Feb 12, 2021
The Ohio Chief Probation Officers Association (OCPOA) announced the results of it s recent election for the 2021-2023 term. Every two years, the OCPOA membership votes to select new officers and trustees for the Association s all volunteer Executive Board. I am very proud of what the Board accomplished over the last two years. Despite the challenges faced over the last year, we continued to enhance our footprint on the field of probation both at the local and national levels. I look forward to the newly elected leadership s continued excellence in the areas of education, training and advocacy. Molly Gauntner, Immediate Past President and Chief Probation Officer, Franklin County Municipal Court.
Who is involved?
In Ohio, a prosecutor presents evidence to a group of nine people, chosen at random, who serve as the grand jury. The jurors are chosen through records of registered voters, using the same random selection process that is in place for sending out jury duty notices.
A judge is also involved but is not in the room while evidence is being presented. The judge s role is to instruct the jurors on the law so they can decide what charges, if any, are appropriate.
The process is secret and grand jury testimony is kept sealed except for rare circumstances where a judge orders parts of testimony or a proceeding to be made public.
I started Googling, she said. I went everywhere.
Hawkins eventually wound up with a lawyer from the Legal Aid Society of Columbus. She also obtained information about how to provide her landlord with a declaration that she qualifies for the eviction moratorium put in place by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than two months later, she remains in her apartment and is on the verge of having her back rent paid by IMPACT Community Action, a nonprofit group that is distributing Franklin County s share of coronavirus stimulus money, approved by Congress, for rental assistance.
But until the money comes through and her eviction case is dismissed in Franklin County Municipal Court, Hawkins worries about being forced from her home in the midst of a pandemic that has left her jobless.
Columbus police homicide detectives are investigating the separate fatal shootings of two men Wednesday, one each in Franklinton and on the Northwest Side.
At 7:36 p.m., Columbus police responded to a 911 call about an argument that became a shooting on the 4900 block of Aspen Pine Boulevard in The Pines at Tuttle Crossing apartments off Wilcox Road on the Northwest Side near Dublin.
Officers responding found blood and then the victim, 22-year-old Tristan Foor, whom records show as a resident of the Pataskala area in Licking County. Although the apartment complex is located next door to Columbus Fire Station 34 on Wilcox Road, Floor could not be saved and was officially pronounced dead by medics at 8:33 p.m.