Kimball Perry
It took five years, but former
Cincinnati police officer Julian Steele finally began serving his prison term
Monday for falsely jailing a juvenile in a case that went to the Ohio Supreme
Court.
Steele, 52, of Springfield
Township, was convicted in 2009 of intimidation and two counts of abduction for
jailing a teen Steele knew committed no crime. At trial, prosecutors said
Steele did that to get sexual favors from the teen’s mother.
“Both the victim ... and his
mother were extremely traumatized by what took place,” Special Prosecutor
Daniel “Woody” Breyer said Monday.
While investigating a series of
Northside street robberies in 2009, Steele arrested the male teen at school and
put him in jail. An assistant Hamilton County prosecutor – Megan Shanahan, now
a Municipal Court Judge – became suspicious. Steele admitted he wrongly jailed
the teen who sat in jail 11 days for nothing.
“It’s disgusting that he was
allowed to stay out this long,” Shanahan said Monday. “I am so happy justice is
finally being served.”
Shanahan was covering a case
for another prosecutor when Steele wanted the case presented to the grand jury
in 2009.
“He told me right out of the
gate that he knew the kid didn’t do anything,” Shanahan said.
Then she saw the mother of the
locked-up teen and asked what was going on. What Shanahan heard caused her to
scream at Steele.
“I said, ‘Under what authority
do you have the right to lock up a juvenile when you knew he did nothing
wrong?’”
Steele admitted he received
oral sex from the woman but said it was consensual. The same jury that
convicted Steele in 2009 found him not guilty of the sexual allegations in the
case.
Steele has been on electric
monitoring – wearing an electric device that tells officials of his whereabouts
– for four years as his case wound through several appeals.
Steele, who didn’t speak at
Monday’s sentencing, initially was sentenced by then-Common Pleas Court Judge
Dennis Helmick to five years in prison. But after the case went to the Ohio
Supreme Court and twice to the Court of Appeals, a gun charge in the case was
dropped, lowering Steele’s prison sentence to four years.
That is what Common Pleas Court
Judge Leslie Ghiz, who replaced the retired Helmick, imposed Monday.
Had Steele started his sentence
when initially convicted, he would have completed it last year.
Both Breyer and Helmick said at
Steele’s sentencing hearing five years ago that the rogue cop’s actions tainted
all police as well as the justice system.
After his conviction, Steele
resigned from the Cincinnati Police Department and said he never again would
try to become a police officer. His felony conviction now ensures that because
felons aren’t allowed to carry firearms. When first arrested, Steele was a
14-year CPD veteran making an annual base salary of about $66,000.
After he completes his prison sentence,
Steele then must serve 10 years on probation.
