County, Kent, Streetsboro and Ravenna reach agreement on Drug Task Force lawsuit

The cities of Kent, Streetsboro and Ravenna have reached an agreement with the county over the value of property retained by the Portage County sheriff when he withdrew his agency from a joint drug task force in 2021.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the the Portage County Sheriff’s Office is to pay each city $35,245, and the commissioners will provide $16,667, for a total payout to each of $51,912 and a grand total of $155,736. In return, Kent, Streetsboro and Ravenna are to withdraw their legal action against the county and Zuchowski.

Accepting the terms of the agreement, Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska and Kent City Manager Dave Ruller signed off on Dec. 2, and Ravenna Mayor Frank Seman signed on Dec. 3. The commissioners’ and Zuchowski’s signatures are dated Dec. 10.

The commissioners’ approximately $50,0000 contribution is to be drawn from the county’s general fund. Sheriff’s office Finance Manager Ron Rost said the the office’s $105,735 contribution will be drawn from funds that were in the drug force’s bank account when it disbanded. Those funds had been left untouched since the drug task force ceased to exist, he said.

The cities sued the county and Zuchowski on Nov. 9, 2023, noting that the Portage County Drug Task Force’s own rules stipulated that any member who left forfeited 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, hadn’t done that, the cities’ lawsuit alleged.

Instead, the cities said the sheriff kept all the task force’s money, equipment and property, and supplied the plaintiffs with records they said did “not appear to be complete.” And Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci, they alleged, “failed to ensure that the property or money belonging to the task force was corralled and accounted for.”

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 was not mentioned in any of the court filings. However, one of the items identified in the settlement agreement was a building the drug force had renovated for office use, but which was subsequently used by the sheriff’s Drug and Violent Crime Unit. Zuchowski formed the DVCU after the task force ceased to exist.

Without citing an appraisal value or the location of the structure, the commissioners’ Dec. 10 resolution states that the drug force had obtained a state grant to improve the structure and had provided $50,000 in matching funds.