Former Buckeye cleared of charges

Bri’onte Dunn bowed his head, wiped his eyes and gave his attorney a bear hug. A small gathering of his family and friends gasped and embraced.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kim Brown read the verdicts on Friday — not guilty on both counts of rape.

Dunn, 25, a one-time, promising Ohio State University football player, had testified Thursday that he routinely had casual, but consensual, sex with a woman he met on a dating app last year. He had faced two counts of Dunn rape stemming from an Aug. 20, 2017 incident in which the woman said he forced himself on her three times after she had picked him up in the early morning because he was stranded.

The woman who made the accusations had earlier testified that she cared for Dunn, with whom she had broken up. She allowed him to stay at her apartment only until he could call an Uber. Instead, she testified, he got into her bed and forced sex on her.Dunn was a backup running back with the Buckeyes from 2012 to 2015, until he was dismissed for violating team rules. He maintained that the woman wanted to marry a football player, and had told him she wanted to have his baby.

A debate between the candidates for Ohio auditor heated up Friday as the two questioned each other’s honesty.

Democratic former Congressman Zack Space and Ohio Rep. Keith Faber, R-Celina, appeared on the same stage at Zane State College in Zanesville to discuss Medicaid, tax policy and an online charter school scandal. But when the candidates’ own taxes came up, the “L” word was invoked.

The two were sparring over taxes that each was slightly late in paying. It’s an argument that Faber initiated by highlighting two tardy property tax payments by Space.