Testimony in the jury trial of Wapakoneta Mayor Tom Stinebaugh, charged with theft in office, having an unlawful interest in a public contract and conflict of interest got underway Tuesday in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court.
J Swygart | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA — Prosecutors on Tuesday laid out their case against Wapakoneta Mayor Tom Stinebaugh as testimony in the jury trial of the suspended elected official finally got underway.
Stinebaugh’s trial started one day earlier in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court with day-long jury selection, and Tuesday’s scheduled 9 a.m. start was then delayed by two hours when Judge Patricia Cosgrove arrived at the courthouse at nearly 11:00. The judge apologized to all parties, noting without further explanation that the delay was “entirely my fault.”
Stinebaugh was indicted in August of 2021 and pleaded not guilty to one count of theft in office, a third-degree felony; eight counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, fourth-degree felonies; and eight counts of conflict of interest, first-degree misdemeanors. Six of those counts — three felony charges of having an unlawful interest in a public contract and three misdemeanor charges of conflict of interest — have since been dismissed.
In her opening statements to jurors, prosecutor Laura Dezort of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office said testimony during the trial will focus primarily on four alleged incidents she said will demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that Stinebaugh abused his elected position as well as the trust of city residents who put him in office.
Dezort claimed Stinebaugh, just days into his first elected term in January of 2016, meddled in the administration of the Wapakoneta Fire Department by exerting his newly-gained power and bypassing longstanding policy to appoint his brother, Tony, as the city’s acting fire chief following the sudden retirement of former Chief Kendall Krites.
“It’s called nepotism, and you can’t do it,” Dezort told jurors.
The prosecutor also alleged the mayor personally benefited through a “private business relationship” with the Canadian-based Golden Fresh Foods, which had picked Wapakoneta as the site of a new greenhouse venture in early 2016. Dezort said Stinebaugh gained a contract to demolish a farmhouse at the site of the greenhouse and subsequently removed items from the home “for use in his construction business.” The mayor further abused his power as an elected official by negotiating with Golden Fresh Foods to construct a new office suite at the site, the prosecutor said.
Other examples of Stinebaugh’s abuse of power, according to prosecutors, included his alleged strong-armed tactics in pressuring the city to construct a sewer line to a residence he had built on Fairview Drive, as well as his alleged role in steering contracts for signage associated with the city’s 50th-anniversary celebration of native son Neil Armstrong’s lunar landing to a business owned by his sister in 2019.
Defense attorney Amber Mullaly spent her opening remarks debunking the state’s claims. She said trial testimony from as many as 20 individuals, including Stinebaugh himself, will show the mayor did not personally benefit — nor did any of his family members — from decisions he made during his time in office.
She called the state’s allegations “baseless and over-reaching.”
“Tom Stinebaugh has been involved in this community for most of his adult life and testimony will show that he is frugal; he’s always looking for the best deal both in his personal business and as mayor of Wapakoneta,” Mullaly said.
She said the Golden Fresh Foods contracts were executed before Stinebaugh took office (testimony later in the day would show that was not entirely true) and that he played no role in the appointment of his brother as fire chief. The sewer line debacle was the result of improper information provided by the city’s engineering department, said Mullaly, and a company owned by the mayor’s sister produced signage for the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing at cost and had donated some products free of charge.
Afternoon testimony was highlighted by former Wapakoneta Safety Service Director Chad Scott, who served in that position for more than two years starting in January 2016. Scott said Stinebaugh asked him to approve the construction of a sewer, at city expense, to the home he had constructed on Fairview Drive. Scott said he declined to approve the sewer project, informing the mayor that city code calls for developers to bear the cost of such sewer construction.
“He didn’t like my answer,” Scott told jurors, adding that while on vacation less than two months later he received a text message from the mayor telling him “I don’t want you to serve as safety-service director anymore.”
Scott said a sewer line was installed, at city expense, “a few months later.”
Testimony in the trial will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
