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.

AVON — The Annual Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival kicks off today at Veterans Memorial Park on Detroit Road.

Heather Fox of ShurTech Brands in Avon loads Duck Brand duct tape Thursday in the sales tent for the Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival at Veterans Memorial Park. The festival opens at 4 p.m. today and continues through Sunday. (CT photo by Steve Manheim.)

Gates open at 4 p.m. Magician Bobby Maverick, Disney Radio and the Joy Unspeakable living statue will be featured. Cleveland’s Breakfast Club, a local rock band, will hit the main stage at 8 p.m.

The festival will be a weekend-long affair running 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Saturday will kick off with a parade from Avon High School to the festival grounds and will feature duct tape enthusiast and Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan on the main stage at 1:30 p.m.

Among traditional festival games, rides, food and live entertainment and other activities.

The festival, in its seventh year, celebrates “duct tape, its enthusiasts and its wacky and fun uses” as well as serves to honor the history and heritage of Avon, the home of Duck brand duct tape.

Admission is free, and the festival is handicapped accessible.

VERMILION — Even though he lives in boating-happy Vermilion, Jeremy Kennison has never had a boat of his own.

From left, Michelle Stringer, Stephanie Matus and Molly Chandler set up the Quaker Steak Crazy Craft with a Thanksgiving theme Thursday on the Vermilion River. (CT photo by Steve Manheim.)

But that isn’t stopping him and friends and co-workers at Quaker Steak & Lube from getting in this year’s Crazy Craft Regatta with a wacky watercraft.

“This is the first year we’re trying it,” Kennison, a manager at the Liberty Avenue restaurant, said. “We borrowed a boat from a marina that was used a couple years ago. We’re going to decorate it for this year’s Thanksgiving in June theme.”

The regatta, which is part parade, part race, is one of Saturday’s big draws at the town’s Festival of the Fish, which is celebrating its 45th year this weekend.

“We’ll have an Indian and a pilgrim having a pillow fight,” Kennison said.

Actually, the small boat, measuring 6 feet in length by about 4 feet wide, won’t accommodate the display, and the costumed Pilgrim and Indian will have to duke it out from two air mattresses being pulled behind the boat.

“We’ll have four guys on the boat paddling it, so there won’t be any room,” Kennison said.

No motors are allowed — all of the watercraft have to be propelled by manpower alone.

Last year’s regatta featured about 15 boats in the adult division and about as many in the children’s division, Kennison said. All vessels in the event leave from near the city’s public boat docks on West River Road at 1 p.m., make their way down the Vermilion River past Quaker Steak & Lube, and continue beneath the Liberty Avenue bridge to the finish line — a second bridge south of the first, which sports a set of railroad tracks.

The contest is mostly for bragging rights, but everyone usually has a good time, Kennison said.

Begun in 1966, the three-day fish festival is nowhere near as crazy or crowded as the town’s more famous Woollybear Festival, which packs the streets in and near the city center with a crowd that typically exceeds 100,000, according to Sandy Grisel, administrative assistant for the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce.

But it does draw good crowds to enjoy all kinds of festival food, a pet parade hosted by veteran Cleveland weatherman Dick Goddard and a Queens Pageant that attracts about 20 queens of other Ohio festivals for the fish festival’s own judging at 6:30 p.m. tonight.

“They come from all over the state,” Grisel said. “This festival is really known for that.”

Other annual highlights include a water fight pitting members of the Vermilion Fire Department against counterparts from Wakeman, Florence Township and other area communities.

The pet parade is another favorite, according to Grisel. “We had over 60 entries last year, including snakes, chickens, goats, miniature horses” and, of course, dogs.

Nighttime activities include the Lighted Boat Parade along the river, which gets under way at dusk Saturday.
The annual Father’s Day parade at 12:30 p.m. Sunday is another fixture. Mayor Eileen Bulan and Police Chief Chris Hartung will serve as grand marshals.

The festival’s food vendors, entertainment and other activities begin at noon in Victory Park, and along a portion of state Route 60 (Main Street) between U.S. Route 6 (Liberty Avenue) and Ohio Street.

For more information, visit www.VermilionOhioNews.com or call the Vermilion Chamber of Commerce at (440) 967-4477.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

WARREN, Ohio — Fire swept through a family’s home that appeared to have no working smoke detectors early today, killing a couple, their two children and two other children who were sleeping over after a cookout, officials and a neighbor said.

Firefighters arrived to flames that were shooting up to 25 feet into the air and later searched the home to find the bodies of the two adults on the first floor and all of the children dead upstairs, Mayor Michael J. O’Brien said. He called the fire the worst in the history of this city, about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland.

The family had a backyard cookout Wednesday night with about eight to 10 people, said Deborah Ballard, who lives next door. The mayor described the father as self-employed and the mother as a homemaker, and he said the other two children were relatives enjoying a summer sleepover. The names and ages of the victims were not immediately available.

Firefighters found inoperable smoke alarms in the home, he said.

The family had lived in their neat gray home with white shutters for about six years, Ballard said.

“They were the sweetest neighbors you’d ever want,” Ballard said. “There was never any problems with them.”

The smell of smoke woke her up and she saw flames “jumping off the roof.”

Firefighters brought two bodies out first.

“I watched them all come out,” Ballard said. “I’ve been crying ever since.”

Erica Putro, 36, who lives across the street, said she ran outside looking for the family, hoping she could give them a place to stay.

By that time it was too late. Rescuers already had brought out some of the victims.

Most of the damage was toward the back of the Cape Cod-style house. “The back of the roof is gone and the siding is melted and falling down to the driveway,” Putro said.

Neighbors said the family included a boy and a girl who were in elementary school. “They were always outside playing. It’s going to be hard not to see them out there,” Putro said.

The death toll could have been worse if a young neighbor hadn’t changed plans to attend the sleepover, the mayor said.

Deandre Smith, 9, instead stayed elsewhere with the uncle of the two children who lived at the house, according to his mother, Lakresha Smith, who lives two doors from the burned home.

“It’s horrible because it’s so close to here and then knowing that your kid could have been over there,” said Lakresha Smith.

The investigation into the fire’s cause and origin was likely to take most of the day Thursday, said Shane Cartmill, a spokesman for the state fire marshal’s office.