Continuing coverage
The Springfield News-Sun has provided ongoing coverage of the investigation and prosecution of Brad Martin for theft from Tecumseh Local School District. Stories have included digging into investigation records, coverage of his sentencing and a look at the effects of gambling addiction.
UPDATE @ 9 a.m. Feb. 23
Brad Martin, former Tecumseh superintendent convicted of stealing more than $40,000 while in office, was released from the Clark County Jail shortly before 9 a.m.
Martin declined to comment upon his release.
EARLIER Feb. 22
Brad Martin, the former Tecumseh superintendent convicted of stealing more than $40,000 from the school district, will be released from jail Tuesday after serving a six months sentence.
Martin pleaded guilty last year to felony charges of theft in office, tampering with records and forgery. He admitted to spending more than 300 hours at casinos during work hours, falsifying mileage, sick and personal leave forms, forging checks, stealing cash and otherwise deceiving the district out of thousands over a two-year period.
He was sentenced in August to serve six months in the county jail and then five years of probation.
Because Martin was also ordered to continue counseling for gambling addiction, which the jail does not offer, he was granted leave to attend treatment in Columbus three days a week.
He spent a total of 10 and a half hours a week away from the jail, unsupervised, which subtracted from his sentence means he will only have spent 169 days inside the jail out of a 180-day sentence, according to Jail Administrator Lt. Michael Young.
Martin is the only inmate at the Clark County Jail currently granted such privileges, Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said, although others are allowed temporary leave for funerals or medical appointments on a case by case basis.
Each time an inmate leaves the jail and returns they have to completely searched, Kelly said.
“His departures caused us a lot of additional work and we had concerns for his safety, from other inmates,” he said of the court order to allow Martin out. The concern was that other inmates would pressure or try to intimidate Martin into bringing drugs or other contraband back into the jail.
Martin has declined requests for interviews while in the jail.
In a video posted on YouTube by Maryhaven One More Chance, a Columbus organization dedicated to assisting people suffering from addiction, Martin says he sought treatment because he threatened to harm himself. He called gambling a silent addiction and said it led to many lies.
Since he’s received treatment, he said hasn’t had an urge to return to gambling, he said, and fears that if he ever does, he will lose his family.
“You’ve got to recognize you’re a compulsive gambler,” he said. “You start looking inside and you realize all the people you are hurting.”
Once released he will begin his probation, during which he will have to abstain from all drugs and alcohol and submit to random testing, continue to attend gambling addiction treatment, as well as treatment for depression. He must also log 500 hours of community service, including speaking to students and other groups about the dangers of gambling.
Judge Richard O’Neill also ordered Martin to pay back more than $44,000 from his state retirement fund and more than $9,600 for the cost of a special state audit ordered by the prosecution.
If he violates any of the terms of his probation, he will face a full sentence of six years in prison, O’Neill said during his sentencing hearing.
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