By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Wednesday marked just two days shy of his five-month anniversary as Common Pleas Court Judge but Sean Leuthold is just getting started.
Earlier that afternoon, Leuthold sentenced four people to prison with time ranging from seven months to two and a half years. That evening he gave a speech at the Crestline Public Library on heroin and the changes that Crawford County has seen in the short time he’s been on the bench.
Leuthold’s take-no-prisoners actions have become commonplace in the county and the community has shown it’s appreciation but he’s not going to let up on the reins any time soon.
Leuthold, a product of Crawford County, was the Municipal Court Judge for seven years before moving up a floor in the courthouse to become the Common Pleas Court Judge in February. He saw when heroin first dug its claws into the inaugural group of heroin addicts and when it tightened its grip into a steel hold on the county.
A number of years ago, drug dealers were simply a group of people that pooled their money together to buy balloons of heroin in bigger cities like Columbus or Toledo, used half of it, then sold the other half to locals.
“They weren’t violent; they weren’t scary. Local fools is what I called them,” Leuthold said.
That changed three years ago when the county began to see professional hardcore criminals move into the community. The drug dealers hailed from Marion, Mansfield, Toledo, Detroit, and even Chicago.
“Detroit began to send in professional drug dealers. These are guys that didn’t use drugs. They sold drugs,” Leuthold said. “That’s when it got scary.”
Those drug dealers attempted to create a heroin and human trafficking network. Prostitution of young women addicted to heroin became common.
“That’s where we stood probably about eight months ago. We had the local fools and then we had professional drug dealers who would come into our community,” Leuthold said. “Now how do we deal with it?”
Leuthold believes in something he calls the three I’s: in recovery, in treatment, or incarcerated. In recent months, a lot of the I’s have come in the form of incarceration but before Leuthold took the bench many of the lower-level drug offenses were put on treatment programs.
“I like what we’re doing now better but I’m not saying the other way was wrong. I think there were some very good ideas.”
Leuthold was referring to the use of the intervention in lieu of conviction program – better known within the court system as ILC. While on ILC, individuals could wrack up multiple felonies without being sent to prison and then be put on probation where they would continue to violate the terms of the program.
“That was how we used to do this,” Leuthold said. “As someone who had been dealing with the problem on the Municipal Court level, even though they were misdemeanors I knew this would not work. I think you cannot enable anybody.”
It typically takes someone seven times of in-patient treatment before it sticks but Leuthold said if they allow someone seven chances then the county will be overrun with people. Going just after dealers won’t help either.
“If that’s the approach we take, it’s never going to work. We can get rid of every dealer tomorrow but as long as there’s a large group of people who are sitting there ready to use heroin with no consequences whatsoever, someone else is going to show up,” Leuthold said. “You have to attack both the supply and the demand. At least, that’s my approach to this.”
Leuthold isn’t afraid to send someone to prison but when the law says that he can’t – if someone is a first time offender with a fourth- or fifth-degree felony – then he’ll make them walk the straight and narrow on probation.
“I treat probation very seriously,” Leuthold said. “If you don’t want to do what you’re supposed to on probation then you will go to prison. I make it very clear at the outset.”
To get a consensus of the numbers, in 2014 the court put 10 percent of probation violators in prison. Since Feb. 10 – the day Leuthold first sat behind the bench – 95 percent of those who violated their probation have been sent to prison.
“We’re not doing anybody any favors by just continuing to give the reputation that you can get away with anything,” Leuthold said. “Quite frankly, I think one of the reasons people came here is because this was known as an excellent place to come and get involved with heroin. It just was. We had that reputation.”
Leuthold has been setting a different reputation. Last year around 50 to 60 people went to prison, an estimate Leuthold received from the probation department. During the last five months 165 people have been put in prison. Of those cases, 30 have been sentenced to five or more years in prison compared to a total of 10 cases last year.
Leuthold has also become known for his high bonds, setting bonds at $200,000 and up without batting an eye when arraignment days come around.
“My job is to do two things: punish the offender and protect the public from future crime,” he said. “We’re not going to teach anybody a lesson unless the punishment fits the crime . . . I’ve got a reputation of being very tough, very harsh, very strict, and very unforgiving. I’ve earned that and I’m proud of it,” Leuthold said.
“For every person who I think has blown all their chances, I think there is someone out there we can help,” he said. “Do I announce that? No. I want people in the state of Ohio to say don’t go to Crawford County for heroin. Leuthold’s waiting on us.”
He advocates for those who he thinks can overcome the addiction. He spends time with those enrolled in his Intensive Supervision and Treatment program (ISAT) and closely monitors their progress. But when they step out of line, Leuthold is not afraid to slap the handcuffs on and send the offender on a perp walk out the door in front everyone else in the program.
“It’s not nice. I’m certainly not sweet. I don’t think any of them are going to send any Christmas cards soon – but it’s working,” Leuthold said.
Leuthold said much of the credit needs to go to the local law enforcement agencies.
“The police have done a fantastic job,” he said. “We’ve had more drug busts, undercover work. Because of the work they’ve done, because of the drug addicts we’ve kind of gotten rid of – the community’s getting better.
“I said by summer we’ll begin to notice a little bit of a change and we’ve had. By the end of this year you’ll notice a very noticeable change. By this time next year people are going to be saying there’s a success story,” Leuthold asserted.
A story released in the Columbus Dispatch earlier this week caused a lot of controversy in Marion and Leuthold and Crawford County became somewhat of an example to point to. The Marion police chief criticized the way his county’s probation department was being handled and noted that heroin dealers were fleeing Crawford County for Marion because of the crackdown locally.
“That’s not my goal. My goal is not to drive heroin addicts or heroin dealers into other areas but I think it’s a good sign for our community that we are not attractive anymore (for heroin),” Leuthold said. “The drug’s tough – I have to be tougher.”