Stow Mayor Starts School Safety Task Force
Another area community is looking at school safety.
Stow mayor Sara Drew has appointed a task force made up of community, law enforcement and school leaders from Stow and Munroe Falls.
Drew say that the task force will look into a number of possible solutions to keep schools safe and prevent violence...
Solutions "up to and including putting more officers in schools, looking at different kinds of threat assessment and preventative measures," Drew tells AkronNewsNow.com, posing possible task force discussion questions, "do we want to look at security in other public institutions like the library and other city buildings?"
The task force will hold meetings open to the public, starting next Thursday at 5 PM in the Mayor's Conference Room.
Drew says she hopes the task force will report back to Stow City Council by the end of March.
Man Arrested For Operating 'Home Repair Scam'
A Cuyahoga Falls man has been arrested for allegedly running a home repair scheme, targeting a 75-year-old elderly resident in Stow.
Police said Kenneth Uthe operated the scams under company name, WeatherCo Home Services Inc.
He is accused of approaching elderly and disabled residents at their home and claim to have found problems with their roof.
Uthe was arrested on June 23 and charged with attempted theft.
Residents who have been contacted by Kenneth Uthe about roofing or home repairs is asked to contact the City of Stow Police Department at 330-689-5795.
Funeral Service, Procession Set For Fallen Stow Soldier
Funeral arrangements have been scheduled for a Stow soldier killed in Afghanistan on May 2.
The funeral service for Lt. David Rylander, 23, will be held at 11 a.m. at The Chapel in Akron.
After the service, the funeral procession will leave The Chapel to West Market Street and then head west to Rand Avenue. The procession will continue onto the Akron Innerbelt to I-76 west to Route 57 and proceed to Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.
Rylander, a 2011 graduate from West Point, was killed while fighting in Logar Province.
Previous Coverage:
Stow Closes Building To Save Money
The City of Stow will close one of its buildings to save $50,000.
The Parks and Recreation building across the street from Silver Springs Park off of Stow Road will close. Stow Mayor Sara Drew told the Beacon Journal that they're considering leasing it out to a bring in some money.
The 14 employees that work in the building will move to the Stow city campus by the end of the summer.
Several departments will also shuffle around as Drew moves forward to ensure efficient operations moving forward.
On the web: Ohio.com
Teen Craigslist Suspect To Be Tried As An Adult
The 17-year-old Stow teen charged in the deadly Craigslist robbery scheme will now be tried as an adult after he waived a hearing in juvenile court.
Brogan Rafferty appeared in Summit County juvenile court Wednesday morning.
The move will clear the way for juvenile court charges in the deaths of two men to be merged with adult charges originally from Noble County in the death of a third man and an attack on a fourth victim.
Rafferty has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
He is suspected of helping Richard Beasley, 52, of Akron, lure victims with bogus Craigslist job offers. Beasley has pleaded not guilty.
Previous Coverage:
Stow Robbery Suspect - May Not Be His First Time
Stow police picked up a robbery suspect early Saturday morning who could be linked to a number of earlier robberies in the area.
Police responded at about 1:30 Saturday morning to a report of a robbery at the CVS on Kent Road in Stow.
A witness says the man came to the register with an item to purchase, then announced "This is a robbery!".
The would-be thief wasn't able to prevent the store's clerk from shutting the register door. Police say the man didn't have a weapon, and floored it to get out of the store's parking lot.
But police went to the Englewood Drive home of 39 year-old Joseph Richard Schratz IV for one reason - the suspect description matched him to robberies in Stow and Cuyahoga Falls in September. He'd been arrested for those crimes.
Police say his description also matched that of a man suspected in a nearby robbery on Friday.
Officers say they found a vehicle at his home matching the description of the car used in Saturday morning's CVS robbery.
The Chapel: Craigslist Suspect Had No Official Role In Church
One of the suspects in the Craigslist killings case calls himself a chaplain who was rumored to be a member at The Chapel, where he met a 16-year old.
