DeWine ready for grand jury

Burdine's family not confident he will seek indictments in 2007 jailhouse death
Melissa Topey
Apr 26, 2014














Instead he relied on the matching written statements they had provided.


The sheriff’s office also never conducted a criminal investigation. 




Photos show brutal beating













“I stand by my report,” he said.




I hope this family gets justice they deserve it


Another investigation due to the FREE PRESS forcing accountability on the government. This is another situation where it was the Sandusky Register which forced DeWines hand, without such consistence to answer and be accountable this would have been ignored like Vitte and other events.

Thank GOD for the FREE PRESS which is so vital to our freedoms. When they are controlled by ANY party or personal prejudice we the people loose our rights.

sandtown born a...

OH NO not Sandusky county ! 1 of how many unjust acts by the corrupt! You would think after all the grand juries being seated over the acts of Sandusky county Dewine would actually do something. I guess not when there on the same side of law enforcement. I will be SHOCKED if they ever bring actual charges against anyone.

Really are you ...

Hate to say, probably not. Lack of a thorough investigation. SCSO needs remedial training on how to conduct an investigation and collect evidence when a person passes away. A vicious circle of underperformance and coverup.


The use of state grand juries to conduct excessive force investigations is current topic in Cleveland, as the prosecutor there claims he presented evidence in a shooting death and no indictment was returned.

The problem arises from the unique lack of transparency in excessive force investigations because the proceedings of grand juries are secret and there is no way to ensure the prosecution which is on the same side as the law enforcement officers did a thorough job in presenting all the evidence and allowed the grand jury to truly investigate and ask questions.

I think that whenever a member of law enforcement, a prosecutor or a judge is being investigated the proceedings of a special grand jury should be made public regardless of outcome. This would ensure that the prosecution did its job thoroughly, did not succumb to political pressure, and did not try to manipulate the special grand jury.

I also believe that any citizen who is the target of a grand jury investigation ought to be given the opportunity to testify before that grand jury to tell their side of the story if they so choose to do so. There is a lot of misuse of the secrecy of grand juries to over indict or wrongfully indict people for political reasons or career building as demonstrated by the current criminal case in Ottawa County concerning the alleged burglary of Chris Redfern's home.

The alternative is for all official misconduct investigations of state law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges to be handled by the FBI and the civil rights division of the USDOJ through special federal grand juries.

Just once, I pray DeWine does the right thing and allows a special grand jury to truly hear all the evidence or would turn over this case to the Feds. But we will never know with certainty if DeWine does his job because of the lack of transparency in these cases and the enormous political pressure to protect other LEOs from criminal charges and civil lawsuits.

Julie R.



The more I read and research, the more I 'm convinced the State needs to come up with some standardized procedures for investigations. Each generation is taught by the previous, and when the previous was substandard, they continue with subpar performance.
My guess would be that Biden wasn't contacted because you're not going to put a witness before a Grand Jury that you couldn't let a defense attorney cross examine. I am almost sorry I read Dr. Biden's deposition because my previously high opinion took a bit of a beating. Dr. Biden stated quite clearly that the fractured thyroid bone was not the cause of death and did not in any way compromise his breathing. It was merely a clue as to what had to have happened. He later changed his findings to include the possibility of positional asyhxia which can not cause injury to the neck, making the fracture about as important as a hangnail. If you read his deposition, the Appeals Court decision, and even some of the papers and research Dr. Biden dismissed (without ever reading them) it's easy to see where there could be serious problems. I think most defense attorneys would be salivating at the chance to put him on cross.


"DeWine refused to say whether he will seek criminal indictments against any law enforcement officers or anyone else"

NO SURPRISE HERE!! and to think I voted for this spineless politician whose only expertise is to attack businesses. BUT, I really didn't vote for him, I voted against the other choice which was even worse!

I never thought anyone could be worse than Montgomery...


Grand jury needs to be outside of Sandusky county for a fair jury. Justice for jake limberios knows all about that.