Awards raising profile of area in film industry

BOUQUETS>> To Richard Fike Sr. and those behind the recent Stunt Awards Banquet in Madison Village. The event was created to honor stunt performers for their work in a variety of categories, said Fike, director of Stunt Predators USA & SFX.

Based in Madison Village, Stunt Predators USA & SFX is the only professional stunt organization east of Chicago, and is comprised of more than 50 members, according to Fike.

Awards presented at the Jan. 18 event included Best Fall, Hardest Hit, Best Fire Burn and Best Weapon.

Stunt and special-effects professionals from all over Ohio as well as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Maine attended.

How exciting to see the film industry take hold in Northeast Ohio.

BOUQUETS» To the late Joanna Cole Bhatta for her generosity in helping further the education of others.

Bhatta attended Lake Erie College in Painesville in the 1960s, and upon her death in May, her estate left $1 million to the school to establish the Mary Barnes Cole endowed scholarship in honor of her mother.

The funded scholarship will be dispersed in installments, according to LEC President Brian Posler.

He called the amount bestowed to the college transformative.

Bhatta also left nearly $1 million for Lakeland Community College’s Lakeland Foundation, which made that announcement earlier.

The Lakeland Foundation received a partial distribution of $400,000.

The new endowment being established by Bhatta’s trust is going to be named for her father, John B. Cole.

“Joanne’s generous donation will help more Lake County students earn a college degree to improve their lives,” said Gregory Sanders, vice president for institutional advancement at Lakeland and executive director of the Lakeland Foundation.

We are in awe of Bhatta’s generosity. What a wonderful gift she has given countless students.

BRICKBATS» To Solomon Nhiwatiwa, the former Cleveland police officer who will spend the next 4 ½ years in prison.

The 34-year-old Nhiwatiwa filmed himself urinating on a 12-year-old Euclid girl in August. He pleaded guilty in December to several charges stemming from the August 2019 incident and was sentenced Jan. 21 by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Wanda C. Jones.

According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, the victim was waiting for a school bus on Euclid Avenue on the morning of Aug. 16. Nhiwatiwa drove past her with his windows rolled down and attempted to engage in a conversation and asked if she needed a ride to school. The victim refused his offer, and he drove away.

Nhiwatiwa returned about a minute later, parked his vehicle, approached the victim, exposed his genitals and began urinating on the victim while it appeared he was filming himself with his cellphone. He then walked back to his car and drove away. Disgusting.

He is behind bars where he belongs, and we’re glad he will be required to register as a sex offender for life.

BRICKBATS » To Thomas Close, the 39-year-old Richland County man who will spend the next 30 years in federal prison after being convicted of sexually abusing children in rural Wakeman and other locations, and receiving and distributing child pornography.

Close, of Shelby, was sentenced Jan. 15 and will have a lifetime of supervised release, which includes lifetime sex offender registration, and will pay $949 in restitution and a $300 special assessment.

The U.S. Department of Justice for the Northern District of Ohio said an investigation had identified 143 victims over seven years who were recorded covertly while changing.

Close was known to many in the Boy Scouts of America as “Aqua Joe” because he was a swim instructor as well as a troop leader.

Authorities say from 2011 to 2018, Close abused these positions to surreptitiously record young boys while they changed for swimming or showers. Close then transferred those recorded images from a simple spy watch to his home computers in carefully labeled folders.

Officials said he also victimized children in his care at the YMCA, the Willard Conservation League, the Firelands Scout Reservation in Wakeman, the Mohican Wilderness camp, the STEM camp, and even his own house.

Thank goodness, this animal was caught, convicted and punished.