Update:
Jordan Stroub, through his attorney Joe Kearns, pleaded "not guilty" to both felony charges on June 25 during an arraignment hearing. A jury trial has been scheduled to begin Oct. 8, court records show.
ASHLAND — A former Ashland County assistant maintenance supervisor is charged with felonies related to alleged improper conduct with teenage girls, according to the Ashland County Prosecutor’s Office.
Jordan Stroub, 31, was charged with menacing by stalking and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. The prosecutor’s office filed the charges under a “subrosa” indictment, or secret indictment, on June 17.
Both charges are fourth-degree felonies.
The sheriff’s office arrested Stroub on Monday and he remained in Ashland County Jail on Tuesday morning.
Ashland County Common Pleas Magistrate Emily Bates set bond at $100,000 during a hearing Tuesday morning. He posted a surety bond ($10,000) later that day through his wife, Kelly Stroub, court records show.
There are two alleged victims from two separate incidents, according to the indictment found in court records.
Incident #1
The most recent incident happened between June 1, 2023 to March 15, 2024, involving a 15-year-old girl, prompting the menacing-by-stalking charge.
A man from Nova called the non-emergency line at the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office on March 15, according to the agency’s records. The caller said Stroub had sent “nude images” to his teenage daughter.
The allegation led to his dismissal from county employment two days later.
On March 19, Ashland County commissioners sent Stroub a memo informing him of imminent disciplinary action and scheduled a pre-disciplinary meeting on March 21.
The memo stated Stroub had violated the county’s social media policy, as outlined in the personnel manual.
According to the manual, employees aren’t permitted to engage in “unprofessional communication” on social media, whether on or off duty, that could “potentially result in a civil or criminal cause of action against the county.”
“Unprofessional communication also includes that which the county could demonstrate has a substantial risk of negatively affecting the county’s reputation, mission or operations, such as slander, defamation or other legal cause of action,” according to the policy.
The memo offered Stroub the chance to “present an oral or written statement and any documents in your defense and answer questions regarding the alleged misconduct.”
County commissioners met in executive session on March 21 “to consider the discipline or dismissal of a public employee.”
Stroub waived his right to a pre-disciplinary meeting, according to his personnel file, which Ashland Source obtained through a public records request.
Later that day, Nikki Hiller, the clerk for the commissioners’ office, said commissioners reconvened in regular session and terminated Stroub from his job.
The county hired Stroub as a full-time maintenance worker in 2020 and he was promoted to assistant maintenance superintendent in June 2021. He received regular pay increases through December 2023 and accepted additional duties, such as taking on responsibilities in risk management.
He started working for the county at its recycling center in 2017 and worked part-time for the county while in high school. He graduated from Mapleton High School and the Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center.
Dennis Harris, the county’s maintenance superintendent since 1991, announced his retirement from the post in March. His retirement becomes affective in August.
Harris has said he took Stroub “under my wing.”
“So I’m looking at him (to fill my spot),” Harris said in March.
Instead, commissioners hired Kelson Batten for the position on May 22, after receiving 45 applications for the job, according to county records.
Incident #2
The prosecutor’s office also charged Stroub with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor for alleged incidents that occurred Aug. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2013.
The girl, at the time, would have been 13.
Stroub, at the time, was 20.
Stroub, through his attorney Joe Kearns, pleaded “not guilty” to both felony charges on June 25 during an arraignment hearing. A jury trial has been scheduled to begin Oct. 8, court records show.