Concerns remain over Crish residency

LIMA - With almost two months left in the race for Allen County sheriff, one issue appears to have taken center stage: where does Sam Crish live?

The longtime Allen County Sheriff's Office employee and current independent candidate lists a home on Bellefontaine Avenue as his primary residence. But the man running against him, Steve Hoverman, and those in his camp say he actually lives in Logan County.

Crish has acknowledged that he moved to the Indian Lake area in the early 1990s and that his wife and child still live there so his son can finish his high school years at Indian Lake school. But he insists his home is in Allen County.

"I live in Allen County. That's where I sleep, I stay there every day, it's where I live," Crish said.

Crish said he moved to Logan County after his father, also a longtime deputy with the Allen County Sheriff's Office, left law enforcement. He returned in 2006, shortly after his father's death. He bought the house when he decided to run for sheriff.

"I wanted my children to be near their grandfather and of course I wanted to be close to my dad and therefore, with the sheriff's knowledge, I moved my family to Indian Lake. Upon my father's passing I decided to move back to Allen County," Crish said.

According to the Ohio Revised Code, a candidate must be a resident in the county and live there for at least one year. Crish has those two covered.

But it also says, in chapter 3503.02, section D, that: "The place where the family of a married person resides shall be considered to be the person's place of residence; except that when the spouses have separated and live apart, the place where such a spouse resides the length of time required to entitle a person to vote shall be considered to be the spouse's place of residence."

Crish is still married to his wife. She even appears in his commercials.

Crish insist he is in compliance with the code. He and his wife have separated and live apart in a real, if not legal, sense.

"We do not live together. I live in Allen County," Crish said.

Despite comments from Hoverman and anonymous letters on the subject of Crish's residency sent to local media and others, there has been no official objection filed against Crish's petition to run for office. A spokesman for the Ohio Secretary of State's Office said the regulations are listed in the Ohio Revised Code, but said it was up to local elections boards to interpret the language in those regulations.

Allen County Board of Elections Director Keith Cunningham said he was aware of anonymous complaints about Crish's residency and has spoken with the Secretary of State's Office about them, but as far as he's concerned, it's a dead issue for his office.

"Without some exceptionally compelling reason, we take all documents filed with us as true and accurate under penalty of law," Cunningham said. "We have to assume what he says on that petition is accurate."

Cunningham said the deadline for someone to file an official complaint has come and gone. So the only way Crish's candidacy can be challenged now is through the courts.

"Since the board has approved and said basically they believe he lives where he says he lives, unless somebody can prove he doesn't live there in a court of law, the Board of Elections is out of this equation." Cunningham said.