BUCYRUS, Ohio – Crawford County is quickly becoming known as a county with zero tolerance for drug users, thanks to the no-nonsense style of Crawford County Common Pleas Judge Sean Leuthold.
In the past four months since taking the judgeship in February, Leuthold has handed down more than 100 prison sentences, many of them lengthy as a result of drug activity within the county. As a result, Leuthold said Crawford County is beginning to see the amount of drugs in the community decrease.
“From what I’ve heard the supply in Galion specifically has gone down dramatically; addicts have told police officers they can’t seem to find anything here because of the amount of dealers that have disappeared,” said Leuthold. “I think that’s the great work of law enforcement, and I do think people are now beginning to realize that Crawford County is not the place to go if you want to get mixed up in drugs.”
Creating a drug-free community was a major platform of Leuthold’s when he ran for the judge seat last year. After previously serving as the Municipal Court judge since 2008, Leuthold is ready to lead Common Pleas court with an iron fist.
“Everybody gets a fair shake but I don’t take any nonsense, and I take my job of protecting the public extremely seriously,” said Leuthold. “My number one job is to punish offenders adequately, and protect the public from future crime. And if you’re not punishing the offenders appropriately, you’re only encouraging them to commit new crimes and that puts the entire community at risk.”
While Leuthold understands that rehabilitation and second chances are certainly important in battling the drug problem in Crawford County, he also wants to be known as a county that holds people accountable for their actions.
“I’m a person who believes that immediate consequences are necessary, that if someone commits a crime and it’s serious enough that it requires prison, I have to be a judge who’s not afraid to give them that particular sentence,” he said. “Sometimes it’s a maximum sentence, and I think judges cannot be afraid to hand out maximum sentences. The punishment needs to fit the crime, but the key word there is punishment.”
In addition to handing down prison sentences, Leuthold brings to the bench a strict policy on community control, otherwise known as probation. He said he believes probation is a privilege, and if offenders do not adhere to the requirements of community control they will be put in prison.
“I believe in second chances, but I don’t believe in third and fourth chances, we cannot do that,” said Leuthold. “When you do, you create an air of permissiveness, which causes more criminal behavior.”
The criminal behavior least tolerated by Leuthold is drug activity. His judicial philosophy is certain crimes that are very serious and pose a danger to the public require a very lengthy prison sentence, and dealing drugs is one of the most serious crimes of all in Leuthold’s eyes.
“Drug dealers prey on the misery of others, and what they’re selling is a poison that could result in overdoses and is going to result in people becoming addicted and needing to commit more crimes to support their habit, which only causes more people to be victimized,” he said.
Since beginning his judgeship in February, Leuthold has stated time and again from the bench that Crawford County is the wrong county to be getting involved in drugs. Word of his philosophy is spreading quickly – according to county law enforcement, the county has seen a significant decrease in the amount of drug activity.
“According to police, people in Marion and Richland County have said the word among the drug culture is do not come to Crawford County,” said Leuthold. “If people who are going to commit crimes think certain behavior is not going to be tolerated, they will avoid those places, and I think that’s what’s going on right now. I wanted to make my philosophy very clear, and I had the opportunity to see a lot of drug cases that came in front of me right away.”
Leuthold’s straightforward approach to banishing the drug problem in Crawford County is something he plans to continue in the future. And for the first time, the community is fully behind the judge and the law enforcement on the frontline.
“I think our community has awakened, they understand the drug problem is our number one problem right now,” said Leuthold. “We’re not going to be able to fix our economy by attracting new businesses and new people to move to Crawford County if we have a massive heroin problem. Employers would have a hard time finding people who are going to work, people are not going to feel safe because of the crime rate, so I don’t think we can turn the corner as a community and move forward and be prosperous and successful until we get that problem under control.
“It’s going to take a little while, we didn’t get here overnight and as much as I’d like to think I can fix this in six months I can’t, but what we are going to see is continued improvement,” he continued. “As we begin to get this problem under control, I think you’re going to see a renaissance of good things in our community.”
“Everybody gets a fair shake but I don’t take any nonsense, and I take my job of protecting the public extremely seriously,” said Crawford County Common Pleas Judge Sean Leuthold.
