wford 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: You have become a big topic on social media, both good and bad. How can you respond to that sort of thing?
Leuthold: I think everybody should have an opportunity to express their opinion. I try not to look at too much of it, but every now and then I’ll take a look at social media and see someone say something negative about me or positive about me. I’m going to do my job the best way I can. I’m going to do what I can to protect the people of Crawford County, so I don’t get too upset if somebody’s negative. In fact, look – people have a right to have a negative opinion about me and I understand that.
What I do find frustrating, thought, is when people don’t understand the process. I don’t mind getting criticized for the stuff that I do, but it does sometimes frustrate me when I get criticized for something that has nothing to do with me, or when someone absolutely has the whole situation wrong. One example is there’s some people who, for some reason, think that I am sentencing people under federal law. They’re saying we should repeal all these federal laws and they’re unconstitutional. I’m a state judge. I am not allowed to apply federal law; not one single person who I’ve sent to prison has been sent to prison because of a federal law. It is state law passed by the state legislature – it’s called the Ohio Revised Code. There’s not been one person who violated federal law that’s come in front of me. That would have to be a federal bench.
That’s one example. There’s a few people, for whatever reason, who think that I’m applying unconstitutional federal laws – there is no federal law; it’s the state. If you’ve got a beef with laws, you don’t repeal the federal laws because they don’t apply – call your state legislature.
Other than when something’s completely wrong, I actually think getting on the internet, talking, saying things good or bad about me – I’m completely fine. Quite frankly, you know what? If somebody actually wants to talk to me about this, even if they don’t like me, give me a call. I will come and I will answer any questions, have a town hall meeting. I’ll give everybody a chance to ask questions, give me their opinions. Maybe at the end they might understand, maybe at the end we’ll agree to disagree.
I’ve given speeches to groups that liked what I was doing and I’ve also given some speeches to some people who didn’t think I was doing the right thing. Usually at the end I may not completely change their mind, but I do think they look at things a little differently. So if there’s any group out there that doesn’t like the way I’m doing things and they want me to come and speak, I’m more than happy to do so.
Krystal: Do you think having this ability to talk like this (in The Judge’s Chamber), especially certain issues – like you said federal laws or whether or not someone’s prison eligible – this is a good thing for you or for the community?
Leuthold: I think it is. I think the more people understand our criminal justice system – and our justice system in general, not just the criminal stuff – works, the better it is.
Another good example is I’ll have someone I cannot put in prison. You’re nice enough to write in there that I say, ‘look, I wish I could put you in prison, but I can’t.’ And then someone will criticize me because I didn’t put them in prison when I made it very clear that I’m not allowed to. So I think that if people understand that we’re applying state law, understand that some people are ineligible for prison, understand what the maximums are. Every now and then someone says why didn’t you give them 10 years in prison. Well, the charge carried with it a maximum of 18 months. I think if people understand what our laws are, what they allow the judge to do, what they don’t allow the judge to do – I think the more people understand our criminal justice system, the better it is.
For example, the heroin issue. We’re making some progress there because people in our community understand the heroin problem now. When it first reared its head five, six, seven years ago, I would go round and give speeches and nobody even understood what I was talking about. They didn’t know what heroin looked like, they didn’t know how it was sold, they had no idea how it got in our community, and, quite frankly, that made it harder to deal with.
The more informed the public is, the better we are to deal with the problems; the better people understand our judicial system, I think the better off we are, too.
Krystal: Do you have any ideas on what you want to write about first?
Leuthold: I’m going to probably put together an article and it’s going to talk sentencing – why people receive certain sentencings. Obviously, I’m not going to talk about any individual, but what I’m supposed to take into consideration when I sentence someone. I’ve started writing a little bit about that, and so when people read that a person got a particular sentence, that’ll give an idea why that person got it and what I had to take into consideration. I think that’s the first thing.
Krystal: Are you excited about having this sort of connection to the community?
Leuthold: I am. As a judge, I’m limited in some things. I can’t talk about any individual case – and that wouldn’t be fair for me to do that – I can’t talk about any case that’s in front of me, and that’s not fair. But I can explain to the public how the judicial system works, what as a judge I’m supposed to take into consideration, what the law is on certain matters. I think when people get a chance to look at that I think they’ll be interested. And down the road when they read about something it in the paper or on Crawford County Now, they can say, ‘oh, I know why that happened because I just read what the judge said.’
Welcome to The Judge’s Chambers series: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV