Latest / Chuck Douglas / Muskingum County Prosecuter Ron Welch calls in 2-24-2025

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Muskingum County Prosecuter Ron Welch calls in 2-24-2025 · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Muskingham County, which has quickly become one of my favorite
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  Speaker 1: counties in the state of Ohio. Kicks butts, takes names,
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  Speaker 1: and they got a story that I just, Oh my goodness,
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  Speaker 1: I am so proud of them. Muskingham County Prosecutor Ron
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  Speaker 1: Welts joining me right now in the Legacy Retirement Group
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  Speaker 1: dot com phone lines. Ron, how are you? I'm great.
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  Speaker 2: How are you doing tonight?
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  Speaker 1: I am doing well, sir, And and again I am.
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  Speaker 1: I am somewhat flabbergasted and always impressed with what comes
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  Speaker 1: out of Miss Kingham County Prosecutor's office. Six people, six
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  Speaker 1: people being charged with something that sounds like it should
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  Speaker 1: be in a movie somewhere.
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  Speaker 2: Well, some of our stuff should be in a movie.
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  Speaker 2: And quite frankly, I think that you know, get our
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  Speaker 2: fair share of craziness that goes on.
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  Speaker 1: This I mean this, I don't nothing ever has happened
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  Speaker 1: like this in ms Kingham County has it? As far
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  Speaker 1: as you know? I mean, I can under stand getting
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  Speaker 1: your buddy to do something stupid, or maybe a relative
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  Speaker 1: to get something stupid going on, but having six people
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  Speaker 1: essentially trying to do a jail break here, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: has this ever happened anything along these lines. Was there
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  Speaker 1: a precedent for this or is this a unique piece
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  Speaker 1: of crazy?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's unique from the standpoint that you know, they
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  Speaker 2: coordinated an exit from our jail pretty luckily. To be honest,
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  Speaker 2: we have an old office building that was converted to
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  Speaker 2: a jail. It was never meant to be a jail,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, over the last forty plus years we've
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  Speaker 2: had to expand it. It's in a four story building,
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  Speaker 2: so it's not set up ideally, and you know, there
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  Speaker 2: are fire codes that go along with it. And this
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  Speaker 2: particular inmate was able to access a door and coordinate
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  Speaker 2: his girlfriend being at another door to open it up
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  Speaker 2: down at the bottom to let him free. And then
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  Speaker 2: he had other people assisting him along the way. Who
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  Speaker 2: really thought that, you know, they're just helping their buddy out.
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  Speaker 2: What's the what's the worst that could happen?
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  Speaker 1: The people who are involved here, there's one in particular,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't I don't, well, I forget what is
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  Speaker 1: it was? He was he uncle, uncle dad or a
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  Speaker 1: cousin and uncle.
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  Speaker 2: Or yeah, uncle step dad.
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  Speaker 1: Well that's what that's how he haled.
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  Speaker 2: The Yeah, it's a it's not something that we're necessarily
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  Speaker 2: proud of here in Musquoinue County. But you know, we've
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  Speaker 2: had we've had stranger relationships. You know, we recently had
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  Speaker 2: a case where, you know, brother threw a knife at
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  Speaker 2: another brother while he was visiting because the reason he
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  Speaker 2: was visiting was to visit his child. But while he
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  Speaker 2: was in prison, his brother had a baby with his wife.
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  Speaker 1: Oh goodness, yes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. The people that are in jail and in prison
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  Speaker 2: typically don't end up there because they make good decisions
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  Speaker 2: and they tend to follow them up with even worse decisions.
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  Speaker 2: And that that was one of the things that happened here.
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  Speaker 2: We had some people that thought that, you know, I'm
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  Speaker 2: just I'm just gonna help this guy out a little bit,
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  Speaker 2: and uh, you know, nothing's gonna happen to us. And
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  Speaker 2: I think they've they've they messed around and found out
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  Speaker 2: that if you help escaped convicts from our jail, that
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  Speaker 2: our law enforcement is going to come hunt you down
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  Speaker 2: and we're gonna charge you and we're gonna we're gonna
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  Speaker 2: be asking for prisons.
