A sentencing that was supposed to happen on November 3 in Fremont Municipal Court will now wait until December 8, after the pre-sentence investigation ordered in the case was never conducted — and Fremont Mayor Danny Sanchez, the victim in the threat case at the center of it, says the delay shows how victims can be failed by the process that is supposed to protect them, the Fremont News-Messenger reported.
The defendant in the case pleaded guilty on September 15 to aggravated menacing and telecommunications harassment, both first-degree misdemeanors, according to the News-Messenger. The News-Messenger does not name misdemeanor defendants as a matter of policy, and NewsForce247 is following that practice here. Sentencing was set for November 3, but it was pushed back at least 30 days, to December 8, the News-Messenger reported.
The reason, as the News-Messenger reported it, was administrative: a pre-sentence investigation had been ordered, but the probation department that conducts those investigations was never informed of the court order. Under Marsy’s Law — Ohio’s Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights — that investigation includes a victim’s impact statement, a core protection for victims in Ohio sentencing proceedings.
The case began in the early morning of March 24, when a voicemail was left at the Fremont Water Billing Department at about 1:35 a.m., and a threatening message was also left on Sanchez’s Facebook page, the News-Messenger reported. The voicemail, as quoted by the News-Messenger, said: “Just know, Danny Sanchez is on our hit list, and we’ll be visiting him soon.” Fremont police put Sanchez and his family into hiding under police surveillance after the threats, according to the News-Messenger.
“I don’t think I’ve been represented fairly in this case as a victim,” Sanchez told the Fremont News-Messenger. “I don’t feel I deserve any special treatment, but I think anyone in these circumstances deserves a victim’s advocate. Also, as mayor, I routinely field concerns about how victims are treated; and, after this, I have personal experience.”
Sanchez raised his Marsy’s Law complaints in person outside the courthouse on November 3, the News-Messenger reported: he cited a lack of communication, said he had no victim’s advocate as he understood the role — he was told in court that his state-provided lawyer was his victim’s advocate — and described protection concerns on the day itself, saying the defendant paced the hallway outside the courtroom door, periodically sat among victims and offenders waiting there, and may have passed him outside the building.
The case has also cycled through three judges. Visiting Judge Mary Beth Fiser took the bench on November 3 — she said she learned of the assignment from the Ohio Supreme Court the day before, the News-Messenger reported. Fiser replaced Visiting Judge Robert Hart, who recused himself on September 15 over a possible conflict: Sanchez had worked for Hart as a probation officer before becoming mayor. Hart himself had replaced Fremont Municipal Court Judge Daniel Brudzinski after Brudzinski’s recusal.
Sanchez was not angry with Fiser, the News-Messenger reported, but he flagged a possible conflict with her as well. “I’ve made the prosecutor aware, when Judge Fiser was assigned to this case, that it [might be] a conflict of interest, as I had previously worked with her and helped in her campaign and had a working relationship with her in the past,” Sanchez told the Fremont News-Messenger. “It’s important to make sure the judicial system is unbiased and that they can take all the facts into consideration when making a sentencing,” Sanchez told the News-Messenger.
The News-Messenger has also reported that the timing and statements in the case appear to connect the suspect with a group associated with vigilante-style activity at a Fremont Denny’s on March 11 — a connection the News-Messenger reported as an apparent one, not a proven fact, and which has not been established in court.
Court-process failures have drawn scrutiny across Northwest Ohio government this fall, from the state placing the Lucas County elections board under its highest level of oversight to Toledo council’s deadlocked fight over its Flock camera contract. Sanchez’s complaint is narrower and more personal: a single missed order, and a victim who learned about it at the courthouse.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the guilty pleas, the missed pre-sentence investigation, the three-judge chain and the new December 8 date are all as reported by the Fremont News-Messenger, and Sanchez’s criticisms are on the record to that newspaper. What we’re still waiting on: whether the possible conflict Sanchez raised about Judge Fiser changes who presides on December 8, and what sentence the court ultimately imposes on the two first-degree misdemeanors.
What happens next: the pre-sentence investigation — this time, presumably, actually ordered and delivered — will be completed ahead of the December 8 sentencing in Fremont Municipal Court, where Sanchez will have the opportunity to give the victim’s impact statement Marsy’s Law guarantees him.