There has been extensive news coverage in Ohio of pending state legislation to crack down on so-called "sweepstakes parlors" or "Internet cafés" – which according to backers of the industry, would regulate such businesses out of existence.

A grueling child molestation case finally came to an end – sort of – Wednesday, when defendant Thomas E. Shifflet agreed to plead no contest to three counts of gross sexual imposition.

A scheduled Friday (March 29) sentencing for a man convicted of molesting a 3-year-old girl has been postponed to Wednesday, after defense attorneys filed motions including one that seeks to have their client acquitted and asks for a new trial.

Following the former Jacksonville mayor's conviction for stealing money from that village, its insurance carrier has now sued him for its payout in connection with the crime.

With sentencing set for Friday in the case of a 76-year-old Glouster man convicted of gross sexual imposition (GSI) involving a 3-year-old girl, the judge in the case has ordered a pre-sentence investigation.

The Athens County Prosecutor's office has argued that the judge in the case of a man convicted of rape and kidnapping involving two young boys made the right decision when he found the developmentally disabled defendant, Richard "Ricky" Merryman, mentally competent to stand trial.

A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit against Athens County by a Nelsonville man, who claims county officials denied him a tax exemption for his charitable church camp, massively overvalued the camp property for taxing purposes, and discriminated against him for his religious activities and because he suffers from cerebral palsy.

An attorney for convicted rapist Charles Nguyen argued before an appeals court Thursday that Nguyen's trial attorney should have been allowed to question witnesses more extensively about an alleged ongoing sexual relationship he had with his victim, an Athens woman, prior to raping her.

An Athens County citizen who served on the jury in the trial of Thomas E. Shifflet on child-sex charges told The Athens NEWS Wednesday that the difficulty the panel had in reaching a verdict – it took some 19 hours of deliberations and resulted in a hung jury on three counts – was partly the result of two "holdout" jurors who were reluctant to convict Shifflet on any of the five counts against him.

An appellate court has ruled that an Ohio University student's appeal can proceed in a case in which a local judge denied her a public-defender attorney in a criminal case.