Ex-Wapak mayor to serve six months in jail

WAPAKONETA — Former Wapakoneta Mayor Thomas Stinebaugh reported to the Auglaize County jail on Wednesday to begin serving a six-month sentence on three misdemeanor charges.

A journal entry ordering the jail sentence was filed one day earlier in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court.

An Auglaize County jury on Oct. 28, 2022, found Stinebaugh guilty of one count of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, a fourth-degree felony; theft in office, a fifth-degree felony; and three misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest.

The charges were related to a sewer line installed by the City of Wapakoneta at Stinebaugh’s direction to a home which he had constructed. Visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove sentenced the former mayor to 18 months in prison on felony counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract and theft in office and three misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest.

Stinebaugh appealed his conviction to the Third District Court of Appeals. The appellate court said the state had failed to establish that Stinebaugh “had a prohibited interest that falls within the meaning of (an existing city ordinance). Because the evidence does not establish an essential element of the charged offense, Stinebaugh’s conviction for having an unlawful interest in a public contract is reversed.”

“I was never a felon, and I thank the Third District Court of Appeals for confirming that,” Stinebaugh said after the court’s decision was announced.