LADY LUCK AND THE SHERIFF
Following a boisterous and often lawless life
as a young man in the East End of Portsmouth, Marty Donini decided
to change sides and become a city police officer. To be a cop was an
honorable profession and one where a fellow could carry a club and a
pistol and be closely associated with other men who carried clubs
and guns. The right to carry arms and be with other armed men was
especially attractive to him as he was accustomed to traveling with
a large group of reckless men when he roamed around the streets. He
was outgoing; he liked company, even if it were bad company. Also,
he had more courage when he had a gang with him; he felt safer with
others of his kind around him. Also, Marty had an eye for the
ladies; he knew that many women favor a man in a police
uniform.
So a change to being on other side of the law
looked good to the young man and the pay would be better than his
job of flipping hamburgers at McDonalds on Gallia Street.
He made application to join the force. But,
sadly, his dream of proudly wearing the attractive blue uniform of
the Portsmouth Police Department was never to be. He was refused
employment by the police chief who checked his record and said, "I
can't hire you, Marty, you are a thief." His police criminal record
had done him in. This didn't stop Marty.
Marty is a devious man who does give up
easily. He then made application with the Huntington, WV Police
Department thinking, perhaps, that in a faraway city, (fifty miles
away) the police would never learn of his outlaw past in Portsmouth.
Marty's quest for the glory and glamour of police work was stymied
again. The Huntington Police also found his record; there would be
no police job for Marty in Huntington.
But Marty's bad luck was going to change for
the better. He knew that someone, sometime, somewhere would put him
to work without a background investigation. Marty made a good
appearance when he cleaned up; he knew how to speak properly when in
proper company. He should be able to get a job in law enforcement if
he kept asking.
Marty's good fortune came in the person of
John Knauff and Marty Donini has been ever grateful for the
opportunity John provided.
John had been with the Ohio Highway Patrol
for ten years when he was persuaded by the Republican Party to
return to Scioto County and run for Sheriff, which he did in
November 1968.
The Democratic Party had turmoil in the
Sheriff's race that year with several candidates, all working
against other candidates. John Knauff was well liked, came from a
good family, had a good reputation and had ten years experience with
a high profile law enforcement agency.
Mr. Knauff won the race with ease. As
Sheriff, John was respected for his courage in the field and his
easy way of talking with anyone who wanted to speak with him. He
helped people any way he could; he was considerate of the prisoners
in the jail and made improvements in the jail facilities; he was
able to obtain more deputies by using available funding from the
federal and state government. The Sheriff's Office had been woefully
understaffed like most of the other counties in the State; John
Knauff slowly increased the number of officers and the citizens
received better service than they had ever known.
However, John Knauff had one weakness. He was
an honest man and considered all other men honest until they proved
they were not. He accepted people without question. When Marty
Donini applied for a job as a deputy John Knauff hired him without
doing a background check. Marty's hope of wearing a uniform and
legally carrying a weapon was realized. At long last, he was working
for the other side.
In 1984 Sheriff John Knauff was persuaded to
run for the Office of County Commissioner. In the fall of 1984 he
resigned from the Sheriff's Office and Chief Deputy John Hull was
appointed Sheriff by the Republican party. John Knauff became a
County Commissioner until he retired in 2003.
Hull served two terms; the Sheriff's Office
became a disaster area. Hull was arrogant, incompetent, provided poor service to the citizens,
promoted the wrong people and used the Furtherance of Justice
Funding for his personal spending. He also was caught engaging in
questionable purchasing practices. The Portsmouth Daily Times
reported the outrageous, corrupt conduct of Sheriff Hull. It was
well known that Hull had stolen from the Furtherance of Justice
Funds and it was suspected that he had personally profited from
illegal cruiser purchases.
By this time Marty Donini had risen to the
rank of Lieutenant and was very close with Sheriff John Hull. Donini
was one of the top three deputies in the Sheriff's
Office.
In the Sheriff's race for election in 1992
John Hull faced a relatively unknown veteran Portsmouth Police
officer who had also worked at the Southern Ohio Correctional
Facility for many years as a supervisor.
Few men knew the man who was running against
Sheriff Hull, but more than one person was heard to say words to the
effect of, "I don't know that fellow Jim Sutterfield who is running
against John Hull but I do know John Hull and I'm voting for
Sutterfield."
