O'Connell victim wins his lawsuit

FREMONT — The detective he says framed him for a crime he didn't commit is now a state prison inmate.Former Sandusky County sheriff's detective Sean O'Connell was sent to prison in September 2018 for crimes in another investigation, the Heather Bogle homicide. But O'Connell never paid for the crimes he committed against him and his family, Patrick Baker Sr. said.Baker achieved a huge milestone, however, earlier this month with the state of Ohio."The state ultimately agreed that the court should declare Patrick wrongfully imprisoned, and the court entered that judgment last week," attorney Bart Keyes told the Register on Wednesday. "This judgment confirms what we've said from Day 1, and we're pleased that Patrick has been vindicated."The judgment entry is signed by Sandusky County Common Pleas Judge Jeremiah Ray and dated Oct. 23."The parties have resolved this matter and have agreed to a predetermined amount of compensation that will be paid through a settlement executed after Mr. Baker files a civil action in the Court of Claims," the entry states. "Accordingly, the Court enters judgment in favor of plaintiff Patrick D. Baker and declares that he is a wrongfully imprisoned individual under (state law).""This clears the way for Patrick to recover the compensation owed to him in the Court of Claims," said Keyes, who is with the law firm Cooper & Elliott in Columbus.State law dictates that a wrongfully imprisoned person would be eligible to receive up to about $55,000 from the state for each year he was incarcerated."No amount of money can ever give back the time I lost with my grandkids and my family," Baker said. "It crushed me when I got out of prison and finally got to see my granddaughter and she didn't recognize me. It took a little time to get a relationship back. It reality hit kind of hard at that time and my mother and stepfather finally are at rest over my case. Thank God." Baker, whose family spent tens of thousands of dollars defending him against the false charges, consistently denied any wrongdoing and contends O'Connell had a grudge with him over a traffic accident that happened years earlier in which the two were involved, and for which O'Connell was at fault. O'Connell agreed to pay Baker for the damages to his vehicle but then refused to do so and would not report the accident to the police.In 2014, O'Connell accused Baker of being involved in the burglary of a Fremont home, and he allegedly coached two witnesses — both of whom were involved in the burglary — to identify Baker as a third man who participated. Baker was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison after a trial and sentencing hearing that lasted less than an hour. He had no prior criminal record when he was sentenced. He spent more than a year in state prison before the conviction was overturned in 2016 on appeal, and another year awaiting a decision whether he would face a second trial. By then, O'Connell had been removed as a detective after being accused of falsifying evidence in the Heather Bogle homicide to frame three African American residents for killing Bogle when there was no actual evidence against them.A special prosecutor was appointed to review Baker's case after his conviction was overturned and determined there was no credible evidence to force a second trial.In addition to Baker's case and the Bogle homicide, O'Connell has been accused of falsifying evidence after Craig Burdine was killed inside the Sandusky County jail in 2007 and after Jake Limberios was killed in a York Township home in 2012. He was also accused of bringing false charges against Greg Armbruster in a road rage incident in which Armbruster was the victim and in other cases. In 1999, while a detective with the Fremont police department, O'Connell ignored information he was given about a former sheriff's detective who allegedly threw Lee Naus into a trash dumpster after he'd fallen asleep outside a Fremont bar. Naus, 21, was killed by a trash compactor, and no one was ever arrested. Keyes said wrongful convictions is one of the areas his firm focuses its practice and are a major problem."Advances in technology and revelations of official misconduct have led to thousands of exonerations in recent decades, but we can only guess at how many innocent people are still in prison. And for many exonerees, police and prosecutor immunity and weak compensation laws mean they may never recover anything for the time they've lost. We're thankful that Patrick's case resolved the right way, and we hope that more wrongfully convicted people in Ohio and across the country can hold officials accountable.' Baker said he's grateful to attorney Keyes, his appeals attorney, the late Geoffrey Oglesby and to the Register. "Without my family support, you and my attorney and Mr. Oglesby, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. I would still be incarcerated. I can never thank you all enough."He called O'Connell's 2-year prison sentence lenient given all the corruption that happened.Read more: Baker says he was unlawfully imprisonedPatrick Baker Sr. talks to managing editor Matt Westerhold during a segment of Between the Lines on Monday, July 3, 2017. Sandusky County Judge John Dewey signed a motion to dismiss the criminal case against Baker.Former Sandusky County Sheriff detective Sean O'Connell