FCB Faith is your rhythm and prey station. I listen, my mom listens, pretty much the whole family. I cannot, I cannot. I canna. Said, don't, don't. And don't listen to f CB Faith on iHeartRadio, Odyssey at faith dot com, or tell your smart speaker to play FCB Faith on iHeartRadio. The following is a presentation of FCB Faith. This is the Jeff Glory in Nick Show. Welcome to the Jefflori and Nick Show. And we are excited because we are in an election season this year, and right now we have an awesome guest this morning, just one who's just really qualified. And I tell you he is a candidate. For a county prosecutor in the state of Ohio in Summit County. Just it's He's gonna tell us a little bit about his race and the area that he represents, and I'll tell you it's a very very important race, and I think that all of us need to know what a county prosecutor does and just the importance of the county prosecutor's role in our daily lives. Welcome to our show, John Grevin, how are you today, sir? I'm very well, thank you for having me. Glad to have you here, John. This election season, there's so many different folks on the ballot and so many different races and just issues we need to know about the importance of your election, your race, this county prosecutor's job. It seems as though once someone is elected to that position, they hold it for quite some time. So John, can you tell us a. Little bit about yourself and give me just a little bit of your background. Let our audience know just a little bit about you. Sure, I'm originally from upstate New York. I moved I have a back degree in mathematics, I have a master's degree in education, and I have a law degree from Cleveland Marshall College of Law. I first moved to Ohio in nineteen ninety one, so I've been an Ohio resident now for. Thirty three years. Moved to go to law school, became a resident of Summit County in nineteen ninety four. After I was done with law school. My first job out of law school was actually as an assistant Summer County Prosecutor. I was hired by Maureen O'Connor, who later on went to become Lieutenant governor as well as chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. I worked under Maureen and then I worked under her successor, Mike Callahan, who now was pretty much my best friend. Worked in the Prosecutor's office for about seven years. By the time I started off at the bottom, you know, doing low level felonies. By the time I had left the office, I was handing nothing but murder cases and aggravated murder cases, and you know, they were kind of my specialty. When the election of two thousand happened, things changed and I was not welcome back in the office. I actually went in practice medical malpractice defense for a couple of years. But there's something really exciting about the fast pace of criminal law. So in two thousand and two, myself and three other former prosecutors formed a law firm Callahan, Grevin, Riley, and sin Who. Oh awesome. Okay, Yeah, I'd like you to just elaborate a little bit more about that, because I know that you even called one of the four horsemen, and I've heard that over and over that you're one of the four horsemen. Tell us how did that come? How that term come into being? In Yeah, like I said, we formed a law firm. Mike Callahan, myself, Johnson, and Scott Riley, and we developed the nickname of four Horsemen, And frankly that was created by our clients. We didn't come up with that. All of a sudden people started referring to us as that. And you know the main reason for that is we were all former Stomach County prosecutors. And we. As defense attorneys defending our clients, making sure that our clients received justice. We had an extreme amount of success, and so word got out on the street and people started calling us the four horsemen. And you know, part of my reason for running is, like I said, I've been fortunate as the defense attorney, I think delivered justice to virtually all of my clients, whatever that may be given the individual facts of a case. But it's one thing to try to get justice for my clients, which are maybe two or three hundred in a year, as opposed to if I am the Summer County prosecutor, I can try to get justice for every client that comes through the criminal justice system. How do you feel as though you connect with the community, I mean, being one of the four horsemen, Like, do you feel as though that's really. Strengthened some of your connections with community folks. I think it does. You know, like I said, I represent two or three hundred people of a year, so over the course of twenty years, you. Know, that's several thousand people who are you know, community members are who are people inacron rich people, poor people, white people, black people, men, women, you know, you name it. And I represented them, and I think I've done a good job to represent them. And I think because of that, I think hopefully people when they hear my name, and especially when they hear the part about the four horsemen, they will know that my qualifications are legitimate and that I am curious about this job and again could help to deliver justice, whatever that may be, to a wider range of the community. I think having that experience really means a lot in the prosecutor's position, being able to, you know, have that connection or to walk into that office already having that connection with the community and folks knowing exactly how you've been successful in court cases. I think that means a lot. Let's talk about the office that you're running for. So excuse me just to follow up on what you said there before we get to that. I think that my time actually is a criminal defense attorney will actually make me a better prosecutor. I think sometimes secuters the only thing they know about a case or what they read in the file, what they read as far as the police reports are and everything. As a defense attorney, I know that every case goes much deeper than that that Every defendant is a person who has, you know, the different struggles, and I think it would help me to take a bigger picture of the people that we are prosecuting. The sum County Prosecutor is actually, according to a High Revice Code, the chief law enforcement officer of Summit County. There are four divisions in the office. There's a tax division, There's a Child Support Enforcement Agency division we handle child support. There's a civil division. We represent county office holders and things of that when they are sued civilly. But the most important job, and the one of that people are probably most familiar with, are we prosecute all of the felony cases that happened in the jurisdiction of some accounty. Okay, I think that's really important for people to know because you may not be when I say you, the person listening to this show may not actually be one be the one or at