WEBVTT - To Protect & Serve 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.360 Welcome to The Piketon Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:06.840 Katie Studios. We are here today for the kase State 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:11.000 of Ohio versus Charles Reader, case numbers twenty nineteen CR. 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:15.440 Sixty eight the cornel now here from mister Reader. I 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.960 stand here before you today to take accountability for my actions. 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.919 To accept responsibility for my conduct, I said, Sheriff of Ohio. 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:28.480 I should excuse me. Everything that I've worked for professionally, 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.199 in honorably for twenty five years was stripped to me 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.920 with nobody good pointing but myself. If I could go 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:43.200 back and change it, I would a million times. This 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:48.159 is not who I am. Never ever did I imagine 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.920 myself on the defense side of this court route that 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.760 I've spent twenty five years of my life in this 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:02.520 county in law enforcement. I am a good person, make 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:08.600 bad decisions and choices I have, and I'm out pray 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:15.040 that the work will find mercy on me. This is 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.440 the Piked and Massacre returned to Pike County season two, 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.800 episode five, To Protect and Serve. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.640 television producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Lydecker and Jeff Shane. 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.399 On the morning of April twenty second, twenty sixteen, the 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:35.120 Pike County Sheriff's Office responded to calls of multiple homicides 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.720 in what would soon be considered Ohio's most notorious mass murder. 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.680 The bodies of seven adults and one sixteen year old 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.840 boy were found in four different locations along a country 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.760 road in Pike County. We know all of these victims 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.560 all members of the Roden family. The shooting ste left 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.680 the town of Piked and numb a lot of unanswered 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.480 questions as to how this unfolded and who is responsible 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.120 for that. As news of the tragedy emerged, the nation 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.280 turned to the area's top law enforcement official for answers. 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.560 Pike County Sheriff Charlie Reader to give a brief update 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.200 on what we are doing at this time. I have 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:15.240 deputies from my county and other counties that are keeping 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:20.320 the scenes secured. Here's reporter James Pilcher. He's the one 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:22.880 updating the media. He's the one who is available. He's 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.240 the one when you wanted to ask how things are going, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.800 he was the one that you call. So he began 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.880 the face of the investigation early on. This investigation is 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:36.280 very large, one, probably the largest in Pike County that 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.280 we've ever had and been a part of. It's very tragic. 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.120 I want everybody to be patient, but understand that we 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.320 are working around the clock, twenty four hours a day, 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:47.960 but this is going to be a very lengthy process. 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.200 Reporter angeinet Levy covered many of Reader's briefings during the 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.600 course of the road and murder investigation. You know, he 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:56.560 was out in front of this standing next to the 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:00.320 Attorney General at the time, doing press conferences with him, 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.880 and he often became very emotional and people there were 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.280 a lot of people in Pike County who really really 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.640 liked him. You came in like thieves in the night 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:13.320 and took eight lives, some being children. We are getting closer. 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:18.200 The family and the victims will have justice one day. 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.720 Charlie Reader, by all accounts, as somebody who grew up 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.440 in Pike County. He did not come from a well 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.680 to do family or anything like that. A lot of 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.440 people out in Pike County or poor. He worked for 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.560 many years for the Pike County Prosecutor, Rob junk He 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.960 was his investigator, and at some point Charlie Reader was 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.480 appointed the sheriff by the Democratic Party in Pike County. 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:47.200 Criminal defense attorney Mike Allen remembered Readers twenty and sixteen 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.920 landslide election. He got seventy five percent. Approbably got twenty 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.160 five percent. It's pretty unheard of in any kind of election. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.800 So at one point he was pretty popular sheriff. There 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.000 were a lot of people in the community who felt 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.040 that he did some good things at the Sheriff's office 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:05.280 when he first took over. They felt like he was 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.160 clean up crime in the streets. Southern Ohio has a 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:13.920 very major brug problem with hopioids in methemphetamine, and fenton 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:15.880 al in all of it, and a couple members of 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.440 the community claimed that Reader really was there for the 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.360 family after one of their members that died from a 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.960 drug overdose and helped plan a memorial three in his honor. 