Arrest made after high speed chase

Troopers with the Wapakoneta Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol worked together Sunday afternoon to stop what turned out to be a driver in a stolen vehicle attempting to elude law enforcement.

At 3:31 p.m. Sunday Highway Patrolman Travis Ricker attempted to pull over a 2002 GMC Yukon with Indiana license plates for a high speed violation on U.S. 33 near the Mercer and Auglaize County Line.

The vehicle did not stop and Ricker caught up near Ohio 29 in St. Marys. Traffic was light and conditions were favorable to continue the pursuit.

When the Yukon neared County Road 33A, a spike strip was deployed by Patrolman Joseph Nartker. The strip deflated the two left tires on the vehicle. The vehicle continued on with tires shredding making it to the Interstate 75 southbound ramp. Due to the vehicle speed and deflated tires the Yukon spun out into the grass and tapped a guardrail near the ramp.

“We were able to box her in and get her out without incident,” Trooper Sgt. Mike Mahaffey said.

The driver, Brook Jacks, 30, of Springfield was charged with felony fleeing and eluding in the theft incident. The vehicle was allegedly stolen in New Haven.

WASHINGTON

(AP) — The Supreme Court is reviving a lawsuit brought by a Georgia college student who sued school officials after being prevented from distributing Christian literature on campus.

The high court sided 8-1 with the student, Chike Uzuegbunam, and against Georgia Gwinnett College. Uzuegbunam has since graduated, and the public school in Lawrenceville, Georgia, has changed its policies. Lower courts said the case was moot, but the Supreme Court disagreed.

Groups across the political spectrum including the American Civil Liberties Union had said that the case is important to ensuring that people whose constitutional rights were violated can continue their cases even when governments reverse the policies they were challenging.

At issue was whether Uzuegbunam’s case could continue because he was only seeking so-called nominal damages of $1.

“This case asks whether an award of nominal damages by itself can redress a past injury. We hold that it can,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for a majority of the court.

Writing only for himself, Chief Justice John Roberts disagreed. Roberts argued that the case brought by Uzuegbunam and another student, Joseph Bradford, is moot since the two are no longer students at the college, the restrictions no longer exist and they “have not alleged actual damages.”