TOLEDO, Ohio — After a lengthy public records fight that spilled into the Ohio Supreme Court, Cedar Point said it has now provided WTOL 11 with all sexual assault reports related to a series of 11 Investigates stories that first aired in May 2022.
11 INVESTIGATES: DARK SIDE OF CEDAR POINT
That investigation has now discovered there were 47 reports that city and park police took from women who claimed they were assaulted on park property during a six-year period.
11 Investigates initially received 27 reports filed with the Sandusky Police Department over a five-year period beginning in 2017. All of those alleged assaults took place in the park's employee dorms.
On July 26, 2022, WTOL 11 and its sister stations, WBNS and WKYC, sued the park and parent company, Cedar Fair, in the Ohio Supreme Court, believing that Cedar Point police were in possession of additional records. 11 Investigates tried repeatedly to get records from the park, without any response.
For several years, including in Ohio Supreme Court briefs, Cedar Point has claimed it operated a private police force not subject to public records law.
However, during our 2022 investigation, we discovered that there was a command structure to the force, officers went through state certification and were sworn in by the city manager and those officers had arrest power.
After the court filing, park police provided 14 additional reports, including some from 2022. In December, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the park to turn over any remaining reports.
RELATED: Ohio Supreme Court orders Cedar Point to turn over police records to WTOL 11, sister stations
Recently, several additional reports were provided, including six that were not previously known. Others were previously discovered in Sandusky police records.
"The only documents that exist responsive to your public records request are the documents attached, which include reports generated by CPPD of complaints of sexual misconduct to both guests and associates/employees," park attorney Justin Harris wrote in an email.
Included in the final batch of records were three incidents that allegedly took place at Hotel Breakers or nearby beach, two inside the park, and one report involving the main parking lot.
An employee of Breakers told police that she was groped inside the hotel electrical room by a fellow employee. When reached, she told WTOL 11 that she dropped the case once the employee was fired.
Of the six records, none of them resulted in charges, a common theme with this investigation. Only two men have been charged from the 47 alleged reports.
Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said several issues make it difficult to prosecute cases at the park, including the fact that workers are usually from out of town and don't want to stick around for a drawn-out legal process. In almost all of the cases WTOL 11 examined, alcohol was involved and it became an issue of "he said, she said." Multiple cases were taken to a grand jury without an indictment.
Shortly after 11 Investigates' report initially aired, Sandusky stripped policing power from the park's department. All sexual assault reports and other incidents will be handled by the Sandusky Police Department.