November 26, 2001
Neff and Smith go to trail today on menacing charges
By Ryan Good
Staff Writer
Five years after the original incident, Seneca County's former sheriff and a campaign worker are to go to trial today on menacing by stalking charges.
H. Weldin Neff and Dennis Smith will stand trial in front of Visiting Judge Judith Cross on one count each of menacing by stalking stemming from various incidents from April 1996 to June 24, 1997 involving former dispatcher Alice Dohner. They both wiaved their right to a jury trial.
"Prior to and after the election which H. Weldin Neff won as the Seneca County Sheriff, H. Weldin Neff was known to discuss with others and Dennis Smith his harassment of Alice Dohner and using (her) fear of Dennis Smith to get her to resign her position as dispatcher at the Seneca County Sheriff's Department," according to a bill of particulars filed in the case by then-special prosecutor Terry Hord.
According to a bill of particulars, Smith pulled along side Dohner, Dennis Wilkinson, and the Chief Deputy Rick Dohner, Alice Dohner's husband, making distorted faces and shouting at the three, who were traveling in a sheriff's cruiser on April 17, 1996.
Smith is then accused of harassing the Dohners while they were trying to buy a garden tractor in Findlay
The court document goes on to state that after Neff won the election Dohner began seeing Smith at the Seneca County Sheriff's Office "three to four times a week,"
On Feb. 28, 1997, Smith allegedly confronted Dohner while she was leaving the sheriff's office while Neff and others moved to an office where they watched the incident and laughed about it.
Dohner then sees Smith enter the sheriff's office using a security code on April 30, 1997, court documents show. She then tells Dep. Charles Bates about her ongoing problems.
Four days later-- May 5, 1997-- she receives a written memo from Dep. Carl Swanigan that she is not allowed to carry a gun to work because she is not a sworn officer. The memo also states, court documents show, that she is told she has to turn her gun in.
The next day Dohner sees a memo stating that Smith was to come in and pick up papers for a part-time position as a dispatcher. Dohner then goes home sick.
The bill of particulars claims that Neff removed the note and would place it back when Dohner would next be in to work.
After a week of work on sick leave, Dohner returns to work and subsequently files grievances with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and her union representative about unsafe working conditions.
Court documents state that Neff faxed a copy of the grievance to then-Seneca County Prosecutor Paul Kutscher without any of the previous documentation regarding Alice Dohner.
On June 30, 1997, Neff then orders an investigation into Smith's behavior after receiving an inter-office memo about Donher's fears of Smith.
Four more times after, Smith is seen by Dohner inside the office, according to the bill of particulars.
Smith is then accused of attempting to strike Dohner's vehicle June 27, 1997, with his BP Oil tanker truck at the intersection of US 224 and SR 100.
On June 26, 1997, Smith is again seen at the Seneca County Sheriff's Office. In July of the same year, Dohner writes a letter to the prosecutor's office lodging the same complaints. About two weeks later, she re-files a previous grievance which, according to court documents, was misplaced or not handled by Neff or Gortz and Associates regarding an unsafe workplace. Gortz and Associates worked as consultants for the sheriff's office.
On August 26, 1997, Dohner said she saw Smith pass by her house and sound his horn several times.
Dohner made a total of 19 complaints regarding Smith's behavior, court documents show.
In January of 1998, the Buckeye State Sheriff's Association concluded an investigation into Dohner's alleged misuse of the LEADS system used to find driver information. The investigation, which was requested by Neff, found Dohner had done nothing wrong.
Neff then hired Randy Hamilton, a friend and neighbor of Smith's, on Feb. 16, 1998. Hamilton then confronted Dohner the same day stating, "so I hear you and I are going to have a problem," court documents show.
The next day the two had a meeting with a union attorney. Dohner refused to sign a document at Hamilton's request. The bill of particulars in the case does not state what type of document it was.
On March 9, 1998, Dohner was suspended and then reinstated. She subsequently resigned, court documents show.
Neff and Smith were then indicted in April of 1998 on menacing by stalking. Both Seneca County Common Pleas Judges recused themselves from the case and Judge Steve Yarbrough is named to take their place.
A second investigation, some of which stemmed from Dohner's complaints, results in a new round of indictments.
Neff was charged with seven counts of intimidation and three counts of theft in office. Administrative assistant Barb Gracemyer was charged with one count of each and James Browning, a former lieutenant under Neff, with one count of intimidation
Neff was accused of trying to intimidate employees by requesting affidavits regarding what was said during interviews with a Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation agent.
Browning and Gracemyer were charged in connection with an interview of Nancy Porter, an administrative assistant in the jail, regarding document shredding that took place after former Sheriff Carl Runion's death. It was alleged that the interview about the shredding was used to interfere with the BCI&I investigation.
All three, who had waived their right to a trial by jury, were found innocent by Yarbrough on March 8, 2000.
He then recused himself in the stalking case and Judge John G. Hunter was named to take his place.
In September of 2000, Thomas Matuszak took over for as special prosecutor for Terry Hord.
Then, in February, during a hearing on a motion filed by Matuzak asking that Dean Henry be removed as Neff and Smith's attorney, Hunter recused himself as judge because he began recognizing some of the names being used as the hearing progressed.
Judge Judith Cross is then named to the case. In April, after a meeting between Henry, Matuzak and Cross in the judge's chambers before another hearing on the same matter, Henry stepped down as defense council. Matuzak asked for the motion because Henry may be called as a witness.
Richard Kerger of Toledo then took over for Henry.
Dohner has also filed a $5 million suit in federal court from the same allegations against Smith and Neff that is still pending.