Suspended Elyria police officer indicted

ELYRIA — Suspended Elyria police Officer Tom Orsik was indicted Thursday on felony and misdemeanor charges that included allegations he solicited sex from three women and stalked a fourth.

Elyria police officer Tom Orsik leaves the Lorain County Jail on Thursday, Nov. 19. BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE

“It’s a complaint involving his activities involving females who may have been involved in drug activity,” Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will said.

Orsik, 41, faces felony charges of bribery, tampering with evidence and two counts of menacing by stalking and misdemeanor charges of telecommunications harassment, falsification, voyeurism, dereliction of duty, two counts of menacing and three counts of solicitation.

In a news release from last month announcing Orsik had been placed on paid leave, which he is still on, police wrote that the investigation focused on a period from 2009 through September of this year, including while he was working as a community police officer at Wilkes Villa.

Orsik worked at the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority complex on the city’s south side between May 2013 and March of this year. A second officer who worked that assignment with Orsik is not under scrutiny, the earlier news release said.

According to the indictment, Orsik allegedly solicited three people for sex between 2009 and 2015. He allegedly bribed one of those women earlier this year, although Will declined to publicly say what benefit Orsik provided to the woman.

Will said it Orsik appeared to have solicited sex with at least one of the women while he was on duty.

Orsik also allegedly spied on and violated the privacy of a fourth victim for his own sexual gratification between 2012 and 2015, according to the voyeurism charge. Orsik also allegedly stalked and harassed the same woman during that three-year period, according to the indictment.

Will said he didn’t believe that Orsik ever arrested any of the victims, who are identified only by their initials in the court paperwork.

The tampering with evidence, falsification and dereliction of duty charges allegedly took place this year.

The exact details of what Orsik, who joined the department in 2006, is alleged to have done to draw an 11-count indictment has been a tightly guarded secret, according to his two attorneys.

Tom Orsik

Police union lawyer Bob Phillips, who is representing Orsik in a disciplinary hearing scheduled for next week, said police haven’t provided much information to him or his client, and he was surprised by the charges contained in the indictment.

Criminal defense attorney Kenneth Lieux said Orsik was wasn’t really given an explanation for why he was being placed on paid leave on Sept. 4 and that limited explanation doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the charges against his client.

“They didn’t even specify,” he said. “It was very vague.”

But Lieux said his client is adamant he’s done nothing illegal.

“He categorically denies all the charges and plans on mounting a vigorous defense,” Lieux said.

Elyria Police Chief Duane Whitely did not return a call seeking comment Thursday, but he wrote in a news release announcing the charges that his office is conducting an internal probe of Orsik’s actions.

“Additional comments regarding this investigation will not take place until completion of the Administrative Investigation,” he wrote.

Orsik turned himself in at the Lorain County Jail on Thursday and was freed on a personal bond.

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