Top 10 stories of 203: A lawsuit over 'Shawshank' lumber and a death in the county jail

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series counting down the Top 10 local stories of 2023.

The year that has been 2023 has been marked with many life-altering news events that touched the lives of people in Richland County as well as across the country and around the world.

Locally, the year included 12 homicides in Mansfield, the first occurring Jan. 3 when Layshawn Lovett, 16, of Mansfield, was shot and killed at the Quality Inn & Suites on North Trimble Road.

The year 2023 also meant the passing of numerous local icons who made a difference in the community, including Grant Milliron, Jeff Payton, Frank Ardis, Jim Gorman, Mickey Rupp, Chan Stevens, Don Nash, Scott Schaut, Gary Bishop and Burton Stahl, all residents of north central Ohio.

And, throughout the year, everyone in Richland County was reminded each time they opened their pocketbooks that inflation was rising on an ever-quickening pace, with no clear end in sight.

Wars continued to rage throughout the world including Israel and Hamas, the war in Ukraine against Russia, and the problems associated with the border along the United States and Mexico seeming to be never ending.

As 2023 comes to a close, the News Journal will review Richland County's 10 most impactful articles based on readers' page views and staff input. Today we will look at the 10th and 9th biggest local stories of the year.

No. 10: 'Shawshank' lumber lawsuit

Some of the lumber that was left from the iconic oak tree featured in "The Shawshank Redemption" remains at the center of a civil suit. The wood had been left at a sawmill for milling to be used for commemorative items, but allegedly was burned, according to the tree's co-owner.

The famous oak tree, which was struck by lightning in 2011 and fell over in 2016, had been located on private property on Pleasant Valley Road near Malabar Farm.

It was seen in "Shawshank" when Red, the character played by Morgan Freeman, walked along a hay field and removed stones from a rock wall, and where Andy, the character played by Tim Robbins, kept a gift for Red.

Dan Dees, co-owner of the property where the tree once stood, established a business that would sell milled portions of the tree which would then be converted into commemorative consumer products, according to the lawsuit, filed by his Cleveland attorney Robert J. Vecchio.

A civil jury trial is scheduled to start Feb. 8 in Richland County Common Pleas Court before Judge Phil Naumoff.

According to the lawsuit, Dees entered into an agreement in April 2017 with William A. Spohn, who owns and operates a sawmill in Perrysville. Dees was to deliver portions of the Shawshank tree to Spohn to store on his premises and mill into wood planks upon demand. Dees thereafter delivered portions of the tree to the sawmill operator, who stored the wood on his premises and would mill the tree as directed, according to the lawsuit.

As of October 2019, the sawmill operator had in his possession about 500 board feet from the butt log portion of the tree, the lawsuit alleges.

Around October 2019, Dees went to the sawmill and discovered the remaining portion of the the tree was missing.

"Defendant claimed that the same had been mistakenly burned by an employee of defendant in the process of cleaning up his property," the suit said.

Dees has suffered significant financial loss and damages and alleges that as a result of the defendant's destruction of Dees' property, the sawmill operator breached its contract with the plaintiff, the lawsuit said.

A portion of the tree had fallen on July 29, 2011, when the tree was split by lightning during a storm. In 2016, the entire Shawshank tree was down, apparently blown over by a southwest wind.

The filming of "The Shawshank Redemption" at the historic Ohio State Reformatory and much of north central Ohio in 1993, has since attracted visitors worldwide to the historic prison-turned-museum in Mansfield. The site of the film's oak tree is included on the Shawshank Trail, which links local places featured in the film.

No. 9: Federal lawsuit over Maggie Copeland's jail death

From the beginning of Maggie Copeland's scheduled 15-day incarceration on May 5, 2022, at the Richland County Jail, she was experiencing obvious signs of drug withdrawal, but a lawsuit filed in federal court Aug. 4, 2023 alleges her condition was met with "deliberate indifference" by those in charge who refused to provide necessary medical care even though she told them she was a heroin addict.

Six days later, Copeland, 29, of Mansfield, was found near death in a cell at the jail.

Copeland was found unresponsive at 7:08 a.m. May 11, 2022, lying naked with her hair cut off, with vomit coming out of her mouth in a cell at the Richland County Jail and was pronounced dead at 34 minutes later at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital.

Copeland's cause of death was listed as dehydration with renal failure, according to her autopsy from the Montgomery County Medical Examiner's Office. The death was contributed to by drug abuse, the report says. Copeland's autopsy said she had contusions of the left upper and lower extremities and abrasions of the knees, left leg, right hand and right wrist, per the autopsy report, which the News Journal obtained via a public records request.

The timeline and details of Copeland's tragic death are outlined in the 23-page federal lawsuit filed in August by Marion attorneys for Copeland's father, Jon Copeland, against Richland County Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon, Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. and numerous other defendants.

A mediation conference will be held Feb. 6 in the Carl B. Stokes United States Courthouse in Cleveland. A jury trial is set for Sept. 29 in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, Cleveland, where the lawsuit was filed.

Marion attorney Rocky Ratliff, who represents Maggie's father's, said this month, "For me, the conduct of the jail and anyone in the medical staff that had contact with Maggie, is egregious.

"She died of dehydration and renal failure," Ratliff said. "If they had given her water, a simple IV, she would've been alive," Ratliff said.

Ratliff said those in control of the jail did not take her to a hospital, believing she was a flight risk.

"She was in the jail on a misdemeanor. She was not a person where the community was a safety risk and certainly not in her condition. She was in withdrawal," he added. "I just don't understand treating people in the jail like they're not a human being. Her dad wanted her to get her jail time done so she could get clean. Treatment like she got will happen again (at the jail)."

During the book-in process, a mental health referral was made but no assessment was done, the lawsuit asserts.

Those in charge are alleged to have failed to complete paperwork, and allegedly noted "medical intake refused" and "medical history unknown" while Copeland's medical history was not "unknown" and was on file with the jail from prior incarcerations, the lawsuit alleges, but jail personnel failed to retrieve her records.

Copeland continued to experience serious withdrawal symptoms including vomiting, defecating, acting out, yelling and an increased inability to care for herself, the lawsuit says.

Copeland was arrested on Feb. 10, 2022, when a warrant was issued by the Mansfield Municipal Court for her failure to appear for probation. She was on probation for her conviction of possession of drug abuse instruments, a misdemeanor of the first degree, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges that jail officials' conduct was the cause of the Mansfield woman's death.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the Richland County Board of Commissioners; Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon; Capt. Chris Blunk, the jail's administrator; Chuka D. Onyeneke M.D., jail medical director and jail physician; Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. of Franklin, Tennessee; four of the agency's licensed practical nurses, and unnamed sheriff's deputies.

Tomorrow: The News Journal's countdown of the year's top stories continues with a look at the #7 and 8 stories of 2023.

lwhitmir@gannett.com

419-521-7223

X (formerly Twitter): @LWhitmir

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Top stories of the year include 'Shawshank' lumber lawsuit, jail death