Police and court briefs

Woman arrested on kidnapping charge

A 21-year-old woman was arrested by Oberlin Police and charged early Oct. 21 in connection with a domestic incident.

Ana Eliza Cotto-Rivera was charged with felonious assault, a second degree felony, kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and domestic violence by the Oberlin Police Department, according to the Lorain County Jail.

Cotto-Rivera is being held on a $50,000 bond until a court appearance at 9 a.m. Oct. 23, according to the jail report.

Duo cited in driving off cliff incident

Vermilion Police cited a woman and man in connection with an incident at 11:15 p.m. Oct. 19 when the woman drove a red Honda Accord off a cliff.

According to a Vermilion Police report:

Multiple callers reported a car going off the road and crashing over a cliff near 2400 Vermilion Road.

A passenger, Ronnie Justice, and witness Andrew Butler said the driver, Jena Nagy fell down over the cliff beyond the crashed vehicle.

Nagy, 27, who lives on the 1000 block of Royal Drive in Amherst, was found about 75 feet down from the road, and was partly responsive.

Vermilion Police Sgt. Scott Holmes and officer Dale Reising started first aid and stabilized her position until Vermilion Fire Department arrived to haul her up the cliff.

The cliff was steep, with loose gravel making the rescue difficult.

The men smelled alcohol, and Nagy had difficulty answering questions, sometimes becoming unresponsive. She complained of back and neck pain.

They were about halfway down the cliff, with 100 more feet to go, and officers repeatedly asked Nagy not to move.

North Central EMS arrived, and called North Central Air Care to the scene.

Vermilion firefighters began a rope rescue, placed Nagy on a back board and loaded her into a Stokes basket. They raised her to the roadside where paramedics cared for her. Shortly after Nagy was placed in an ambulance, she allegedly became combative with medics and tried to refuse care.

She allegedly refused to take an intoxication test.

She was flown to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland for treatment.

Butler said he heard the crash and saw the car down the cliff. He saw Justice crawl out of the passenger side and slowly climb up the cliff.

Then Butler heard Nagy and saw her exit the vehicle from the passenger side, but she fell and slid farther down the cliff.

Justice, 41, of the 2000 block of Baumhart Road, Vermilion, allegedly said he and Nagy had been drinking at Rudy’s Bar as they normally do. Because Nagy allegedly was the less intoxicated of the two, she was driving his car to his home on Baumhart Road, he allegedly told police.

When the road curved to the left, Nagy drove straight off the road. He allegedly closed his eyes and braced himself and waited to come to a stop.

When police reconstructed the crash, they found the vehicle was southbound on Vermilion Road. When it passed 2400 Vermilion Road, the vehicle left the road on the right when the road turned left. The vehicle drove over a living fence hedge line, continued between two trees and glanced off of a tree on the driver’s side, passed two very large boulders, entered a woods and traveled through woods along the cliff side, parallel to the road. The vehicle hit multiple trees, ripping parts of the vehicle off before coming to a rest about 420 feet from the point of leaving the road. The air bags all were deployed, and the passenger side rear windows were broken out.

Nagy was cited on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, failure to wear a safety belt, and failure to assert reasonable control of a vehicle.

Justice was cited with wrongful entrustment of a vehicle for allegedly knowingly allowing an intoxicated person to drive his vehicle.

Nagy and Justice must report at 9 a.m. Oct. 24 to Vermilion Municipal Court.