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WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008
NEWS
MINUTE
SPORTS
Indians blank
Oakland, 4-0
Paul Byrd and two relievers combine for the Indians’ fourth shutout in
seven games. Details, D1
Tweaking
the marathon
Officials have made minor
changes in the course for
the Rite Aid Cleveland
Marathon to make it easier for runners to navigate. Details, D2
METRO
Jackson, 4 others
flying to Paris
Cleveland will pay more
than $14,000 so officials
can fly on Continental Airlines’ first nonstop flight
from Hopkins International Airport to Paris.
Details, B1
NATIONAL
Clinton wins big
in West Virginia
Hillary Clinton says her
victory has made her
more determined than
ever to press ahead with
her campaign.
Details, A8
INTERNATIONAL
China struggles
in quake’s wake
Tens of thousands remain
buried in the rubble of
China’s earthquake, as
the death toll climbs
above 13,000.
Details, A4
OBITUARY
PRESSURE
BUILDS
ON DANN
HIS PROBLEMS STACK UP
IMPEACHMENT: House Democrats file
articles of impeachment accusing the
attorney general of a ‘pattern of misconduct’
INSPECTOR GENERAL: Dann
offers to quit if lawmakers delay
an independent investigation of
his office by the Ohio inspector
general, but the offer is rebuffed.
CALL TO STEP DOWN:
Dann meets with Lt. Gov.
Lee Fisher, who urges
him to resign.
Pop art giant
Rauschenberg dies
Master of turning the
mundane into a masterpiece, Robert Rauschenberg, pioneer in pop art,
has died at 82.
Details, B7
FORECAST, B10:
Mostly cloudy
with a
thunderstorm.
High 64,
low 48.
A SPECIAL SCENE
See a video as
Brian Duer, a
U.S. Army
specialist,
surprises his
son, Sean
at school.
cleveland.com/
pdmultimedia
General Marc Dann clung to his
job Tuesday after spending most
of the day trying to cut a deal to
resign.
Facing intense pressure to step
down, the 46-year-old Democrat
offered to quit if Republican Senate President Bill Harris agreed
to delay an independent investigation of Dann’s office by Ohio
Inspector General Tom Charles.
But Harris rejected the offer.
Dann kept his tenuous hold on
the job Tuesday as fallout from a
sexual harassment scandal enveloping his office continued.
His fellow Democrats brought
unprecedented articles of impeachment, while House and
Senate Republicans gave fasttrack approval to a bill allowing
Charles to investigate the attorney general.
Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland signed the bill into law Tuesday evening.
Dann’s dance with Harris began after House lawmakers voted
83-13 to approve the legislation
giving Charles the ability to investigate Dann, authority he
otherwise would not have.
State Rep. Bob Hagan, a
Youngstown-area Democrat and
longtime Dann friend, said he
acted as a middleman with
Harris. Dann wanted lawmakers
to remove an emergency clause
giving Charles the ability to immediately begin his investigation,
rather than wait the customary
90 days for a bill to take effect.
“All he is trying to do is resign,
and they’re not accepting his resignation for political reasons,”
Hagan said. “My conversation
with Bill Harris was very clear
and very direct. I’ll have Marc
Dann’s resignation within one
hour, Bill, if you agree to take
that [emergency clause] out of
there.”
Hagan speculated that Dann
and his attorney hoped that a
90-day cooling off period could
make a new attorney general’s
transition easier and perhaps
make the inspector general’s investigation unnecessary.
Harris spokeswoman Maggie
Ostrowski confirmed Hagan’s account of the meeting with Harris.
see DANN A3
MAIN
NEWS
Section A
METRO
Section B
Deaths.....................B6
Opinion ..................B8
BUSINESS Section C
SPORTS
Section D
STYLE/ARTS
& LIFE
Section E
TV listings ..............E2
Comics ....................E6-7
Movies ....................E8
TASTE/
Section F
CLASSIFIED Section G
Bridge .................... G10
4
Kar en Sandstrom
Plain Dealer Reporter
On a rainy Cleveland evening in April 1921, hundreds
of people gathered at West
65th Street and Detroit Avenue
to celebrate the newly built
Gordon Square Arcade and its
attached movie theater, the
Capitol.
After a few speeches and a
tune from a six-piece orchestra, the Capitol screen lit up
with its debut feature film,
“The Inner Voice.” The female
lead, actress Agnes Ayres,
would lose her fortune years
later in the stock-market crash.
But at the moment, the silentfilm world still held promise,
and she was a star.
A little of that 1921 excitement might be in the air at
4:10 p.m. today as community
leaders in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood gather inside the Capitol to celebrate a
$7 million project aimed at
renovating the theater and invigorating the neighborhood.
Construction begins Thursday to turn the theater, empty
for 23 years, into a threescreener specializing in independent films. It is slated to reopen in April 2009.
This marks the newest and
largest investment to date in
the Gordon Square Arts District.
see THEATER A6
THE PLAIN DEALER
WHAT DANN SAID
After a day of trying to negotiate his resignation, Ohio Attorney
Gen. Marc Dann said he is not quitting. “At this point, that’s not
what I’m going to do,” he said.
WHAT THE IMPEACHMENT PAPERS SAID
The nine articles of impeachment include accusations that Dann
obstructed an internal investigation into sexual harassment
allegations against one of his managers, made misleading
statements, committed acts of gross neglect of duty and gross
immorality, failed to exercise due care in administering the
office, failed to ensure safe use and security of state property
and failed to investigate improper use of state property.
WHAT’S NEXT
Now that Gov. Ted Strickland has signed Senate Bill 3, Inspector General Tom Charles has the authority to immediately begin an independent investigation of Dann’s office.
UPDATES ONLINE AT CLEVELAND.COM
Park attack suspect
avoided long jail terms
Revitalization, rebirth:
More than good theater
Detroit-Shoreway’s Capitol redo is linchpin
INSIDE
74776 18011
Regi nald Fields,
Aa ron Marshall
an d Mark Naymik
Plain Dealer Reporters
C o l u m b u s — Ohio Attorney
BREAKING
NEWS ALL DAY
6
LISA DEJONG
Repeated robberies of women fed addiction
Mark Puente
Plain Dealer Reporter
LISA DEJONG
THE PLAIN DEALER
The seats in the balcony of the Capitol
have been there since the start, 87
years ago.
Todd Torok has bounced in
and out of prison without much
notice for most of his adult life
but avoided long stretches behind bars.
The career criminal has tried to
run over police and robbed store
owners and drug dealers to feed
his addiction to crack cocaine.
But nobody was ever seriously
injured — until Saturday, when
police said he repeatedly bashed
Chevonne Ecclestone in the
head with a 15-pound rock as
she walked her poodle in a
Parma park. The attack came 10
days after Torok’s most recent
release from prison.
RAP SHEET: A closer look at
Todd Torok’s past convictions
and sentences. A7
Ecclestone remained in critical condition in a chemically induced coma Tuesday at MetroHealth Medical Center. Torok is
back in jail, charged with attempted murder, felonious assault and aggravated robbery.
Torok has a long history of
targeting women.
In 1991, he stole $10 from a
61-year-old coat-check attendant at a Cleveland restaurant.
A few days later, Torok
shoved a gun in the face of a
store clerk on Clifton Boulevard.
see TOROK A7