Staff report

The Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals has affirmed the conviction and prison sentence for a former Warren police officer convicted by a jury in 2024 of 15 felony counts, including two first-degree rape charges with firearm specifications.

Michael Edwards, 45, imprisoned at Chillicothe Correctional Institution, lost his appeal and will continue to serve his indefinite 34-to-39-year sentence imposed by Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice after the jury found him guilty of four counts gross sexual imposition with firearm specifications, two counts of extortion, three counts sexual battery with firearm specifications, two counts of theft in office, two counts of dereliction of duty and two counts of rape with firearm specifications.

Eleventh District Judge Matt Lynch and colleagues Robert Patton and Scott Lynch found that each of Edwards’ five assignments of error during the September 2024 trial were without merit, including the charge that Rice erred in overruling a defense motion for a mistrial because the defense rendered its closing argument in the late afternoon when the jury showed signs of fatigue.

In rejecting his appeal, the unanimous appeals court found that Edwards, “while on patrol, and in full police uniform, engaged in a pattern of preying on vulnerable women to commit various sexual offenses,” and there was “ample evidence of actual force and / or threat of force to support each conviction.”

Lynch noted “having a deadly weapon under one’s control, isolating the victims in their rooms, taking off their clothes, forcing them in position, et cetera, is sufficient to show the element of force or threat of force.”

The appeal also cited other assignments of errors: the trial court erred in providing jury instruction about force of an authority figure, with the defense stating none of the victims testified they believed physical force would be used if they didn’t submit; the judge erred by denying a motion to severance of charges; the trial court erred in not properly instructing the jury in answering a question about whether an act is rape if the victim says sex was consensual and nonthreatening; and that the defendant was denied a fair trial because of the cumulative errors.

At sentencing, Rice declared Edwards a Tier 3 sex offender, which requires lifetime registration four times per year upon his release. The jury deliberated almost 15 hours over three days before returning its verdict on Sept. 23, 2024.

The case originally was tried by Trumbull County assistant prosecutors Gabriel Wildman and Gina Thomas. Assistant Prosecutor Charles Morrow defended Edwards’ conviction and sentence before the 11th District Court of Appeals.

Edwards was represented by attorneys David Betras and Frank Cassese of Betras, Kopp, LLC.