Local News
Car-buggy crash driver sentenced to prison
PERRY TOWNSHIP — A Geneva, Ohio, woman was sentenced Tuesday for driving drunk and hitting an Amish buggy, ejecting an Amish man and his four children, ages 1 through 6, sending them all to the hospital.
Jennifer Crenshaw, 38, said nothing at her hearing. She was visibly broken up, and sobbed at least once before Common Pleas Judge Thomas R. Dobson.
“Ms. Crenshaw, everyone knows you’re sorry, but it was horrific,” Dobson said.
Ms. Crenshaw struck a utility pole along state Route 358 in Perry Township with her car on May 10, 2008, shearing it off and rolling her vehicle. It struck the Amish buggy, ejecting the whole family. The horse had to be put down.
The Amishman, Benjamin Kempf, 29, of 299 Carey Road, Perry Township, lost sight in one eye, and Assistant District Attorney William J. Moder said it’s not known whether the lost vision was permanent. One of his girls had her arm and leg broken.
“Hopefully, the eye will heal back. Hopefully, the youngster won’t have permanent nightmares, but she probably will,” Dobson said.
Ms. Crenshaw’s drinking binge occured over a relationship, and Dobson said he sees it all the time: people use alcohol as an escape.
Dobson sentenced her to 4 months to 1è years in jail and gave her one day of credit for time served.
A friend and coworker of Ms. Crenshaw’s, Norman Lee Hamilton, Ashtabula, testified on her behalf. He said Ms. Crenshaw was a very intelligent, articulate woman who started out at the bottom of a packing company and rose to supervise about 40 employees. She has since lost that job because of the crash.
“I happened to see her the very first day, Monday, after the accident,” said Hamilton. He said she was bruised and battered, and also very emotional. He said she had wanted to plead guilty and kept tabs on the progress of the victims.
Ms. Crenshaw was first charged with drunken driving, aggravated assault by vehicle, accidents involving death or injury, drunken driving with the highest rate of blood-alcohol content, failure to stop and render aid, reckless driving, careless driving, speeding, disregarding traffic lanes and failing to keep right.
She pleaded guilty June 10 to drunken driving and accidents involving serious bodily injury, a felony.
Hamilton also said Ms. Crenshaw has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous, found another job, and that there was no evidence she drank since the crash.
None of the Kempf family attended the sentencing.
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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
State Superior Court has denied a local judge’s request to issue a precedential opinion in a rape case.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed had ruled that Chad S. Thompson, 24, formerly of Stoneboro, is a sexually violent predator, but Superior Court said in a 2-1 decision July 8 that an expert’s testimony was insufficient to back that declaration.
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Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
Raymond Stacey has requests pending in three courts as he presses his long-running attempt to prosecute the city of Hermitage and those he believes are responsible for illegally demolishing his parents’ house.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, on April 29 quashed an appeal because Stacey did not file his argument brief and appendix of supporting documents.
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Burglars strike while residents sleep
Several Shenango Valley residents’ homes were broken into overnight Tuesday and Wednesday while they slept.
Two burglaries in Sharon involved people entering open windows.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
