15-Year-Old Levi Sever Sentenced To Ninety Days In Juvenile Detention Center For Anti-Gay Attack On 15-Year-Old Zach Huston, Following News Story Cleveland Police Finally Investigate Bias-Motivated Attack On Transgender Female, Former Colorado Sheriff Arrested For Trading Methamphetamine To Male For Sex

A 15-year-old Ross County boy will serve 90 days in a juvenile detention center for the assault of a gay student that gained national attention after a cell phone video of the attack went viral on the Internet. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Levi Sever, 15, was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to a delinquency count of assault before Juvenile Court Judge Richard Ward. Zach Huston, 15, was assaulted on October 17 in a classroom at Unioto High School, with the youth and his mother both saying he was targeted because he is gay. Sever was ordered to undergo mental health counselling and continue his education during his detention, said Prosecutor Matthew Schmidt. Sever has not attended school since the attack, but school officials have declined to discuss the discipline he received. Huston and his mother, Rebecca Collins, have complained that school officials did not respond appropriately to their reports about bullying due to his sexual orientation. The attack prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio to threaten to take legal action against the school district unless it enacts changes to better protect students from bullying. School officials have declined to address the ACLU’s request, which included amending the district’s anti-bullying policy to specifically prohibit the harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

19 Action News broke the story of a transgender woman attacked at an RTA stop last week in Cleveland, Ohio and Wednesday reports that there has now been some progress in the case. Though still sore from being beaten and robbed, Alison Lancaster returned to the scene of the crime, the RTA station at W. 65th and Madison. On November 19th, three teenagers shouted gay slurs and punched and kicked Alison until she was unconscious. The 39-year-old nursing student, who spends much of her time volunteering as a suicide prevention counsellor, was walking out of the RTA station when she was attacked by 4 teenagers. "I was on the ground, there was blood everywhere. People screaming. And it was just surreal," said Allison Lancaster. She says the teenagers were shouting gay slurs, adding, "I had my big pink sweater on and that probably set em off." Days after the attack Allison felt like she was being dismissed by police. 19 Action News discovering that the officer who took the report failed to record it as a hate crime, and Cleveland Police took more than a week before they even assigned a detective to the case. However, days after the story aired, the FBI's Hate Crime Unit showed up at Alison's door. "Without 19 Action News, they probably would never have gotten wind of this. And I was amazed, because no police agency whatsoever has done anything close to this," said Alison. The area where Alison was robbed is dimly lit and not visible from the street. There are emergency call boxes, but when Alison was bashed, two of the three did not work. And according to a detective, the surveillance cameras were not working either. "My issue is, I'm coming home at eight o'clock at night, it's dark and I have to trust that this place is safe," said Alison. Today, all the call boxes have been fixed, but the surveillance cameras remain out of order.

Former Arapahoe County, Colorado Sheriff Patrick Sullivan was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trying to trade drugs to a man for sex, as investigators monitored the deal. Drug task-force officers were "visually monitoring" the deal when the 68-year-old former national Sheriff of the Year delivered methamphetamine to an Aurora home and sought sex in return, said current Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson. "This shows that no one is above the law, particularly a current or a former peace officer," Robinson said. The Denver Post reports that Robinson said Sullivan had an ongoing relationship with the man as well as other men he had a history of bonding out of jails in the metro region. Sullivan is being held on $250,000 bail in the jail that bears his name, the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility. He was sheriff from 1984 until his retirement in 2002. A call left at his family home in Littleton on Tuesday night was not returned. Sullivan's adult daughter told TV reporters outside her parents' home that the family was in disbelief and asked for privacy. The former sheriff was being held in an isolation cell Tuesday night and was scheduled to appear in court as early as Wednesday morning, Robinson said. The investigation is ongoing, and more charges and arrests are expected. Robinson said investigators received a tip earlier this month that Sullivan was involved in meth distribution, sparking the investigation that culminated in his arrest and staggering fall from grace. Sullivan had retired from law enforcement to become director of safety and security for Cherry Creek Schools in 2002, retiring from there in 2008. He was hired in the aftermath of security concerns following the deadly Columbine rampage of 1999. In a statement released Tuesday night, Cherry Creek School District Superintendent Mary Chesley said: "We are absolutely stunned at the news of Mr. Sullivan's arrest and are fully cooperating the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office with their investigation." Sullivan had a storied law enforcement career and was named Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriffs' Association in 2001. In 1989, the sheriff drove a Jeep through the fence of an Arapahoe County home to rescue two deputies and a wounded 17-year-old boy who had been taken hostage by a rape and murder suspect armed with a machine gun. He was named undersheriff in 1983 and appointed sheriff six months later, after Sheriff Ed Nelson died of a heart attack. He went on to win four elections. Sullivan was a nationally expert on cyberterrorism and other law enforcement issues. He participated in a state-wide meth task force in 2000. Sullivan faces a charge of unlawful distribution, manufacturing, dispensing or sale of a controlled substance, the Sheriff's Office said. The Class 5 felony carries a penalty of up to six years in prison. Robinson called it a "sad time" for his department.