BOWLING GREEN — A retired Rossford police chief pleaded not guilty Thursday afternoon in Wood County Common Pleas Court to seven counts of improper use of a police database, and a judge gave him a June trial date.
Glenn Goss, Sr., was released on his own recognizance after appearing before Judge Joel Kuhlman, who advised him he faces a maximum of seven years in prison if convicted and consecutively sentenced for all counts.
His indictments list six dates when he is alleged to have improperly used the Law Enforcement Automated Database System for purposes “without the consent of, or beyond the scope of the express or implied consent” of its management committee. Those dates range from Dec. 4, 2019, to April 24, 2024, with two of the counts applying to the final date.
All dates fall after he retired from the Rossford Police Department in 2018, ostensibly to allow his son, Glenn Goss, Jr., to advance through the Rossford police ranks without any whiff of nepotism. But Rossford then hired him as its code compliance coordinator, a role in which he retained access to the police database.
His son, meanwhile, resigned in 2020 after admitting to having used the same database improperly to research two women he had pulled over for traffic violations. Glenn Goss, Jr., served two months in jail and forfeited his Ohio police certification as part of a plea deal.
No further details of the elder Mr. Goss’ database use were divulged during the court appearance Thursday. He appeared with Toledo lawyer Jerome Phillips and declined to comment afterward.
Judge Kuhlman set June 23 as Mr. Goss’s trial date, with testimony expected to run two days. He then scheduled a pretrial conference for May 8.
First Published April 3, 2025, 8:35 p.m.