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  Speaker 1: Now I know that you know, this is all still
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  Speaker 1: in progress. They were they've been arrested, charged, and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: This is all still in progress, so you're kind of
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  Speaker 1: limited on on what you can say when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to this particular case. But let me ask you this.
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  Speaker 1: As you pronted out that the building was not dish
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  Speaker 1: designed to be a jail, and so forth, other pluses,
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  Speaker 1: believe it or not, I'm asking you about now that
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  Speaker 1: have come from this, other other holes in the system,
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  Speaker 1: other things that need to be dealt with that you
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  Speaker 1: did not know about. Is there some positive out of
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  Speaker 1: this whole thing?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think one of the positives is we've recently
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  Speaker 2: in our county decided to build a new jail that
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  Speaker 2: is actually a jail, and I think that people should
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  Speaker 2: feel much better about the fact that we're going to
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  Speaker 2: have a facility that's designed to make certain that things
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  Speaker 2: like this don't happen. And I think that should make
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  Speaker 2: you know, the community at large happy. Obviously, you know,
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  Speaker 2: these things cost money, and nobody wants to spend that
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  Speaker 2: type of money. But you know, our question that we
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  Speaker 2: always ask people is you know, what price tag would
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  Speaker 2: you put on the safety of your family?
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  Speaker 1: And I would think that the you know, the voters
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  Speaker 1: that this is obviously good to them to get the
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  Speaker 1: funding for it. I would think after seeing something like this,
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  Speaker 1: they may be able to, you know, be logical. It isn't,
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  Speaker 1: you know, a typical government thing. They're just comming for
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  Speaker 1: more money. They always want money. This is a very
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  Speaker 1: practical and reasonable need. So you probably stand a pretty
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  Speaker 1: good chance, don't you.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we we'd fortunately, are commissioners here, unlike some other
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  Speaker 2: places over the last ten or twelve years, have done
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  Speaker 2: a fantastic job of managing our county funds, and we're
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  Speaker 2: not going to be asking for additional tax dollars. They're
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  Speaker 2: going to be doing it from money that they had saved,
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  Speaker 2: and they're going to be able to take out some
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  Speaker 2: bonds and some projects that we have finished here in
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  Speaker 2: our county, and the taxpayers really aren't going to feel
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  Speaker 2: the brunt of us. They're not going to pay a
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  Speaker 2: single new tax on it.
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  Speaker 1: That's great. Now, it's been about two and a half
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  Speaker 1: months since you and I have talked. Anything else that's
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  Speaker 1: happened out there that I am not aware of that
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  Speaker 1: you want to share.
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  Speaker 2: With the world, Oh well, I'll tell you. Something that
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  Speaker 2: we're pretty proud of is the speed with which we
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  Speaker 2: move in our county. And we had a crime that
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  Speaker 2: we discovered two weeks ago which involved the murder of
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  Speaker 2: an individual who was unfortunately hidden in a shed. We
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  Speaker 2: discovered the crime on February tenth, and our anticipation is
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  Speaker 2: that the person responsible for that murder is going to
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  Speaker 2: be entering a plea and sentenced this Wednesday, So sixteen
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  Speaker 2: days from discovery of the crime, which is a murder,
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  Speaker 2: to a plea and a sentencing. So when people tell
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  Speaker 2: you that the system is broken and it takes too long,
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  Speaker 2: I think they need to look at where they're living
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  Speaker 2: to say, is it just my system?
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  Speaker 1: What's your secret? I mean, honestly, how do you go
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  Speaker 1: in sixteen days from the discovery of a crime to
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  Speaker 1: preparing for a plea.
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  Speaker 2: We work closely with our law enforcement. There's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of mutual respect that goes into it between ourselves and
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  Speaker 2: our local law enforcement agencies, and they understand that if
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  Speaker 2: they're doing the things that we're asking them to do,
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  Speaker 2: that we're going to get results. And our courts and
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  Speaker 2: our judges are responsive to voters that still want to
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  Speaker 2: see people held accountable for committing crimes.
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you too, as I look through
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  Speaker 1: your website, which is very complete, I love the way
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  Speaker 1: you put the synopsis and the people, the pictures and
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  Speaker 1: so forth. Of the people that you're dealing with up
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  Speaker 1: there is one guy, and okay, he's a big, old,
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  Speaker 1: muscle bound, undershirt wearing guy. But you know, you know
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  Speaker 1: who I'm talking about. Adam Adam Gators is his name.
