If you understand the job of Prosecuting Attorney for any city, state or county, you already know that it comes with a lot of responsibility.

The prosecutor is responsible for interpreting the laws of the land and if necessary, enforcing them in a court of law. Many times it is the prosecutor that will decide if a member of society should stand trial for a crime, or bring it to a Grand Jury for their indictment.

The prosecutor also has the power to negotiate criminal charges and sentences, making a decision that will affect not only the life of the accused, but the victims, their families or society at large.

This month we are talking to Victor Vigluicci, the Prosecuting Attorney for Portage County. Mr. Vigluicci was gracious enough to give us a tour of the new offices that house him and his staff, but also offer us an interview that will show us a part of his demanding world.

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E-PORTAGE: I’m talking to Victor Vigluicci the Portage County Prosecutor. Let’s start with, when were you born?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: I was born here in Ravenna in April of 1952.

E-PORTAGE: Have you lived here in Ravenna your whole life?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: My whole life. I was born right here at Robinson Memorial Hospital.

E-PORTAGE: So I take it you went to school here as well?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: I did not. Actually, I went to grade school here, but I went to high school at Saint Thomas Aquinas, which is a Catholic High School and Walsh University, both in North Canton.

E-PORTAGE: Where did you go to law school?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Akron

E-PORTAGE: Akron University? I hear they have a very good law school.

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: They do. My son is in his final semester at Akron Law School right now.

E-PORTAGE: Is he going to work for you when he is done?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: He can’t. By state law I cannot employ any relatives, blood relatives, or next of kin.

E-PORTAGE: I didn’t know that.

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Yeah

E-PORTAGE: After law school where did you practice?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Right here in Ravenna, I had a private practice I began in 1977. I was a partner with a few other lawyers here in town. It was a general practice here in Ravenna until I was appointed to this office in 1994.

E-PORTAGE: So you didn’t run for this office? You were appointed to it?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: I did not. My first contact with the office was when I was appointed in 1994. Were you here then?

E-PORTAGE: Yes

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: You may recall that my predecessor was charged with a crime of drug abuse.

E-PORTAGE: No, I wasn’t aware.

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: He was indicted in February and removed from office. It was not a good situation. I was asked to take over the office in 1994. I had to run a few months later for the office and have been in office ever since.

E-PORTAGE: How long is your term?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: 4 years. I was just re-elected. Every presidential year is an elected official year for all county officials.

E-PORTAGE: How do you like running for office?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Well, in my case it hasn’t been too difficult. I have not had an opponent since 1996.

E-PORTAGE: Why is that do you think?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: I hope they think I’m doing a good job. Somebody else would say because nobody wants the job. Maybe a little bit of them both.

E-PORTAGE: Lets talk about that a little bit. What would you say is the hardest part of your job?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: The hardest part of the job is dealing with the people who are victims of senseless, often violent crimes, looking at the situation through their eyes as to what happened to them for no particular reason.

I empathize a lot with that. That’s difficult to talk to and meet with those families. To try to reach their expectations of what should happen in the criminal justice system. It doesn’t always happen. That is the most difficult part.

E-PORTAGE: In the years of being a prosecutor, without mentioning any names, is there any one case that would fit that example? Something that happened that really stayed in your mind?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: It’s not one case; it’s a category of cases. It’s usually the drunk driving case where a young person or a totally innocent person is minding their own business, going home from work or going to school, and is senselessly killed by a drunk driver.

Meeting with those families and the survivors is the most difficult thing that I do. There is just no explanation or consolation for that and no case is any worse or better than any other, they are all terrible. So it is a category of cases.

E-PORTAGE: I have spoken with a few judges in Portage County, and almost without exception, they have told me the hardest part of being a judge, is sentencing people to long periods of time who had no intent on committing the crime. For instance, someone that drives drunk, and kills someone, where it was not an intentional homicide. Listening to you it almost sounds like because of you dealing with the victim in the case, that those are probably the easiest cases for you. Would I be correct by saying that?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: To prosecute?

E-PORTAGE: I mean mentally, not as far as the prosecution, I’m talking easiest on you mentally, as far as knowing that those people are going to go away for a while.

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Yeah, I have no problem with that. I see the results, the devastations they leave as a result of their actions.

I am of the opinion that there is some intent involved in getting behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound weapon after you have been drinking. The education has been dominant over the years of doing that and I have very little sympathy for people who do it.

As a result we take those cases very seriously and we pursue them to what we hope to be a successful conclusion, which includes prison time. We usually insist on it.

In some states the penalties are much more severe than Ohio’s. There are states down south where you can face the death penalty for a drunk driving conviction. Ohio, I believe is on the more lenient side when it comes to aggravated vehicular homicide when sentences can range from 2 to 8 years or 3 to 10 years. I think those are completely in line with the seriousness of the offense.

E-PORTAGE: I think that many people that aren’t involved in the criminal justice system get their knowledge of what you do from television shows like “Law and Order”, which are obviously are Hollywood’s style of the truth.

One part that I think probably is a little accurate on that is when it comes to a lot of these criminal cases the buck stops with you as far as plea bargains. When you have a case that you think may or may not win in court, you have the ability to plea them down. You make the decision on what happens to folks that could involve a long-term prison sentence in their life. How hard is it to make those decisions?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Well, for example last year we processed nearly 800 felony defendants through this office and in each of those cases we have to make decisions about whether it’s a trial case and to take the case to trial or to go to plea negotiations. I personally can’t do all of those. I rely on a staff of experienced and trusted assistant prosecutors that do that on a weekly basis.

