State resists releasing Corbin files as sheriff, deputies get set to be questioned under oath

High-stakes 3-way dilemma emerges: protect a potential criminal prosecution, blindfold the victims’ family, or hand the sheriff a legal roadmap to salvation

NORWALK — The Ohio Attorney General’s Office continues to resist a federal court order to turn over its investigative file regarding Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin’s handling of the Amanda Dean murder case.

Amanda Dean’s murder received a lot of media attention starting in late 2022. It is not the only suspicious death case, however, in which Sheriff Corbin and deputies allegedly mishandled evidence and witnesses and have treated the family of the victim in a demeaning manner. Sheriff Corbin has failed to keep appointments with Katelynn Shepard’s mother, and has never met with her family to provide an update on the investigation into her suspicious death. Earlier this year he failed to keep an appointment with her family and an advocate at the sheriff’s office, and he has never provided an explanation for why he is refusing to meet with them. The family has asked the sheriff to turn over the investigation to state agents, but Corbin refuses, and he’s declined to say why he won’t ask for the state crime lab’s help.

Attorney General Andy Wilson is citing confidentiality concerns and arguing that releasing state records could compromise potential ongoing or future criminal proceedings. State attorneys are currently awaiting a decision from U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary on whether the state will be forced to turn over the files to both the plaintiff and the defense in a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by Amanda Dean’s family.

Dean was murdered in 2017, but Sheriff Corbin refused to investigate her disappearance or death for more than six years. Public pressure finally forced Corbin to hand the case over to state investigators after a series of news reports in the Sandusky Register published in late 2022 detailed his office’s refusal to assist the family. Roughly a year after state agents took over, Dean’s live-in boyfriend, Fred Reer, was arrested and charged with murder. Reer was convicted late last year and sentenced to 14 years in prison in January.

To date, Corbin has offered no public explanation for why he gave Dean’s family a false narrative—claiming Amanda was alive, safe in a shelter, and simply did not wish to communicate with her mother, her sisters, or her four young sons. The family’s federal lawsuit names Corbin and 10 deputies, alleging they violated Amanda Dean’s civil rights by failing to arrest Reer after he brutally assaulted her just six months before her murder.

Test under oath