any time or may have not been in the court system or justice system dealing with attorneys and going before a judge. But sometimes and many times, we know a family member that has or someone who close, a friend or an associate that has been in the court system, and I think it's so important to have someone who is well rounded in that prosecutor's office and that being as the county prosecutor, so that they can oversee these cases that your prosecutors are are working on. I think this is so important in this day and age where you take into account so many different factors in just knowing being on the other side on both sides of the table in the courtroom, as I think that just means a lot. That's that means a lot to every individual or family that has someone who's dealing in the justice system seeking justice or. Day. I agree because again, I think it helps me to look at the big picture of the individual as opposed to just what's you know, the words on a police report. And even if you don't have somebody involved in the criminal justice system. Everybody wants to feel safe in their community. People want to be able to go to the civic theater in downtown Akron on a Friday night to see a show without fear of being a victim of crime. So, you know, my philosophy as a prosecutor would be to focus our time and our resources on frenchly, the bad people, the violent people, you know, the rapist, the murders, the assaulters, the you know, the armed robbers, things like that, as opposed to the lower level people, many who are addicted to drugs or many of whom, frankly, just make a stupid you know, young kids that make a stupid decision. And so my philosophy would be focus on the bad guys. Let's put the bad guys away because they are danger to the community and for the people at the other end of the spectrum, Let's try to see if we can get those people help, because if we can get them help at an early age or an early stage of their criminal career, maybe we can stop that revolving door where they don't screw up, go to prison, get out, screw up, go to prison, get out. And if we can kind of nip it in the bud, I think everybody benefits. Absolutely. We hear so much about the crime in the city of Akron. You know, you know, it spills out into other municipalities within Summit County and of course even in other areas, other cities. Job you. I was going to ask you about public safety, but you've got a tech touched on that quite a bit. But I would just say that you know, every woman, every senior, every child, UH needs to every gentleman, every person, every senior citizen needs to feel safe. And it's of the utmost importance. It's imperative that you know that issue be addressed and taken serious to get UH to make our safe, our streets safe. That's that's the bottom line. I said, by far, the most important job of the prosecutor is the criminal division and to provide the citizens of Summer County was a safe environment. You know, I wasn't going to ask you this, but what kind of why do you think it's out of control? Right now? You know, we we hear on the news about crime and various cities, and acron happens to be one of them where it sometimes seems as though the crime is out of control. Can you elaborate on that? Can you touch on it? Well? I think it's a couple of things. I think that it's there are certain things that the that I could do is to prosecutor, but there are other things that are a much deeper, so stytal problem. Right what I could do is a prosecutor. I mean, the main problem now is the availability of guns. So many people have guns. And you know, in the old days, if you and I had a disagreement, we might throw punches at each other, and that's the way things are settled. That's not what happens anymore. People pull out their guns. They start shooting at each other, you know, And I think a part of that, you know, I talked. About the greater societal things. There is a kind of a lack of opportunity for a certain segment of the community. And you know, if the opportunity isn't there for a job that pays you a decent wage, well then maybe you fall back on something that's a little bit. Easier exactly now. And that leads me to the question I was going to ask you about just rehabilitating folks, especially our young people. You know, we've always said a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and you know, our young people are our future. But I'll tell you. Our young people are committed a lot of young people are going the wrong way and they're committing crimes, and they are not our future. They are very detrimental to what's going on right now. You're seeing a lot of We're seeing a lot of younger people, even ages eleven and twelve, breaking in cars. Is there anything that. You or the prosecutor can do to make to rehabilitate our young people. Well, I think a couple of things. I think one part of the criminal division of the Prosecutor's office is there's a you know, there's a juvenile court in some accounty and there's a juvenile division of the of the criminal branch of the prosecutor's office. I think juvenile enforcement needs to be tough enough because it is amazing to me the clients that I have that are adults that have gone through the juvenile system and really gotten slaps on the wrists with no accountability whatsoever, and then all of a sudden they become nineteen and they do something and they're shocked that you know, oh my god, I'm looking at you know, eight years in prison? Are you kidding me? And I think that more needs to be done with juvenile prosecutions. There needs to be more accountability for people in the juvenile system. Without a doubt, more does need to be done with our young people. I'm sure you have some ideas, and just having that perspective means a lot, because you know, so many young people are repeat offenders. There's got to be an effort that works to stop these young people from going back repeating the same, uh, you know, a different crime or the same crime, and just that recidivism is just devastating to the child and their their future and the future and not just the future of our of our cities and our communities, but to the very present time. You know, a lot of sad things and crimes that happen. And again, those who are least able to protect themselves young people, uh, you know, innocent children, women and seniors. I'm not and even I'm not leaving out men. But you know, we've all become victims and we need, we need to address this. We're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna ask our audience just to stick around with us. We'll be right back. We're back with our. Guest, John Grevin, was a candidate for Summit County prosecutor. Wow, we just we still have a lot to unpack, and we've we were talking about rehabilitation efforts for for. People minor offenses. Basically at this time, I am going