Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold has made waves ever since taking the bench nearly a year ago.
Since that time, the county has seen a record number of indictments and a significant increase of defendants sent to jail. Some of Leuthold’s refrains have become nearly commonplace in the courtroom as he takes a hardline stance against drugs. From the oft uttered “this is not the county to be doing drugs” to the unusual “three idiots with a pellet gun,” Leuthold has made his mark on Crawford County, whether residents believe it is for good or bad.
So who is Sean Leuthold and what is he doing on Crawford County Now’s opinion page? Well, we have opened the floor for the judge to speak about whatever he wants to talk about. Over the next five days we will be running a five-part introduction piece on Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold. Each day will feature a different section of the interview our reporter Krystal Smalley had with Leuthold about himself and the justice system in Crawford County. After that, Leuthold will occasionally submit articles to us that will cover a range of topics of his choosing.
Welcome to . . . The Judge’s Chambers.
Krystal: Was there something that happened for you to take such a hard stance against this drug addiction? You’re known to take a hard stance in this county.
Leuthold: This is what is influencing me in dealing with the drug and our crime problem. When I was the Muni Court judge, I would deal with the smaller things where the person could only get put in county jail, misdemeanor charges. Now some of those are very serious charges, but they’re still considered misdemeanors. All your traffic offenses, some of your minor drug possession cases, domestic violence cases, theft, shoplifting. I deal with the misdemeanor portion, but I could see that was only the tip of the iceberg. I would have someone in court for a misdemeanor, but there was no doubt in my mind that they were involved in drug dealing or permitting drug abuse. And I knew that there were felony issues going on, but obviously I had no jurisdiction over it and I couldn’t deal with it.
I felt like I was rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I was trying to handle misdemeanor stuff, but the bigger stuff was beyond my reach. What I found is that heroin and opiate addiction is by far our number one problem. When I first took the Muni Court bench, I began to see this get bigger and bigger and bigger. I went around and gave speeches, talked to people and explained to them what the problem was, but the bottom line was I could do nothing to solve it. Because as long as the felony behavior wasn’t being addressed, it just wasn’t going to get better.
And so, what I though is one of the things we needed to do is we needed to kind of go back to basics. Make people understand that their actions have consequences. There’s nothing worse than letting someone continually get away with something, because they learn that there’s no consequences. Then trying to correct five years down the road after a person’s done what they wanted for five years is almost impossible.
I wanted to take a new approach. I wanted to make certain that people who violated the law, especially when it concerned drugs, received immediate consequences. Whether that be county jail, whether that be a short prison stint, or whether that be a maximum prison sentence. That’s the first thing I wanted to make sure everybody understood.
A judge’s job – there’s a lot of things that we do – but the bottom is I’ve got two main jobs, and it’s spelled right out in the Ohio Revised Code statute. I’m supposed to make certain that offenders are punished properly, and I’m supposed to protect the public from future crime. I take both of those jobs very seriously, especially with protecting the public. Letting drug dealers back out on the streets, giving people very, very minor punishments when a greater punishment is needed, all that does is put the public in danger and encourages more people to violate the law and it makes the situation worse.
One of the things I was dealing with when I first took the bench is there were a lot of drug dealers from out of town. These weren’t people from Crawford County, they were people from cities throughout the Midwest. They were coming here; they were setting up shop; they were dealing drugs. These were very dangerous people.
One of the things I wanted to make clear is if you’re selling drugs, committing dangerous crimes, and you’re a major danger to our public – well, then I’m not afraid to give you the maximum sentence. I think probably the first six months on the bench I handed out more sentences I could count around the 10-year range. And I think it is important to let people understand this is a county where we’re not going to tolerate that kind of behavior.
Welcome to The Judge’s Chambers series: Part I