It was a big, and easy victory for Jim
Sutterfield who surprised the citizens of the county with the most
efficient and capable administration of the Sheriff's Office they
had ever known. Of course, after eight years of the arrogant
incompetence of John Hull and his top three deputies, anyone would
have been an improvement.
Like the old Sheriff John Knauff, Jim
Sutterfield was easy to get along with, the citizen's calls and
complaints were once again handled properly and promptly. Sheriff
Sutterfield, with the aid of the Commissioners made many needed
physical changes at the jail, installed 911 program, a K-9 unit, an
honor guard and an emergency response team. Morale was high, crimes
were solved, and public records were available to anyone.
Sutterfield faithfully performed his duty in an outstanding and
laudable manner; the deputies had pride in their jobs and were
exceptional in performance and appearance.
Everyone was not happy, though. Jim
Sutterfield, like John Knauff was known for his honesty. However, he
was not as trusting of everyone as John Knauff had been.
After the election in November 1992 and
before he took office on the first Monday of 1993 Sheriff
Sutterfield had learned that there was a tremendous amount of money,
guns, jewelry, drugs, tools and other valuables missing from the
secured evidence room in the Sheriff's Office.
His first move as Sheriff was to welcome an
auditor from the Ohio State Auditor's Office that he had requested
weeks before he took office. This auditor was there in the morning
of the first day of Sheriff Sutterfield's administration.
The lone auditor made a preliminary survey of
the evidence storage area and quickly called to the State Auditor's
Office for assistance. The evidence storage area was secured. No one
but the Auditor's had access to the area until the audit was
completed over a month later.
This audit covered the years of the John Hull
administration, from 1985 to 1993. The audit was completed, reviewed
and presented to Scioto County Prosecuting Attorney Lynn Alan
Grimshaw and Sheriff Jim Sutterfield on February 10,
1993.
According the State Auditor's Official
Report, cash, drugs, marijuana, weapons, tools, beer, clothing, and other items that had been seized
or confiscated in 170 criminal cases were missing and could not be
accounted for by the auditors. Forty legal size pages were needed to
list the missing items.
Over fifty pistols, rifles, and shotguns were
listed as missing.
On one page alone, over $85,000 of
confiscated cash was listed by the state auditors as missing. It was
gone; it should have been there.
Ex-Sheriff John Hull had lost the election;
he was gone and his top deputies were swiftly removed by the new
Sheriff.
Neither former Sheriff John Hull nor any of
his top three deputies were prosecuted. County Prosecuting Attorney
Lynn Grimshaw is said to have decided that it would be too difficult
to prove who stole the missing money, guns and drugs. There were
only four men who had a key to area where he confiscated property
was locked up. Whodunnit?
Lady Luck was still riding on Marty Donini's
shoulder, and he was destined to get even luckier yet.
Ex-Sheriff John Hull and Lieutenant Marty
Donini both obtained commissions from Pike County Sheriff Larry
Travis, but neither worked long in Pike County.
John Hull got a job selling cars for Glockner
Chevrolet.
Lady Luck was still faithfully riding on
Marty Donini's shoulder and smiling with him; he got a job working
as an investigator in the City Prosecutor's Office.
This City Prosecutor's Office was the place
Marty Donini needed to be; his criminal court records were recorded
in the Office of the Municipal Court Clerk and Marty Donini now had
easy access to the record books. It was a golden opportunity to
eliminate any and all of his court records, and he did that by
expungements. They weren't done properly of course, but the records
were gone. No one would ever know what he had done. It was a perfect
crime. How could anyone ever find out that he even had expunged his
records? He was safe now to run for Sheriff.
Marty Donini, at this time, was no longer a
wild 18-year-old young man getting busted for impulsive stealing and
disorderly conduct.
Marty Donini was now a seasoned 38-year-old
former Sheriff's Lieutenant and a trusted officer for the Portsmouth
City Prosecutor; the actions he had performed were not
spur-of-the-moment impulses but premeditated tampering and
destruction of court records. He fully knew, or should have known,
that his actions were felony crimes.
As happens with
many violators, the cover-up of a criminal action is often a far
more serious crime than the transgressions they attempt to conceal.
At this time Lady Luck was still with Marty Donini, but she would
eventually be unfaithful to him, leaving him heart-broken and in
serious trouble.
