A North Ridgeville Water Department employee accused of stealing more than $9,000 from the city has been charged in connection with the crime.

Jenny Ocasio, 39, was charged Friday with theft in office, a third-degree felony that carries with it up to five years in prison and a maximum $10,000 fine.

Ocasio had been investigated by North Ridgeville city officials after they noticed inconsistencies in the financial records of the Municipal Utilities Department. An internal investigation revealed that Ocasio had been stealing customer deposits made to the Water Department where she had worked for the last 10 years.

North Ridgeville Mayor David Gillock said Friday that it’s believed Ocasio had been stealing the money over at least the last three years. Gillock said he knew Ocasio well because she had worked at City Hall since before Gillock first was elected mayor in 2003, but he declined to discuss any of his personal feelings toward her.

“I’m not going to get into a lot of that. She’s a nice person,” he said.

Ocasio submitted her resignation letter last week after being informed she was going to be fired following the city’s investigation. Her union’s collective bargaining agreement allows employees to resign prior to being terminated.

Ocasio, a North Ridgeville resident, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Contact Adam Wright at 329-7155 or awright@chroniclet.com.

OBERLIN – An assistant professor of chemistry at Oberlin College has received a $345,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute to assist her and her team in searching for clues to detect deadly ovarian cancer.

The grant to Dr. Rebecca Jean Whelan and her team was announced by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo.

“We’re all rooting for Dr. Whelan and her team at Oberlin,” Kaptur said. “Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women in the United States and claims approximately 15,000 lives each year.”

Whelan will oversee a three-year research project titled “Development of Aptamer-Based Detection and Therapy Strategies for Ovarian Cancer.”

Aptamers are molecules that bind to a specific target molecule and help facilitate research.

“The research that I’m engaged in now is invested in finding new ways of detecting ovarian cancer by looking at blood samples and searching within those blood samples for telltale indicators that the disease is present, even if it’s at a very early stage,” she said in a video posted on the Oberlin College website.

In an email Friday, Whelan said the research project is motivated by the need to develop reliable noninvasive tests for early stage ovarian cancer, since treatment is most effective when the disease is diagnosed early. Tests for biomarkers found in the blood of women with ovarian cancer are widely used by physicians, according to Whelan.

“Our goal is to develop new ways of measuring the amounts of three important cancer biomarkers,” Whelan wrote. “We also seek to develop new methods for looking at the surfaces of tumors and selectively killing cancer cells.”

Whelan’s funding comes from the Academic Research Enhancement Awards program that is administered by the NCI.

The NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health, which is one of 11 agencies that compose the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The NCI was established under the National Cancer Institute Act of 1937 and is the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research and training.

Winds of up to 75 miles per hour whipped through Lorain County on Wednesday night, toppling trees and power lines ahead of a severe thunderstorm. The winds even tipped over a plane at the Lorain County Regional Airport.

This home on state Route 83 took a big hit from the wind that came through Wednesday.

Kristen Schuler, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said the thunderstorm hit Lorain County shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday.

The weather service issued a tornado watch until 5 a.m. but canceled it about 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

Tom Kelley, Lorain County emergency management director, said the worst of the storm’s damage occurred in Eaton and Carlisle townships. Kelley said he did not hear any reports of anyone injured during the storm.

Marlene Oliver, who lives at the corner of Chestnut Ridge and Bender roads in Eaton Township, said she thought a tornado might have touched down, because damage to her house and yard appeared to be in a straight line.

She described what sounded like “a big motor on the ground, and it caused the ground to tremble.”

“I thought the windows in my bedroom were going to implode,” Oliver said.

She said the storm damaged the fence around her pool and ripped shingles off her roof. Also, a tree in her front yard had been completely uprooted.

“I have a crater in my front yard now,” Oliver said.

Kelley said the National Weather Service would be surveying the damage Monday morning to determine whether a tornado had in fact touched down, but from looking at it himself, he said he didn’t think it was a tornado.

Gary Mortus, area manager for Ohio Edison, said 1,100 customers in Lorain County remained without power early Thursday evening, including 675 in Elyria. He estimated that about 3,000 customers in the county had lost power because of the storm. Mortus said all Lorain County customers should have electricity by about 11 a.m. today.

Spokesman Mark Durbin said Ohio Edison crews were working as quickly as possible to restore power to everyone.

“It might end up being well into tomorrow before everyone’s back on,” Durbin said Thursday.

A helicopter crew from Haverfield Aviation Inc. of Gettysburg, Pa., was contracted to survey damage to FirstEnergy power lines, according to employee Jeff Fluharty.

Fluharty, who landed late Thursday afternoon, said there was not widespread damage because of the storm.

Lorain County sheriff’s Capt. Jim Drozdowski said the Sheriff’s Office helped out with several road closures. Also, he said some tents blew over at the Lorain County Fair and the wind knocked over one vendor’s stand, breaking some glass shelves.

Elyria police Sgt. Lee Frank said the department responded to 18 calls for service related to the storm, including seven reports of downed power lines and two unconfirmed reports of blown transformers. Other calls included downed trees and material in the road.

The strong winds even overturned a Piper Cherokee single-engine plane at the county airport.

“There was severe damage,” said George Fuge, manager of the fixed-base operation at the airport.

He said the plane, which was tethered, is owned by Paul Armbruster, who could not be reached for comment.

The plane was removed by a wrecker from Dunlap’s Garage while crews from the Oberlin Fire Department stood by in the event of a fuel spill.

Contact Kiera Manion-Fischer at 329-7123 or kfischer@chroniclet.com.

Staff writer Cindy Leise also contributed to this story.

An Avon Lake man was formally charged Thursday for allegedly spying on his fellow employees using a pen camera placed in the women’s restroom.

Mucha

James Mucha, 43, an employee of Catania Medallic, a supplier of metal awards and pins, was arraigned Thursday morning in Avon Lake Municipal Court on three counts of voyeurism, a third-degree misdemeanor, for allegedly putting a pen camera in a restroom at the company.

Mucha was also charged with possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony, that was found during a search of his home.

Avon Lake police began the investigation March 25, after someone from the business, located at 668 Moore Road in Avon Lake, reported finding the camera.

Police Lt. Duane Streator said Mucha could be seen in video from the camera.

“He was observed in the camera repositioning it,” Streator said.

Analysis of video from the camera revealed three female employees using the restroom.

Contact Kiera Manion-Fischer at 329-7123 or kfischer@chroniclet.com.