The Prosecutor newsletter from

Mat Heck, Jr. Prosecuting Attorney

Dayton-Montgomery County Courts Building, P.O. Box 972, 301 W. Third St., Dayton, OH 45422 (937) 225-5757 Spring 2016

Child Abuse Awareness Month

On March 31st, Prosecutor Heck recognized April as Child Abuse Awareness Month at Mont-gomery County’s Child Advocacy Center, CARE House. The national statistics on child abuse and neglect are shocking. A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds - more than 3 million reports every year. It is estimated that between 4 and 5 chil-dren die every day as a direct result of child abuse or neglect. Experts estimate that adults who were abused as children are 9 times more likely than others to become involved in criminal activity. It is for those reasons, and more, that Prosecutor Heck feels strongly that child abuse and neglect in our community needs to be addressed, and prevented. Also at the kick-off, Prosecutor Heck announced that through a generous donation from the Evenflo Company in Miamisburg, approximately 100 car safety seats and strollers were being made available to those families in need. In addition, Prosecutor Heck handed out bibs and reusable child -friendly snack cups, both emblazoned with the slogan, “Hug me, don’t hurt me!”

Above - child safety seats and strollers, donated by Evenflo Company (L); “Hug me, don’t hurt me” snack cups and bibs (R)

Prosecutor Heck commented, “Each of us in the criminal justice system understands the prob-lem of child abuse and neglect all too well. April has been set aside as the month where we try to educate the general public at large about the problem, and to offer ways the average citizen can get involved and help. I’m asking every citizen in Montgomery County to get involved in helping us to protect the children in our community. If you know or suspect someone is abusing or neglecting a child, report it!” .

“It is everyone’s responsibility to protect the children “It is everyone’s responsibility to protect the children in our community from abuse and neglect.”in our community from abuse and neglect.”

The Prosecutor Spring 2016

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Prosecutor Heck unveils new Child Abuse Awareness billboards

As part of the kick-off to recognize April as Child Abuse Awareness Month, Prosecutor Heck un-veiled three new billboards. In partnership with Key Ads, the new billboards started appearing all around Montgomery County. The designs encourage the public to report suspected child abuse by calling 224-KIDS.

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Prosecutor Wins in Court of Appeals Case

State v. Joseph Fricke On February 18, 2015, the defendant was found guilty by a jury of rape of a substantially impaired victim, possession of criminal tools, and contaminating a substance for human con-sumption. The defendant had drugged a 19-year-old college student by putting Lorazapam in her drink. Then, when she was too drugged to resist or give consent, he brutally raped her. At sentencing, Montgomery County Com-mon Pleas Court Judge Timothy O’Connell ruled that all counts merged with the count of rape, and sentenced the defendant to seven years of incarceration. When counts are merged, the de-fendant can only be sentenced on one count. We appealed the court’s merger of the rape and contaminating a substance for human con-sumption counts and the sentence to the Sec-ond District Court of Appeals. On August 21, 2015, the Court of Appeals affirmed the merger and sentence, overruling our appeal. However, during the pendency of our appeal, the Ohio Su-preme Court decided in another case that dealt with the issue of merger, so we filed a motion with the Court of Appeals to reconsider its earlier decision. On April 29, 2016, the Court of Appeals re-versed it’s earlier decision and ruled the counts of rape and contaminating a substance for hu-man consumption are separate and distinct of-fenses and should be sentenced individually. On May 23, 2016, in accordance with the decision of the Court of Appeals, the defendant was resentenced by Judge O’Connell. Howev-er, over our objections, the judge sentenced the defendant to 5 years on the contamination count and ordered that it be served concurrently to the 7 year sentence for rape, effectively making no change to the original sentence. We strongly recommended the court sentence the defendant to an additional 10 years incarceration.

26th Annual Violence Prevention Project Award Ceremony

On May 4, 2016, Prosecutor Mat Heck, Jr. and Sandra Hunt, Director of the Victim/Witness Division, announced the winners of the 26th an-nual Violence Prevention Project. This year, nearly 1,000 students entered the contest. The top 150 students were invited to attend the ceremony to receive prizes and awards. In addition, a pizza luncheon was pro-vided, compliments of Dayton’s Original Pizza Factory. The Violence Prevention Project encourages Montgomery County’s youth to submit a poster or write an essay describing how violence af-fects our community and suggest ways to pre-vent violence. Common themes were bullying, gun violence, and drug and alcohol abuse, indi-cating that our youth are aware of the dangers and understand the causes of violence.

Every participant received a prize. The cer-emony recognized the best entries and those participants received additional prizes. Prosecutor Heck said, “Violence and bully-ing are problems that have a negative impact on students’ physical and emotional safety. Youth violence affects all of us and we all have a role in preventing it. This project gives us an oppor-tunity to acknowledge the positive efforts of these students.”

