COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Defendants not convicted of any crimes have lost their attempt to use their clean sheets to fight a woman’s civil rights lawsuit in Ohio – a ruling that has the effect of helping sexual assault victims frustrated by the criminal justice system.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled July 29 that criminal convictions are not required for Rebecca Buddenberg to pursue her federal lawsuit against the Geauga County Health District, some of its employees and its board members.
She asserts claims for civil liability for violations of three criminal statutes: retaliation, intimidation and interfering with civil rights. The federal court certified two questions to the state Supreme Court to determine if convictions of those crimes were necessary.
At issue is a part of Ohio law that states: “Anyone injured in person or property by a criminal act has, and may recover full damages in, a civil action unless specifically excepted by law…”
“(C)rimes can be committed without a conviction,” Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote. “They often are.
“The fact that a person’s actions subject him or her to prosecution in no way establishes that he or she will in fact be prosecuted… It is certainly possible for an individual to commit an unlawful act and be prosecuted, yet evade conviction for a variety of reasons.
“Thus, we do not read the phrase ‘a criminal act’ to mean ‘a criminal act that resulted in conviction.’”
The case was closely watched by sexual assault victims groups like the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, who both filed amicus briefs.