[00:00:00] is your rhythm and praise station.
[00:01:28] This is Jeff Lori and Nick Show, we are excited because we are in an election season this year
[00:01:35] and right now we have an awesome guest this morning.
[00:01:40] Just one who's just really qualified and I tell you he is a candidate for county
[00:01:46] prosecutor in the State of Ohio in Summit County.
[00:01:52] He's going to tell us a little bit about his race and the area that he represents and
[00:01:58] maintains a very, very important race and I think that all of us need to know
[00:02:04] what a county prosecutor does and just the importance of the county prosecutors role in our daily lives.
[00:02:14] At this time I'd like to say welcome to our show, Mr. John Greven.
[00:02:21] Let me back up to Darby Law.
[00:02:24] Welcome to our show, John Greven, how are you today, sir?
[00:02:27] I'm very well, thank you for having me.
[00:02:29] Glad to have you here.
[00:02:31] John, this election season there's so many different folks on the ballot and so many
[00:02:37] different races and just issues.
[00:02:41] We need to know about the importance of your election, your race.
[00:02:48] This county prosecutor's job, it seems as though once someone is elected to that position
[00:02:53] they hold a for quite some time.
[00:02:54] So John, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and give me just a little bit of your background?
[00:03:00] Not our audience know just a little bit about you.
[00:03:04] Sure.
[00:03:05] I'm originally from upstate New York.
[00:03:08] I have a bachelor's degree in mathematics.
[00:03:11] I have a master's degree in education and I have a law degree from Cleveland, Marshall,
[00:03:16] College of Law.
[00:03:17] I first moved to Ohio in 1991, so I've been in Ohio resident now for 33 years.
[00:03:24] Moved to go to law school.
[00:03:27] We came to resident of some economy in 1994.
[00:03:31] After I was done with law school my first job out of law school was actually as an assistance
[00:03:36] on the county prosecutor.
[00:03:38] I was hired by Morino Connor who later on went to become lieutenant governor as well as Chief
[00:03:45] Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.
[00:03:48] I worked under Morin and then I worked under her successor, my Calahan who now was pretty
[00:03:56] much my best friend.
[00:03:59] Worked in the prosecutor's office for about seven years by the time you know I started
[00:04:04] off at the bottom, you know doing low level felonies by the time I had left the office.
[00:04:08] I was handling nothing but murder cases and aggravated murder cases and they were kind
[00:04:14] of my specialty.
[00:04:16] When the election of 2000 happened things changed and I was not welcome back in the
[00:04:23] office.
[00:04:24] I actually went in practice medical malpractice defense for a couple of years, but there's
[00:04:30] something really exciting about the fast pace of criminal law.
[00:04:36] So in 2002 myself and three other former prosecutors formed a law firm, Calahan,
[00:04:43] Reverend Riley and Sen who.
[00:04:48] Oh awesome.
[00:04:48] Okay.
[00:04:49] Yeah.
[00:04:49] I like you to just elaborate a little bit more about that because I know that you've
[00:04:53] been called one of the four horsemen and I've heard that over and over that you're
[00:04:59] one of the four horsemen.
[00:05:00] Tell us how did that come?
[00:05:02] How did that term come into being?
[00:05:04] Yeah.
[00:05:06] Like I said we've formed a law firm, Mike Calahan myself, Johnston has got Riley and we developed
[00:05:13] the nickname before horsemen and frankly that was created by our clients.
[00:05:19] We didn't come up with that all the sudden people started referring to us as that.
[00:05:25] And you know the main reason for that is we were all former stomach county prosecutors.
[00:05:31] And we as the fence attorneys defending our clients making sure that our clients receive
[00:05:37] justice, we had an extreme amount of success.
[00:05:42] And so we're got out on the street and people started calling us the four horsemen.
[00:05:48] And you know part of my reasons for running is like I said I was I've been fortunate
[00:05:53] because the fence attorney I think delivered justice to virtually all my clients, whatever
[00:06:00] that may be given the individual facts of a case.
[00:06:04] But it's one thing to try to get justice for Mike violence which are maybe two or
[00:06:10] 300 in a year as opposed to if I am the some accounting prosecutor I can try to get justice
[00:06:15] for every client that comes through the criminal justice system.
[00:06:21] How do you feel is though?
[00:06:25] You connect with the community.
[00:06:28] I mean being one of the four horsemen like do you feel so that's really
[00:06:33] strengthened some of your connections with community folks?
[00:06:37] I think it does.
[00:06:40] You know, like I said I represent two or 300 people a year so over the course of 20 years.
[00:06:45] You know that's several thousand people who are you know community members who are
[00:06:50] who are people in Akron rich people or people white people black people men women,
[00:06:57] you know you name it and I represented them and I think I've done a good job to represent them.
