Woman charged with stealing butterfly from exhibit

CINCINNATI (AP) — Police say a woman who stole a butterfly from an Ohio botanical garden exhibit has been arrested.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Springfield Township police on Friday arrested 36-year-old Jamie Revis, of Springfield Township. She’s charged with theft for stealing a blue morpho butterfly from Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati two weeks ago.

The theft was recorded by a surveillance camera, prompting police to seek the public’s help in finding the butterfly thief. Court documents say police used information from an Instagram account to arrest Revis.

Blue morpho butterflies are native to Central and South American rainforests and have life cycles lasting about 115 days.

It’s unclear whether the butterfly has been recovered.

Court records don’t indicate whether Revis has an attorney.

Officials refuse to light up courthouse for Gay Pride parade

NEWARK (AP) — Two Central Ohio city council members are at odds with county commissioners over their decision to not allow the county courthouse to be lit with rainbow colors during a gay pride festival.

The Columbus Dispatch reports Councilmen Jeremy Blake and Sean Fennell sought to have the Licking County Courthouse illuminated during the Newark’s inaugural pride event in June. Licking County commissioners rebuffed the request and said their policy is to allow special lighting only on designated days.

Blake called the decision “hurtful.” He and Fennell plan to pack an upcoming commissioners meeting.

The courthouse’s $40,000 controller system has been programmed for special lighting during holidays and occasions like Heart Awareness Week included on a list commissioners approved.

Commissioner Tim Bubb said no exception will be made for the pride festival.

About 1,800 Ohioans have DUI arrests reaching double digits

COLUMBUS (AP) — About 1,800 Ohio residents have been arrested 10 or more times driving under the influence, state arrest data show.

About two-thirds of Ohioans arrested for drunken driving are only charged once, according to an analysis by The Columbus Dispatch.

Columbus defense lawyer Benjamin Luftman said about 90 percent of his drunken-driving clients are first-time offenders.

“They thought they were OK to drive, and they made a mistake,” he said.

The remaining one-third has multiple arrests and some have multiple convictions for drunken driving. The Dispatch analysis found 11 people who have 17 arrests, five who have 18, five with 19 and two people with 20 arrests, according to Ohio Department of Public Safety data.

A first-time conviction for driving while impaired carries either a mandatory three-day jail sentence or three days in a driver intervention program, plus a six-month license suspension.

Judges can dole out lifetime license suspensions for repeat offenders. The Dispatch found in 2014 that such suspensions are rare.

Drunken drivers often avoid jail time for early offenses because judges reserve stiff punishments for violent offenders, Lancaster Assistant Law Director Stephanie Hall said.

A recent state law gives judges the right to require convicted drunken drivers to install a device in their car that measures their blood-alcohol level before they can drive.

Under Ohio law, a driver is considered impaired with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher.

The number of crashes involving drunken drivers has increased in Ohio in recent years, according to the State Highway Patrol. In 2013, 350 people were killed in crashes that resulted in an OVI charge, and 8,140 were injured. Those figures rose to 430 killed and 8,672 injured in 2016.

Four teens headed to school prom hurt in single-car crash

MASON (AP) — Authorities say four teens headed to a high school prom in Ohio have crashed their car and are hospitalized.

The Butler County Sheriff’s Office says the crash occurred around 6 p.m. Friday in Liberty Township. The teens are students at Monroe High School.

WLWT-TV reports sheriff’s deputies say the 2013 Tesla sedan was speeding when it crested a hill and crashed. Two of the teens were ejected from the car and one was trapped.

One of the teens was flown to a Cincinnati hospital while the other three were taken to a nearby hospital. Their conditions weren’t known Saturday.

The Sheriff’s Office says it’s continuing to investigate.

Liberty Township is roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Cincinnati.

Last Jeep Wrangler JK rolls off assembly line at Toledo plant

TOLEDO (AP) — An Ohio assembly plant has made its last Jeep Wrangler JK, bringing an end to its 12-year production run.

Fiat Chrysler’s plant in Toledo has built more than 2 million Jeep Wrangler JK vehicles since 2006. The last one rolled off the assembly line Friday.

The plant will begin preparing to make a new Jeep pickup truck in the first half of 2019.

The Toledo complex has been making the new version of the Wrangler since January.

Ending production of the old Wrangler will mean temporary layoffs for about 1,700 workers.

