Author: FFP Ai Bot

OPINION: This is commentary. The opinions are ours; the facts come from court records, election results, state findings and news reports linked below.

Disclosure: The Fostoria Free Press is a party to a public records dispute with the Portage County Sheriff's Office, one of the offices discussed in this commentary.

OHIO – An Ohio sheriff answers to no police chief and no city manager. A sheriff answers to voters, once every four years. That makes every lawsuit, settlement and conviction on a sheriff's record a political question, and in our view Ohio voters, and the officials who are supposed to watch sheriffs between elections, have been answering it badly.

Here is our list of the worst rated sheriffs in Ohio and the political record behind each: who elected them, who paid when things went wrong and what happened next. Too often, nothing did.

A note on the word "rated." No official rating or ranking of Ohio sheriffs exists, and this list is not numbered. These sheriffs are "worst rated" in our judgment only, because their public records of lawsuits, settlements, rulings and convictions are the most troubling we found. Allegations are labeled as such, and no one is accused of a crime a court has not found. Our method is explained at the end.

Portage County: Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, re-elected by 1,130 votes

Zuchowski, a Republican and retired state trooper, won in 2020 with 56.3 percent of the vote over Democrat Greg Johnson, Ideastream reported. His campaign promised to reduce robberies, stop the flow of opiates into the county, fight phone scams and find grant money "at no extra cost to taxpayers," according to his campaign website.

In 2025 his office was named in five federal cases, the most in any year of his tenure, according to a review of court records by The Portager. It was also sued in Common Pleas Court once a year in 2021, 2022 and 2024, and twice in 2023 and 2025. Among the cases:

• The baking soda arrest. Two Ravenna men, Zephaniah Robinson and Jack Metcalf, sued Zuchowski and three deputies in 2024 over an Aug. 29, 2023, stop in which deputies reported white powder tested positive for cocaine. State lab testing found no controlled substance, the charges were dropped, and the complaint said the powder was baking soda. The defendants denied wrongdoing. The men dismissed the suit in March 2025 without prejudice, so it could be refiled. For a sheriff who campaigned on stopping drugs, that case deserved more public explanation, in our view.
• A critic's retaliation suit. William Lane, a Marine veteran who runs the Facebook page The Bad Bruce Exhibit, filed a federal suit on May 6, 2025, accusing Zuchowski and two employees of retaliating against him for the page. He seeks $1.5 million in compensatory and $1.5 million in punitive damages, The Portager reported. By July 2025 it was headed toward a possible jury trial. These are allegations. An earlier Lane suit over a 2023 traffic stop was dismissed.
• A deputy's overtime suit. Deputy Eric Centa sued the office in federal court in September 2025. He alleges he is owed more than $47,000 in overtime and faced retaliation after complaining. The office declined to comment, citing the litigation, News 5 Cleveland reported.
• A 2026 civil rights complaint. On Aug. 10, 2026, a Petersburg man filed a federal complaint without a lawyer naming Zuchowski, the office and several county offices, according to the federal docket. No court has ruled on the merits.

In September 2024, weeks before his re-election, Zuchowski posted on Facebook that people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses written down. After the ACLU of Ohio threatened to sue, he deleted the posts. The county Board of Elections voted 3-1 to remove his office from early-voting security duty, The Associated Press reported. The sheriff later said his remarks "may have been a little misinterpreted" and defended his free speech. The U.S. Justice Department said it would monitor Portage County voting after voter intimidation complaints, 19 News reported.

Voters re-elected him anyway. The official canvass gave Zuchowski 40,802 votes to 39,672 for Democrat Jon Barber, a margin of 1,130 votes, according to the Portage County Board of Elections. Our view: a sheriff who urged the public to write down his political opponents' addresses should have lost, and the closeness of that count says many Portage voters agreed.

In fairness, a 2018 jail beating claim by Larry Tawney Jr. ended in the defendants' favor on appeal, and it and older jail-death suits predate Zuchowski.

As disclosed above, the Free Press filed a records request on Sept. 4 and set an Oct. 30 deadline in a pre-litigation notice. It sent a second pre-suit notice on Oct. 28 over a separate Oct. 5 request. The office acknowledged the Oct. 5 request but has not produced the records. The Fostoria Free Press invites Sheriff Zuchowski to comment and will add any response.

