Hospitals rely on disaster plans
As central Ohio hospital executives watch the devastation in this hurricane season, they’re confident that they’re prepared to respond to whatever disasters might hit our region.
No, they’re not preparing for hurricanes, but they do have plans for blizzards, tornadoes, virus outbreaks, airplane crashes, mass killings and other calamities.
“Whether it’s a natural disaster or a man-made issue, I think at the end of the day, hospitals are looked at as a refuge and places that can do just about everything,” said Mike Gregory, director for safety and emergency preparedness at Ohio State University’s Wexner
I’ve done some really dumb things through the years. I’ve jumped out of an airplane, flipped over the handlebars of my mountain bike and presented my wife with a Norfolk Island pine for Valentine’s Day. After that last foolhardy act, it’s amazing I’m still around to tell the tale.
On Saturday, I showed an equal disregard for personal safety. I went whitewater rafting on the Upper Gauley River in West Virginia, a 10-mile stretch of seething whitewater that expert paddlers rank among the most challenging in the U.S.
Under the “protective order,” defense attorneys could show the defendants what prosecutors learned in the pretrial discovery process, which might hint that a co-defendant was cooperating with prosecutors. But the defendants could not keep copies of the document, and they and their attorneys could not share the information with a third party, including fellow gang members on the outside.
A federal judge on Friday granted prosecutors a protective order against 10 alleged members of the notorious MS-13 multinational gang operating in central Ohio. They were indicted in Columbus in August for allegedly extorting money from local businesses and individuals and laundering the money back to leaders in El Salvador and elsewhere.
The gang was founded in the 1980s in Los Angeles by immigrants from El Salvador, who determined they needed protection against other gangs in the city. MS-13, for Mara Salvatrucha or “Salvadoran gang,” has some 10,000 members in chapters called “cliques” in the United States, law enforcement authorities say.
MS-13 has a reputation for meting out severe penalties against rivals, wayward members and informants, sometimes employing a favorite weapon, the machete.
At the news conference announcing the indictments, Benjamin Glassman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, noted the gang’s motto of “mata, viola, controla,” which translates to “kill, rape, control.”
But how will a court order guarantee that an MS-13 member won’t put out a contract from his jail cell, some might wonder.
“I don’t know if there’s a way we can actually prevent it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Martinez said.
Anyone who violates the protective order faces a criminal contempt charge and time in prison, whether or not they’re convicted of the crime charged in the indictment, he said.
All communications between jailed defendants and the outside world can be monitored, whether by phone, computer or in person. Sometimes, defendants forget that.
Martinez and defense attorney Steve Nolder recalled how Rastaman A. Wilson, an early leader of the
Short North Posse, mentioned to his mother that he was visited by his getaway driver in a robbery-murder. Wilson and his mother’s telephone conversation was recorded and played in court.
“Do you think he was wearing a wire?” Wilson’s mother is heard asking her son. It hadn’t crossed his mind, he told her.
Wilson died of cancer awaiting trial.
Nolder represents Isaias “Cabo” Alvarado in the MS-13 case. Neither Martinez nor any other defense attorney in the case objected to the protective order.
He said that although the order complicates his job, he understands prosecutors’ concerns.
Alvarado, 44, has lived in Columbus for about 15 years. All 10 defendants have residences in Columbus, Dayton or Indianapolis, according to court documents. Another five alleged gang members are being held on illegal immigration complaints.
Nolder said he strongly advises defendants to obey the protective order, “but you can only do so much.”
The bigger problem, both sides learned during the Short North Posse case, is social media, he said.
Someone photographed a witness during a court proceeding and posted online a picture of the “cooperator” next to the image of a dead rat. That prompted U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley to order all cellphones surrendered before entering the courtroom during the June 2016 trial.
During the Short North Posse investigation and trials, the U.S. Marshal Service put 15 witnesses up in hotels and placed five people in witness protection. The six gang members who took their chances with a jury all lost and were sentenced to life in prison
Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr., who signed the protective order, said to expect tightened security during the MS-13 hearings.
The Short North Posse prosecution began in 2010 as a drug case. Racketeering and murder charges were filed four years later.
Asked if more serious charges face the MS-13 defendants, Martinez said, “We’ll let the investigators continue their work and see what they come up with.”