TRUMBULL COUNTY Assistant prosecutor gets stayed suspension

The case centered on DNA and other evidence not mentioned to a defense attorney.
By MICHELE C. HLADIK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor Thomas Wrenn received a six-month stayed suspension by the Ohio Supreme Court today for failing to disclose information in a 1999 child sexual assault case.
Wrenn "has been involved in no other disciplinary matters in his 12 years as an attorney," wrote the high court in its decision.
"With his background in child psychology, he is well suited to prosecuting child abuse cases. Therefore, in light of all respondent's mitigating factors, we believe that a six-month suspension with the entire period stayed is appropriate."
Reason for action
Wrenn reportedly failed to release DNA results, failed to notify the defense attorney and judge when the results were in and failed to mention the boy's story changed after the DNA evidence was returned.
Wrenn did not share the information even after he found out that defense attorney Philip M. Vigorito was planning to have his client, Leonard Derr, plead guilty to one charge. In a plea agreement, Derr, of Sharon, pleaded guilty to an amended indictment of one count of gross sexual imposition. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Derr was a youth baseball coach and the boy was a member of his team.
He "fumbled the ball at the time of the pretrial," said Charles Richards, the Warren attorney who represented Wrenn during oral arguments before the high court last spring. "I think he made a misrepresentation. I believe it was innocent."
According to Lori Brown, representing the disciplinary counsel during the oral arguments, Wrenn should have told the defense and the judge that the DNA results were finished when he first learned of the results through Trumbull County Deputy Sheriff Jane Timko.
"Had the defendant not found out on his own the prosecutor knew the test results prior to entering his plea, we would not even know today," Brown said. Wrenn "had a duty to disclose those results if they tended to negate the guilt of the accused."
Recommendation
The Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline had recommended the high court find misconduct and suspend Wrenn's license for six months, but stay the entire suspension.
Wrenn became a Trumbull County assistant prosecutor in 1994 and is chief counsel of the child assault division. He also holds an Ohio license as a clinical psychologist and a federal license as a school psychologist. He is still prosecuting cases for the county.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer was the only dissenting vote and wrote he believed the punishment was not significant enough for this case. Wrenn "withheld discoverable information and thereby breached his duties as an officer of the court and his responsibility to the public as an assistant prosecutor," he wrote.