Sentencing changed for man accused of cyberstalking sheriff

COLUMBUS (AP) — A judge has changed what was meant to be a sentencing to a hearing on a man’s request to withdraw his guilty plea to a charge of harassing an Ohio sheriff for nearly 20 years via letters, emails and websites.

A criminal affidavit filed last year said the harassment began in 1999 when Columbus resident William Young was arrested by Russell Martin, who was a Delaware County deputy and is now the county sheriff.

Young pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this year to a charge of cyberstalking.

Young now wants a trial, saying he surprised to learn he was facing a maximum five years even after pleading guilty.

The government says Young waited too long to withdraw the plea.

U.S. District Judge Michael Watson will hold the hearing Tuesday.

Cleveland plans to erect street lamps equipped with cameras

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland plans to erect high-tech LED street lights throughout the city and add surveillance cameras in an effort to make neighborhoods safer.

Cleveland.com reports Mayor Frank Jackson says the multi-million dollar project will be financed from a bond sale.

The city wants to convert all of its 61,000 street lights with an LED lighting system that provides more illumination and can be monitored remotely. LED lights use less electricity and last far longer than conventional street lamps.

Jackson says some poles for the new street lights will be equipped with surveillance cameras. He says they will mostly be installed at intersections, allowing police and emergency personnel to remotely view traffic and activity along city streets.

The first new cameras will be installed near recreation centers.

Coast Guard ends search for boater who fell into bay

SANDUSKY (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard and other emergency responders have suspended their search for a boater who reportedly fell into the Sandusky Bay in northern Ohio.

Coast Guard officials in a statement Saturday said searches of the shoreline and a search by the Sandusky Fire Department dive team using sonar have failed to find the man reported missing around 7 p.m. Friday.

Witnesses told the Coast Guard they saw the man fall out of a 12-foot-long aluminum boat. They said he wasn’t wearing a lifejacket. The Coast Guard says air and water temperatures during the search Saturday hovered in the low 40s.

Jury awards millions to doctor in age bias lawsuit

CLEVELAND (AP) — A physician who sued the Cleveland Clinic Foundation claiming he’d been pressured to retire because of his age has won a multi-million dollar jury verdict in Cleveland.

Cleveland.com reports 77-year-old Robert Katz alleged he was pressured to retire in 2015 after nearly two decades with the hospital system. The lawsuit said Katz complained to hospital officials when his ear, nose and throat patients were assigned to younger physicians.

Jurors on Friday awarded Katz $1.95 million in compensatory damages, $325,000 in damages for emotional distress and $26.4 million in punitive damages. Cleveland.com reports a judge would have to reduce the punitive award because tort laws in Ohio limit those amounts to no more than twice the award for compensatory damages. Cleveland Clinic Foundation attorneys declined to comment after the verdict.

Paperwork on $3M loan raises questions for GOP’s Taylor

COLUMBUS (AP) — Documents indicate that Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor’s gubernatorial campaign repaid a $3 million loan it received from the candidate to someone else: her husband. A copy of the $3 million check from Taylor’s campaign to Donzell Taylor was part of her Thursday campaign finance report. The Associated Press obtained it on Friday through a public records request.

The name on the check raises questions for Taylor’s campaign, which cannot legally take loans from anyone other than the candidate — even a spouse.

Mary Taylor’s spokesman, Michael Duchesne, said he could not immediately address questions about the check late Friday.

Taylor previously reported loaning the campaign $3 million on Jan. 26 and repaying herself later that day. The move was probably aimed at boosting the apparent strength of Taylor’s campaign finances alongside rival Mike DeWine, the state attorney general. If Taylor’s husband, an Akron-area builder and developer, was the source of the loan, the money could be considered a campaign contribution. Ohio law caps individual contributions to a statewide candidate at $12,707 a year.

The copy of the check was the only documentation Mary Taylor submitted as proof of repayment of the $3 million loan, said Sam Rossi, a spokesman at the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.

If the loan turned out to be improper — either in the way it was given, repaid or reported — it was not immediately clear how it would affect the Taylor campaign’s ability to cover its $4.93 million in reported spending between Dec. 8 and April 18.

Taylor and DeWine are facing off on May 8 for the chance to succeed Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who’s term-limited. Democrats’ crowded primary for the seat includes Richard Cordray, the former federal consumer watchdog, and former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.