Overmyer got lots of pills

FREMONT — The public never heard details of the drug and theft investigation of former Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer.When he took a plea deal in November it assured the evidence gathered during a yearlong investigation would never get presented at a trial.But the Register — through a public records request to the special prosecutor who nailed Overmyer — received the case file with that evidence against Overmyer on Thursday.It includes reports of the investigation, results of search warrants and other information.Inmate No. A692183, former Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer, now resides at the Allen State Correctional Facility in Lima. It appears Overmyer — now Inmate #A692183 in a state prison — was obtaining multiple prescriptions for opioids from multiple doctors for years. He preferred Percocet and Vicodin, and doctor shopped as far back as 2010, and likely earlier, according to the records released Thursday. As sheriff, Overmyer was a director of the county's drug task force charged with fighting drug crime.A grand jury indicted Overmyer on 43 criminal charges in August, stemming from an investigation first launched in August 2015 after the county's six police chiefs raised questions about the sheriff collecting medications from drop-off boxes at police stations. The drop boxes are used by residents to discard unused, unwanted medications.Drugs at workThe sheriff's office had been wracked for years with drug problems, including a prior investigation of the chief dispatcher, who was found to be under the influence and using prescription painkillers, and doctor shopping, while on duty. But no criminal charges were ever filed, and no disciplinary action was ever ordered."We just "elected not to pursue it," then-Cheif Deputy Bruce Hirt told the Register previously.Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and an agent with his Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Jeffery Cook, initially took the same "do nothing" approach after the chiefs made the complaint about Overmyer.Cook failed to properly investigate the claim, and he and DeWine sat on it despite giving the chiefs assurances the allegations were being pursued. DeWine later attempted to dodge any responsibility, claiming county Prosecutor Tom Stierwalt was the man in charge despite the obvious and enormous conflicts of interest that presented.The police chiefs — Bellevue Chief Mark Kaufman, Gibsonburg Chief Paul Whitaker, Green Springs Chief Charles Horne, Clyde Chief Bruce Gower, Woodville Chief Roy Whitehead and then-Fremont Chief James White — by January 2016 had become thoroughly frustrated with the unprofessionalism state agents had shown.They went public with their frustrations in an interview with the Register on Jan. 8, 2016.Watch interviewLess than a month after the interview, Delaware county Prosecutor Carol Hamilton O'Brien was appointed to be the special prosecutor. By the time she got the case file from DeWine, a lot of evidence was already documented, including a rather lengthy list of prescriptions Overmyer had obtained over the years."A report was received showing numerous prescriptions for pain medicines in Overmyer's profile," Agent Cook wrote in his report.The chiefs said Cook never asked them about the drugs the sheriff allegedly stole from the drop boxes at the police stations and talked with Overmyer without ever speaking to them about the complaint. The case file delivered to the Register on Thursday does not detail what drugs and what quantities were stolen from the drop boxes.The sheriff's office failed to maintain proper control of the inventories of drugs it received, and there were multiple keys to lockboxes and lockers where those drugs were kept, the report states.Blind-eye DeWineDeWIne has a history of protecting Overmyer against allegations of wrongdoing, clearing him in three prior grand jury hearings. The families involved in those cases claimed DeWIne whitewashed evidence.It's not clear whether Cook and DeWine chose to ignore the evidence they obtained about multiple prescriptions and doctor shopping, or if they were simply ignorant about the law. DeWine has refused to respond to multiple inquiries and his spokesman provides replies that are generally not responsive to the questions being asked.But the records DeWine and Cook had already gathered — before the special prosecutor was appointed — showed plenty of behavior that would later get Overmyer convicted. In the 19 months from August 2013 to February 2015 the sheriff obtained 20 prescriptions totaling at least 205 Percocets and 1,785 Vicodin tablets, according to the case file.Some of the prescriptions were ordered with three refills, and were re-filled.The earliest date the case file documents show Overmyer being prescribed pain medication is April 2007, when a local doctor wrote him a script for Hydrocodone-Acetaminophen. He was given 20 tablets and told to take one to two tablets every four to six hours. Exactly 10 days later he gets another prescription for the same thing.Overmyer receives his third order for pain medication five months later on Sept 17, 2007, this time by a different doctor who would for the next several years be one of at least four doctors consistently prescribing him pain medications, the documents show.The sheriff's habit of obtaining prescriptions appears to have ramped up in November 2010, first with the Vicodin prescriptions and later the Percocet.The doctors Overmyer used — including the jail's physician — told investigators they were not aware Overmyer was obtaining multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors.One of the contracted doctors at the Sandusky County Jail stated that had he known that Overmyer was receiving pain medication from another doctor, he would not have prescribed Overmyer the Percocet, Agent Cook wrote in his report.Cook seems to have worked closely with former county sheriff's detective Sean O'Connell in writing his report. O'Connell quit the sheriff's office last year rather than face potential termination for alleged wrongdoing in another case. He awaits a decision from a prosecutor whether he'll face criminal charges, and he also is under investigation for another alleged incident.Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer is escorted out of the courtroom at Terra State Community College on Tuesday after he pled guilty of 14 counts, including 13 felonies.