BRYAN, Ohio — The Williams County sheriff is facing additional charges in an ongoing issue related to confidential child abuse reports.
Sheriff Steven Towns was charged Tuesday in Bryan Municipal Court with one count of improperly disclosing confidential information and one count improperly releasing child abuse reports. He is facing a total of five misdemeanors after being charged in June with one count improperly disclosing confidential information and two counts improperly releasing child abuse reports.
Sheriff Towns could not immediately be reached and his attorney, Stevin Groth, declined to comment.
In June, officials said the sheriff posted hundreds of pages to the county sheriff's website and Facebook page last October. The post included at least two confidential reports of suspected child abuse and the illegal identification of at least one child victim, they said.
Sheriff Towns told The Blade in June that he cooperated with the investigation and the Facebook postings were related to a dispute with Williams County Job and Family Services. He removed a report as soon as he realized his department did not properly redact all confidential information as he believed, he said.
“I fully will defend myself, and it's just another case of a malicious prosecution,” Sheriff Towns said at the time.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation filed all five charges.
First Published August 20, 2019, 9:26 p.m.
