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ALONG THE WAY: Dave O'Brien

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March 9, 2010

By Dave O'Brien

Record-Courier staff writer

As a relative newbie reporter, several years ago I wrote a story about a Stow man who led Kent police on a chase through downtown before crashing his motorcycle into a police cruiser on East Main Street.

Following his arrest and arraignment, prosecutors dismissed a felony charge of fleeing and eluding police. I wrote a follow-up story saying as much.

That prompted a call from Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci, who informed me that the charge had only been dismissed for what is called "further review," meaning that prosecutors intended to take their evidence to a grand jury.

It was a lesson I had to learn: Just because prosecutors dismiss a charge at a preliminary hearing, as often happens, doesn't mean the charges go away. Criminal cases in real life aren't like those on "Law & Order" or "CSI." They take time to investigate, prepare and charge.

A grand jury looks at evidence and indicts people -- charges them, for lack of a better term -- with crimes that may include charges above and beyond what they were booked for upon their arrest.

So if you look on the court docket and see that someone charged with a felony has had their charges dismissed or "DFR'd" (dismissed for further review), don't celebrate their vindication just yet: There's a 90-plus percent chance it isn't over.

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Two recent trials in Portage County Common Pleas Court in Ravenna showcased some of the new courtroom technology upgrades being paid for with defendants' court costs.

In Judge John Enlow's courtroom during the murder trial of Jonathan Dukes, a widescreen LCD television allowed witnesses to use a wireless mouse to point to evidence placed on an electronic overhead monitor, or ELMO.

Judge Laurie Pittman told jurors in the murder trial of Cortez Oliver that her courtroom is the more "antiquated" of the two. Witnesses in Oliver's trial pointed to evidence displayed via the ELMO with a long stick when it was realized the red light of a laser pointer wouldn't show up on the LCD screen.

I guess you could say common pleas court is still in the "trial and error" phase of the 21st Century.

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I was surprised to browse CNN.com on Feb. 24 to see a familiar name.

Following the announcement that the site of the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State University had been named to the National Register of Historic Places, CNN named KSU professor Dr. Laura Davis one of its "Intriguing People for February 24, 2010."

Davis is a KSU English professor who was a freshman at the university the day of the shootings. She has been a driving force over the years for memorializing May 4, and was one of four professors who helped write the application for the Register.

"An American force opened fired on unarmed students without warning, because they were dissenting. That's an important event for people to know about," she told CNN.

Log on to CNN.com and type Davis' name in the search bar at the top right hand corner to find and read the rest of her account.




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