could not.

Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed that the appeals court made a mistake, but they would have sent the case back to that court to consider other issues.

The Associated Press normally does not name victims of alleged sexual abuse. In this case, her attorney, David E. Mills of Cleveland, said she could be identified publicly.

Read our previous story.