Board may learn fate of school today

        The board of a Mount Auburn charter school may learn today whether it can open by a Monday deadline.

        Hamilton County Common Pleas Magistrate Richard Bernat ruled on Sept. 12 that the board must post a $4 million bond to have access to the building at 244 Southern Ave. that has housed the school.

        The building is owned by the school's former management company, an affiliate of Minnesota-based Sabis Educational Systems Inc. The bond is assurance in case a court rules the board owes the management company damages.

        The board said it cannot post the bond because the management company is withholding some of the school's financial documents. On Thursday, the magistrate said he needed time to consider the case and asked the parties to reappear in court today.

Damaged film changes Omnimax schedule

        A damaged print forced the Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater at the Cincinnati Museum Center to cancel screenings of Bears, the feature listed in today's Weekend section.

        The theater will substitute screenings of Journey Into Amazing Caves and The Living Sea until a new print of Bears arrives early next week.

        For the screening schedule, call 287-7000.

Groundbreaking for Lincoln Heights clinic

        LINCOLN HEIGHTS — Officials will break ground today on a $4 million new home for a medical clinic that has served the needy in Lincoln Heights for 35 years.

        The new building for Lincoln Heights HealthCare Connection, to be built at Mangham Drive and Steffen Avenue, is set to open in October 2003. Previously, the clinic shared space in an apartment building and recreation center.

        The two-story center will include 18 examining rooms, eight dental stations, a procedure room for minor injuries, a laboratory, X-ray suite and a pharmacy.

        Since 1967, Lincoln Heights HealthCare Connection has served more than 100,000 residents from 21 neighborhoods in northern Hamilton County, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

No parole in kidnap of judge's wife

        LUCASVILLE, Ohio — A man convicted of abducting and robbing a judge's wife in 1989 will remain in prison for at least six more years, Ohio's parole board decided Thursday.

        Francis M. Smith Jr., 36, was found guilty of kidnapping and aggravated robbery and sentenced to 15 to 50 years in prison for the attack on Mary Ruehlman. Her husband, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman, was among family members who wrote to the Ohio Adult Parole Authority urging that Mr. Smith remain locked up. He is imprisoned at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

        The parole board ruled that Mr. Smith had not served enough time in prison for such a serious crime, spokeswoman Andrea Dean said.

        The board also considered that the victim was a judge's wife and that the family had sent letters urging that Mr. Smith be kept in prison, she said.

        Mary Ruehlman was 35 and the mother of a 5-month-old baby when she went shopping in Cincinnati on May 17, 1989, and was spotted by Mr. Smith, then a 23-year-old parolee.

        Mr. Smith hid in the victim's van when she went into a store. Authorities said that when Mrs. Ruehlman returned with her baby — the child is now 13 — Mr. Smith hit her over the head with a loaded .38-caliber handgun, choked her, put the gun to her head and ordered her to drive.

        Mrs. Ruehlman grabbed her daughter and jumped out of the moving vehicle.

Crash on U.S. 50 leaves one man dead

        GREENDALE, Ind. — A 66-year-old Harrison, Ohio, man was killed Thursday in a one-vehicle crash on U.S. 50.

        Raymond A. Heim of Citation Circle was pronounced dead at Dearborn County Hospital shortly after the 3:37 p.m. crash, Greendale police said.

        According to a witness, Mr. Heim was driving a 1997 Chevrolet truck eastbound between Interstate 275 and Oberting Road when it crossed the westbound lanes, struck a guardrail, recrossed the road and went over an embankment, police said.

        Traffic was reduced to one lane for about two hours.

Contributions taken for scholarship fund

        GLEN ESTE — Contributions to the Michael A. Partin Northern Kentucky University Memorial Scholarship fund will be taken tonight at the Glen Este-Anderson football game.

        Mr. Partin, the Covington police officer who died in the line of duty in January 1998, was a Glen Este football player and 1990 graduate. His two brothers, Joe Hamilton and Brandon Partin, graduated from Anderson in 1988 and 1998, respectively. Mr. Partin earned his bachelor's degree with a double major in criminal justice and political science form NKU in 1995.

        “We just continue to miss Mike and want to keep his spirit alive,” said his stepmother, Karen Partin. “He believed in education and in helping a deserving NKU student.”

        Donations will be collected in a number of ways at the game: an Anderson and a Glen Este football helmet will be passed among fans during the game, a donation table with a memorabilia display will be set up and donations jars will be placed at the concession stands.

        The football game will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Glen Este High School football stadium, 4342 Glen Este-Withamsville Road.

— Compiled from staff and wire reports

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