37-year-old Bryant Rose has been charged with felonious assault, abduction, and having a weapon under disability. The Lima Police Department says that back on January 29th of 2021, officers were called out to the 600 block of Fourth Street, where a man barricaded himself inside a house with a hostage. 

When the state biennial budget is approved, which could be Wednesday, Allen County will be feet to the ground to figure out a solution to their public defender shortage. Commissioners and Allen County public defender Stephen Chamberlain meeting to discuss how to proceed with the restructuring of court-appointed counsel. The governor has included additional money to reimburse county public defenders for their services. Both the Senate and the House are on the same page with the governor's proposal and Allen County is looking to create a public defender's office.

Allen County has taken the next step in addressing its concerns for the public defenders. The county commissioners, on Tuesday, met with the public defender of Allen County Stephen Chamberlain and Ohio Public Defender Tim Young. Currently the county has three part-time public defenders in municipal court, the rest are all court appointed. Young presented the numbers of cost and what primary staff is needed for a county public defenders office. He estimates it would take $1.45 million to start up an office with 10 full-time lawyers and a private investigator with guaranteed salaries.

Law officials in the county say steps are being taken to address public defender issues that were raised last week. The NAACP said they intend to file a complaint against the public defender's office over the effort of court appointed representation. Both Judge Jeffrey Reed and attorney Stephen Chamberlain agree there are issues, but not with effort.