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:31.520 So he was very approachable. He was out and about 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:34.920 in the community much more. Charlie Reader branded himself as 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.600 the people's sheriff during the height of the road and 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.600 murder investigation. Sheriff Reader's passionate pleas for justice earned him 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.520 the trust of his community. As a sheriff of Pike County, 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.960 or a three hundred and fifty six days into this investigation, 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.080 I've got a message for the killers. We will find you, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:58.240 we will arrest you, and you will be prosecuted. As 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:02.400 this case moved forward, the spotlight grew brighter and brighter 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:06.280 in that area because of this case, and I think 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.279 he enjoyed the spotlight to a degree, and I think 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:14.040 he had greater political aspirations as well. Here's producer Chris 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:17.800 Graves speaking with investigative reporter Jodi Barr. He covered the 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.359 road and murder case for Foxnews nineteen and Cincinnati. What 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.040 kind of power does a sheriff wield in a community 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.880 like Pike County. He was the closest to the people 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:28.920 of Pike County, and you see that with a lot 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.839 of elected officials in more rural areas that you know, 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.960 the sheriff is literally the top dog in the county. 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:40.200 He is the face of law enforcement. He controls what 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.040 happens with law enforcement, where patrols happened. So as far 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.000 as an elected official, as far as a person holding power, 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.920 your sheriff in these areas, he is the man. Can 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.760 something like that go to someone's head? You've worked in 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.800 law enforcement, yourself for quite a while. Oh yeah, you 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.120 see it a lot police chiefs or sheriffs or somebody 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.919 who's recently promoted to a supervisory position. I mean, thank goodness, 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.040 it doesn't happen to a lot of them, but some 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.760 of them does. Now. Whether that happened here or not, 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.920 I don't know, but yeah, that very much could happen. 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.160 As the Road and investigation moved into its second year, 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.080 some disquieting rumors about Sheriff Frieder began to surface. As 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.000 we began to spend more time out there, we started 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:27.560 hearing the rumblings that there was some corruption out there. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:34.240 We had heard rumors about him intimidating people and possibly 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:38.719 taking money from people who were in the drug dealing business. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.279 I know, I for one, was told by some of 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.720 my law enforcement sources in the Cincinnati area, Hey, you 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.720 need to be careful around him. He's dirty. And these 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.800 were just people that were my sources who said, you know, look, 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.400 I just want you to be aware, be careful. Was 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.280 it because they were afraid they didn't trust him? They 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.480 did not trust Charlie Reader. There was a rumor that 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:08.119 he was sexually harassing some female employees when he worked 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.600 at the Ross County Juvenile Detention Center. Records from his 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.880 personnel file said that he wasn't the right fit and 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.680 there were too many questions. He had a lawsuit in 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.560 small claims court in nineteen ninety five and Galli Police 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.120 four not paying a debt and there was a warrant 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.440 issued for him, but he ended up paying it. So, 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.400 I mean, there were some things out there. There appears 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.200 to be two sides of Charlie Reader. One that you know, 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.240 the public sees, and they saw it in these naturally 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:42.600 televised broadcast press conferences where a reader is very emotional 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.080 talking about these Rodent murders very early on. And then 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:50.000 there's something you see in Charlie Reader where when reader 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.040 is challenged, you see another side of Reader. So he's 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.960 got a very public face and a very private face. 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:01.040 Then oh yeah. Investigators recently too vehicles that had been 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.200 parked at the homes where eight members of the Rodent 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.880 family were found shot to death in Pike County, Ohio 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:08.840 last month. The four mobile homes themselves where the bodies 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:10.960 were found, will be removed from the scene to be 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.560 stored at a location in nearby Waverley. Going to get 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:17.040 out to investigative reporter Jodi Barr live in Pike County. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.520 While I was in Pike County, I started seeing things 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.880 that I had to question. What we found at that 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:27.080 evidence ware a house where the trailers, the vehicles, the 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:30.200 equipment that all belonged to the rodents where the Sheriff's 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.720 office in BCI took that. So we found problems with 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.880 the security of that evidence and the security of that warehouse. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.480 I'm not an attorney. I've never prosecuted the case, I've 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.400 never collected evidence. But what I do know is that 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:45.880 evidence that is collected has to be secured. I've seen 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.600 prosecutions lost in court rooms in the states I've covered 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.480 because someone failed to secure one piece of evidence. And 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:56.079 of course Charlie Reader was so central to what we 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.000 were looking at. He is the man in charge that 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:02.280 we had to go find him. We scheduled the interview 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:04.560 and we sat down and we had this conversation with 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:06.880 Charlie Reader, and I want to say it last it's 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.800 maybe forty five minutes to an hour, and again, back 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:11.960 to watching the two sides of Charlie Reader. You had 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.440 the emotional Charlie Reader early on in the interview where 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.120 he's talking about, you know, the rodents and you know 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.000 what this is done to Pike County. And then I 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.760 broke out an iPad, and on that iPad I had 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:28.120 visuals the images that I had taken from that warehouse 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.000 with the gate standing wide open, another gate secured with 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.400 a piece of thin wire. You know, days and nights 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.520 of no law enforcement at that warehouse. And I think 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.040 Reader knew during the middle of that interview that this 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.440 was not going to look good when we reported it, 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:50.640 that what we found there looked terrible and it reflected 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.680 on the job he did. So I saw Charlie Reader change, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.120 but he changed into very defensive and red face. But 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.320 Reader find admitted that they did not have a deputy 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.480 posted at that warehouse. Watching that avidage twenty four to seven, 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.720 what Sheriff Reader did next struck seasoned reporter Jodi barrs troubling. 