Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Here We Go Again...

Sandusky County, home of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library, Mad River Railroad Museum and a host of other small-town attractions, is in the national spotlight.

And it is bad.

It seems that Sheriff Kyle Overmyer has a problem. A huge legal one at that, involving theft in office, deception to obtain prescription pain medications and tampering with records, to name a few.

Overmyer has been indicted on 38 felony counts following a year-long investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, which was begun at the request of Sandusky County Prosecutor Thomas Steirwalt after allegations of misconduct by the Sheriff came to his attention.

Suspicions arose when, during Sandusky County's drug give-back event, Overmyer himself visited several police agencies to collect the unused drugs, a highly-unusual practice. It is alleged that Overmyer searched each container, helping himself to those drugs that appealed to him. He also visited several area physicians and asked for prescriptions for pain medication for unnamed maladies.
Overmyer also fudged the books on the Furtherance Of Justice funds in his office, monies to be used to pay for law enforcement-related expenditures.

Thirty-eight felony counts, along with an assortment of misdemeanor charges. That is serious business, whether you're the county Sheriff or a local trash collector. My guess would be that Mr. Overmyer is drug dependent, refusing to recognize his addiction and take steps to get help for his problem.

Now he will pay a price, even in the very unlikely event he is acquitted of all charges. Once a scandal is out there in the media, the damage has been done. It cannot be unread, it cannot be retracted. For an agency such as BCI to gain thirty-eight felony counts against an individual, well, where there's smoke, there's fire.

It's just too bad that the citiens of Sandusky County and all law enforcement officers everywhere will be stained by Overmyer's actions while Sheriff.


Monday, August 22, 2016

Under the Heading of 'What Was He Thinking?'

There's a little beach spot in South Carolina between Murrell's Inlet and Myrtle Beach called Surfside. Never been there, but I'm sure it's quite popular with the vacation crowd during the summer months when there's no school. The town's residential population is listed at 4,119 residents, its beach advertised as 'family friendly'. It boasts a fishing pier, branch of the Horry County library, a zoo, an aquarium and lots of small Mom and Pop diners.

All in all, it sounds like a very nice little community.

Bion Legrand Shoemaker III, one of Surfside Beach's residents, just gave the town...and Socastee High School...a black eye.

Shoemaker, 45, is a teacher there, instructing special needs students. Apparently he was looking for summer income, as many school teachers do, when school is out. He, despite his college education, decided on the sideline of becoming a criminal.

It seems that Shoemaker had a penchant for breaking into vehicles and homes. When school started on August 17th, Shoemaker didn't show up for class; he was arrested by SBPD the next day. “We are pleased to be able to recover some of the victim’s property in these cases. This is still a very fluid investigation,” said Surfside Beach Police Chief Rodney Keziah. “We anticipate recovering more property and possibly making additional charges.”

Shoemaker is currently jailed at the Horry County Correctional Center and is on paid administrative leave from Socastee High School pending the outcome of his trial.