The former commander of the Marietta post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol now faces no charges in Washington County after 10 counts of unauthorized use of the law enforcement automated database system, all fifth-degree felonies, were dismissed in Washington County Common Pleas Court Monday.

In April, stalking and abduction charges against him were dismissed.

William P. Elschlager, 48, of 305 Masonic Park Road, Devola, still faces one count of tampering with records, a third-degree felony, and six counts of theft, also third-degree felonies, in Delaware County, where he previously served as an OSHP sergeant and allegedly stole guns from evidence that had been reported destroyed.

He had been scheduled to go on trial in Washington County on Monday.

Officials say charges could still be brought forward, or essentially re-filed, against Elschlager in Washington County concerning the January 2016 accusation of abduction and stalking of a former lover and the unauthorized retention of personal information including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and addresses of 10 young women on his personal computer.

When the abduction and stalking charges were dismissed in April Elschlager had been on house-arrest for more than a year.

Washington County Prosecutor Kevin Rings said Monday that he was not prepared to discuss why those charges had been dismissed or if the state planned to file new charges against Elschlager.

The 10 counts of unauthorized use of the law enforcement automated database system, originally charged after the personal information was found on Elschlager’s home computer during the execution of a search warrant, were dismissed without prejudice Monday after Rings and Elschlager’s attorney George Cosenza disputed the definition of the term disseminate, contained within the charge.

“Dissemination isn’t defined in the (Ohio Revised Code) but it’s referred to in the wording of the charge,” said Rings. “It’s the lynch pin issue for this case though so there may be another way to charge him with misuse of computer information, but we need to do more research.”

Cosenza said intended and actual use of the personal information retained was the issue he raised with the term “disseminate.”

“The issue is what are you permitted to do with that information,” he said. “What does disseminate mean?”

Rings said rather than seat a jury Monday and have the term questioned mid-trial, which would bring into play double-jeopardy, he chose to move to dismiss the charges pending further research.

“If we’re wrong, he walks and we’re not ready to go down that road,” said Rings.

Elschlager was terminated from his position with the patrol in March 2016 after an initial arrest in January of that year for the stalking and menacing charges. He was accused of stalking the wife of another trooper after their affair ended, including putting a GPS tracker on her car to monitor her movements.

At a glance

¯ William P. Elschlager, 48, of 305 Masonic Park Road, Devola, faces no charges in Washington County after 10 fifth-degree felony counts were dismissed Monday in common pleas court.

¯ Elschlager still faces charges in Delaware County pertaining to weapons he allegedly stole from evidence while serving as a sergeant for the Ohio Highway Patrol there.

¯ Officials say charges in Washington County could still be re-filed against Elschlager pertaining to the January 2016 accusation of abduction and stalking of a former lover and the unauthorized retention of personal information of 10 women.

Source: Washington County Prosecutor’s Office.