2008 in review

LIMA - It's been a difficult year.

A Lima police officer shot and killed a woman during a drug raid, resulting in protest marches, a SWAT team veteran found not guilty and a massive community discussion about race relations and the justice system.

Another woman was killed in a drive-by shooting connected to the robbery of drugs. Two toddlers died from abuse injuries. Even the good news story of the year came with a grim message, Drugs Bring Death.

The biggest local stories of 2008 were really one story that caused great grief and anger and challenged a community.

Sgt. Joe Chavalia, a 31-year veteran of the Lima Police Department, was among those clearing a Third Street house during a drug raid Jan. 4. He shot and killed Tarika Wilson, 26, and also shot and injured one of Wilson's six children, Sincere Wilson, at the time a year old.

Race was immediately injected into the situation, with a white officer shooting the biracial girlfriend of a suspected drug dealer. Community anger boiled at meetings with City Council, the Lima chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and then-Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and Saturday night protest marches in bitter cold, but it did not boil over into violence as many feared it would.

The shooting polarized, with some rallying around Chavalia and others calling him a murderer. Ministers and African-American leaders walked a line between pleading for calm and asking for answers, which were in short supply for most of the year because of ongoing investigations.

Anthony Terry, the man police were focused on with their raid, eventually pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Terry's attacking dogs were shot by police during the raid, leading Chavalia to believe he was being fired at.

Chavalia was charged with, and later acquitted of, two misdemeanors, negligent homicide and negligent assault. Again race entered the conversation, as an all-white jury took three hours to return a not guilty verdict. An independent review of the case by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office also cleared Chavalia. The officer returned to work with administrative duties for the department in November.

The day after Chavalia's acquittal, Wilson's family filed a civil lawsuit in federal court, which is pending. Other federal reviews of the case are also pending.

The shooting resulted in far-reaching conversations and reactions. Among the topics: increasing diversity in the city's workforce, a need for unity among different groups, the treatment of African-Americans in the judicial system, an improved police force and policy changes.

The city responded with community roundtable meetings, in which hundreds of residents gave their thoughts about how to improve the Police Department and other organizations. That work is continuing and will for years.

Black ministers responded with a new group, Coalition for Change, pledging to hold elected officials accountable for change and seek policy changes.

Civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton and nationally syndicated radio host Warren Ballentine called for a 50,000-person march, but it never materialized. And the Rev. Jesse Jackson spent the day in Lima, supporting pastors, registering high school students to vote, meeting behind closed doors with city officials and preaching at Philippian Missionary Baptist Church about Wilson's death.

Presidential politics

Others with political fame visited the region to campaign this presidential election year.

No sitting or former Democratic president had visited Allen County since Harry Truman until former President Bill Clinton campaigned for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, in February at Lima Senior High School.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain held one of his signature town halls, bringing his Straight Talk Express in August to Veterans Memorial Civic Center. Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin rallied a crowd 6,000 strong at the University of Findlay. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, former vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp and Republican Minority Leader John Boehner stumped for McCain in Lima days before the election.

Less than a month after McCain's visit, now President-elect Barack Obama worshipped at St. Luke Lutheran Church. While it was business as usual in church, word spread quickly of his presence and a crowd in the hundreds greeted his exit. Now Vice President-elect Joe Biden ordered Kewpees after his rally at the high school. The campaign also drew CNN, Carole King and Cuba Gooding Jr.

The other big political story this year featured one of the area's most prolific newsmakers, who didn't disappoint in his last year in office. Sheriff Dan Beck announced in January he would not seek a fifth term, touching off speculation about a mayoral run. He sought the resignations of the two men, Steve Hoverman and Sam Crish, seeking to replace him, saying he didn't want the department politicized by the race.

When Hoverman refused to debate Crish and questioned his residency, Crish gave the community an enduring political image, of him opening his refrigerator holding beer, cheese and salad dressing, among other food. By October, Beck seemed to do an about-face, politicizing the department and endorsing Hoverman, who ended up garnering only 32 percent of the vote to Crish's 68 percent. By December, an Allen County Board of Elections source said Beck had taken out petitions for a mayoral run.

If the famous visited, the infamous left. After a federal court ruled Kenneth Richey didn't receive adequate legal representation during a 1987 trial for accusations of killing 2-year-old Cynthia Collins, Richey walked off of death row and out of prison in January. He had lunch at Applebee's and took a plane home to Scotland. By August, he was back behind bars, arrested in Edinburgh and accused of assaulting a 63-year-old man.

Filling up, bottoming out

On the economic front, a local ethanol plant went from blue ribbon to bankrupt, and drivers felt bankrupt paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline.

Leipsic's ethanol plant in January became the first in Ohio to open. Owned by Poet Energy, the $105 million plant remains successful. Lima's Greater Ohio Ethanol plant received a federal development award and began production in June, boasting a $2.75 million payroll. By October, the company's officers shocked the community by going bankrupt. The shuttered plant left local investors and creditors with massive losses. A December auction to sell the $150 million couldn't get a sale.

Gas prices took drivers on a wild ride, peaking at more than $4 a gallon in June and then falling to less than $1.50 in November. Drivers turned in their SUVs and some turned to bicycles and bus rides.

More tragedy

Allen County had its share of other tragedies. Daniel Stiles was sentenced in March to a minimum of 57 years in prison for the murder of 2-year-old Mia Jorris. He repeatedly had punched the toddler in the abdomen. Her brother survived similar injuries. The children's mother, Kristen Jorris, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for allowing it to happen.

The community witnessed the nightmare all over again as another man was charged with murder in a child's beating death. Three-year-old Christopher Faulk had been living with his family in the home of Jacob Jones, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In May, six men were indicted in the April drive-by shooting of Wendy Westergaard, 38, who had given a ride to Durelle Grant, 19, who earlier had stolen drugs from Tony Curtis Jr., 21. Curtis rounded up a group to seek revenge and Curtis used an assault rifle to open fire at Westergaard's vehicle, killing her. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The murder brought together Lima police and African-American leaders, groups that have been at odds over the Wilson shooting. Leaders and police made pleas for the violence and drug crime to stop.

In response to the pain caused by drug addiction and crime, a Lima man took a handmade sign in April and stood on a corner across from drug dealers, protesting their activity.

Inspired by what they saw as an act of courage from Jesse Lowe II, dozens joined him, symbolically taking back the city's corners all spring and summer.

Drugs Bring Death sprang from handmade signs to donated placards, billboards and T-shirts. The group incorporated, drew national attention and worked on long-term plans to reduce drug addiction and crime.

———

Other big stories

Here are stories 11 through 20 on the 2008 top stories of the year:

11. Sam Crish wins election as Allen County sheriff, despite a residency flap and an opponent who refused to debate him

12. Terry Shepherd pleads guilty to murder in deaths of three women and gets two life sentences in Hardin County

13. Tuttle Construction explodes after a gas leak, injuring two firefighters; the company rebuilds

14. Five members of the Farkasdi family die in Ada mobile home fire

15. Bomb found at St. Marys gas station near high school

16. Nicholas Schwieterman pleads no contest to charges in accident killing four teens in Mercer County

17. American Mall owners empty out remaining tenants except The Andersons

18. Two Hardin Northern teens and two Allen East teens die in separate car accidents

19. National Transportation Safety Board says Bluffton University bus accident didn't have to happen

20. "Bored" teen vandals destroy golf carts at Hawthorne Hills; damage estimated at $100,000