SIDNEY — A motion was filed last week in the 2012 case against former Shelby County Sheriff Dean Kimpel.
The motion seeks to withdraw his guilty plea on the grounds it was not knowingly and voluntarily made and the state failed to disclose evidence favorable to the defendant.
The motion says, “These defects constitute a fundamental flaw in the path of justice so extraordinary that the defendant could not have sought redress from the resulting prejudice through another form of application reasonable available to him, as the suppression of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violated due process.”
In April 2012, Kimpel entered a guilty plea to one count of unauthorized use of computer, cable, or telecommunications property, a felony of the fifth-degree. He was accused of using the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway (OHLEG) to illegally look up individuals for personal purposes.
Later that year he resigned as sheriff and was fined and sentenced to two years of community control for the offense. A charge of sexual battery against him in Auglaize County was dismissed.
In August of this year, Jeremy Tomb of Klein, Tomb and Eberly of Troy, filed a motion to file the transcript of Kimpel’s interview with Licking County Detectives, given pursuant to a Garrity Warning, under seal.
The motion said, “Given the nature of a Garrity Warning, these statements cannot be used against Mr. Kimpel in criminal proceedings and are provided solely for the consideration of the court with regard to the motion to withdraw guilty plea.”
According to garrityrights.org, Garrity Rights protect public employees from being compelled to incriminate themselves during investigatory interviews conducted by their employers. Since Kimpel was an elected official, there was question as to if the warning he was given before speaking to detectives was appropriate.
The Licking County investigation involved the sexual battery case that was dismissed named above.
The motion to withdraw the guilty plea says, “the only evidence in either of the cases against Mr. Kimpel was the statements of a thoroughly discredited former employee who had recently been fired by (the sheriff’s office).”
It claims the prosecutor’s office was only willing to dismiss the sexual battery case if Kimpel took a plea in the Shelby County case.
“This would have been the end of the issues had Mr. Kimpel not taken the time to further investigate what had occurred in his case. In the course of doing so, he discovered that the prosecution failed to produce to him the report from the sexual battery investigation and failed to inform him that (the alleged victim) had indicted she did not want to go forward on the sexual battery claims,” the motion says.
It continues, “The evidence did not show that Mr. Kimpel sexually assaulted or harassed (the alleged victim), misused OHLEG or committed an Unauthorized Use of Computer violation. … The evidence is favorable to Mr. Kimpel, it was either willfully or inadvertently suppressed by the government, and prejudice ensued. Without this information Mr. Kimpel cannot be said to have knowingly and intelligently entered a guilty plea. He could not properly defend again these accusations and could not properly weight the merits of the plea deal he entered into.”
The Ohio Supreme Court appointed Judge James Brogan, a retired judge of the Second District Court of Appeals, to handle the new motions in the case. The motion to file the transcript under seal was granted.
There are no dates for hearings or anything in regards to the motion to withdraw the guilty plea scheduled at this time. The full case history can be found at search.shelbyco.net/eservices.
