A Lucas County judge has sealed the case record for a Michigan man convicted of two misdemeanors in 2016 for accidentally, but severely, burning a fellow University of Toledo student at a party.
Judge Ken Walz granted Christopher Housel’s request Thursday despite a written plea from the victim, Janelle Noe, who said Mr. Housel should live with the consequences of his action, just as she lives daily with the injury she suffered when he caused a fireball while drunkenly playing with grain alcohol, an aerosol can, and a lighter.
The judge said he found Mr. Housel to be rehabilitated and eligible for his convictions for criminal damaging and underage consumption of alcohol to be sealed.
Jerome Phillips, Mr. Housel’s lawyer, said Mr. Housel, then as now a Highland, Mich., resident, sought to have his record formally cleared because the convictions complicated his entry into Canada during business trips he frequently makes there. The legal action, he remarked, will not erase other records of the incident.
“I cannot do anything about the thousands of servers on this planet” that continue to make those details publicly available, Judge Walz agreed while stating that Ohio law is designed to allow for punishment followed by forgiveness in such situations.
Ms. Noe asked that the court not seal Mr. Housel’s record, because doing so would “erase the consequences of another one’s actions for themselves, and leave it to me to bear for the rest of my life.”
Her burns’ lasting effects have included reduced or loss of sensation in her hands, inner arms, neck, and chest, plus her body overheats or gets cold very easily.
“Then there are the emotional and mental impacts of those physical ones,” she wrote. “Ones that leave me crying some nights or at random times of the day. Ones that have kept me from fully living life throughout the past nine years.”
Mr. Housel had conceded before Judge Walz that the incident was “a preventable, reckless accident” that caused “irreversible” pain.
Mindy Noe, who read her daughter’s letter in court Thursday morning, said she didn’t think the outcome was right but had been cautioned by court staff that it was likely.
“At least we would be able to read Janelle’s letter so they would know how we feel,” she said while also questioning whether Mr. Housel served his full jail term or performed all of the community service he was supposed to.
Prosecutors said Mr. Housel, then 21, was drinking Everclear — a branded form of grain alcohol — during a Jan. 15, 2016, house party and began creating pools of fire with a lighter and an aerosol can. At one point, he poured Everclear into a bowl, ignited it, then poured more on the flame, which created a fireball that burned Ms. Noe over more than half of her body.
He was originally indicted for aggravated arson, but in a deal with prosecutors pleaded no contest July 26, 2016, to the misdemeanor charges. Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Linda Jennings sentenced him to four months in jail, two months on electronic monitoring, and 800 hours of community service.
The community service was to be split into 400 hours working in a burn unit and 400 hours speaking to young people “regarding the effects of drinking.”
Ms. Noe also filed a civil lawsuit against Mr. Housel and several others involved in the party that was settled in late 2018, court records show.
First Published April 10, 2025, 5:14 p.m.
