Former Mansfield police officer Mike Garn seeks new trial

Lou Whitmire
Mansfield News Journal
Deputy Larry Pennywitt removes former Mansfield Police Officer Mike Garn's restraints so he can take notes during a hearing in front of Judge Brent Robinson on Wednesday afternoon.

MANSFIELD - Former Mansfield police officer Mike Garn was in court again Wednesday, seeking either a new trial or to have his sentence set aside.

A 10 a.m. hearing in Richland County Common Pleas Judge Brent Robinson's courtroom lasted more than two hours Wednesday as Garn's trial attorney, Kimberly Corral, took the witness stand and testified that as his defense attorney, she did not receive some records in the process of discovery, including FBI records she alleges could have changed the outcome of Garn's trial.

The post-conviction relief motion was filed last year by his current attorney, Allison Hibbard, requesting that Garn either get a new trial or have his sentence set aside.

After the hearing, all parties gathered at the bench to discuss when to continue the proceedings. Robinson said about two-and-a-half days will be blocked off to allow for all the witnesses to testify, but did not say when that date would be.

Garn was sentenced in April 2016 to 12 years and six months in prison after a jury convicted him on 25 of 34 counts. He sat quietly at the defense table Wednesday, wearing an orange and white jumpsuit.

Garn, 43, destroyed drug evidence or didn't submit it to the crime lab in exchange for sexual favors, the jury found. He also looked up LEADS information for reasons not related to law enforcement, according to News Journal records. LEADS is a law enforcement database.

Jurors convicted Garn on 12 of 15 counts of misuse of a law enforcement computer, 10 of 11 counts of dereliction of duty, one count of menacing by stalking, one count of tampering with evidence and a count of sexual battery. All except the dereliction of duty counts are felonies.

The jury found Garn not guilty of burglary, trespass in a habitation, attempted gross sexual imposition, public indecency and one count of tampering with evidence, along with one count of dereliction of duty and the three counts of misuse of a law enforcement computer.

He was served with his termination letter on the day of his conviction.

Wednesday, Hibbard questioned Corral, the primary witness, on whether or not she was provided numerous documents as she prepared for Garn's case. 

Corral said she was retained by the Ohio Bargaining Labor Council to represent Garn at his trial in this case. She came to the case before Garn was indicted, in November 2014, and was counsel throughout the trial and through his sentencing

"Were you provided a Nov. 24, 2014, report by (Mansfield police) Lt. (Joseph) Petrycki?" Hibbard said.

"No. I mean, no I was not," Corral said.

"Were you ever provided an FBI draft letter written by then-prosecuting attorney Bambi Couch (Page) dated July 22, 2015?" Hibbard asked.

Corral again said no. "The only thing I was given from the FBI was a transcript of an interview, um, with Mike Garn by three different FBI agents. I did, knowing how the FBI operates, they don't conduct single interviews, and they reference the rest of their investigation in that one interview, so I was aware that more existed. At one point, I want to say in June or July of 2015, I filed a motion to compel in order to get the rest of the FBI documents. A hearing was held on the matter. I believe Judge Robinson ordered that from the state to request additional documents from the FBI, but I never received anything further," Corral said.

Under questioning by Hibbard, Corral said she did on her own file public records requests but knew that such records could not be obtained by a defense attorney, and she would need to get them through the prosecutor's office.

Corral said she received some of her public records requests more than a year after the trial.

She said she made some of those requests to the prosecutor's office and some to the Mansfield Police Department.

For more than two hours, Corral remained on the witness stand as current Prosecuting Attorney Gary Bishop cross-examined her on Wednesday. Bishop did not work at the Richland County Prosecutor's Office at the time of Garn's trial.

Corral read from a letter she got in her public requests request that she never saw during the case from the prosecutor's office about an FBI agent's interview. 

Corral contends it was the prosecutor's office responsibility by law to get the FBI evidence and turn it over to her.

Bishop said the state made an effort to obtain records from the FBI.

Garn has steadfastly maintained his innocence. Defense attorneys said the four reported victims in the case were lying. They also claimed Garn did not use the LEADS information for unlawful reasons, according to News Journal records.

Garn is incarcerated at Allen Correctional Institution in Lima. He is scheduled to be released Oct. 8, 2028.

lwhitmir@nncogannett.com

419-521-7223

Twitter: @LWhitmir