Please pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Charles Mentrup
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Sue Cifelli
Nov 3, 2006, 8:52:21 PM11/3/06
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Coroner: Priest was driving drunk
Middletown Journal
http://www.middletownjournal.com/search/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/11/01/ddn110206mentrupfolo.html
http://www.middletownjournal.com/search/content/gen/ap/OH_Priest_Killed.html
http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/11/03/mj110406mentrupfuneralweb.html
The Rev. Charles Mentrup was drunk when he crashed his car on Interstate 75 and died early Tuesday, according to Butler County Coroner Dr. Richard Burkhardt.
Tests performed Wednesday showed that Mentrup, 47, of Middletown, had a blood alcohol limit about three times higher than 0.08, the level at which Ohio law presumes a driver to be impaired, when he crashed his 2004 Buick LeSabre.
His exact alcohol level won't be available until toxicology tests are complete, the coroner said.
Middletown City Manager Bill Becker, a close friend of the popular priest known as "Father Chuck," said he was surprised at the finding about the former Fenwick High principal.
"That's sad," Becker said. "Thank God there was nobody else hurt."
Mentrup, who had no passengers in his vehicle, was killed at 2:58 a.m. Tuesday when his car slid off the interstate just south of Ohio 129, struck an embankment and flipped over. Not wearing a seat belt, he was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.
An hour and 11 minutes before the accident - about the time it takes to drive from Lawrenceburg, Ind., to the West Chester Township crash site - Mentrup filled out a $1,600 win ticket from Argosy Casino, required by Indiana for anyone who wins more than $1,200 gambling, Burkhardt said.
Those close to Mentrup, the driving force behind Warren County's first Catholic high school, said the priest known as a dedicated pastor and enthusiastic educator frequently gambled at the riverboat casino.
Six years ago, Mentrup also made headlines after he was stabbed in the early morning hours of May 5, 2000, by Marcus Finefrock, 25, of Columbus, at the priest's Middletown home.
Finefrock, a Kettering Alter High School student while Mentrup was on staff there, was charged with felonious assault, but the charge was dropped after Mentrup refused to testify against him. Mentrup said he was hearing Finefrock's confession when the stabbing occurred.
Ordained in 1988, Mentrup taught and coached at Alter and taught at La Salle High School before he was named principal at Fenwick in 1997. The school moved from a campus in Middletown to a 67-acre Warren County site off Ohio 122 and more than doubled its enrollment during Mentrup's eight years at the helm.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Friday at 2 p.m. at La Salle.
Fenwick will celebrate the priest's life during a memorial service at the school Nov. 12 at 5 p.m.
Middletown Journal
http://www.middletownjournal.com/search/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/11/01/ddn110206mentrupfolo.html
http://www.middletownjournal.com/search/content/gen/ap/OH_Priest_Killed.html
http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/11/03/mj110406mentrupfuneralweb.html
The Rev. Charles Mentrup was drunk when he crashed his car on Interstate 75 and died early Tuesday, according to Butler County Coroner Dr. Richard Burkhardt.
Tests performed Wednesday showed that Mentrup, 47, of Middletown, had a blood alcohol limit about three times higher than 0.08, the level at which Ohio law presumes a driver to be impaired, when he crashed his 2004 Buick LeSabre.
His exact alcohol level won't be available until toxicology tests are complete, the coroner said.
Middletown City Manager Bill Becker, a close friend of the popular priest known as "Father Chuck," said he was surprised at the finding about the former Fenwick High principal.
"That's sad," Becker said. "Thank God there was nobody else hurt."
Mentrup, who had no passengers in his vehicle, was killed at 2:58 a.m. Tuesday when his car slid off the interstate just south of Ohio 129, struck an embankment and flipped over. Not wearing a seat belt, he was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.
An hour and 11 minutes before the accident - about the time it takes to drive from Lawrenceburg, Ind., to the West Chester Township crash site - Mentrup filled out a $1,600 win ticket from Argosy Casino, required by Indiana for anyone who wins more than $1,200 gambling, Burkhardt said.
Those close to Mentrup, the driving force behind Warren County's first Catholic high school, said the priest known as a dedicated pastor and enthusiastic educator frequently gambled at the riverboat casino.
Six years ago, Mentrup also made headlines after he was stabbed in the early morning hours of May 5, 2000, by Marcus Finefrock, 25, of Columbus, at the priest's Middletown home.
Finefrock, a Kettering Alter High School student while Mentrup was on staff there, was charged with felonious assault, but the charge was dropped after Mentrup refused to testify against him. Mentrup said he was hearing Finefrock's confession when the stabbing occurred.
Ordained in 1988, Mentrup taught and coached at Alter and taught at La Salle High School before he was named principal at Fenwick in 1997. The school moved from a campus in Middletown to a 67-acre Warren County site off Ohio 122 and more than doubled its enrollment during Mentrup's eight years at the helm.
A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Friday at 2 p.m. at La Salle.
Fenwick will celebrate the priest's life during a memorial service at the school Nov. 12 at 5 p.m.
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