MANSFIELD — A jury found suspended Mansfield Police officer Mike Garn guilty of sexual battery, menacing by stalking, tampering with evidence, 10 counts of dereliction of duty and 12 counts of misuse of a law enforcement computer.
The 10-man, two-woman jury deliberated more than 17 hours over the course of four days before the verdicts were announced shortly after noon on Friday in Richland County Common Pleas Court.
Garn, 42, was found guilty on 12 of 15 counts of misuse of a law enforcement computer, 10 of 11 counts of dereliction of duty, one of two counts of tampering with evidence, menacing by stalking, and sexual battery. He was found not guilty of trespass into a habitation, attempted gross sexual imposition, burglary, public indecency, three counts of misuse of a law enforcement computer, one count of tampering with evidence, and one count of dereliction of duty.
“This case was obviously a very difficult case in the fact that we had a law enforcement individual as the defendant,” Prosecutor Bambi Couch Page said. “However, our office believes that as a public servant, you have an obligation to uphold the criminal justice system and hold the integrity that is required to serve. When we see these types of crimes, we are not going to back away and not charge them. We had full belief in our case, and I believe that prevailed in the case.”
“I think it (the verdict) was appropriate for the conduct that he did,” said assistant state prosecutor Clifford Murphy.
Sexual battery and tampering with evidence are third-degree felonies, menacing by stalking is a fourth-degree felony, and misuse of a law enforcement computer is a fifth-degree felony. Dereliction of duty is a second-degree misdemeanor.
“I’m just glad the jury saw fit that this kind of behavior is not accepted in our community,” state assistant prosecutor Omar Siddiq said. “That we have a responsibility to the public as officers of the court to uphold the law whether it’s for those we work with everyday or it’s an everyday citizen who commits a crime. Everyone who commits a crime is treated the same by our office.”
The sentencing hearing for Garn will be Tuesday, April 19, at 3 p.m.
“We would make the same recommendation in this case as any private citizen, Murphy said of Garn’s potential prison sentence. “No one is above the law. There’s no special privileges for being a police officer, they enjoy the same rights, privileges, immunities that an ordinary citizen holds.”
Garn was hired at the Mansfield Police Department in 2008. He’d previously worked as a patrol officer with the Ashland Police Department since 2003, and prior to that was a deputy with the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office.
