Orsik’s attorney argues stalking charges without merit

ELYRIA — Suspended Elyria police Officer Tom Orsik’s attorney argued Monday that there’s not enough proof to show his client stalked the woman seeking a civil stalking protection order against him.

Tom Orsik appears in court at the Lorain County Justice Center on Dec. 7. STEVE MANHEIM/CHRONICLE

Kenneth Lieux said that the only thing that the 54-year-old woman testified to that had a sexual component was her claim that Orsik told her he found her attractive and that he wanted to have sex with her.

“There’s been no other testimony about anything sexually explicit or that would lead anyone to believe it was anything more than feeling someone out to see if there’s a mutual attraction,” Lieux said. “That’s what it sounds like to me.”

Orsik, 41, is under indictment on felony and misdemeanor charges accusing him of stalking and harassing the woman and soliciting sex from three other women, including a 23-year-old admitted heroin addict he came into contact with while he was working. That woman has said that although she took money from Orsik, it wasn’t because they were having sex.

Lieux has said his client plans to fight the charges against him.

The woman who has accused Orsik of stalking her testified that she had contacted Elyria police because of concerns over a relative’s involvement with drugs and ended up speaking to Orsik and another officer. She told Lorain County Magistrate Stephen Vanek that a few weeks later Orsik called her and asked to stop by her house.

When he did so, she said, he told her the conversation was “off the record” and then asked her to have sex. She said she refused and told him to leave.

As she told her story, Orsik, who was seated next to Lieux, shook his head several times.

After she rejected his overtures, the woman testified, Orsik would drive slowly past her house, call and text her and peep in her windows. Lieux was quick to point out that Orsik and the woman only live a few blocks apart and that she presented no phone or text records to prove he had been contacting her.

Lieux said that the woman appeared to have repeatedly contacted Elyria police about her relative over the timeframe that she has said Orsik was stalking her.

The woman said she came forward to police after reading about Orsik being placed on paid leave in September. Orsik’s status with the Police Department is under review as part of an ongoing internal investigation.

“I wanted to call up because if he’s done it to me, he’s done it to other people out there,” the woman said.

Although a condition of Orsik’s bond is that he has no contact with victims, the woman asked Vanek to put the protection order she sought last month in place for the next five years.

“It might be a piece of paper to some people. You might ask why I didn’t come forward before. He’s a police officer. I’m just somebody in the community,” she said.

Vanek said he will issue a decision in the next few days.

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