National Roundup

Alaska
Police investigate death of Alaska’s capital city mayor
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The newly elected mayor of Alaska’s capital city was found dead at his Juneau home, and police are investigating a range of possible causes.

The Juneau Police Department released few details on Stephen “Greg” Fisk’s death but called rumors of an assault “speculation.” Fisk’s adult son found his body Monday and alerted authorities, police said in a statement.

An attack is “one of the possibilities out there, but there’s others that could have happened,” Police Chief Bryce Johnson told the Juneau Empire newspaper. “There could’ve been a fall. There’s lots of things that would cause it.”
He noted there was no evidence of forced entry into Fisk’s home. No other details on the circumstances surrounding Fisk’s death were released.

Fisk, 70, handily defeated incumbent Merrill Sanford in the October election to become mayor. An autopsy will be performed to determine his cause of death.

“Detectives are actively investigating facts of the incident, and all evidence is being preserved and documented,” the police statement said.

Mayor Mary Becker was named acting mayor, the Juneau Empire reported.

“I think this was a terrible day for all of Juneau,” said Jill Ramiel, Downtown Business Association president. “He was never afraid to say what he thought.”

Fisk’s campaign chairman, Bob King, said his potential as a mayor was starting to show. “For that potential to be snuffed out is just a crushing loss.” Fisk also was a fisheries consultant.

As police prepared to remove his body, a small crowd started placing candles in the center of a public sculpture, the newspaper reported.

“That makes me feel better,” D.J. Thomson said after lighting the candles in Fisk’s memory.

Ohio
Court overturns death sentence in beating death
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court on overturned a condemned killer’s death sentence Tuesday, citing his troubled childhood that included learning the drug trade from his mother.

The 4-3 decision was the second time a court has rejected a death sentence for Rayshawn Johnson, who was convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery for fatally beating Shanon Marks with a baseball bat in 1997 for about $50.

Johnson suffered from mental illness and addiction and had limited intellectual ability at the time, said Justice Paul Pfeifer, writing for the majority. At 19, Johnson was also barely removed from his “corrosive upbringing,” the justice said.
As a child, “Johnson was not taught the difference between right and wrong, did not learn to make good choices, and did not witness positive social interactions,” Pfeiffer wrote.

Instead, his mother taught her son how to sell drugs, and Johnson watched his mother doing drugs and trading sexual favors for drug money, Pfeiffer said.

While imprisoned, the 37-year-old Johnson has shown remorse, converted to Christianity and counseled young men not to follow his path, including his own son, Pfeifer said. He was joined by justices William O’Neill and Judith Lanzinger and Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor.

The court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Johnson that cannot include capital punishment.

Dissenting justice Terrence O’Donnell said the brutality of the crime outweighed arguments about Johnson’s childhood.

After the assault on Marks, “Johnson stole her money, ignored her cries for help, and left her to die on a bathroom floor while he disposed of the evidence to avoid being connected to the attack,” wrote O’Donnell, who was joined by justices Judi French and Sharon Kennedy.

Johnson originally was sentenced to death in 1998. He had a new hearing after a federal judge said he’d received poor legal assistance, and was again sentenced to death in 2011.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters planned a news conference later Tuesday to respond.

The decision was the second in two months in which the Supreme Court overturned a death sentence based not on arguments made by the condemned inmate, but on an independent analysis by the court of factors leading to the sentence.
In October, the court said the death sentence of Bennie Adams, a man convicted of killing a student 30 years ago, was invalid because prosecutors failed to prove he committed aggravated burglary during the crime.
Prosecutors have appealed that decision.


Ohio
Ex-lottery worker sentenc­ed for stealing tickets
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — A former Ohio Lottery Commission employee has been sentenced to probation for stealing $115,000 in instant lottery tickets and cashing in winners.

WFMJ-TV in Youngstown reports a judge in Mahoning County ordered David Dragelevich (druh-GEL’-uh-vich) on Monday to pay restitution and serve five years of probation.

An Ohio Inspector General’s office report released last May said Dragelevich would keep tickets returned from an unidentified retailer, then enter in a lottery database that they’d been resold and cash out winning tickets. The report says Dragelevich told State Highway Patrol investigators he cashed some tickets.

The 40-year-old man from the Youngstown suburb of Poland resigned from the lottery in January 2014.

Authorities say the scheme was uncovered after a supervisor found scratched-off instant tickets in his state-issued van.

Minnesota
Civil lawsuit filed against Childre­n’s Theatre Company
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two people who say they were sexually abused years ago by former employees of the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis are filing a civil lawsuit.

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson says the two were theater students; one was abused about 1977 and the other about 1983.

A news release from Anderson says numerous children were sexually abused during the tenure of John Clark Donahue. The former artistic director was charged in 1984 with molesting three boys, 12 to 15 years old. He served 10 months in jail.
The Children’s Theatre Company declined comment until after Anderson’s news conference Tuesday afternoon. The organization, Donahue and another former employee are defendants in the lawsuit.

A person who answered the phone at Donahue’s home says he doesn’t want to comment.