Sheriff asked to step down

PORT CLINTON — A woman who has advocated in the past for crime victims on Thursday called on Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Levorchick to resign, contending he's failed to adequately investigate sexual assault crimes and failed victims. Tracy Thom, who has successfully helped crime victims seeking justice, including a woman who was scammed out of nearly $300,000 in 2014, asked Levorchick to step down in response to an email he sent her. "I respectfully decline your offer to meet with you to discuss the inappropriate conduct in your office. While your correspondence to me here suggests a shift in your attitude, prior communications and conduct leads me to conclude that further communication with you would not address the current concerns or history," Thom wrote. Thom has a history of working on behalf of victims. She monitored a recent criminal case against a woman the sheriff's office accused of falsely reporting a rape. In 2019, she advocated on behalf of women who worked for former Sandusky County prosecutor Tim Braun, who were sexually harassed by him and, in at least one instance, allegedly touched inappropriately. Braun took a plea deal and was forced to resign. Call to step down Levorchick did not reply to an email seeking comment and did not return a phone message left for him Thursday afternoon. An automated email response from Levorchick said he was out of the office between March 2-6. In an email to the Register dated March 1, Levorchick acknowledged that "oversight of this office is ultimately my responsibility." He also stated that the "ultimate decision(s) as to what, if any, charges, lies in the hands of the prosecuting attorney." Thom contends the investigation that started in 2020 after a woman filed a complaint about an unwanted sexual encounter was improperly turned on the alleged victim. "The treatment of (her) by your office has convinced me that you should step down," Thom wrote to Levorchick. "In December, (the woman) was acquitted at trial on charges that should never have been brought forward." She was charged with making a false alarm after Levorchick's then lead detective alleged she lied about being raped. A judge determined that wasn't so, however, and acquitted the woman at a trial in December. "That case exposed long-existing deficiencies in your leadership that makes it clear to me that victims of sex crimes have been mistreated and not believed for years," Thom wrote in the email she sent to Levorchick, which was also made available as a press release to area media outlets. Timeline "As an advocate of crime victims, I know firsthand the failures of the prosecutor's office under Mark Mulligan to seek justice for victims, and I have come to realize you, too, are part of this culture," Thom wrote. Mulligan was voted out of office in November 2016. Thom also contends Levorchick "had many opportunities to fix past mistakes," but he failed to do that. She contends he didn't divulge a 2008 rape complaint that involved the same person named in the more recent complaint in which the woman was charged, and that "questions remain as to how (Levorchick) handled that (earlier) complaint" and his "personal relationships in that regard." She also cited other rape investigations that failed under Levorchick's watch. "From 2008 to 2014, the failed investigation of serial rapist McClain Durst caused traumatic fallout for the victim that I can only imagine, not to mention the subsequent pain and anguish caused by Durst's obsessive subsequent sexual attacks on other underage girls after the Sheriff of Ottawa County failed to keep him off the streets." Durst, a registered sex offender at the time, was accused of raping a 16-year-old girl. But the detective Levorchick assigned to that investigation told Durst she didn't want him to be charged with rape, and that she would charge the girl with filing a false report, if she could. Mulligan made a plea deal with Durst without informing the girl or her family for him to be charged with contributing to the unruliness of a minor. Thom said Levorchick is "continuing the Mulligan culture," making "it clear that Ottawa County is unable or unwilling to bring rapists and serial predators to justice." In his March 1 email to the Register, Levorchick said he wasn't aware what was discussed concerning the Durst case. "I was not privy to any conversations between (the detective) and Mark Mulligan," he said. Thom also contends that personnel under Levorchick's command shared graphic, intimate photos of a sexual assault victim "in complete disrespect and disregard for her humanity." "It's my understanding these photos were shared in a mocking manner with others in your office and outside law enforcement. Those engaging in such mockery included you." She continued. "The buck stops with you, sir. The only person remaining from the Mulligan culture and its mistreatment of women is you. It is for these reasons and the safety of future victims that I ask that you step down from your position and let the healing begin for the victims you have failed," Thom wrote.