Craig Shoup | Port Clinton News Herald

PUT-IN-BAY - Although many rape cases investigated by authorities do yield charges, some reports result in no charges or the accuser being charged for filing a false police report.

Port Clinton Police detective Corbin Carpenter said less than 20 percent of the cases the department investigates are are considered false reports.

Between 2013 and 2017, law enforcement in Ottawa County opened 126 sexual assault investigations.

Of those 126 cases, 57 cases were either closed due to lack of evidence, or the victim declined to press charges.

Ottawa County law enforcement has investigated more rapes between 2013 and 2017 than Erie County, 89, and Sandusky County, 106 — though Sandusky County did not keep accurate records in 2013 and 2014, according to Major Nick Kotsopoulos.

While some cases may not yield enough evidence, or the victim does not want to pursue charges, Carpenter said good police work will snuff out a false claim.

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"If you do the investigation the right way you should have collected enough information to find the truth," Carpenter said.

Bachelor party in Put-in-Bay

In some instances, police file false accusation charges for a person accusing someone of rape.

In July 2013, a woman reported being raped by a former Ohio State and professional football player, according to an Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office report.

The player had been celebrating with his brother and friends, a month before the accusation was made, on South Bass Island, where they went to several bars in Put-in-Bay for a bachelor party.

A 21-year-old woman said she met the ex-Buckeye, and had been drinking with him and that two had sex and that she was raped by the former football star, according to the police report.

“She stated that she told him no, but he told her it would be OK,” the report said.

The woman told Sheriff's Detective Amy Gloor that she did not know what to do regarding the situation, and said she was afraid of what the man might do to her when he was told she filed the report.

The woman wanted to continue the investigation because she did not want this to happen to anyone else, the report said.

As Gloor continued her investigation, speaking with the former OSU player and others who may have witnessed the two together on the island, she said the case did not add up.

Good police work will identify a false claim

The woman had just been fired from her job at the Islander Inn on Delaware Street in Put-in-Bay and the hotel’s owner, Tim Niese, said he believed the report was retaliation.

Employees at the Splash Bar told Niese that the ex-OSU player repeatedly told the woman to “get away” from him because she was trying to “drape” herself all over him, according to the detective's report.

Niese said he never saw the woman in any distress while she was with the football player and told Gloor the woman was fired for drinking alcohol on the job the day the ex-Buckeye arrived on the island.

A female witness told Gloor she saw the woman and the football player in the green room of Mr. Ed’s Bar and Grill and the woman was telling people she had sex with the player.

A second witness corroborated the first witnesses’ statements, saying the woman was telling everyone she “hooked up” with the football star and that she never heard the woman use the word rape.

The witness was a former colleague of the woman and said she was bragging about being with the OSU star.

When questioned by Gloor, the football player said the woman was his table’s waitress and that she was coming on to him during their initial encounter.

The two met after the woman's shift and she immediately grabbed the player and kissed him, the report said.

The player said the two had sex the first night they met, but that it was consensual.

While at a bar the second night, the player said the woman groped him and tried to “undo” his pants.

At that time, the player told Gloor that he and the bachelor party group tried to get away from the woman and that he began talking to other girls so the woman would see he wasn’t interested in her.

Gloor recommended the player file charges against the woman for false accusations, but ultimately, he chose not to file charges, citing a desire to not draw more attention to the case.

cshoup@gannett.com

419-334-1035

Twitter: @CraigShoupNH

From Horror to Hope: Sexual assault victims seek justice, healing

While Ottawa County’s population is much smaller than that of neighboring counties, the number of rape cases reported in the last five years is significantly higher.