BUCYRUS — Michael Bloomfield of Bucyrus pleaded guilty in Crawford County Common Pleas Court Tuesday to domestic violence, a third-degree felony punishable with up to three years in prison.
Bloomfield, 42, was arrested on June 21 for domestic violence that sent the victim to the hospital. Bloomfield was indicted by a Crawford County Grand Jury on July 7 on several charges including felonious assault, a second-degree felony punishable with up to eight years in prison. Four days after his indictment, the victim, Bloomfield’s wife, died.
A plea agreement was negotiated between the state and Bloomfield’s attorney on September 11. There was some possibility that the victim died due to injuries sustained in the beating. While state representatives waited on the autopsy report, they began a pre-sentence investigation.
Depending on the results of the autopsy report there was a possibility Bloomfield could be indicted for murder or homicide. The victim’s body was sent to the Lucas County Coroner’s office for an autopsy. Due to the pandemic, the autopsy results came in shortly before the sentencing hearing.
Lucas County Coroner Diana Scala-Barnett concluded that the victim died of an overdose of dangerous drugs including fentanyl and heroin.
Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold said there had been a lot of negotiation in the case and a lot was riding on the autopsy result.
“This is a very tragic and difficult situation for the family and the state. I’ll be upfront: the defendant is not a decent citizen,” Leuthold said. “But the state has a problem. A dead victim cannot testify. There are, of course, exceptions but not in this case. If this were to go to trial, a coroner, the highest authority on the cause of death and the star witness, would come in here and testify that this victim died from a drug overdose. There were noted injuries on the body. But according to the coroner’s report, they were not the cause of her death. This makes it impossible for the state to pursue further charges. But it does not alleviate the family’s pain.”
Leuthold told the packed courtroom of several representatives for the victim and one for the defendant that a person cannot be convicted without proof of guilt.
“But it’s not over folks. He’s on community control in my court. There are at least 15 standards of conduct on community control and whatever special condition I place on him,” Leuthold said. “I am putting him under the supervision of Chris Heydinger, one of the best detectives ever in Crawford County, who is now retired and working for me. He’s smart, he’s thorough and he doesn’t take any nonsense. This guy will not be in bars, he won’t be around felons and he won’t have any contact with any of the victims.
We will drug test him once a week,” Leuthold continued. “He’s been in jail 114 days. I can tell you that about one-third of the people I send to prison are people who violated their community control. If you don’t believe that just, read Crawford County Now.”
One representative, the victim’s aunt, gave an emotional impact statement on behalf of her family. She told the judge that the victim and her husband had both been to a bar the night she was beaten. They came home and Bloomfield was in bed eating a Popsicle. When his wife climbed over him in the bed, she knocked the Popsicle out of his hand and onto the bed and he became enraged.
He beat her so badly against the playpen that it broke. She showed pictures of the victim before and after the beating. She read some of her Facebook posts in which she said he had made the decision to get her and her family away from him. On June 23, she (the victim) wrote; “it is my job to protect them”.
The victim representative told the court that she feared Bloomfield’s next victim, who is living with his mother, will be his 18-month-old daughter. She said Bloomfield was violent that night and asked the court for the maximum penalty.
Leuthold ordered Bloomfield’s mother brought into the courtroom. When officers went to the hall, she was gone.
“I’m gonna tell you right now. You are not having any contact with that baby. You can’t live with your mother as long as she has that baby,” Leuthold said. “There is no doubt in my mind that you contributed to her drug use. You were a violent, screwed-up person on drugs that night. If you try to contact this child directly or indirectly your ass is going to jail. I don’t care what any other court tells you either. What I say goes or there will be hell to pay.”
Bloomfield was placed on five years of community control. He must complete domestic violence and anger management and assessments, as well as all, follow-up treatment. He was given 114 days of jail time credit.
