Former Allen County sheriff Samuel Crish believes that, if he hadn’t had a gambling addiction, he never would have ended up in a federal courtroom, guilty of taking thousands of dollars in bribes while he was sworn to uphold the law.
“[I’m] going from sheriff to convicted felon,” Crish said before he was sentenced to prison Thursday afternoon. “To say it makes me sick. To think it makes me sick.”
Crish, 55, formerly of Delphos, Ohio, was sentenced to 136 months in federal prison on two counts each of soliciting bribes and extortion and one count of making a false statement. He was also ordered to pay $606,221 in restitution.
Crish’s conviction stem from actions he took while serving as Allen County’s sheriff from 2008 until his resignation in 2017. During a March plea hearing, assistant U.S. attorney Gene Crawford said Crish solicited or extorted tens of thousands of dollars from several people, including those arrested for prostitution and suspected of illegal gambling operations.
Prosecutors detailed incidents where people who were charged with crimes gave Crish “loans” of several thousand dollars and then saw their charges dropped. In one incident, a nurse gave Crish a $42,000 check in the alley behind the sheriff’s office and then later got a job at the Allen County jail. As sheriff, Crish oversaw operations at the jail.
The initial indictment, unsealed last year, alleged that Crish solicited or extorted nearly $100,000 from five people between 2012 and 2016 and lied to federal investigators looking into the matter. Authorities initially charged him with six crimes. One count of soliciting a bribe was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Federal agents raided his office in Lima, Ohio, in September, 2016.
On Thursday Crish told the court that he knew what he did was wrong, that he took the money because he was addicted to gambling, and he wanted to focus now on repaying everything he owes back to the victims. He did not want to blame his conduct on his gambling problem, he said, but it was an essential part of why he committed the crimes.
“I know if I was not gambling, I would not be standing here today,” he said.
Prosecutors said Crish gambled at Hollywood Casino in Toledo.
He repeatedly emphasized that he wants to pay back all the money he owes.
“It’s not really about me,” he said. “It’s about all the damage I’ve caused.”
U.S. District Judge James Carr pointed out that Crish was not only a law enforcement officer when he committed these crimes, but he was the chief law enforcement officer of Allen County. Crish had sworn an oath, the judge said, to uphold the law.
“At some point, you abandoned that oath,” Judge Carr said.
The judge also said that this sentence is as much about punishing Crish for his crimes as it is about deterring any other public officials from doing the same thing.
“For anybody who may be so inclined, I hope that this sentence serves as a warning,” he said.
U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said in a statement that the ex-sheriff earned every day of his sentence.
“His conduct is an affront to the men and women in law enforcement and the citizens he pledged to protect and serve,” he said. “Using his office and badge to demand bribes from gamblers and people arrested in prostitution stings is beyond offensive.”
Attorneys for both the prosecution and defense declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing.
First Published September 26, 2019, 8:59 p.m.
