Sitterly wants records case tossed

NORWALK — Huron County prosecutor James Joel Sitterly contends it's not his job to determine if records are being improperly removed or destroyed at the sheriff's office. And he wants a judge to dismiss a court case seeking an order to make him address the question. In a court motion filed last week, assistant prosecutor Jacob J. Stephens said it would be "legally unsupported" and "extra-judicial" for a judge to order his boss to intervene. But that's exactly what Tracy Thom, a public records advocate, wants to happen. "Public records are what keeps our public institutions functioning," Thom said. "If a public official has the power to pick and choose which records are retained and which ones are discarded where's the integrity in that?" Order of the court Thom asked the court to order the sheriff to "cease and desist." "Sheriff Todd Corbin, sheriff's office employees and Sitterly are improperly purging and/or destroying public records, specifically disciplinary records and potentially other (records)," Thom wrote in a writ for mandamus to the court on April 4, seeking a court order. "The sheriff, (the sheriff's office manager) and the prosecutor have provided no response that these practices will be stopped or supplied an inventory of purged or destroyed records," Thom's complaint alleges. "Sheriff Corbin has refused to answer questions and referred questions to prosecutor Sitterly, who, in turn, refuses to answer questions or hold the sheriff's office accountable and is allowing this malpractice." Thom made a public records request to the sheriff's office asking for disciplinary records related to Corbin's employment as a deputy before he became sheriff in 2017. In a Jan. 24 email to her in response, the sheriff's office manager, Erin Bauer, said there were no such records. "Be advised there are no disciplinary files. Any disciplinary action documents were purged in accordance with the contract bargaining agreement that was in effect at that time," the email, which is attached to Thom's court filing, states. Some disciplinary records were later provided, however, after the sheriff and the prosecutor were asked whether it's lawful to purge records based on provisions in labor contracts. It isn't lawful, according to legal experts. The Register, which made similar records requests to the sheriff, also received some records in April, the same day Thom filed her request for a court order. The sheriff and his office manager both said since then that all records in the possession of the sheriff's office required to be released have been provided. The Register requested records related to three alleged incidents that led to disciplinary action against Corbin. It received records related to two of those. Pop off In the first instance, Deputy Corbin agreed to a 10-day unpaid suspension "for unwarranted language toward supervisors," according to a Jan. 4, 2013, sheriff's memo. Corbin was placed on paid leave on Dec. 18, 2012, according to another file memo. "You are being sent for a fitness for duty exam (on Dec. 21) to be performed by a licensed psychiatric physician." That memo also states: "The evaluation is being ordered for you, not out of discipline, but due to your actions and several recent statements on your part. You stated you are stressed out, you needed time off and that something bad is going to happen. You have been inconsistent throughout initial inquiries." No documentation of those statements or of the prior interviews with him about the incident that led to his suspension has been provided. There is little to no detail about what happened to cause Corbin to be suspended and no record indicating whether the evaluation was, or was not, conducted. There are no statements from any other deputies or staff members. Without citing what records, the sheriff's office stated in an April 4 email that some documents — medical records, an ongoing investigation or investigatory practices/product and other unspecified records — are being withheld under lawful exemptions in the Public Records Act. No inventory or index for the records being withheld has been provided. Off-road The second incident for which records were provided relate to an on-duty traffic accident on June 26, 2013. Records provided included a crash reconstruction report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol; a report subtitled "The Search for (female passenger's name"); call logs; damage estimates; and accident reports. Both Corbin and the female passenger were injured in the accident. Corbin's was eastbound on Ohio 162 just east of Mill Road in Greenfield Township when he traveled off the right side of the road, struck an embankment and then a small tree, which bounced the cruiser back onto and across the road continuing to travel before coming to rest in a cornfield on the other side, according to the highway patrol report. Corbin told patrol troopers at the scene he swerved to avoid hitting a deer, the report states. The passenger, who was charged earlier with disorderly conduct and was being transported to jail, initially told troopers she did not see a deer. "It happened so fast," she responded when asked about it, the report states. But later, while being transported from the scene, she "verbally stated he swerved to avoid striking a deer," the report states. Efforts to interview the woman again to confirm what she witnessed were stymied, however, when she refused to talk with investigators and did not respond to their efforts to interview her. Corbin was cited for operating a vehicle without reasonable control. The cruiser sustained $7,100 in damages, the records show. Not your uncle Stephens, the assistant prosecutor who filed the response to Thom's lawsuit, accused Thom of "intentionally burdening" public officials by making records requests. "Due to (Thom's) apparent metastasized contempt (toward public officials), this cause of action festers," Stephens wrote in his motion to dismiss. Stephens also suggested that records "purged" per provisions in labor contracts do not mean records were destroyed. "At no time did anyone, either Ms. Bauer, or anyone else, on behalf of the (sheriff's office), state that any disciplinary records were destroyed," he wrote in his motion. But in an email to the Register dated Jan. 20, 2023, Bauer, the office manager, suggested it does mean that. "All records are purged in accordance with our records retention schedule (attached). The only purged items that require documentation of their destruction (RC-3) are the Jail Indexes and Jail Registers." Disciplinary records and internal reports are listed as permanent or semi-permanent (for as long or longer than someone is employed) records on the retention schedule. Thom said she will be representing herself at a court hearing later this month.