Charges against Wisener dismissed

Van Wert independent/contributor content

A Van Wert County Sheriffs Department deputy accused of wrongfully endorsing and depositing a check from the Middle Point Telephone Company has been exonerated, largely on the strength of a polygraph test administered by an expert in that field.

Defiance attorney and former Defiance County prosecutor Peter R. Seibel, who was appointed as special prosecutor in the case, has dismissed the charges against Deputy Brad Wisener.

The case began when the Middle Point Telephone Company discovered they had not been paid by the International Phoenix Group for telephone service and found that Wisener had endorsed the check and deposited it in his own account.

The telephone company then referred the matter to the sheriff’s department for further investigation, which was conducted by Lieutenant Clifton Vandemark of the Defiance County Sheriff’s Department. Initially, representatives of both the telephone company and International Phoenix Group stated their opinion that the check could not have been accidentally deposited, as Wisener had maintained throughout the investigation. Both company representatives later recanted their accusations, stating they felt the incident was merely a mistake.

The investigation continued, though, and Wisener was indicted by the county grand jury on misdemeanor counts of theft and passing a bad check. The deputy was then suspended by Sheriff Stan Owens until the case was over, with the understanding that a conviction would lead to his termination from the department, while dismissal of the charges would lead to his reinstatement.

After several pretrial conferences, Wisener said he would be wiling to take a stipulated polygraph test – one that could be used by either the defense or prosecution, depending on how it turned out.

The test was administered by Douglas C. Wells of Columbus, a polygraph administrator with more than 40 years experience, 26 of those with the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

“I checked out his credentials and was very impressed,” said Seibel, who was Defiance County prosecutor for 16 years (1977-1993), noting that Wells began his career interviewing Ohio National Guardsmen in the Kent State shootings in 1970 and was the person who administered the polygraph test to Gene Souel, which led to a landmark Oho Supreme Court case related to the admissibility of polygraph tests. Wells had also worked for two years with the Ohio Inspector General’s Office investigating multimillion-dollar losses in the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation.

Wells interviewed Wisener on December 21, 2010, and concluded that the deputy was being honest when he said the check endorsement and deposit was a mistake.

Following the conclusion of the polygraph examination, Seibel dismissed the charges against Wisener, allowing him to be reinstated into his position as a sheriff’s deputy.

Seibel noted that, from the offset, the facts involving the receipt, endorsing and depositing of the check could be interpreted either for or against Wisener.

“In fact, both of the complaining parties who originally said it could not have been a mistake, changed their minds concerning what happened,” Seibel added. “Obviously, the system is not a perfect system and we can only make it work by continuing to seek the truth.”

The special prosecutor added that he feels the interests of justice were served by dismissal of the charges.