A senior associate pastor at the church says 52-year old Richard Beasley had no official role with the church either paid, or volunteer.
Senior Associate Pastor Jon Platek tells AkronNewsNews.com "No, Mr. Beasley was not involved in any of those processes, because he was a sporadic attendee of the Chapel, and so he was not formally sanctioned in any way in a paid capacity or a volunteer capacity with the church."
Platek says the church is very thorough in evaluating and checking on anyone who works with young people.
"Anyone who volunteers in our ministry with minors has to go through a background check, and so we make sure that's taken care of," he said. "We pay for that, because we believe it to be very significant . Then its run by all our pastoral staff, and a number of others."
Platek says there are also security measures in place when children attend any function on The Chapel campus.
"We have an electronic check-in system that makes sure that all of our children and all of our youth are connected to an adult and their parents," Platek said.
"There's a secure system in pace. We wanted to insure that our parents are able to think about other things without having to be concerned about the safety of their children when they come to worship and think about spiritual things and to engage God. That's a responsibility we take very seriously, and I believe we have good processes in place to make sure that those that are entrusted to our care, even for just an hour, are cared for well."
He says Beasley's mother has been a long-time church member.
Craigslist Teen Suspect Says Sorry To Father
The 16-year-old Stow teen charged with murder in connection with the so-called Craigslist killings says he's sorry in a letter written to his father.
Brogan Rafferty's father, Michael Rafferty, shared a letter with News Channel 5 his son sent him dated November 19th.
In the hand written letter, Brogan Rafferty tells his dad that he's sorry he put his dad in the situation and hopes his father can forgive him.
He also says that others are more concerned with 'hanging' him rather than helping him.
The Beacon Journal reports Brogran Rafferty was officially charged with aggravated murder and complicity to aggravated murder in juvenile court in Noble County.
On the Web: www.ohio.com and www.newsnet5.com
Previous Coverage:
- Rafferty Appears In Noble County Court
- Older Craigslist Killings Suspect Was A 'Mentor' to Arrested Teen
- 2nd Body Identified In Ohio Craigslist Ad Scheme
Complex Picture Emerging In Craigslist Killing Case
Identity theft may be the motivation behind a murder plot that used Craigslist to lure two men to Southeast Ohio, one of those two men to his death.
WKYC Channel 3's Eric Mansfield reports that 52 year old Richard Beasley was a career criminal desperate to stay out of prison, facing new charges including drug trafficking and promoting prostitution.
Mansfield cites sources that tell him that desire led Beasley to an alleged deadly scheme to kill people, and assume their identities.
Beasley was arrested on Johnston Street in Akron after a computer IP address on the Craigslist ad led police to his cell phone.
Beasley is still being held in jail in Akron. The second suspect, 16 year-old Brogan Rafferty, of Stow, is jailed in the Summit County Juvenile Courthouse, facing juvenile charges of attempted murder in Noble County.
Rafferty's parents tell the Beacon Journal's Phil Trexler that they blame Beasley, described as a religious mentor of the teen, for getting Rafferty involved in his crimes.
A Noble County judge issued a gag order in the case this week.
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On the Web: WKYC Channel 3, www.wkyc.com
Akron Beacon Journal, www.ohio.com
Twitter Trend: #rapeStow Going Too Far?
Talk about going over the top when it comes to a local school rivalry.
The social media site Twitter is using a rather inappropriate "hashtag" used to single out a particular topic, in this case the upcoming Cuyahoga Falls-Stow football game on Friday night.
At least, one can easily imagine #rapestow as being rather inappropriate.
As of 4:00 this afternoon, the tag had dozens of comments posted to the popular site as a trending topic, with comments ranging from "do NOT rape Stow" to "#getouttahere with that #rapestow stuff -- do you know how bad that sounds?"
Some of those posting with the hashtag even went so far as to use it repeatedly in their tweets -- short-form Internet posts of no more than 140 characters or letters.
Results for #rapestow
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