Dicken pleads, can avoid jail time with $25K restitution

LOGAN — On the day her trial had been set to begin, former Hocking County Commissioner Jessica Dicken, indicted on several charges related to theft while serving as Hocking County Agricultural Society treasurer, pled guilty on three charges, in exchange for having four others dropped.

The case, which has yet to enter a pre-sentence investigation, is being presided over by visiting judge Randy Deering; Thomas Anger of the Ohio Auditor of State’s office is representing the prosecution, and Dicken’s attorney is Katherine Clark of Samuel H. Shamansky Co., based out of Columbus.

Dicken pled guilty Tuesday morning to theft, a felony of the fourth degree; telecommunications fraud, a felony of the third degree; and soliciting or accepting improper compensation, a first degree misdemeanor.

A statement of facts by the prosecution revealed the three charges to have occurred between December 2020 and January 2023, spanning her time at the agricultural society and up to the beginning of her tenure as commissioner.

The theft and telecommunications fraud both relate to the use of an ag society credit card for personal purchases, and the improper compensation charge is specifically aimed at purchases she made in relation to her campaign for commissioner.

The latter charge carries with it a seven-year ban from seeking public office or any position of public trust, according to Deering. As a “dotting of the I,” as Anger put it, the former commissioner tendered her resignation from that office on Monday — a position that she had been suspended from back in January by a special commission appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Anger explained that, as part of the deal reached between the prosecution and defense, Dicken can avoid any jail or prison time by paying restitution to the victims involved in the case by the time of her sentencing.

They are, as follows: the Hocking County Agricultural Society, to the tune of $14,417.02; the Vinton County National Bank, for $4,667.17; and again to the ag society, for audit costs of $6,006.50.

These charges are in addition to additional fines levied by the court, which have yet to be determined. The date of sentencing is also still to be determined.