[00:07:03] And I think because of that I think hopefully people when they hear my name and especially
[00:07:08] when they hear the part about the four horsemen they will know that my qualifications are legitimate
[00:07:14] and that I am curious about this job and again to help to deliver justice whatever that may be
[00:07:22] to a wider range of the community.
[00:07:26] I think having that experience really means a lot in the prosecutors position
[00:07:32] being able to you know have that connection or to walk into that office already
[00:07:38] having that connection with the community and folks knowing exactly how you've been successful
[00:07:45] in court cases I think that means a lot let's talk about the office that you're running for.
[00:07:54] So excuse me just to follow up on what you said there before we get to that I think that my time
[00:07:59] actually is a criminal defense attorney will actually make me a better prosecutor.
[00:08:07] I think sometimes prosecutors the only thing they know about a case or what they read in the
[00:08:13] file, what they read as far as the police reports are and everything. As a defense attorney I know that
[00:08:18] every case goes much deeper than that that every defendant is a person who has
[00:08:24] you know a different struggles and and I think it would help me to take a bigger picture
[00:08:31] of the people that we are prosecuting. The some accounting prosecutors actually
[00:08:35] according to a high revised code that chief law enforcement officer of some accounting.
[00:08:41] There are four divisions in the office there's a tax division, there's a child support and
[00:08:45] force when agency division we handle child support, there's this civil division we represent
[00:08:50] a county office holders and things of that when they are soon civilly but the most important job
[00:08:57] in one of the people are probably most familiar with are we prosecute all of the felony cases
[00:09:02] that happen in the jurisdiction of the son of a county. Okay I think that's really important
[00:09:07] for people to know because you may not be when I say you the person listening to this show may
[00:09:14] not actually be one or at any time or may have not been in the court system or just a system
[00:09:24] dealing with attorneys and going before a judge but sometimes in many times we know a family member
[00:09:32] that has or someone close a friend or an associate that has been in the court system and I think
[00:09:37] it's so important to have someone who is well rounded in that prosecutor's office and that
[00:09:43] being as the county prosecutor so that they can oversee these cases that your prosecutors are
[00:09:53] are working on. I think this is so important in this day and age where you take into account
[00:10:00] some of the different factors and just knowing being on the other side on both sides of
[00:10:08] the table in the court room as I think that just means a lot that's that means a lot to every
[00:10:14] individual or family that has someone who's dealing in the justice system seeking justice.
[00:10:23] Or I'm just going to say I agree because again I think it helps me to look at the big picture
[00:10:28] of the individual as opposed to just what's you know the words on up please report.
[00:10:33] And even if you don't have somebody involved in the criminal justice system
[00:10:38] everybody wants to feel safe in their community. People want to be able to go to the
[00:10:43] civics to hear a downtown acronym on the Friday night to see your show without fear of being a victim
[00:10:48] of crime so you know my philosophy is a prosecutor would be to focus our time and our resources
[00:10:56] on frankly the bad people. The violent people you know the rapists, the murder, the assaulters,
[00:11:03] the armed robbers things like that as opposed to the lower level people many of whom are
[00:11:09] addicted to drugs or many of whom frankly just make a stupid you know young kids that make a stupid
[00:11:15] decision and so my philosophy would be focused on the bad guys but the bad guys are way
[00:11:22] because they are dangerous to the community and for the people at the other end of the spectrum
[00:11:29] let's try to see if we can get those people help because if we can get them help in an early age or
[00:11:36] an early stage of their criminal career maybe we could stop that revolving door where they don't
[00:11:43] screw up, go to prison get out, go to prison get out and if we can kind of nip it in the bud I think
[00:11:50] everybody benefits. Absolutely we hear so much about the crime in the city of Akhren
[00:11:58] and it spills out into other municipalities within some account and of course even other areas
[00:12:06] other cities you I was going to ask about public safety but you're going to touch on that quite
[00:12:13] but I would just say that you know every woman, every senior, every child needs to every gentleman,
[00:12:22] every person, every senior citizen needs to feel safe and it's of the utmost importance it's
[00:12:29] imperative that you know that issue be addressed and taken serious to get to make our state our
[00:12:37] streets safe that's the bottom line after you know I wasn't going to ask you this but what kind of
[00:12:57] why do you think it's out of control right now you know we hear on the news about crime in various
[00:13:04] cities in Akhren is happens to be one of them where it's sometimes seems as a crime as out of control
[00:13:10] can you elaborate on that can you touch on it? Well I think it's a couple of things I think
[00:13:18] it's there are certain things that the process that I could do is the prosecutor but there are other
[00:13:22] things that are there are a much deeper societal problem. Right what I could do is the prosecutor
[00:13:29] I mean the main problem now is the availability of guns, so many people have guns and you know in
