Cities discuss ‘settlement framework’ with sheriff’s office in lawsuit over funds

Almost a year ago, three Portage County cities sued Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski for allegedly keeping money he should have distributed when the Portage County Drug Task Force disbanded in 2021. Today the case remains in pretrial stages.

The cities of Kent, Ravenna and Streetsboro sued the county and Zuchowski on Nov. 9, 2023. The latest court filings indicate that the parties’ attorneys (the law directors for the respective cities and the county prosecutor’s office) discussed what court filings called a “settlement framework” during a Sept. 12 pretrial conference.

Another pretrial conference is set for Oct. 16.

The drug task force was a multi-jurisdictional agency charged with investigating and apprehending people involved in trafficking, distributing and possessing illegal drugs. It was formed in the late 1980s.

When Zuchowski left the task force, walking out on a Nov. 10, 2021, conference with the plaintiffs, Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci informed city leaders in Kent, Ravenna and Streetsboro that the task force could no longer function.

The sheriff’s office, as the only agency with county-wide jurisdiction, was “a necessary and essential part of any county-wide drug task force,” Vigluicci stated in a Feb. 1 email to The Portager.

Pointing to the task force’s own rules, the plaintiff cities note that any member who voluntarily leaves forfeits any equipment donated or titled to the task force, any fair share fees it paid and any distribution of drug fines.

Zuchowski, whom the lawsuit names as the task force’s project director and trustee of its funds, hasn’t done that, the lawsuit alleges.

Instead, the cities say the sheriff kept all the task force’s money, equipment and property, and has supplied the plaintiffs with records they say “do not appear to be complete.” And Vigluicci, they allege, “failed to ensure that the property or money belonging to the task force was corralled and accounted for.”

Zuchowski has not responded to requests for comment.

The plaintiffs demanded an accounting of and their fair share of all “past and future” drug forfeitures rooted in cases they were involved in, their fair share of the value of all equipment titled to the task force and their cut of the funds in the task force’s account at the time the sheriff left.

A specific dollar amount is not mentioned in any of the court filings.

They want to know how much money was used to purchase the building that houses the sheriff’s Drug and Violent Crime Unit, created after the task force disbanded, and for that building to be appraised. They also want a complete accounting of all records representing the Portage County Drug Task Force’s activity from 2015 to the date of the lawsuit.

Task force member communities, which also included the cities of Aurora and Streetsboro and the villages of Hiram and Garrettsville, each supplied the task force with one investigative agent, one unmarked vehicle and membership dues.

Those dues (and federal funds) were used to fund drug buys and to purchase equipment and buildings, the lawsuit says.

The county’s attorney, Chris Meduri, says the sheriff has the task force’s money, property and equipment, but denies that Zuchowski has withheld drug forfeiture money or equipment from the plaintiffs on cases they worked on prior November 2021. He has twice asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

It was a former sheriff, not Zuchowski, who signed onto the task force and agreed to abide by its rules and regulations. Likewise, the defendant cities’ signatories were also former, not current police chiefs, he states.

The plaintiffs, he states, are not entitled to the relief they request.

On Dec. 6, 2023, Portage County Common Pleas Court Judge Laurie Pittman recused herself, citing a conflict of interest. The document she filed does not state a reason for that conflict of interest. Pittman asked that the Ohio Supreme Court appoint an out-of-county visiting judge to handle the matter.

Her request was granted on Dec. 15, 2023, when the state’s high court assigned Janet Burnside, a retired Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge, to take over. To date, Burnside has overseen two dozen court docket entries.