Does Sitterly have plan to kibosh BCI investigation that 'Grieving Mom' wants?
Huron County Prosecutor 'warns' her that Ashli Ford might crash Tuesday’s meeting
Prosecutor James Sitterly is managing expectations days before a high-stakes meeting with a grieving mother. But his “off-record” warnings suggest a strategy designed to protect the status quo, not find the truth.
NORWALK — Huron County Prosecutor James Sitterly’s “Library Leak” to a reporter on Thursday wasn’t just gossip. It was a strategic maneuver. When Sitterly privately signals that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) will “likely reject” the Katelynn Shepard case, he isn’t predicting rain. He is building the umbrella.
The Trap
The BCI is an invitation-only agency. They do not kick down doors in Huron County unless a local official—the Sheriff, the Prosecutor or police—invites them in. But here is the catch: the BCI is only as good as the file it gets handed. If a Prosecutor sends a “request for assistance” that is thin, biased, or intentionally omits the Highway Patrol’s admission that they “couldn’t explain the fire,” the BCI will look at that file and say, “There’s nothing for us to do here.”
This is the emerging plan based on the “off-record” comments Sitterly made on Thursday during a clandestine meeting with a reporter. StayTunedSandusky learned about the conversation through a third party and confirmed what was said with the reporter, who did not deny the comments attributed to Sitterly.
Sitterly also has not denied he told the reporter to “warn” Tricia Shepard and Tracy Thom that convicted podcaster Ashli Ford might attend Tuesday’s meeting with the sheriff. If Sitterly allowed that to happen, it would likely represent a violation of the state’s Marsy’s Law, a crime victims’ bill of rights. Tricia has a pending complaint against Ford, who she says is exploiting her daughter’s murder as clickbait on social media. Police and prosecutors are required to respect crime victims and protect them while investigations are being conducted and while court cases are being resolved.
Ashli Ford, a podcaster convicted on felony intimidation charges last year for threatening Norwalk city officials, is claiming at social media that she’s discovered new evidence in Katelynn’s case, but she hasn’t turned anything over to police. Sitterly didn’t mention that during his meeting with the reporter, but it’s a common “clickbait” tactic that Ford uses: She doesn’t put up, or shut up. Prosecutors claim she exploits crime victims; Tricia contends “she’s trying to make a buck off my daughter’s murder.” Not following through on claims of new evidence is what Ford does.
Sitterly should have made it clear to Ford when she contacted his office—if she did contact the office—that she was not invited and would be barred from attending. Instead of doing that, he warned Tricia, through the reporter, that Ford might be there. When contacted after StayTunedSandusky learned about his comments, Sitterly declined to say if he intended to protect Tricia from further humiliation by Ford, or if he would bar her from the meeting. Sheriff Todd Corbin did not respond to questions.
A Pattern of Silence
A special prosecutor is expected to make a decision next week whether to charge Ford with telecommunications harassment. Ford posted private Shepard family text messages on Facebook without their permission—among other alleged transgressions against the family—which is a violation under the statute, a legal expert told StayTunedSandusky.com. Ford violated the statute every time she posted a purloined message, he said. She’s since taken Tricia’s messages off her page, according to a source. It’s not clear if she’s scrubbed all of her other posts with private messages from people who never gave her permission to share them. Each such post would be a violation, the expert said. Ford blocks reporters from seeing her social media pages.
The Ohio Attorney General’s office, which was notified of Sitterly’s potential violation of Marsy’s Law, did not respond to questions late last week. It appeared Sitterly intends to deal with Tricia by “asking” the BCI to investigate, but asking it in such a way that the crime lab will say “no” and reject the request. The “I tried” strategy of handing the BCI a folder designed to be rejected is the ultimate “get out of jail free” card for a local official with a bad case on his hands.
The only people who stand ready to stop him from doing that are Tricia and advocate Tracy Thom, and Sitterly won’t give them any guarantee that they will be protected from Ashli Ford showing up on Tuesday.
