After reading the articles published about the county conviction rates, I felt compelled to inform the public as to what I have observed throughout my career. I have made no secret of my support for Rob Ratliff in the upcoming Crawford County Prosecutor’s race. Prior to coming to work for the Municipal Court, I was employed as a Sergeant Deputy Corrections Officer at the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office. In that role I was routinely angered by the way our current prosecutor treated and defended law enforcement. My support is based on my experience as a former member of law enforcement, as a former private citizen employed in the security field and now, as a member of the Crawford County Municipal Court staff. I have articulated below by reasons for supporting Rob Ratliff for County Prosecutor.
To understand fully why we need a new County Prosecutor, we must first recall the history of our current prosecutor. The current prosecutor was previously the Bucyrus Law Direct. While in that office, he required Bucyrus Police Officers to handle the in court arraignment docket rather than doing it himself. This was even when our police department was so short staffed that no more than two officers were on duty at the time. To this day, as county prosecutor, he still has deputies and troopers handle the arraignments in Municipal Court. As Law Director, our current County Prosecutor also subjected the City of Bucyrus to default verdict of over one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) because he failed to properly respond to discovery requests. Thankfully, this verdict was later overturned on appeal, but only after the City of Bucyrus spent thousands of dollars on hiring outside counsel.
We should not forget that when a Bucyrus police officer was attacked by a criminal wielding a spear, that criminal received only eighteen months. What received even less attention was the treatment of Bucyrus Police Chief Dave Koepke. Chief Koepke was assaulted by a suspect fleeing after stealing items from a local drug store. We remember the pictures of his bloody and bruised face on the front page of the paper. But we forget the months of anguish suffered by Koepke following the incident as defense cousel subpoenaed Koepke’s medical, school and other personal family records and our prosecutor never sought to intervene or attack these subpoenas. Even after taking the case to trial and dragging Chief Koepke and his family through the med, his attacker only received a sentence of 5 years.
Perhaps what angered me most was an incident at Colonel Crawford. A young middle school student there witnessed a drug transaction on school property. This young man found the courage to report this incident to school officials who notified sheriff’s deputies. The kids involved were eventually charged and sentenced. But, the young man that reported the incident suffered the release of his name to the public. Afterward he found himself the victim of personal attacks and bullying on social media sites. There was no reason to release this juvenile’s name.
Let’s not forget that during my employ at the Sheriff’s Office, a former inmate with a lengthy criminal history filed a frivolous civil protection order, in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, against an officer under my supervision. This caused enormous stress unnecessarily on a sixteen year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office. Our current County Prosecutor was not going to even advise this officer until prompted to do so. Rather, he was going to just leave the officer to handle it all by himself.
There was also an incident that took place at a recovery house for drug and alcohol addicts that still brings my blood nearly to a boil. A lifelong criminal was bringing drugs to the recovery house purchased with money given to him by one of the recovering addicts. This happened on four separate occasions. The only charge and conviction in this case was a felony 5 Possession of Drugs. The Ohio Revised Code statute clearly defined this as drug trafficking and could have been filed as four separate counts for each different date that this took place. Instead a drug trafficker was sentenced to only probation and now walks the streets among us after essentially ruining any progress, to that point, toward recovery for four recovering addicts. Regardless of what the exact conviction rate is, this is exactly the point that Mr. Ratliff is trying to relay to the public. Our current Prosecutor, in my opinion, did not pursue the appropriate charges and another drug trafficker was let off the hook.
Our current prosecutor rarely makes any criminal court appearances. In fact, as best as I can tell, even entering his fourth year on the job, he has yet to try a felony case by himself. In fact some highlights of the trial docket demonstrate drug dealers like Jarrell Walker and Torin Jones get acquitted, released, and later arrested again after committing new drug offenses. How many drugs were dealt and how many more people ended up hooked on drugs before these two were arrested again? Brian Brown was charged with attempted murder after he shot his girlfriend twice. The jury acquitted on that count, finding him guilty of the lesser offense of felonious assault. He admittedly shot her, twice, but they could not prove attempted murder? And can we forget Donald Hoffman who confessed to four murders but didn’t face the death penalty?
I think most shocking to me is the current murder case involving the death of Frederick Saunders, Sr. of Galion. Mr. Saunders’ son and his wife are both charged with aggravated murder in this case. But based on what I have learned, the County Prosecutor allowed the body of the victim to be destroyed, prior to giving defense counsel a chance to examine the body. I am not a lawyer, but I know enough to know that in any murder case the defense and their experts have a right to examine the body! I don’t know how this will work out in the courts but there is potential that a murderer could walk free because of this mistake made by our County Prosecutor.
These are just some of the reasons why I am supporting Rob Ratliff for County Prosecutor. I watch him in Court nearly every day. It is impressive to watch someone that knows the case, knows the law and can present that knowledge in a clear fashion that everyone in the room understands. I have heard Mr. Ratliff explain how to build cases against drug dealers, how to use conspiracy and RICO laws to obtain longer sentences for drug dealers, and why the difference between drug trafficking and drug possession is so important. I know there is one man that will aggressively work hard to build the cases and win the battle for our streets. That person can only be Rob Ratliff. Please join me on Tuesday, March 15th and elect Rob Ratliff, Crawford County Prosecutor.
-Michael A. Stover
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