[00:13:37] the old days if you and I had a disagreement we might throw punches at each other that's the
[00:13:43] way things were settled that's not what happens anymore people pull out their guns they start shooting
[00:13:47] at each other you know and I think a part of that you know I talked about the greater societal
[00:13:52] things there is a kind of a lack of opportunity for a certain segment of the community and you
[00:13:58] know the opportunity isn't there for a job to pay you a decent wage well maybe you fall back
[00:14:04] on something that's a little bit easier. Exactly and that leads me to the question I was
[00:14:11] going to ask about just rehabilitating folks especially our young people you know we've always said
[00:14:18] a mind is a terrible thing the waste and you know our young people are our future but out there
[00:14:23] you are young people are a lot of young people are going the wrong way in their commitment
[00:14:29] crimes and they are not our future they are very detrimental to what's going on right now
[00:14:36] if you're seeing a lot of wishing a lot of younger people even ages 11 and 12
[00:14:42] breaking in cars is there anything that you or the prosecutor can do to make to rehabilitate our young
[00:14:52] well I think a couple of things I think one part of the criminal division of the prosecutor's office is
[00:14:59] there's a juvenile court in some account and there's a juvenile division of the criminal
[00:15:05] branch in the prosecutor's office. I think juvenile enforcement needs to be tough enough because it
[00:15:13] is amazing to me the clients that I have that are adults that have gone through the juvenile system
[00:15:19] and really got a slap on the wrist with no accountability whatsoever and then all of a sudden
[00:15:24] they become 19 and they do something and they're shocked that oh my god I'm looking at you know eight
[00:15:30] years in prison are you kidding me and and I think that more needs to be done with juvenile
[00:15:36] prosecutions there needs to be more accountability for people in the juvenile system without a doubt
[00:15:43] more does need to be done with with our young people I'm sure you have some ideas and just having
[00:15:50] that perspective means a lot because you know so many young people are repeat offenders
[00:16:00] there's gotta be an effort that works to stop these young people from going back repeating the same
[00:16:10] you know a different crime or the same crime and just that recidivism is just devastating to
[00:16:18] to the child and their their future and the future and not just the future of our
[00:16:25] of our cities in our communities but to the very present time you know a lot of
[00:16:31] sad things and crimes that happen and again those who are least able to protect themselves
[00:16:38] young people you know innocent children women and seniors I'm not even I'm not leaving
[00:16:48] out men but you know with all become victims and we need we need to address this we're going
[00:16:54] to take a quick break and we're gonna ask our audience just to stick around with us will be right back
[00:17:04] we're back with our guest John Brevin was a candidate for some at county prosecutor
[00:17:10] wow we just still have a lot to unpack and we we were talking about rehabilitation efforts for
[00:17:19] for minor offenses basically at this time I am going to move on to another question
[00:17:27] that I had in mind for you John and that's about enhancing the relationships of the community
[00:17:34] of the prosecutor's office with the community how do we how do we build a stronger
[00:17:39] relationship with the community oftentimes there is a strain between law enforcement or
[00:17:45] or yeah government and the community now what can you do to just strengthen or enhance the
[00:17:53] relationship there between the community and the prosecutor's office well well what are things that
[00:17:59] I would like to implement and kind of tag on to what you were talking about during the break
[00:18:05] about juvenile crime is having times we're prosecuted going to the middle school and talk
[00:18:13] to kids who are 12 and 13 years old because in talking to people it's my experience if you're a 13
[00:18:19] year old kid you may see your neighbor being arrested you may see him put handcuffs and let
[00:18:24] you a police car and put in the car and you have no idea what happens after that and I think sometimes
[00:18:33] like I said before some of these people are just amazed at oh my god I'm looking at all this
[00:18:37] time in prison and I think that it would be good if we could get to the middle school kids and
[00:18:42] and let them know that there are consequences to their actions so they know that the person
[00:18:47] that they saw the god arrested what could potentially happen to that person you know not really
[00:18:53] scared straight thing but just purely factual you know this is what this person is looking at
[00:18:58] as far as the community I think too many times the current prosecutors office there are
[00:19:06] 53 universities have and they never let leave their office prosecutors every day have to make
[00:19:13] pretty tough decisions and some of them are going to be unpopular but I'm a big fan of
[00:19:22] community meetings you know go now and face into people and be transparent with them and explain
[00:19:30] to them why certain decisions were made whether they like it or they don't like it at least
[00:19:34] being transparent so they know the thought process that went behind making those decisions
[00:19:42] I think that's very important for the community for just for citizens to understand
[00:19:50] what's going on because there's so much so much misunderstanding mistrust and
[00:20:01] just misappropriate actions take place between law enforcement or
