ASHLAND — A former Ashland County maintenance worker who previously pleaded guilty to sex crimes with minors will spend time in prison, a judge ruled Monday.
Jordan Stroub, 32, was sentenced to two prison terms for the crime committed against two victims when they were minors. The terms will be served concurrently for a total of 18 months.
A contrite Stroub appeared with his attorney, Joe Kearns, on video during the hearing that was held over Zoom.
The hearing, like others held in Ashland County Court of Common Pleas, was initially scheduled to be streamed live on the court’s website. Per the request of one of the victims and her father, the hearing was not streamed live.
The victim, who is 16 now, joined the hearing with her father and a victim’s advocate. The advocate read a letter the victim wrote.
“You have forever changed my life,” the victim’s letter read. “I grew up thinking you were like a brother to me, but you made me grow up faster than I should have.”
The victim’s father also shared.
“She may be be a stranger to everyone else in this case, but she was no stranger to the defendant,” he said.
The father noted that Stroub had been part of the family for “over 10 years” and that he first met his daughter when she was 5 years old.
“He was (as) close to the family as it gets without actually being family,” he said. “Him and his wife called us ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ whenever they saw us or when they would text message us.”
Two incidents
Stroub faced charges from two separate incidents.
The most recent incident involved Stroub sending inappropriate text messages to the victim who spoke Monday. She was 15 at the time.
On Monday, her father said his daughter concealed the fact that Stroub was texting her inappropriately for nearly a year. He said his daughter’s demeanor and behavior changed before she finally reported Stroub’s actions to law enforcement.
“She quit going to friends’ houses, only wanting to go skating if we were staying. She didn’t want to stay home alone,” he said.
The indictment filed against Stroub in June stated he had menaced her by stalking “with a sexual motivation” between June 2023 and March 15, 2024.
Assistant prosecutor Matt Metcalf said Stroub sent text messages asking to “see her without her clothes” and pictures of himself from the waist down “with a very visible bulge in his pants.”
Metcalf said Stroub also sent emoticons that clearly solicited sexual activity.
“Thankfully, none of that happened,” Metcalf said.
The case eventually led investigators to discover another separate case, which authorities said happened between Aug. 1, 2013 and Dec. 2013. At the time, Stroub was 20 and the victim was a 13 year-old girl.
The victim from the 12-year-old incidents did not speak during the hearing, but authorities said the victim was also a family friend of Stroub’s.
Stroub’s case was set to go to trial in early March. He took a plea deal before that happened. It involved agreeing to plead guilty to the menacing by stalking charge and to an amended charge.
The charge — related to incidents reported to have happened in 2013 — changed from unlawful sexual conduct with a minor to “attempted sexual conduct with a minor.”
Stroub stumbled through an apology during the hearing. When asked by Ashland County Common Pleas Court Judge Dave Stimpert if he wanted to say something, he said: “No, sir.
“I mean, I do. I have remorse. I just want to say sorry for any of the victims or whatnot. It’s just — time is rough. I realize what I — what was done.”
Maximum penalty imposed
Each count carried optional prison time, anywhere from six to 18 months, but Ashland County Common Pleas Court Judge Dave Stimpert said he implemented the maximum penalty on both counts because of the seriousness of the crimes.
Stimpert said the similarity between both cases, in which Stroub violated trust of family friends, informed his decision to send him to prison.
“(Your friendship with the family) puts you in a position to facilitate those offenses,” Stimpert said, addressing Stroub during the sentencing hearing. The hearing was held over Zoom.
“It also demonstrates a pattern of attraction towards minors,” the judge said. “You were grooming her and attempting to further it into additional sexual behavior.”
Stroub is required to register as a Tier 1 sex offender, the lowest of three grades in Ohio. It means he will have to register annually with the state for 15 years. There is a potential for early termination, depending on successful completion of probation or parole and treatment.
Stroub began working for the county in 2017, while still a student at Mapleton High School and Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center.
The county hired him as a full-time maintenance worker in December 2020, where he received regular pay bumps and was promoted.
Ashland County commissioners once considered him as next in line to be the county’s maintenance superintendent following Dennis Harris’ retirement in July 2024.
Commissioners learned about allegations against Stroub before that could happen, however.
The victim’s father called the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office to report the inappropriate texts and images his daughter had received. Initially, the caller was reported to have said Stroub sent “nude images” — an allegation Stroub denied.
The allegations and pending criminal case led to Stroub’s dismissal from county employment on March 21, two days following the father’s report to the sheriff’s office.
Stroub’s sentence also included paying around $1,400 in court costs and a mandatory post-release control sanction of five years.
He received two days of jail credit and he will continue to accrue credit until transferred to prison, Stimpert said.