Hearing set for Monday in $150 million Positano civil suit

Ravenna, Ohio is a city of 11,771, named after Ravenna, Italy, where Dante Alighieri, the father of the Italian language, was buried in 1321.

It's the county seat of Portage County, home to Kent State University, whose 33,000 students once included Sault Ste. Marie's Sarah Positano.

Tomorrow, a Dantesque inferno will descend on Ravenna's Portage County Courthouse (shown), in the form of a $150 million wrongful death suit launched against authorities by Positano's family.

Sarah Positano, a gifted gymnast, was beginning her last term at Kent State University in 2005 when she was shot dead during a standoff between police and a man armed with an assault rifle who, only hours earlier, had slain his 42-year-old girlfriend and her seven-year-old son.

Positano's parents believe police botched the standoff.

The Sunday edition of the Akron Beacon Journal has a lengthy article about the upcoming civil trial.

To read it, please click here.