WEDNESDAY July 31, 2013
Commentary
Innovation One
Earning His Stripes
Area woman is library ‘Genius’
Trine program to develop orthotic device
Ex-ND player catching on at Bengals’ camp
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Weather A 40 percent chance of rain today. High 80. Low 62. Some sun Thursday. Page A6 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
GOOD MORNING Governor visits Kendallville today KENDALLVILLE — Gov. Mike Pence will visit Campbell & Fetter Bank, 126 Orchard St., today at 3 p.m. for the bank’s 150th birthday celebration. Later, Pence will tour the new Courier Digital Operations Facility in the East Industrial Park and attend a industrial leaders roundtable discussion hosted by Courier.
Three 4-H’ers score high at area tractor driving contest
kpcnews.com
Meth dealer sentenced to 7 years BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — A Kendallville man has been sentenced to seven years in prison and one on Community Corrections for making methamphetamine and two other offenses. Andrew C. Ramey, 20, was sentenced Tuesday in Noble Superior Court I, after being found guilty July 11 in a jury trial on charges of manufacturing meth, a Class A felony; possession of meth, a Class B felony; and resisting law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor. Two of Ramey’s family members spoke on his behalf. Each indicated he had been transformed by his meth addiction. “He is not the same person he was before the drugs,” said Ramey’s aunt, Brenda Arnett. Ramey’s mother, Deborah Ramey, said he was very happy-go-lucky and never lost his temper before the drugs. “Now, he’s a monster,” she said. Andrew Ramey once overdosed and passed
out for three days, Deborah Ramey said, adding, “I know now I’m the parent of a drug addict.” “This is someone with a methamphetamine addiction,” defense attorney Eric Blackman said of his client. “Getting caught may actually have saved his life.” While a Class A felony carries a sentencing range of 20-50 years in prison, Noble Superior Court I Judge Robert Kirsch had the freedom to suspend any or all of the sentence, since Andrew Ramey had no prior criminal record, Blackman said. Blackman asked Kirsch to sentence Ramey to 20 years in prison, with four years to be served and 16 years suspended and 10 years on probation. Ten years is the maximum time allowed on probation under Indiana law. Noble County Prosecutor Steven T. Clouse said Ramey had endangered people in the Northside Apartments, students at North Side Elementary School and three Kendallville SEE METH, PAGE A6
BOB BRALEY
Andrew C. Ramey, left, is escorted from the Noble County Courthouse Tuesday after being sentenced in Noble Superior Court I to seven years in prison and one on Community Corrections for manufacturing methamphetamine.
From Boot Camp to Summer Camp
State school grades probed
KENDALLVILLE — Three Noble County 4-H’ers have qualified for the Indiana State Fair 4-H tractor driving contest following Area XI competition Saturday at the Noble County Fairgrounds. A total of 43 entrants competed for the opportunity to represent the area at the state competition. Noble County 4-H’ers going to the state are: Jordan Winebrenner, Noble Township, second in the junior lawn tractor division; Wyatt Hicks, Elkhart Township, second in the junior tractor division; and Jared Gross, Swan Township, first in the junior zero-radius division. Also competing for Noble County were: Thad Foster, Jefferson Township; Devon Nichols, Wayne Township; Christina Coats, Elkhart Township; William Stayner, Noble Township; Bailey Rose, Elkhart Township; and Cameron Francis, Perry Township.
Expert: Bennett should step down
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Free boat rides offered during GSP anniversary ROME CITY — The Rome City-Brimfield Lions Club will offer free boat rides on Sylvan Lake during the Gene Stratton-Porter 150th Anniversary, Aug. 17-18. Boats will run both days from 12 to 4 p.m. departing from the historical site to Camp Big Island (old Boy Scout Island) and return. There will be no charge, but Lions Club members will accept cash donations and canned goods to the Rome City Helping Hands Food Bank.
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Info • The News Sun P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400 Fax: (260) 347-2693 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (260) 347-0400 or (800) 717-4679
Index
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Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A3 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A6 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 104 No. 209
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U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Ryan Petrie of Albion enjoys the view of Lake Muncie at Camp Luther-
haven, where he is on staff during his 60 days of military leave this summer.
