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.