[00:20:11] government and just citizens I think that that gulf but needs to be eliminated there's got to be
[00:20:20] that engagement with the community and I think it takes all of us to be a part of this it can't just
[00:20:30] it can't work one way and the community's got to be receptive to communication and I think that's
[00:20:36] it's so good that's refreshing to hear you say this that that will be something that you'll do
[00:20:43] that would help develop trust between the community and law enforcement and I know the police
[00:20:50] department is out there you know trying to establish bonds with the community which would make their
[00:20:54] job so much easier I mean so many times crime's happening in front of 10 people and that one
[00:20:59] person will give a statement because they don't have any trust in the system and I think the more
[00:21:06] transparent you are the more open you are and willing to meet with people the more you can
[00:21:11] develop that trust which frankly is going to make prosecute in the bad guys easier
[00:21:17] absolutely how about working with law enforcement I like the idea you know that word
[00:21:22] French parents you you know I get guess that kind of flows right into law enforcement as well
[00:21:29] but how about the prosecutor's office working with law enforcement can you talk about that a little bit
[00:21:34] yeah I mean they are um that they absolutely go hand in hand I mean that you know the
[00:21:43] law enforcement investigates the crimes they then hand everything over us and we prosecute the crimes
[00:21:48] but again there has to be you know there's another idea where there has to be transparency between
[00:21:54] the two offices so law enforcement understands why certain decisions were made
[00:22:01] you know ironically even though I've been the defense attorney for so long
[00:22:06] I have several friends who are police officers deputy sheriffs and everything like that
[00:22:14] and I think if everybody is going for the same goal which is justice
[00:22:19] I'm confident that my ability to work with various piece departments of some economy would be
[00:22:24] not a problem whatsoever I agree with you 100% there equal justice under the laws
[00:22:32] is what has to take place and are you committed to John Breben to equal justice under the law
[00:22:41] that's what it sounds like if you go down to the Washington DC and go to the Supreme Court
[00:22:47] building that's the words up above it equal justice under law and again if you want to have any kind of
[00:22:55] confidence or faith everybody has to be treated equally I mean you don't need to take a
[00:23:00] statual lady justice she's wearing a blindfold for a reason and that reason is you can't
[00:23:06] look at people in the side of third and base your decision is on whether the rich or poor
[00:23:11] black or white or men or women or a straighter gay or whatever you have to be fair across the board
[00:23:17] oh and that's great to hear you say it and most of all you're a record your record says it all
[00:23:23] and I like to fact that you know this is not a commercial it's not
[00:23:28] this has not been scripted you have you haven't had time to rehearse
[00:23:34] questions or anything like that this is not a debate where which is almost like a big show or
[00:23:39] production something that's made for TV you're speaking from your heart and to hear you say
[00:23:47] that you know you've been on both sides of it you've represented those who have been in
[00:23:52] trouble those of that problems and you know to prosecute them as well I think that that says a lot
[00:24:01] that's that's you can ask for more qualifications in an individual who's going to be in that
[00:24:07] prosecutor's seat one that has understanding compassion wants to protect the community which is so
[00:24:15] desperately needed John there's something you know where we're just about out of time here please
[00:24:22] tell us why John Grevin for prosecuted why John Grevin for prosecuted well
[00:24:31] first of all because I am a prosecutor I would be a prosecutor I would not be a politician
[00:24:38] I have never run for office this is all brand new to me I'm not trying to run for prosecutor
[00:24:44] so in two years I can run for judge and four years I can run for something else I've seen the
[00:24:51] issues that plague the prosecutors office in some account he you know from the defense side I want
[00:24:57] to get in there and fix those issues that make this community better for everybody
[00:25:02] experience wise you know my opponent is actually a friend of mine but experience wise
[00:25:09] I've handled over 300 major felony trials in my career you know I've handled probably 40 murder trials
[00:25:18] seven or eight death penalty cases I mean my experience in the courtroom is really
[00:25:22] pretty unmatched by anybody any lawyers in some of the county and like I said I've gone
[00:25:29] we're providing justice for my clients to hopefully with the help of the people to vote for me
[00:25:35] where I can provide justice for the entire community and a larger scale thank you so much
[00:25:43] while we've been listening and talking with John Grevin was a candidate for some at county
[00:25:49] prosecutor in the great city an area of African Ohio with the many different municipalities that
[00:25:56] make up some at county so to our audience again thank you and keep fighting the good fight let's all
[00:26:02] remember that we can make our communities better our cities better our states better in this
[00:26:09] great country a better place for all of us let's just keep remembering to do better and be God bless
[00:26:17] you John Grevin and to our audience thank you again. Take care. This has been a presentation of the FCP podcast
[00:26:35] network where real talk lives visit us online at fcbpodcasts.com