Air Force officer spends leave at Camp Lutherhaven in Albion BY KATE STOLTZFUS kstoltzfus@kpcnews.net
ALBION — When Ryan Petrie was given 60 days of military leave, he didn’t have to think too hard about where he would spend them. He would go back to Camp Lutherhaven in Albion, the place he loves most in the world. Petrie, 22, graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in May with a degree in aeronautical engineering and two months of free time. After four years of training, studies that put him in the top 20 percent of his class and the prospect of a move to Anchorage, Alaska, this Saturday, the newly named second lieutenant knew exactly what he wanted for the summer. “You have to choose very carefully what you want to do with your leave, because you don’t want to waste it,” Petrie said. “When I went to the Air Force Academy, I knew that I would be giving up my opportunity to be a counselor. I’ve been a camper at Camp Lutherhaven since 1998 and
always wanted to be on staff.” A lucky schedule gap allowed him to finally join the camp staff. During his eight weeks at camp, Petrie has served as a counselor for boys’ cabins and also worked with landscaping and construction projects. The relationships he built with both campers and staff is an experience he “would not trade for anything,” he said. The skills Petrie learned during his four years at the academy even came in handy. “There is a mental stamina you need to deal with campers,” Petrie said. “Every time you go somewhere, all eight campers in your cabin split in eight different directions, and you have to corral them back and get them on same page. The constant struggle with getting them to do what needs to happen takes a lot of mental strength, and I’ve compared it to the strength you need for a program like the academy.” Petrie committed to his dream of being in the Air Force as a freshman at Central Noble High
“You have to choose very carefully what you want to do with your leave, because you don’t want to waste it.” Ryan Petrie Air Force officer
• School. His parents, Jack and Sandy, both served in the Air Force and were able to share their knowledge. Petrie, who grew up in Albion with two sisters, always loved airplanes and working with people; the Air Force seemed like a good way to tie those passions together. The 2009 graduate was the third person from Central Noble to go to a military service SEE CAMP, PAGE A6
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana education leaders on Tuesday pledged a thorough review of the state’s system for evaluating schools after The Associated Press reported a former official who now serves as Florida’s education commissioner worked to alter a grade for a school founded by a top Republican donor. Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz said the Department of Education is examining the current A-F grade calculations “to ensure that every school has the grade they earned in 2012; nothing more, nothing less.” Tony Bennett, who was appointed Florida’s top education official in December, denies any wrongdoing. He says the changes to Indiana’s grading formula weren’t solely directed at Christel House Academy. But emails obtained by The Associated Press show Bennett and his staff scrambled last fall to ensure influential donor Christel DeHaan’s school received an “A,” despite poor 10th grade algebra scores that initially earned it a “C.” Jim Stergios, executive director of the conservative-leaning Pioneer Institute in Boston, said Bennett needs to resign his Florida position for violating the trust of Indiana students and parents. “All you have as an official is your credibility. And that people trust you to do the right thing,” Stergios told The Associated Press. “He has been entrusted with the hopes of parents and the aspirations of children. That’s a sacred trust.” But in Florida, at least one SEE SCHOOL, PAGE A6
After nearly 24 years on the lam, Huq back in area BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
ANGOLA — Mafuz Huq will be facing a judge Thursday in Steuben County for the first time since an arrest warrant alleging murder was issued for him nearly 24 years ago. Huq, 47, was returned to Steuben County on Tuesday afternoon after being processed upon his return to the United States in the Marion County Jail, Sheriff Tim Troyer said in a news release. Huq arrived in Indianapolis on Saturday and underwent medical exams before being transported to Angola.
Huq, a naturalized U.S. citizen, has been on the lam since August 1989 after authorities believed he allegedly stabbed to death Todd Kelley, 19, Hamilton, on Aug. 9, 1989. Authorities said Kelley’s girlfriend, who had previously dated Huq, found his Huq body. Huq, who was 22 at the time, was charged with murder two weeks after Kelley’s death. At the time,
Huq already was accused of threatening to kill anyone who dated his former girlfriend. After the murder, Huq eventually fled the country. He had been living in Bangladesh, the home country of his parents, under the assumed name of Asif ul Huq. Indiana State Police Detective Kevin Smith tracked down Huq about five years ago through a variety of sources. He was found in Bangladesh, but the United States doesn’t have an extradition treaty with that country, so efforts to get Huq returned to the U.S. fell on deaf ears.
In either late 2010 or early 2011 it was learned Huq would be traveling to India for a teaching engagement and he was arrested on a provisional arrest request from federal authorities as he deplaned in New Dehli. Since his February 2011 arrest, Huq was held in the Tihar Prison system pending extradition. Huq had fought extradition proceedings while in custody. That and other technicalities in dealing with a foreign government’s legal system, Troyer said, had delayed Huq’s extradition.