Feds stop new drilling along pipeline

School officials never told the mother of an 8-year-old Ohio boy who killed him- self that another student had thrown him against the wall two days earlier and knocked him unconscious in an attack recorded by a surveillance video, attorneys for the boy’s mother said Thursday.

The 8-year-old hanged himself with a necktie in the bedroom of his Cin- cinnati home on Jan. 26. School officials called the boy’s mother the day her son was bullied and said he had fainted, attorney Carla Leader said.

“They didn’t tell her the whole story,” Leader said. “The school also said his vitals were fine and he was alert.”

The mother learned of the bullying and the surveillance video after her attorneys obtained a Cincinnati police investigative file over her son’s death. The file included a copy of a Feb. 3 email from a homicide detective to an

Federal officials have ordered a halt to new drilling activity along the troubled Rover Pipeline project.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission prohibited Texas-based Rover Pipeline from any new drilling activities until the company complies with new measures and receives authorization.

The federal order came as the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Rover Pipeline officials continue to square off over a series of environmental violations that have piled up since construction on the natural gas distribution project began in February.

“The federal action taken today is a step in the right direction,” Ohio EPA spokes- man James Lee said.

In all, 18 incidents have been reported in 11 Ohio counties over the past eight weeks, including mud spills from drilling, stormwater pollution and open burning. The Ohio EPA says at least eight incidents violated state law, and many of the rest are under review.

The $4.2 billion under- ground pipeline route stretches from Washington County in southeastern Ohio to Defiance County in the northwest.

Rover Pipeline uses horizontal drilling to install pipe- lines below waterways, wetlands, culturally sensitive areas, congested neighbor- hoods and roads to minimize surface disturbance, a spokeswoman said Tuesday in an emailed statement.

The federal commission will allow some non-drill- ing activity to advance. To avoid boreholes from col- lapsing and prolonging envi- ronmental impacts, drilling projects already underway also can continue. assistant principal at Carson Elementary School and other Cincinnati school offi- cials describing what he saw on the video obtained from the school district’s security department.

Cincinnati Public Schools, in a statement issued Thurs- day, did not address the alle- gation that officials at the elementary school didn’t tell the boy’s mother what had happened. School district spokeswoman Janet Walsh said the detective “mis- characterized the events in the video,” the existence of which was first reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Leader said she watched the surveillance video and that it shows another boy acting aggressively toward students. When the 8-year- old approached him and tried to shake his hand, the boy threw him against the wall, knocking him uncon- scious, Leader said.

Other students stepped over the boy while others poked him with their feet as he lay unconscious for 7½ minutes before an assistant principal and then a school nurse came to his aid, Leader said.

The mother came to get the 8-year-old after the school called her.

In the letter, the federal commission also ordered Rover Pipeline to double the number of environmental inspectors to ensure compli- ance along the entire pipe- line route.

Additionally, the commission instructed the company to immediately hire an independent third-party contractor to further analyze all drilling activity at the site where millions of gallons of mud spilled into a wetland near Tuscarawas River in Stark County.

Energy Transfer said in an email statement that it is working with the com- mission and the Ohio EPA to resolve the matter.

The company this week maintained that it has appropriately responded to the incidents, which spokes- woman Alexis Daniel described as “not an unusual occurrence.”

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Daniel said cleanup efforts were nearly finished and that the company still planned to begin operating the pipeline this year. It is not yet clear how Wednesday’s federal order will affect the project’s timeline.

Even before construction, the pipeline project faceda string of hiccups.

The project raced to clear trees before the federally protected Indiana brown bats began roosting and also drew backlash for demolishing a Leesville house that was under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places.

The mother took him to a hospital that evening after the boy vomited and complained of stomach pains. Doctors said he had a stom- ach virus and sent him home. Neither doctors nor the boy’s mother knew what had happened earlier that day, her attorneys said.

The ages of the other children involved or present at the attack were not immediately available.

The elementary school’s website shows that it serves children from prekindergar- ten through the sixth grade and has 750 students.

The C incinnati Public School statement provides a different version of events. It says that “while we are concerned about the length of time that (the boy) lay motionless and the lack of adult supervision at the scene,” school administra- tors followed protocol by having the nurse evaluate him.

The boy’s mother was asked to pick him up and take him to a hospital “to be checked out,” the state- ment said.

The mother’s attorneys said her sister, who was caring for the boy while she was at work that night, called to tell her the boy had been

On Friday, the Ohio EPA ordered parent company Energy Transfer to pay $431,000 for water and air pollution violations, as well as to submit plans to address potential future releases and restore impacted wetlands.

As the state agency pursues its enforcement case with the company, state inspectors will continue to assist with monitoring, response and cleanup. A majority of the agency’s around-the-clock emergency field staff members are dealing with Rover-related incidents, Lee said.

“All told, our frustration is really high. We don’t think they’re taking Ohio seriously,” Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler said on Monday.

The almost-weekly spills of bentonite — a natural clay used as a drilling lubricant — have smothered wild- life habitat and gunked up water infrastructure, said Heather Taylor-Miesle, exec- utive director of the advo- cacy group Ohio Environ- mental Council.

“It’s one thing to have an inadvertent spill every once in a while. At what point does it stop being inadvertent and just become reck- less?” she said.

Of particular concern is an April spill that blanketed 6.5 acres of a protected wetland adjacent to the Tuscar- awas River in northeast Ohio with several million gallons of bentonite.