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.200 Here is JODI's first hand account of the interaction. So 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.920 the interview ends and my photographer and I are tearing 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.880 down the equipment and Charlie Reader walks us out the 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.760 front door of the old Sheriff's office in Waverley, and 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:28.080 we're standing on the ports of that Sheriff's office, and 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.319 Reader wants to make a deal, and he says, if 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:33.640 we'll just hold off on airing the report of the 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:37.720 evidence warehouse and wait until they could return property to 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.079 the family, that Reader would let us in and give 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:45.640 us full access to him and Charlie Reader's story of 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.800 the first one hundred hours after the road and murders. 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.040 And I just told him, no, we don't make deals. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.960 Several months after that report aired, I got messages from 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.000 people in Pike County, one after the other telling me 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.679 that there was a raid underway at this road and 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.960 evidence warehouse in Waverley. Well, I dropped everything I was 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:10.720 doing at Cincinnati and drove the two hours east to 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:13.640 this warehouse. And when I got there there they were 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.240 Sheriff Charlie Reader, deputies with the Pike County Sheriff's Office 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.040 carrying things in and out of this warehouse. And you know, 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.360 I'm standing there wondering what is going on here. This 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.200 shouldn't be happening unless if something's happened, we don't know 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:30.880 about evolving the murders. This was a great public concern, 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.640 but that night Reader would not return my phone calls. 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.480 It was very contentious trying to get information out of 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.680 Pike County, out of the sheriffs office at that point, 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.000 but after that we were never able to access him again. 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:49.080 Despite Scharff Reader's apparent mishandling of aspects of the road 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.840 and murder investigation, authorities were able to put the Wagner 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.960 family behind bars in twenty eighteen. However, just weeks later, 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.599 area journalists got word at a different investigation, unrelated to 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.560 the road murders was underway, one that placed Sheriff Charlie 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.000 Reader on the other side of the law. The State 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.959 Auditor's office released a document to all of us that 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:14.160 stated an anonymous tip had come into the Auditor's office 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:19.000 in which someone stated that everyone was scared to death 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.880 a Reader, that he was basically a monster, and investigators 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.960 needed to look into a safe that was in his 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.760 office that contained money season in drug deals and it 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:35.000 also said something about him possibly gambling and is this 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.440 really wore on? The investigation continued, and then words started 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:43.280 spreading around Pike County. It really took what was going 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:47.680 on with Charlie Reader to a whole new level. In 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.640 June of twenty nineteen, a grand jury brought forth sixteen 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.040 charges against Sheriff Charlie Reader. As a result, he was 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.800 suspended from office, bringing his three year ten yere a 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.120 sheriff to a close. The indictment laid out detailed of 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.240 the investigation and his crimes. Reader originally faced several counts 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.960 of theft in office, which is a felony in ohiole 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:09.920 as well as tampering with evidence, which is also a 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:14.040 felony in Ohio. So what happens is that Charlie Reader 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.959 has a pretty sizeable amount of money that he's taken 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:21.000 from alleged drug dealers in Pike County. Every sheriff, every 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.200 law enforcement agency in the entire country, much less than 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:29.680 including Ohio, is allowed to seize money from suspects if 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.800 they think that that money or those goods are being 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.000 used in the commission of a crime. Money that was 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:41.719 seized in drug cases is supposed to be secured in 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.679 a safe or in a bank account or something, and 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.880 you can use them for education purposes for the sheriff's department, 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.600 you can contribute it to appropriate charities. But in these cases, 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.080 at least on two occasions, the allegation was that he 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:02.360 took cash and can hearded it to his own use, 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:08.120 so the state auditor does their annual review of the book. 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:13.240 On the first past, the state auditors find some money 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.680 missing out of the seizure account, and then they go 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:20.160 back to reader and apparently he tries to put it back, 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:24.080 but these that leads to the state auditors office then 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:28.120 diving into getting warrants and diving into his personal finance records. 