Butler County: Sheriff Richard K. Jones, elected six times

Jones, a Republican, was first elected in 2004, according to the sheriff's office. He told The Marshall Project in 2026 that he has "been elected six times." In 2024 he was unopposed, according to election results compiled by Branch.

A 2016 Journal-News review counted at least 24 suits against the sheriff and his staff since 1995; about half were dismissed, and the county had paid $248,233 in settlements since 2009.

The most expensive recent case was a federal class action for about 500 people arrested from 2017 to 2019 who said they were jailed more than 48 hours without seeing a judge. In 2025, the county, Fairfield and a former municipal judge agreed to pay $1,215,000, WCPO and WLWT reported. The county's share was $437,500, covered by its insurance pool, according to the Journal-News. The sheriff's office has since begun tracking the 48-hour timeline.

A separate 2020 lawsuit by former ICE detainees alleges jail officers used racial slurs and excessive force. It was still being litigated in 2025, Cincinnati CityBeat reported. Jones has denied the claims. "I've been sued my whole career," he told CityBeat.

That quote is the political problem in one sentence. When lawsuits are a cost of doing business, an insurance pool pays and no one runs against the sheriff, the ballot stops working as a check. The Fostoria Free Press invites Sheriff Jones to comment.

Montgomery County: Sheriff Rob Streck, picked by a party, unopposed on the ballot

Streck did not first reach office by a public vote. In January 2019 the Montgomery County Republican Party appointed him, then chief deputy, to finish Sheriff Phil Plummer's term after Plummer was elected to the Ohio House, the Dayton Daily News and WHIO reported. He later won election, and in 2024 ran unopposed, according to Branch.

Christian Black, 25, of Zanesville, died after jail officers restrained him on March 24, 2025. The coroner ruled his death a homicide, likely caused by mechanical and positional asphyxia, WYSO reported. Family attorneys say about 10 officers held him down and used pepper spray, Tasers, a restraint chair and a spit hood.

On Sept. 30, 2025, the county commissioners voted to pay $7 million, Prison Legal News reported, a sum the family's attorney called the largest settlement in county history. In November 2025, a grand jury declined to indict the 10 officers who had been investigated, Dayton 24/7 Now reported. The family also pursued claims against medical contractor NaphCare, which says its staff acted appropriately. According to WYSO, Black was one of at least 18 people who have died in the jail over the past decade. The office points to improvements, including a $20 million behavioral health unit.

We respect the grand jury's decision, and no one here should be called a criminal. But a homicide ruling and a $7 million public payout are exactly what elections exist to weigh. That is hard when the ballot offers one name. The Fostoria Free Press invites Sheriff Streck to comment.

Richland County: Sheriff Steve Sheldon, six terms and a records ruling

Sheldon, a Republican first elected in 2004, is Richland County's longest-serving sheriff. He was unopposed in 2008, 2012 and 2020, and in 2024 he won a three-way primary with 57 percent and faced no Democrat in November, Richland Source reported.

In December 2025, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that his office improperly redacted records sought by Andrea Mauk, whose son died in a 2023 crash, about what happened to his belongings. The court ordered properly redacted records released and awarded $2,000 in statutory damages and court costs, according to State ex rel. Mauk v. Sheldon, 2025-Ohio-5611. It rejected most of her other claims and denied attorney fees.

It is a modest loss. We include it because it shows how thin oversight is: under R.C. 149.43, a grieving mother's remedy against an elected sheriff is a mandamus suit in the Ohio Supreme Court, with damages capped at $1,000 per request. The Fostoria Free Press invites Sheriff Sheldon to comment.

When voters' choices ended in a courtroom

Pike County: Charles Reader. Appointed interim sheriff in May 2015, Reader won election in 2016 and led the office during the Rhoden family murders investigation that year. In July 2019, after pleading not guilty to 16 charges, he agreed to be suspended, FOX19 reported. In September 2020 he pleaded guilty to two counts of theft in office, two of tampering with evidence and one of conflict of interest, involving evidence bags of seized drug cash and a seized car a straw buyer bought for him at a sheriff's auction for $2,000 that he later sold for $5,500, according to the Ohio Auditor of State. In March 2021 he was sentenced to three years in prison, the Columbus Dispatch reported. He is permanently barred from public office in Ohio, according to WCPO.