Energy Transfer spokes- vomiting. Leader described the boy as a “happy-go-lucky kid” who had shown no signs of mental issues. Leader said the boy came home from school on Jan. 26, spoke with his mother and went into his bedroom. She later discovered him hanging from his bunk bed.

The email from the homi- cide detective, describes what he saw in the surveil- lance video.

The detective said it appeared that the “primary agitator” hit one child in the stomach, sending him to the floor on hands and knees. The 8-year-old then approached the aggressor and tried to shake his hand but was pulled to the floor, the detective wrote.

The aggressor “appears to celebrate and rejoice in his behavior as (the boy) lay motionless.

For many minutes, many students step over, point, mock, nudge, kick” the boy, the email said.

The detective told school officials that while he had concerns about the bullying, which could be considered a criminal assault, he added that the school would be bet- ter suited to handle the situation because of the chil- dren’s ages. woman Daniel said the wetland would “see full restoration very soon.” The Ohio EPA disagrees. “The wetland likely will not recover to its previous condition for decades,” Lee said.

Ohio already has lost more than 90 percent of its wetlands.

“We’ve lost so many wetlands (that) the ones that do remain are so important,” said Mazeika Sulli- van, an Ohio State Univer- sity environment and natu- ral resources professor. “It’s still considered a pollutant when it’s found in excess to what would be found in nature. Just because it’s non- toxic doesn’t mean it’s not a problem.”

As pushback to the pipe- line’s construction escalated to the federal government this week, Sherry Miller couldn’t escape its presence in her own backyard.

Miller has lived in her Sherrodsville home in Car- roll County for 18 years. The past three have been a battle to keep the Rover Pipe- line from running through her property, she said.

Since February, bulldozers and cranes operate on three sides of her property starting at 6:30 a.m. Heavy machinery roars just a few feet from the small pasture, coop and yard where Miller’s three pigs, four goats, six dogs and dozens of chickens live. “This company has proven to everyone that they just disregard everything ... and they do what they want to do,” she said.

Miller said she and her husband plan to abandon the dream home they spent years building.

“It feels like we’re trapped,” she said. “I try to tell myself it’ll be fine when these pipelines are done, when they’re underground and the construction crews leave.

“Then the other side of me says, ‘You’ve got to run.’”

An Akron man shot his daughter early Thursday after mistaking her for an intruder, police said.

The 22-year-old daughter suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting that happened at a house on Onondago Avenue near Brittain Road, police said.

No charges have been filed but the incident remains under investigation, polic ice said.

The 42-year-old father grabbed his gun just before 1 a.m. because he heard someone in his kitchen. No one responded when the father called out.

The father saw a shadowy figure, which turned out to be his daughter, and fired a single shot. Investigators did not say where the shot hit the daughter.

The father told investi- gators that he thought his daughter was house-sitting elsewhere, and did not expect to see her in the house, police said.

A 60-year-old woman living in a group home suffered a seizure and bleeding in her brain after she was punched in a dispute with a fellow resident over a cigarette, according to police.

Lisa Skaggs, 32, is charged with felonious assault. She is being held in the city jail on $100,000 bond.

The fight happened about 1 p.m. Sunday at a group home on East 147th Street north of Kinsman Road.

Skaggs and the 60-yearold woman argued because the woman refused to give Skaggs a cigarette.

Skaggs punched the woman in the head, police said. She fell and hit her head on a table. The impact caused a gash to the left side of her head.

The woman was taken to University Hospitals for treatment. She was initially conscious at the hospital, but doctors told investigators that she vomited shortly after arriving. She had a seizure and lost consciousness, according to police reports.

A CAT scan showed she had bleeding on her brain, according to police. An updated condition on the woman was unavailable on Thursday.

Police in suburban Cleveland say a half-naked man intentionally crashed his car into a closed convenience store to get beer, injuring himself and a store employee.

Rocky River police say the 45-year-old driver was wearing nothing from the waist down when he crashed through a store wall early Sunday and told the worker he needed beer.

Police say the man barricaded himself in a beer cooler and told police to shoot him, but they subdued him with a stun device.

The driver was taken to a hospital, as was the store employee, who suffered leg and chest injuries that weren’t considered critical.

The driver has been charged with impaired driving.

A man once sent to death row for killing a 16-year-old Bath High School student was denied parole again.

Richard Joseph, 46, was denied parole and given another eight years until his next hearing, officials said Wednesday.

Joseph was convicted of aggravated murder in the 1990 killing of Ryan Young. He and Jose Bulerin kidnapped Ryan Young as he left his girlfriend’s house, who was Joseph’s former girlfriend. They took him to a gravel pit in Auglaize County, killed him and then buried him. His body was found days later.

Joseph was sent to death row for killing Young, but a federal appellate court overturned the death sentence based on a misplaced word in the original indictment that was corrected before the case went to trial.

Jo s eph then was sentenced to life in prison with the chance for parole after serving 20 years.

A stabbing suspect is recovering at a hospital after a police chase in Ohio that ended with officers shooting at him.

Police say the 36-year-old man suffered minor injuries but it’s not clear if he was hit by gunfire. No officers were injured.

The pursuit started in Newark after a 911 call about a woman being stabbed in the neck and back. Officers arriving at the scene saw a man driving away and began to chase him.

Newark police Sgt. Clint Eskins said the officers pursued him for several miles before he drove off the road and into a field.

At that point, police fired at the man. Eskins said it was not clear if he had a gun.