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.440 They find multiple extenses and multiple trips to casinos both 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:34.960 in the area and out of state, and tens of 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:40.520 thousands of dollars spent to casinos impossible debts. The records 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:45.080 are pretty clear that showed some pretty big losses at 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.720 the racetrack, and also they found that he withdrew more 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.160 than twenty eight hundred dollars from machines at the Atlantic Casino, 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.000 so it was pretty clear it was from gambling. Some 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.000 of the other allegations were that a lot of times 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.760 in drug cases, cars are forfeited, and in a couple 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.880 of the charges, the allegations are that at the auction 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:12.080 he rigged it and engineered it that either he or 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:16.160 friends of his would get those vehicles and then turn 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.560 around and sell them, So they were very serious charges. 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.480 On September twenty fourth, twenty twenty, Sheriff Charles Reader pled 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.880 guilty to five charges filed against him. They included two 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.920 counts of theft in office, two counts of tampering with evidence, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:35.120 and one count of conflict of interest. A few months later, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.920 he appeared in court for sentencing. It was a day 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.840 that Anteinette Levy would not soon forget. What was the 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:43.640 mood like through all of this? I couldn't believe it. 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.360 When I got out there that morning, the street was 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.680 blocked off. There were members of the US Marshals Service there, 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:55.280 The US Marshalls Service bomb squad was there, there were 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:58.320 Sheriff's deputies there. I mean, this was quite the operation. 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.600 They were sniper's own bread. I actually have a photograph 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.840 of a sniper on a roof. And there had been 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:11.560 some rumblings online apparently, people encouraging people to show up 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.160 at the courthouse to protest this sentence. There was some 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.280 fear that people who were really hardcore supporters of his 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.400 might show up and try to do something dangerous in 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.400 order to keep him from being sentenced to prison. It 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.320 was crazy. It had never even been like that for 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:37.040 a Wagner Court hearing. We're going to take a quick 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:51.440 break here. We'll be back in a moment. Inside the courtroom. 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:55.280 The mood was much different here today for sentencing in 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.920 the case stat of Ohio versus Charles Reader. Okay, his 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:03.800 numbers twenty nine TEENCR. Sixty eight. Reader got his sentencing 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.840 in front of a visiting judge, Patricia Cosgrove, who had 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:12.200 actually sentenced three previous Ohio sheriffs on corruption charges. There 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.240 were five charges, and all of those could have gotten 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.720 him more than twelve years in prison. You see Charlie Reader. 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.760 He's sitting in court, sitting beside his defense attorney at 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.840 a table to the left, and at the table to 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.359 the right, the prosecutor who went to the grand jury 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.800 got the indictments against Reader, who got the guilty plea 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.640 from Reader months before. And you see these two tables 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.720 in opposition to one another, and the judges in the center, 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.280 and there's an empty podium in the center, and then 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.040 you see people walk up to that podium and then 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.720 they start telling these stories of the good deeds Charlie 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:52.600 Reader did in certain instances around that county. He went 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.920 through one of the most horrendous crimes ever committed in 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.240 our counties. To my memory, what he went through. I 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.879 can't take him him the nights that he went sleepless, 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.720 what his family went through, what it does to his health. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.080 But I believe in his heart Charlie Reader is a 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:17.440 good man. As Charlie made mistakes, yes, ma'am, he probably has, 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.960 But in the Bible it says you who are without saying, 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.399 cast the first stone. I couldn't throw many rocks at 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.560 him because I've made mistakes. To the one fact, I know, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.560 Charlie was a man you could count on when you 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.879 needed him, and I would vote for him today just 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.000 as sure as I am standing here as God is 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:40.280 my witness. After these people have said what they said, 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:42.960 you see a Reader walk up to the podium and 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.680 the courting now here from mister Reader. You know he's 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.280 instantly emotional. He's in tears, and he's asking the judge 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:54.000 for mercy to be lenient with him. In sinacy. This 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:56.960 is where he is laying it all out and asking 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.159 the state of Ohio for mercy. I said I had 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:06.760 light on the office of sheriff. I can only ask 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:17.680 that my staff, their families, the community, and my family 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:24.240 who is here today, we'll forgive me for the undue 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:30.200 stress I call stim I have, and I now pray 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.320 that the quirk will find mercy on me. I have 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:38.560 no words for the shame that I have and that 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:43.600 I feel in the regret that I have betrayed just 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.399 playing the trust if I had with my staff in 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:52.000 the community. Please do not send me to prison. I 