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Court of Appeals Affirms Trial Court’s Ruling State v. Eugene Gall

On April 29, 2016, the Second District Court of Appeals ruled that convicted serial murderer and child rapist Eugene Gall should not be credited with any time that the defendant was incarcerated in a Kentucky penitentiary towards his Ohio convictions and sentences.

This defendant has a long history of violent conduct. In 1972, the defendant was convicted for the 1970 rape and kidnapping of several young women in Warren and Butler counties and sen-tenced to 3-20 years in the Ohio Penitentiary. The Parole Board released this defendant in April, 1977.

Within six months of his release by the Parole Board, this defendant began a crime spree span-ning two states and multiple victims.

During this crime spree, the defendant committed a number of heinous and violent crimes, in-cluding rape, kidnapping and murder, in Montgomery and Greene Counties, and then kidnapped a twelve year old girl from Cincinnati, took her to Kentucky to rape and murder her. He committed ad-ditional violent crimes in Kentucky, including shooting and injuring a police officer, for which he was charged and convicted, and received an 11 year prison sentence. He was then sentenced to death in Kentucky for the rape and murder of the young girl from Cincinnati. Here in Montgomery County, he was convicted of the horrendous rape and murder of 14 year old Beth Ann Mote, after he kid-napped her one morning as she was walking to school in Oakwood, Ohio.

In Ohio, the defendant was ultimately convicted as charged in Montgomery and Greene Coun-ties, and sentenced to 47-165 years to Life in prison.

The Kentucky death conviction and sentence was reversed in 2000 by the Federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Kentucky failed to pursue the case further. On November 13, 2001, the defend-ant was extradited to Ohio to begin serving his Ohio sentences.

In September 2013, the Parole Board sent a form letter to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office indicating that the defendant was eligible for, and was being considered for, parole. The Bu-reau of Sentence Computation, without any notice to our office, or any of the victims or survivors, gave and credited this defendant with 5,807 days of jail time credit for the time he spent in the peni-tentiary in Kentucky, thereby giving this rapist/murderer almost 16 years off his Ohio sentence. After numerous phone conferences with the Bureau of Sentence Computation and the Ohio At-torney General, all to no avail or assistance, on November 27, 2013 our office filed a “Motion for an Order Properly Calculating Jail Time Credit.” On December 9, 2013 Common Pleas Court Judge Gregory Singer ordered that the defendant should receive zero days of jail time credit. On March 4, 2014, the defendant appealed Judge Singer’s ruling, which the Court of Appeals overruled. The Court of Appeals agreed that the defendant is entitled to zero days of jail time credit for the time spent in the Kentucky prison. Prosecutor Heck added, “We are pleased with the Court’s decision. The victims, as well as their families, deserve to know that this defendant will spend the rest of his life locked up for the terrible, vicious and deplorable crimes that he committed. This defendant is clearly a dangerous person who needs to be incarcerated for the rest of his life and never released from prison.”

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ArriveSafe for July 4th Holiday Weekend Over the upcoming 4th of July holiday weekend, ArriveSafe will be offering free cab rides from 6:00 p.m. Friday, July 1st to 6:00 a.m. Monday, July 5th. To request a ride, just call ArriveSafe at 449-9999. Program the number into your phone! Prosecutor Heck says, “Remember - the life you save may be your own!”

MCPO Welcomes Summer Clerks and Law Clerks!

Every year, we have a number of summer clerks and law clerks who intern with our office. By working in our office during the summer months, the law students get valuable experience doing re-search and attending court. The undergrads gain the experience of working in an office and get ex-posed to the legal system. Meet our summer, 2016 interns:

Left to right: Charles Pfister, University of Dayton School of Law; Madison Waitzman, University of Cincinnati; James Staley, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law; Ashley Warwar, University of Dayton School of Law; Prosecutor Mat Heck, Jr.; Whitney Crim, University of Cincinnati College of Law; Matthew No-taro, University of Dayton School of Law. (Not pictured: Maria Oldham, Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Chloe Gump, University of Alabama; Allison Stokely, University of Dayton)

The Prosecutor Spring 2016

MATHIAS H. HECK, JR. Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney P.O. Box 972 301 W. Third St. Dayton, OH 45422

PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE

PAID DAYTON, OHIO

PERMIT NO. 1401

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Office Staff Updates The following are staff additions since our last newsletter.

DATE NAME POSITION AND ASSIGNMENT 2/16/16 Kaylyn Drodge Legal Secretary, Child Protection Unit 3/14/16 Christopher Brzozowski Assistant Prosecutor, Juvenile Division 3/15/16 Alexandra Lesko Legal Secretary, Case Management 3/28/16 Benjamin Mazer Assistant Prosecutor, Civil Division 3/28/16 Alice Peters Assistant Prosecutor, Child Protection Unit 4/4/16 Alex Hale Assistant Prosecutor, Civil Division