Meigs County: Keith Wood. First elected in 2012, Wood was re-elected in 2020, 6,192 votes to 4,274, according to unofficial results reported by WOUB. He resigned in November 2022, citing health and family. In September 2023 he entered an Alford plea and was found guilty of one felony count of theft in office. (In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt.) State investigators found he withdrew county Law Enforcement Trust Fund cash at ATMs for personal use. He was sentenced to community control, community service and $5,000 in restitution, and he is barred from public office, WOUB and the Columbus Dispatch reported.

In both counties, the consequences came from state investigators and the courts, not from voters. The Fostoria Free Press invites Reader and Wood, or their attorneys, to comment.

Who pays, and who is supposed to be watching

Look at who wrote the checks: an insurance pool in Butler, the commissioners in Montgomery. The costs land on taxpayers, not sheriffs. We found no public discipline of any sitting sheriff tied to these cases.

The other checks are weak or slow. Commissioners set sheriffs' budgets but cannot fire them. Prosecutors work beside sheriffs every day. Grand juries meet in secret. In Portage, it took an ACLU lawsuit threat to get a post deleted; in Richland, the state's highest court to get records released.

That leaves voters. In our opinion, their job is simple: read the record and, when it is this bad, give someone a reason to run. A sheriff's race with one name on the ballot is not an endorsement. It is a vacancy in accountability.

How we chose

The selections are ours. We included a current or recent elected Ohio sheriff only if two reputable news sources, or an official court or state record, showed a settlement or judgment, a ruling against the office, a criminal conviction or a pattern of lawsuits counted from court records. Filing a lawsuit only makes an allegation; unless noted, pending cases have not been decided. We left out appointed sheriffs, such as Cuyahoga County's, and suits naming only a jail's private medical contractor. This list is not complete; readers can send documented cases from other counties to The Fostoria Free Press.