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.679 have rung, but I'm not run. I still have a 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:59.840 lot of good left in me. During the proceedings, details 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.199 of readers crimes were illuminated. The state would note that 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.040 the defendant was an elected county sheriff who committed these 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:11.200 crimes in his position as a county sheriff. He used 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:14.520 his position to obtain control over the evidence bags and 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.399 then use that control to remove the funds and use 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.800 them for his own benefit. The majority of the funds 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:24.680 involved were removed from the four evidence bags cut open 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.800 by defendant. Fourteen thousand and seven hundred and seventy five 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:33.160 dollars was removed prior to the defendant and his attorney 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:38.119 turning those bags over to investigators for the Oddit States Office. 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:44.880 The different currency knew in many cases uncirculated bills were 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.840 put into the currency bags so that restitution would have 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.960 been taken care of at that point. Additionally, there's a 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.200 total of four thousand, eight hundred and fifty dollars outstanding, 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.920 three thousand, five hundred from the purchase of the Nithan 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.680 divers which was the profit made by the sheriff on 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.840 that transaction, three hundred and fifty dollars owed the people 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:11.000 who purchased the Chevy Silverado, and one thousand dollars which 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:13.600 the state says never made it into the evidence bag. 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:20.359 So Judge Patricia Cosgrove, she has a reputation for being 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:25.000 very tough on sheriffs in Ohio who have been engaged 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:29.800 in corruption, and she has no nonsense, and she questioned 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:33.840 reader from the bench. During the judge's questioning, Sheriff Rider 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.560 did his best to explain his moral motivation behind his actions. 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:42.280 Why did you cut open these evidence envelopes and take 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.560 the money out and then in some cases you put 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:50.680 it back although you were caught because the envelopes had 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:57.240 been unsealed and sealed again improperly and the denominations did 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.040 not match what was taken at the crime scene. Up 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:06.040 from those individuals, I guess why did you take the money? 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.840 I took the money, and mind you, this does not 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:15.600 excuse it, but from drug dealers that took it from 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.680 parents of very poor people. In this count that money, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.120 regardless of what the state and what the media has 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:27.000 claimed in the past years of a gambling problem, and 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:32.920 that money being used for gambling, was used. When there 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:38.640 was a tree planted in the name of the Shelton Boy. 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:41.640 It's at the entrance of Western High School to the left. 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.280 As soon as you pull in. Nobody could pay for 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:47.000 that tree. Nobody offered to pay for that tree. A 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:54.919 drug dealer did. When schools had cheerleading or peewee that 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:59.480 had car washes and such, I would have our cruisers 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:03.160 taken down there. My men and women did not make 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:07.680 good money, so some of them would give them two dollars, 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:12.480 five dollars. I took money from that and I provided 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:16.359 it to those people. In the PSI the prec ends investigation, 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:22.359 the PSI officer notes, there's no documentation that you used 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:26.280 it for those things, right, I did not document those things. 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:32.040 He didn't produce any receipts to back these claims up. 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:35.600 And there's a very strict process by which those siments 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.199 are tracked, and you have to produce an accounting of 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.199 all of that money. So he claimed that he was 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:45.960 essentially a robin hood. The judge certainly didn't believe it, 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:51.360 But then the judge started asking him questions about gambling. 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:55.080 There were a couple of times that Judge Cosgrove all 0:23:55.160 --> 0:24:04.280 the condimental line, and she sounded very, very skeptical. Let's 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:06.840 stop here for another quick break. We'll be back in 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:21.879 a moment. Did you lose three thousand dollars gambling at 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:27.640 the Sciota downs Rocino between June two thousand and seventeen 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:35.000 in September two thousand and seventeen. Yes, not by myself. 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:38.719 They have cards, and of course, begainning your honor, I'll 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.879 pl guilty to this, but they have cards that you 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:45.439 put in a machine. I can have a card in 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:47.960 my name, and I can have a card in my 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:50.239 name that my wife possesses, so I can be at 0:24:50.280 --> 0:24:52.879 one machine and she can be at the other, and 0:24:53.040 --> 0:24:54.919 the money that she spends and the money that I 0:24:55.000 --> 0:24:59.560 spend they count on the same card and calculating the 0:24:59.680 --> 0:25:05.040 money as one well, obviously, and that doesn't answer the 0:25:05.080 --> 0:25:08.960 question where did the money and then checking account come from? Okay, 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:12.320 also want to ask you in late June two thousand 0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:15.359 and seventeen, you took a trip to Reno, Nevada for 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:19.040 the Sheriff's conference, and then you withdrew twenty eight hundred 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:22.720 dollarsand a ATM. The state believes that some of this 0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:26.639 is due to gambling. I mean, you're talking like over 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:30.680 or almost six thousand dollars and a couple months that 0:25:30.720 --> 0:25:36.600 you lost are extended on gambling. And at that point 0:25:36.600 --> 0:25:39.919 we were making almost eleven thousand dollars a month. And 0:25:40.040 --> 0:25:43.080 that again was from my checking account where it should 0:25:43.119 --> 0:25:47.840