Former Sugar Grove officer pleads guilty

LANCASTER — Former Sugar Grove Police Sgt. Terry P. Moore was stripped of his Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy certification and barred from ever acting as a police officer in Ohio again after pleading guilty Monday to a criminal charge.

"It was an honest mistake," Moore said, after admitting to illegally using the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway to search applicants for the Berne Township Fire Department while he acted as their investigator.

"(Moore) thought that was permissible," said Moore's attorney, Aaron Conrad.

Moore, 36, was investigated for illegally using OHLEG over the past several years. Moore was part of a larger Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation case that also pinpointed former Sugar Grove Police Chief Christopher C. Venrick for the same act.

Both officers were forced to surrender their OPOTA certification and pleaded guilty to the same first-degree misdemeanor charge of unauthorized use of property. Venrick was sentenced in August and admitted to searching several women's names in the electronic database, which contains sensitive information that should only be accessed for active criminal investigations.

Moore is accused of illegally using the database 16 times from September 2012 to March 2014 and was indicted on 18 fifth-degree felonies as a result. Venrick was accused of using the database 18 times from 2011 to 2014.

Venrick was indicted on 16 charges, but all of the charges were dropped except one amended misdemeanor charge.

The same deal was offered to Moore, who accepted it Monday morning.

Fairfield County Common Pleas Judge David Trimmer sentenced Moore to 90 days in jail with all time suspended as a result. Moore must undergo one year of non-reporting probation.

Special Prosecutor William Archer, who typically works out of Hocking County, was called in to prosecute the case to avoid any conflict of interest. Archer said BCI requested that both Moore and Venrick receive similar treatment.

sroush@lancastereaglegazette.com

740-681-4342

Twitter: @SpencerRoushLEG