ASHLAND — Magistrate Fred Oxley allowed further delay of a case involving a former Ashland County Sheriff Office’s sergeant charged with criminal negligence on Tuesday.
The delay came when the defendant’s attorney said she wanted additional evidence not initially provided on her client.
Cindy Benner, 56, faces four counts of dereliction of duty stemming from four separate incidents where she allegedly avoided domestic violence calls and other urgent dispatches.
Her pre-trial was slated for Tuesday at Ashland Municipal Court.
Benner formerly worked as a sergeant in the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office (ASCO); she was demoted in January to deputy, reassigned to the Ashland County Jail and suspended for 30 days.
The discipline came after an internal investigation found 21 incidents since November 2021 in which Benner allowed other deputies to handle calls about strangulations, dead bodies and car crashes while she drove around, sat in her car or stalled while responding to other calls.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Office reviewed Benner’s case at the request of the ASCO. The outside investigation led the city of Ashland’s law director Rick Wolfe to charge Benner on March 2 with four counts of dereliction of duty.
Benner pleaded not guilty to all four counts on March 10, according to court records.
Court records show Benner was initially represented by George Gerken, an attorney based in Perrysburg. By May 10, attorney Cassandra Mayer of Mansfield had stepped in and demanded for discovery, according to court records.
Discovery is evidence used in criminal cases. Mayer said she received evidence, but not enough.
“There’s more things that I didn’t get in that discovery…and that was just some items that were part of a newspaper article the other day,” Mayer said in court on Tuesday.
Mayer added she still wanted body cam footage and a copy of ACSO’s internal investigation into Benner.
Ashland Source published an article on May 31 that outlined Benner’s disciplinary files and how those led to criminal charges.
Mayer said reading the article prompted more questions, and noted she is preparing a list of additional discovery demands.
Oxley permitted the request for a continuance and set the new pre-trial date for June 29.