Many of the cases, especially those involving the most serious offenses do come to me and we do discuss those cases all the time. Part of it is an analysis of what our expectations would be at trial, a very practical analysis, what the state of the evidence is and what we can actually prove.

We also have to analyze what the defendant’s record is. It might be someone with a first offense on a conviction; we would not expect to go to prison. They would get probation, in all likelihood anyway. So it becomes easier to negotiate on a first time offender when we know they are going to get probation, to offer them probation in the first place. Those aren’t as difficult.

The more difficult ones are the ones facing long prison terms, when somebody is potentially facing the death penalty or life in prison. It’s a lot of responsibility. Quiet frankly a prosecutor has a lot of power because the case never gets to a judge or a jury.

I try to make sure that I am very familiar with the facts and that I have some knowledge of what a jury would do in that case. We also always consult with victims to try to meet their expectations, and I just make the best decision I can, based on my experience and my knowledge.

I’ve tried cases for 17 years before I even became prosecutor as a defense attorney. I have some knowledge of how both sides of the system work. I try to put that to work in my decisions.

E-PORTAGE: What’s it like on cases where you cant meet the victims expectation on a serious crime? What’s it like to have to tell them “I know you want justice but unfortunately we have to do this instead.”?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: It’s very difficult. We have cases that I can point to that the facts will not support the conviction that the family or the victim wants. We have to be very honest with them and try to explain to them how the system works and what the law provides and the level of proof that we have. The best we can do is be honest with them. Sometimes they get it and sometimes they don’t. There are families that are angry and bitter with me and I know that. It’s because I was unable to do what they wanted the system to do. I’m pretty comfortable with myself that I have done what I can do.

E-PORTAGE: As we were walking through the office here, you showed me the bulletproof glass and Kevlar walls in your reception area. We spoke a little bit about how there are quiet a few people out there that are in prison or are getting out of prison who might be unhappy with you. Are you ever worried that they might try to take that vengeance out on you?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: We are aware of it. I’m aware of it, but I don’t walk around 24/7 worrying about it. We do what we can to protect ourselves. All of the assistant prosecutors here are weapons trained. We have the same qualification as the sheriff deputies and we are all issued weapons, as I am.

We try to protect the office the best we can as you saw. The county cannot afford guards and metal detectors at the front door so we tried to harden the building the best that we can against intrusion. Quiet frankly if somebody wanted to harm me, they probably could. We have certainly had threats. That has happened in the past. It comes with the job.

E-PORTAGE: Are you married?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: I am.

E-PORTAGE: Does your wife worry about that?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: She does. So does my mother who is still alive. I hear from both of them that maybe I should be a judge and not the prosecutor. As I said, it’s part of the job and we don’t let that affect any of the decisions that we make.

E-PORTAGE: If you could change one law in the state of Ohio that you currently have to prosecute for, and make it so that the penalty was either lighter or so it wasn’t illegal at all what would it be?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Lighter? Hmmm. Well it’s always troubled me that a person engaged in a low level drug offense or a first time offense of violence where there is no serious injury is the same level of offense as killing someone in your vehicle when alcohol is not involved.

Those are all first-degree misdemeanors. I have always been troubled by the fact that the possession of a small amount of marijuana for example or a threat or a scuffle in a bar is equated with speeding and killing somebody in a vehicle.

So, that question goes both ways. Some of those offenses should not be as serious and some of them should be more serious, but they are all in the state of Ohio first-degree misdemeanors. That’s one thing that I have harped on with the legislature for years.

E-PORTAGE: Do you spend a lot of time with the legislature?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: I do. For example, last year I was the President of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association. I led all of Ohio’s prosecutors last year and one thing that we do in our association is work very closely with the legislature. We worked on promoting and passing legislation that we think is important in the state. As a result I have had to testify in front of the legislature dozens of times. I have a pretty good relationship with our local legislatures. Some of who sit on the criminal justice committee. Yeah, that is important to me.

E-PORTAGE: Do you ever take it personally? Do you ever sit across from a defendant who committed a heinous act and you just take it personally and really just want them to go away for a long time?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: It’s a fine line; I want to see them go away for a lot of reasons. Usually because they deserve it and because what they have done is personally offensive to me. As a result it is probably personally offensive to most of my constituents. So it’s impossible to separate myself, my personal feelings from what we do here.

E-PORTAGE: I can understand that but do you ever get a gut feeling… that a crime just really got under my skin?

PROSECUTOR VIGLUICCI: Honestly, I would have to say yes. But I will say this… It does not affect my decisions on how we proceed with the prosecution. If I had such a case and I knew that we could not prove it at trial, I would not utilize this office or the power of the State of Ohio to put a person through the procedure knowing that the end was futile. I wouldn’t do that.

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As we spent over an hour together, I came to realize how much must reside on this Prosecutor’s shoulders. It’s an obligation to his constituents that he does not take lightly.

Mr. Vigluicci was a gracious host and comes off as a sincere man, someone you could be friends with… Someone you could share a drink with. However, commit a crime in Portage County, and you may disagree.

S. Pitera
E-Portage.US