WEDNESDAY August 28, 2013
Auction on TV NBCSN to air Auburn event Page A5
Proud Winners
Retro football
Area 4H participants do well at State Fair
Colts relying on hard-nosed style
Page A6
Page B1
Weather Chance of rain today with high of 88. Tonight’s low 65. Sun back Thursday. Page A8 Kendallville, Indiana
Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
kpcnews.com
U.S. set for strike on Syria
GOOD MORNING United Way to serve free burgers KENDALLVILLE — United Way of Noble County will be giving away free hamburger meals Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on North Main Street in front of the KPC Media office building. Last week, United Way volunteers grilled and served 250 hamburgers in Albion. Tuesday, the Board of Public Works approved the use of three Main Street parking places for grilling and serving the meals. Drive-up service will not be offered. Those wishing to partake in the free lunches must walk to the serving area.
Farmland values up even after drought WEST LAFAYETTE (AP) — The worst drought in nearly a quarter century didn’t stop Indiana farmland values from continuing to grow in 2012, a Purdue University study released Tuesday shows. High net farm income, low interest rates and high farmland demand with supply combined to increase land values upward by 14.7 percent to 19.1 percent, depending on productivity, according to the study. Farmland rental rates rose by about 10 percent. “While the 2012 Indiana crop suffered from the worst drought since 1988, the increase in farmland values did not bother to slow down,” Craig Dobbins, a Purdue Extension agricultural economist, said in a news release. The drought sent corn and soybean prices soaring to all-time highs, the study said. Combined with crop insurance indemnities, that meant better-than-expected farm incomes. High-productivity land values jumped by 19.1 percent to $9,177 per acre, the study said. Average-productivity land increased 17.1 percent to $7,446 per acre, and poor-productivity land was up by 14.7 percent to $5,750 per acre.
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BOB BRALEY
Steven Gibson, right, is escorted from the Noble County Courthouse Tuesday to begin serving his
40-year prison sentence for child molesting.
Man given 40 years BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
ALBION — A former businessman was sentenced Tuesday in Noble Superior Court I to serve 40 years in prison for molesting two boys inside the Kendallville business he co-owned. Steven Gibson, 54, of Kendallville pleaded guilty to child molesting, a Class A felony; child molesting, a Class C felony; and being a habitual offender, a sentence enhancer. The sentence also includes 20 years after Gibson’s release during which he must remain free of all offenses and have no contact with
his victims. In pleading guilty to the Class A felony offense, Gibson admitted that he molested a boy less than 14 years old between Oct. 1 and Nov. 14, 2012, in R & S Collectibles, the shop he then co-owned in the 100 block of West William Street in Kendallville. On the Class C felony charge, Gibson admitted he fondled a different boy less than 14 years old in the shop between May 1 and July 1, 2012. Gibson also admitted he was sentenced for four counts of burglary, all Class B felonies, on Dec. 3, 1980, and one count of theft, a Class D felony, on Feb. 28, 1997.
“I wish I could go back in time and change it so it didn’t happen,” Gibson said. “I know I must pay for what I’ve done. I’m so sorry that it ever happened.” Gibson said he also wishes he could fix what he’s done, adding, “By me going away, that’s the best I could do.” Noble County chief deputy prosecutor James Mowery said Gibson acknowledges he is a predator. “He quite literally set up a business to attract and lure in the exact age group that he, himself, said he is attracted to,” Mowery said. SEE SENTENCE, PAGE A8
Two facing drug charges BY BOB BRALEY bbraley@kpcmedia.com
WOLF LAKE — Criminal charges have been filed involving a large marijuana-growing operation allegedly discovered Friday in Wolf Lake, Noble County Prosecutor Steven T. Clouse said Tuesday. Eldon R. Leitch, 58, and Darla Jo Perkins, 48, both of Wolf Lake, have been arrested. Each is charged with dealing marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school, a Class C felony; possession of more than 30 grams of marijuana, a Class D felony; possession of marijuana with a prior conviction, a Class D felony; and maintaining
a common nuisance, a Class D felony. The charges are the result of a nearly two-month investigation by the Indiana Multi Perkins Agency Group Enforcement Drug Task Force. Officers obtained a search warrant Friday from Judge Michael Kramer of Noble Superior Court II. The Noble County Sheriff’s Special Operations Group assisted in serving the search warrant. Officers allegedly discovered
47 marijuana plants growing in the basement of a residence on South Wolf Lake Street in Wolf Lake, court documents said. They also allegedly found marijuana seeds and items related to the manufacture of marijuana. Leitch and Perkins were arrested Friday afternoon and have been held in the Noble County Jail since then, pending Tuesday’s filing of the formal charges. The IMAGE Drug Task Force is a multiagency unit serving Noble, DeKalb, Steuben, and LaGrange counties. This story was posted on kpcnews.com at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration tried to bolster its case Tuesday for possible military action against Syria within days, with intelligence agencies preparing to release intercepted communications aimed at proving Bashar Assad perpetrated a large-scale chemical weapons attack on civilians. “There’s no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in Syria: the Syrian regime,” Vice President Joe Biden said. The U.S. and international partners were unlikely to undertake military action before Thursday. That’s when British Prime Minister David Cameron will convene an emergency meeting of Parliament where lawmakers are expected to vote on a motion clearing the way for a British response to the alleged chemical weapons attack. Obama and Cameron conferred on response plans Tuesday, their second known conversation in recent days. Administration officials argued that Assad’s actions posed a direct threat to U.S. national security, providing President Barack Obama with a potential legal justification for launching a strike without authorization from the United Nations or Congress. However, officials did not detail how the U.S. was directly threatened by an attack contained within Syria’s borders. Nor did they present concrete proof that Assad was responsible. “Allowing the use of chemical weapons on a significant scale to take place without a response would present a significant challenge to, threat to the United States’ national security,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Assad has denied using chemical weapons, calling the allegations “preposterous.” Obama is weighing a response focused narrowly on punishing Assad for violating international agreements that ban the use of chemical weapons, an act the president repeatedly has said would cross a “red line.” Officials said the goal was not to drive the Syrian leader from power or impact the broader trajectory of Syria’s bloody civil war, which is now in its third year. “The options we are considering are not about regime change,” Carney told reporters. According to U.S. officials, the most likely operation would be largely sea-based, with the strikes coming primarily from Navy warships in the Mediterranean Sea. Fighter jets often are deployed to SEE SYRIA, PAGE A8
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
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Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A6 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion .............................................B4 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 104 No. 237
City officers taught self-defense tactics BY MATT GETTS mgetts@kpcmedia.com
KENDALLVILLE — Three decades ago, Lee Shaykhet used his techniques to teach special forces soldiers in the former Soviet Union. This week, Shaykhet, 58, who came to America in 1979 and lives in suburban Detroit, has been passing on that knowledge to police officers from Noble County law enforcement agencies with daylong seminars on self-defense and defensive tactics at the Best Western Hotel Kendallville Inn. A literal hands-on instructor, Shaykhet demonstrated skills to
safely and quickly subdue a person who is a physical threat or must be taken into custody. There was not a lot of repetition to the maneuvers he used, and that’s precisely what makes the training so effective, local officers said. Most area police departments have a couple of officers who are highly skilled in hand-to-hand fighting. They practice their skills often, and are usually called upon to teach their fellow officers. Some of the skills they teach can take a lot of repetition to master, and they involve fine motor skills such as finding a
SEE OFFICERS, PAGE A8
MATT GETTS
Defensive tactics instructor Lee Shaykhet, right, explains a maneuver with the help of Kendallville Police Department Patrolman Steven Hus during training Monday at the Best Western Kendallville Inn.