(MEDINA, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined Medina County Prosecutor Forrest Thompson and local law enforcement today, discussing their teamwork to revive a rape cold case and bring justice for its survivor.
The rape occurred in 1997 and, as of a couple months ago, the case was still unsolved. With the technical assistance of the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) along with years of intelligence work, a positive DNA confirmation was recently made. This allowed the Medina County Sheriff’s Office to extradite Samuel W. Legg III from Arizona.
“Our job is to help local law enforcement in whatever way possible to get bad guys off the street,” said Attorney General Yost. “This is a textbook case of all partners involved doing their very best each day to bring justice on behalf of a victim. Thanks to the diligent work of the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, this suspect was returned to Ohio to face justice.”
Medina County Sheriff’s Office Detective Kevin Ross and Thompson flew to Arizona to bring the suspect back before indicting him on Jan. 28, 2019, on two counts of rape. Legg will be arraigned tomorrow, Feb. 14, 2019, in front of Medina County Common Pleas Judge Joyce Kimbler at 9 a.m.
“This has been a total team effort from the top down,” Medina County Sheriff Tom Miller said. “This investigation highlights the best in law enforcement cooperation as none of this would be possible without the work of all of us.”
The DNA match not only was confirmation of the 1997 rape, but is also linked to four homicides. Details of those cases are not available as indictments have not yet been made.
“This case illustrates that the advancements in science, particularly with DNA testing, in conjunction with the increasing education of law enforcement in learning how to apply these advancements in the field has allowed us to find justice for victims of crime where it may have been lost in the past,” Thompson said.
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