Cleveland, OH

Mother sues private Northeast Ohio prison over son’s fentanyl overdose death

Published

11 months ago

April 23, 2025

Mother sues private Northeast Ohio prison over son’s fentanyl overdose death

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The mother of a man who died of a fentanyl overdose in a private prison in Northeast Ohio has sued over her son’s 2023 death.

Bonnie Billings of Canton accused officials at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center of negligence and failing to provide a safe environment after Montel A. William’s death.

She named the prison’s warden and its parent company, CoreCivic, as defendants in the lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in Youngstown.

CoreCivic spokesman Brian Todd said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation. He said that safety is a top-priority for the company and that it has a zero-tolerance policy against drugs or other contraband getting into the prison.

“Contraband is a nationwide challenge for all corrections systems, both public and private,” Todd said in a statement. “We work as one team with our government partners, and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies on investigative and intervention efforts to remove, detect and prevent the introduction of contraband at all of our facilities, including NEOCC.”

The prison typically holds some 1,500 federal pretrial detainees and inmates serving state prison sentences.

The lawsuit said someone smuggled drugs into the prison and that Williams, 30, died from either purposefully or unintentionally ingesting the drug Oct. 31, 2023.

It said the death happened because of the prison’s “lax care policies and failure to exercise due care.”

Williams was serving a four-year, six-month sentence on a felonious assault conviction in Stark County at the time he died.

It’s the latest in a string of lawsuits against the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. The lawsuits include accusations by employees who were attacked by inmates and that prison employees failed to get medical help for a man who was stabbed several times.

Federal prosecutors in recent years have also charged two guards, a nurse and members of a violent street gang with smuggling items, including drugs, inside the lockup.

Adam Ferrise covers federal courts at cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. You can find his work here.

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Cleveland, OH

2nd tornado confirmed after storms slammed Northeast Ohio

Published

5 hours ago

April 3, 2026

Press Room

2nd tornado confirmed after storms slammed Northeast Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The National Weather Service confirmed another tornado after Tuesday evening’s severe thunderstorms.

An EF-1 tornado touched down in Chesterland in Geauga County with an estimated 100 MPH peak wind speed.

It touched down at about 5:49 p.m. and lifted at 5:51 p.m.

The tornado traveled 1.53 miles with a width of 120 yards, NWS confirmed.

2nd tornado confirmed after storms slammed Northeast Ohio(WOIO)

Tornado warnings were issued in these counties:

Cuyahoga
Geauga
Holmes
Lake
Stark
Wayne

19 News reached out first responders in the areas where tornado sirens were set off, but there was no significant damage reported.

However, many remain without power on Thursday.

Check the outage maps by FirstEnergy, Cleveland Public Power, and AEP for the latest developments.

Get the latest on the severe weather on the 19 First Alert Forecast webpage

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Cleveland, OH

Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert Trolls Fans With Hilarious April Fools’ Day Post

Published

17 hours ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert Trolls Fans With Hilarious April Fools’ Day Post

Dan Gilbert will forever be a hero in the city of Cleveland for the way he runs the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is not afraid to spend his money in the pursuit of winning. That is all fans can ask for in an owner.

His work in Cleveland makes it easy to forget he is a Michigan native and was specifically born in Detroit. Thus, the Michigan ties run deep.

That is why some fans may have been shocked when they saw a tweet Gilbert put out Wednesday morning. Yet all people had to do was check the calendar and read closely to figure out it was all a joke.

Introducing our proposed name for Cleveland’s new WNBA team… THE Ohio Wolverines.
The Midwest work ethic is a real thing. As someone who has spent a lot of time on both sides of the lake, I can tell you that Ohio and Michigan have far more similarities than differences.
We’re… pic.twitter.com/DC2cISudxh
— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) April 1, 2026

His pitch? Calling Cleveland’s new WNBA team the “Ohio Wolverines.”

Dan Gilbert has fun at the expense of Cleveland fans

Gilbert even goes as far to suggest the Detroit WNBA franchise call itself the “Michigan Buckeyes.” What he is not joking about is calling Lake Erie “the Midwest’s own Mediterranean.” That is no April Fools’ exaggeration.

The replies seem to show most people understood it as a joke. Yet there are certainly people who were clearly duped, perhaps too prideful to share it on social media.

Gilbert has the grace and goodwill among Cleveland fans to make a joke like this. What would have happened if Jimmy Haslam made a joke on social media to this magnitude? That would have been enough to power local talk shows for a week.

The Dolans, owners of the Guardians, would also not find a big sense of humor among fans.

Gilbert’s spending allows him to get away with these fun pranks

The Cavaliers are among a handful of teams spending over $200 million in cash on player salaries this season. Guardians fans could only dream of such spending, and MLB does not even have a salary cap. Thus, fans are often on Gilbert’s side for his commitment to winning.

This post also reminds fans of the coming WNBA franchise, which will debut in 2028. That team will only add to Gilbert’s portfolio in the city.

His Cavs are also among the favorites to win the NBA title in 2026.

The excitement only continues in the summer, win or lose, as rumors of another LeBron return will loom over the franchise. Such a move would likely be the next time fans would be talking about a Dan Gilbert social media post.

More Cavs coverage on our YouTube channel here:

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Cleveland, OH

Tornado touched down in Wayne County on Tuesday night

Published

1 day ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

Tornado touched down in Wayne County on Tuesday night

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-0 tornado touched down in Wayne County as severe thunderstorms raced through Northeast Ohio Tuesday evening.

The Wayne County tornado touched down and lifted at 9:56 p.m.

It traveled .11 mile with a width of 75 yards and peak wind of 85 MPH, NWS confirmed.

Tornado touched down in Wayne County on Tuesday night(WOIO)

Tornado warnings were issued in these counties: