Ohio sheriff indicted on felony drug charges

FREMONT, Ohio — Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on 43 counts, including 38 felony counts of various drug-related claims, according a special prosecutor.

Special prosecutor Carol Hamilton O'Brien said Overmyer remains the sheriff in Sandusky County but she is working with his legal counsel to have him turn himself in for arraignment.

"He was indicted on various counts of perception to obtain drugs, filing a false financial affidavit, tampering with records and theft of drugs," Hamilton O'Brien said Tuesday night.

Overmyer has come under fire after police chiefs in Sandusky County voiced concerns over an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation into the sheriff's collecting of prescription pills from area police departments.

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After Overmyer collected the pills from Bellevue police, a detective with the department told sheriff's Detective Capt. Sean O'Connell, who then began to review the collected boxes that had been placed in evidence at the Sheriff's Office.

During an August 2015 meeting, the Sandusky County Police Chiefs Association met and agreed it was "very suspicious" that Overmyer had collected the pills. The chiefs requested Ohio BCI to investigate the sheriff for possible wrongdoing.

In January, Overmyer told the News-Messenger in an interview that he personally collected pills from the Fremont, Bellevue, Green Springs and Woodville police departments between April and July as a good-faith effort to promote better communication among county law enforcement agencies.

Overmyer told the News-Messenger he cooperated with BCI's investigation, including submitting to, and passing, a drug test.

Hamilton O'Brien was appointed in February by the Ohio Supreme Court to oversee the case against Overmyer. She also investigated the use of $2,500 from the sheriff's Furtherance of Justice account that Overmyer cashed and was said to have given to the detective bureau to conduct drug buys.

Overmyer did not answer a call from the on Tuesday, and his phone did not accept voice mails.

No further details on the indictments or arraignment were available Tuesday night.

Follow Craig Shoup on Twitter: @CraigShoupNH