(FREMONT, Ohio)—A Sandusky County Grand Jury today issued its findings in the 2007 death of an Oak Harbor man in jail custody. While it did not issue any indictments, the grand jury reported numerous findings regarding the case through its authority to issue a public supplemental jail inspection report.
The grand jury had been examining the August 11, 2007 death of Craig Burdine, 37. Burdine was in law enforcement custody after being arrested and was transported by EMS from the Sandusky County jail to Fremont Memorial Hospital, where Burdine was pronounced dead.
Burdine’s family had previously presented evidence regarding his death to a federal district court in a wrongful death lawsuit against Sandusky County officials. The court found by summary judgment that there was not enough evidence to proceed to trial, a decision affirmed by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
After the federal rulings in favor of Sandusky County, Sandusky County Prosecutor Thomas Stierwalt took the unprecedented step of requesting a special prosecutor to review the Burdine family’s allegations of criminal wrongdoing against public officials. Burdine’s family specifically alleged that law enforcement criminally caused Burdine’s death and that public officials conspired to cover up the case.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office agreed to serve as special prosecutors in August 2013. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) was assigned to conduct the criminal investigation. In addition to the existing evidence from Sandusky County files and the Burdine family’s civil litigation, BCI did acquire new expert analysis regarding audio/visual discrepancies from jail surveillance video, as well as forensic analysis from the Montgomery County Coroner Kent Harshbarger, M.D., J.D., who serves as Chief Forensic Officer for the Ohio State Coroners Association.
According to the grand jury’s jail report, the grand jury did not find any probable cause or evidence to support the allegations of criminal death or a cover-up by public officials.
With the conclusion of the presentation to the grand jury, BCI today also released a copy of its prosecutor’s summary in this case.
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Documents
Grand Jury Supplemental Jail Inspection Report (PDF)
BCI Prosecutor's Summary (PDF)
Contacts
Dan Tierney: 614-466-3840
Lisa Hackley: 614-466-3840