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  Speaker 1: Forty six returned to the supervision of a Kingham County
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  Speaker 1: Adult Probation department on Monday morning, unusual development. Gators had
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  Speaker 1: previously pled guilty to tampering with evidence, assault and falsification
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  Speaker 1: with an agreement that he served jail time and be
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  Speaker 1: placed on community control. After Gators served time in the
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  Speaker 1: local jail, probation department found emotion this is weird, asking
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  Speaker 1: his community control be terminated unsuccessfully, and a judge signed
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  Speaker 1: the order without a hearing. That's a strange series of
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  Speaker 1: events there. But the whole reason I read his story
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  Speaker 1: is because he looks nice. I mean, he looks like
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  Speaker 1: a nice guy. He's a big, old muscle bound guy.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm looking at his face. I've never seen a
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  Speaker 1: friendly mugshot like that before.
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  Speaker 2: Are Yeah, it's a it's an interesting story there. He uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, had committed some crimes there and he got,
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  Speaker 2: he got put on community control, and what happened is
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  Speaker 2: the court terminated him. And you know, do you have
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  Speaker 2: victim rights now in Ohio under Marcy's Law, and the
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  Speaker 2: victim needed to be notified and have an opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: say their piece in front of the court. We litigated that.
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  Speaker 2: We took it to our Court of Appeals and they
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  Speaker 2: agreed with us and sent it back and said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: before you terminate somebody's community control, you have to allow
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  Speaker 2: the victim an opportunity to be heard. And when the
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  Speaker 2: judge heard the victim at the at the hearing, then
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  Speaker 2: you know he had a different approach to that. He
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  Speaker 2: was mister Gators was placed back on community control as
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  Speaker 2: we believe he should have been.
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  Speaker 1: So from from your from your perspective, everything worked out
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  Speaker 1: as it should in the end. It's just a I
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  Speaker 1: don't know, just a strange turn of events there. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I just I don't know. I always speak very highly
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  Speaker 1: of you, just because the efficient see the openness and
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  Speaker 1: so forth that I see coming out of your office
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  Speaker 1: is something that I truly wish we had all across
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  Speaker 1: the state of Ohio, if not the country. And maybe
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  Speaker 1: it's just because I live here in Franklin County, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm continually shaking my head and wondering where justice is
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  Speaker 1: hiding most of the time. Maybe that's why I look
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  Speaker 1: at your office and what you're doing out there with
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  Speaker 1: such regard, and I just I always like to bring
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  Speaker 1: you on just to let you know that you appreciate it,
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  Speaker 1: Your efforts are appreciated, and they go notice by at
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  Speaker 1: least me.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you that my staff is certainly aware.
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  Speaker 2: They certainly appreciate it, as do the law enforcement officers
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  Speaker 2: that are involved, so they're appreciative as well. So I'd
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  Speaker 2: like to express thank you from all of us to
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  Speaker 2: you for.
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  Speaker 1: Acknowledging that in a moment of extreme seriousness here my
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  Speaker 1: condolences to you, your office, everybody there. With the loss
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  Speaker 1: of Jesse Hathaway, I did not even know that Jesse
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  Speaker 1: was my He was the one who built the bridge
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  Speaker 1: between this show in your office, and I was emailing
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  Speaker 1: and calling, hey, Jesse, Hey, Jesse, I need to get
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  Speaker 1: rod on what's going on. I wasn't hearing anything, and
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  Speaker 1: then found out that he had, unfortunately a very very
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  Speaker 1: young age, passed away right there at his birthday too,
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  Speaker 1: which was so very sad, but I know that he
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  Speaker 1: was really working on building up those connections for the
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  Speaker 1: office and making sure that we got word of what
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  Speaker 1: you were doing out there. And just again my sincere condolences.
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  Speaker 1: He's lost a good guy. We didn't.
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  Speaker 2: We appreciate that very much.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, all right, Ron Welch. He is the prosecutor
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  Speaker 1: in Muskingham County where justice actually gets done quickly, effectively
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  Speaker 1: and repeatedly, and dog got it. You're welcome here anytime, Rod.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time tonight, all right, thank you. You
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  Speaker 1: take care of yourself.