Group raises money for suspended Pike County Sheriff

A group of citizens are raising money to help offset the legal expenses for suspended Pike County Sheriff Charles S. Reader.

A group, known as “Charles Reader Supporters,” have collectively donated money to Reader’s legal fund. As you may recall, Reader is facing a 16 count indictment alleging a host of crimes, which includes borrowing money from his deputies.

“The legal fund was something that just came to happen,” said one of the group’s organizers, Julee Grace. “We had talked about doing a GoFundMe and discarded it. People started talking about doing t-shirts to wear to court. No one wanted to handle collecting money, so we went with a company to handle it for us and it became a fundraiser for legal fees. The fact that we were raising money for the legal fund was fully disclosed.”

Grace said that the group will continue their efforts, and recently, on Halloween, they were able to present Reader’s attorney, Jim Bougler, with a check.

“I think we will continue with the t-shirt sales and donating directly to the legal fund as we can. Mostly, we are a group that supports Reader as Sheriff and to see him back where he belongs: in office.”

The suspended Sheriff has been placed under a court gag order and is not able to speak about the case.

Reader was suspended by the Supreme Court of Ohio in August; an interim Sheriff has been named for the time being. Reader’s trial is set for Spring 2020.

Editor’s note: The Guardian’s interim Editor-in-chief, Derek Myers, was the Pike County Sheriff’s spokesperson until July 2019.