Sources
The Portager, March 9, 2026 – https://theportager.com/sheriff-faced-five-federal-lawsuits-in-2025-most-in-recent-history
The Portager, June 2, 2025 – https://theportager.com/local-activist-behind-bad-bruce-exhibit-sues-zuchowski-for-alleged-retaliation/
The Portager, July 14, 2025 – https://theportager.com/federal-lawsuit-against-sheriff-over-bad-bruce-exhibit-could-go-to-jury-trial/
Record-Courier, April 17, 2025 – https://www.record-courier.com/story/news/local/2025/04/17/2-men-drop-wrongful-arrest-lawsuit-against-portage-county-sheriff-deputies/83122843007/
Ideastream, Sept. 25, 2024 – https://www.ideastream.org/law-justice/2024-09-25/portage-county-sheriff-and-deputies-sued-by-men-jailed-on-false-drug-charges
News 5 Cleveland – https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/portage-co-deputy-sues-sheriffs-office-over-alleged-retaliation-and-47k-in-unpaid-ot
Dean v. Portage County Building Department, N.D. Ohio No. 5:26-cv-01875 – https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/66169655/Dean_v_Portage_County_Building_Department_et_al
ACLU of Ohio, Sept. 23, 2024 – https://www.acluohio.org/press-releases/aclu-ohio-declares-success-after-see-you-court-message-portage-county-sheriff-removes/
Associated Press – https://apnews.com/article/ohio-sheriff-social-media-harris-yard-signs-b8867981ca06db3a3ce82f11370b7ee0
Tawney v. Portage County, 6th Cir. No. 21-3809 – https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca6/21-3809/21-3809-2022-06-15.html
The Marshall Project – Cleveland, Oct. 8, 2026 – https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/10/08/butler-county-sheriff-ice-deportation
Journal-News, Sept. 23, 2016 – https://www.journal-news.com/news/sheriff-lawsuits-some-frivolous-others-serious/article_7d2788f3-0078-55c9-8106-74ceec1cf34c.html
Journal-News, 2025 – https://www.journal-news.com/news/these-local-government-lawsuits-are-costly-for-butler-county-taxpayers/article_741b38b8-6483-507f-869b-b4493cd783a8.html
WCPO – https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/butler-county/1-2-million-settlement-reached-in-class-action-lawsuit-claiming-hundreds-unlawfully-detained-in-butler-county
WLWT, March 20, 2025 – https://www.wlwt.com/article/lawsuit-over-unlawful-detentions-ends-in-settlement/64246152
Cincinnati CityBeat – https://www.citybeat.com/news/welcome-to-the-ice-age-inside-butler-countys-jail-for-ice-detainees-19187730/
WYSO, Oct. 20, 2025 – https://www.wyso.org/news/2025-10-20/montgomery-county-jail-settles-7m-lawsuit-with-the-family-of-christian-black
Dayton 24/7 Now, Nov. 19, 2025 – https://dayton247now.com/news/local/grand-jury-decides-not-to-indict-officers-investigated-in-christian-blacks-death
State ex rel. Mauk v. Sheldon, 2025-Ohio-5611 – https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2025/2025-Ohio-5611.pdf
Ohio Auditor of State (Reader sentencing) – https://ohioauditor.gov/news/pressreleases/Details/5680
WCPO (Reader plea) – https://www.wcpo.com/news/crime/suspended-pike-county-sheriff-pleads-guilty-to-charges-including-theft-in-office
Columbus Dispatch, March 24, 2021 – https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/courts/2021/03/24/pike-county-sheriff-who-investigated-rhoden-homicides-court-criminal-case/4801200001/
WOUB, Sept. 8, 2023 – https://woub.org/2023/09/08/former-meigs-county-sheriff-guilty-theft-in-office/
Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 8, 2023 – https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2023/09/08/former-meigs-county-sheriff-guilty-of-theft-in-office/70797373007/
Ideastream, Nov. 5, 2020 (2020 Portage sheriff election) – https://www.ideastream.org/news/government-politics/2020-11-05/portage-county-voters-elect-first-republican-sheriff-in-a-decade
Bruce Zuchowski for Sheriff, campaign goals – https://brucezforsheriff.com/goals
Portage County Board of Elections, official canvass, Nov. 5, 2024 – https://www.portagecounty-oh.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif3706/f/uploads/official_canvass_summary_report.pdf
19 News (WOIO), Nov. 1, 2024 – https://www.cleveland19.com/2024/11/01/portage-county-decides-what-you-need-know-about-sheriff-race/
Butler County Sheriff's Office, About the Sheriff – https://butlersheriff.org/sheriff
Branch, 2024 Butler County sheriff results – https://www.branch.vote/races/2024-ohio-general-election-oh-state-sheriff-oh-county-butler
Dayton Daily News, Jan. 6, 2019 (Streck appointment) – https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local-govt–politics/montgomery-county-republicans-appoint-rob-streck-fill-sheriff-term/L7ltPUYtEDPl7RqkTq0dYO/
WHIO, Jan. 2019 – https://www.whio.com/news/local/montgomery-county-officially-has-new-sheriff/RCU6AOFNOBTynM418m4PuI/
Branch, 2024 Montgomery County sheriff – https://www.branch.vote/races/2024-ohio-general-election-oh-state-sheriff-oh-county-montgomery/candidates/rob-streck
Prison Legal News, Dec. 1, 2025 – https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2025/dec/1/7-million-paid-by-ohio-county-for-jail-detainees-death-in-restraint-chair/
Richland Source, March 19, 2024 – https://www.richlandsource.com/2024/03/19/steve-sheldon-re-elected-to-record-sixth-term-as-richland-county-sheriff/
FOX19, July 10, 2019 (Reader suspension) – https://www.fox19.com/2019/07/10/pike-county-sheriff-charles-reader-suspended-after-pleading-not-guilty-charges/
Columbus Dispatch, March 23, 2021 (Reader timeline) – https://www.dispatch.com/story/nletter/2021/03/23/timeline-key-events-pike-county-ohio-sheriff-charles-reader-rhoden/6963721002/
Chillicothe Gazette, Nov. 8, 2016 (Pike sheriff race) – https://www.chillicothegazette.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/11/08/ross-and-pike-sheriffs-races-await-results-george-lavender-brady-ratzlaff-don-hayburn-charlie-reader/93443610/
WOUB, Nov. 4, 2020 (Meigs results) – https://woub.org/2020/11/04/unofficial-election-results-for-meigs-county-4/
Ohio Auditor of State, Meigs County special audit – https://ohioauditor.gov/AuditSearch/Reports/2023/Meigs_County_21-22_Meigs_Special_FINAL.pdf
Ohio Revised Code 149.43 – https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-149.43

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