The cities of Kent, Ravenna and Streetsboro have sued the county and the sheriff, alleging that Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski is wrongfully keeping money he should have distributed when the Portage County Drug Task Force disbanded in 2021.
A March 8 pretrial conference is set to try to resolve a lawsuit the three Portage County cities filed against the county and the sheriff last year.
The county’s attorney, Chris Meduri, says the sheriff has the task force’s money, property and equipment, but denies any wrongdoing and has twice asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
The cities’ lawsuit, filed Nov. 9, names the county as a defendant because Portage County Prosecutor Victor Vigluicci served as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the task force’s board of control and was the task force’s legal adviser.
The prosecutor’s office has a policy of not commenting on open cases, but Vigluicci did say he is hopeful the matter can be resolved during the March pretrial conference.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys — all law directors for their respective cities — did not return requests for comment.
In their court filings, the plaintiffs allege that after Zuchowski decided to leave the task force during a Nov. 10, 2021, conference, Vigluicci informed city leaders in Kent, Ravenna and Streetsboro that the task force could no longer function.
The task force couldn’t continue because the Portage County Sheriff’s office, 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.
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 and disbanded in 2021.
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.
Pointing to the task force’s own rules, the plaintiffs 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.”
They say a Feb. 22, meeting of the plaintiffs, the sheriff and the prosecutor concluded without a settlement, and that the prosecutor and sheriff ignored a letter they sent demanding a fair distribution and accounting of all task force assets at the time the sheriff left.
Specifically, they want an accounting 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.
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.
Zuchowski did not respond to a request for comment as to the lawsuit, why he left the Drug Task Force, or why he then formed the Portage County Drug and Violent Crime Unit.
The county prosecutor filed a motion to dismiss the case on Nov. 30, alleging that the defendants had failed to state a claim upon which their requested relief could be granted.
On Dec. 6, 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.
Burnside ordered the defendants to file a response by Jan. 6. Meduri, the attorney who works in the county prosecutor’s office, did so on Jan. 12, once again requesting that the case be dismissed.
In his filing, Meduri states that the sheriff has the drug force’s funds, equipment and property, but denies the sheriff left the task force during the Nov. 10, 2021, meeting with the plaintiffs. He does not say what did happen on that date. Meduri also denies that Vigluicci failed to properly account for the task force’s property or money, and that the records the sheriff and prosecutor provided are incomplete.
He further denies that the sheriff has not shared drug forfeiture money or equipment with the plaintiffs on cases they worked on prior to the date the sheriff exited the task force – whenever that was.
Pointing to their presence at a failed Feb. 22 conference to “to settle their differences,” Meduri denies that the sheriff and Zuchowski ignored a letter they received and states that the plaintiffs left the conference. What letter the plaintiffs are referring to in their complaint is unclear, he states.
Meduri also notes that 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.
Portage County Commissioner Mike Tinlin, whose background is in law enforcement, declined comment, saying only that the matter has been going on “for some time,” and the plaintiffs “finally decided to file a lawsuit.”
Commissioner Tony Badalamenti said the lawsuit, between the sheriff and the three cities, is between them and does not involve the commissioners. The commissioners have no power over Zuchowski, who is an elected official in his own right.
“It’s up to him,” Badalamenti said. “He’s made decisions that they will have to sort out in court.”
Commissioner Sabrina Christian-Bennett declined to comment on pending litigation.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.