to move on to another question that I had in mind for you, John, and that's about enhancing the relationships of the community of the prosecutor's office with the community. How do we how do we build a stronger relationship with the community. Oftentimes there is a strain between law enforcement or. Or yeah, government and the community. What can you do to just. Strengthen or enhance the relationship there between the community and the prosecutor's office. Well, well, one of the things that I've that I would like to implement, and it kind of tags on to what you were talking about during the break about juvenile crime, is having times where prosecutors going to the middle schools and talk to kids who are twelve and thirteen years old, Because in talking to people, it's my experience, if you're a thirteen year old kid, you may see your neighbor being arrested. You may see him putting handcuffs and let out to a police car and put in the car, and you have no idea what happens after that. And I think sometimes you know, like I said before, some of these people are just amazed that, oh my god, I'm. Looking at all this time in prison. And I think that it would be good if we could get to the middle school kids and let them know that there are consequences to their actions. So they know that the person that they saw that got arrested, what could potentially happen to that person. You know, not really a scared straight thing, but just purely factual, you know, this is what this person is looking at. As far as the the community, I think too many times the current prosecutor's office they're at fifty three University have and they never let leave their office. Prosecutors every day have to make pretty tough decisions, and some of them are going to be unpopular. But I'm a big fan of community meetings, you know, going out and facing the people and being transparent with them and explaining to them why certain decisions were. Made, whether they like it or they don't like it. At least being transparent so they know the thought process that went behind making those decisions. I think that's very important for the community, just for citizens to understand what's going on because there's so much, so much misunderstanding, mistrust and just misappropriate actions taking place between law enforcement or and government and just citizens. I think that that gulf but needs to be eliminated. There's got to be that engagement with the community. And I think it takes all of us, John to. Be a part of this. It can't just it can't work one way, and the community's got to be receptive to communication. And I think that's it's so good. That's refreshing to hear you say this, that that will be something that you'll do well. And I think that would help develop frost between the community and law enforcement. And I know the police department is out there, you know, trying to establish bonds with the community, which would make their job so much easier. I mean, so many times crimes happen in front of ten people and not one person will will give a statement because they don't have any trust in the system. And I think the more transparent you are, the more open you are and willing to meet with people, the more you can develop that trust, which frankly is going to make prosecuting the bad guys easier. Absolutely, how about working with law enforcement. I like the idea. You know, that word transparency you know, I guess I guess that kind of flows right into law enforcement as well. But how about the prosecutor's office working with law enforcement? Can you talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I mean they are. They absolutely go hand in hand. I mean the you know, the law enforcement investigates the crimes, they then hand everything over us and we prosecute the crimes. But again, there has to be you know, there's another idea where there has to be transparency between the two offices so law enforcement understands why the decisions were made. You know, ironically, even though I've been a defense attorney for so long, I have several friends who are police officers, deputy sheriffs, and everything like that. And I think if everybody is going for the same goal, which is justice, I'm confident that my ability to work with the various police departments in Summit County would be not a problem whatsoever. I agree with you one hundred percent there. Equal justice under the laws is what has to take place. And are you committed to John Revan to equal justice under the law. That's what it sounds like. If you go down to the to Washington, d C. And go to the Supreme Court building, that's the words up above it equal justice under law. And again, if you want to have any kind of confidence or faith, everybody has to be treated equally. I mean, you know, you think of the statue of Lady Justice. She's wearing a blindfold for a reason, and that reason is you can't look at people and decide if theer and base your decisions on whether they're rich or poor, or black or white, or men or women, or straight or gay or whatever. You have to be fair across the board. Oh and that's great to hear you say that, and most of all, your record, your record says it all. And I like the fact that you know this is not a commercial, it's not this has not been scripted. You have you haven't had time to rehearse questions or anything like that. This is not a debate where which is almost like a big show or production, something that's made for TV. Just speaking from your heart, and to hear you say that, you know you've been on both sides of it. You've represented those who have been in trouble, those have had problems, and you know to prosecute them as well. I think that that says a lot. That's that's you can't ask. For more qualifications in an individual who's going to be in that prosecutor's seat, one that has understanding, compassion, wants to protect the community, which is so desperately needed. John, there's something you know wherever just about out of time here, please tell us why John Grevin for prosecutor? Why John Grevin for prosecutor? Well, first of all, because I am a prosecutor, I would be a prosecutor. I would not be a politician. I have never run for office. This is all brand new to me. I'm not trying to run for prosecutors. So in two years I can run for judge, and four years I can run for something else. I've seen the issues that plagued the prosecutor's office in Summit County, you know, from the defense side, I want to get in there and fix those issues that make this community better for everybody. Experience wise, you know, my opponent is actually a friend of mine. But experience wise, I've handled over three hundred major felony trials in my career. You know, I've handled probably forty murder trials, seven or eight death penalty cases. I mean, my experience in the courtroom is really pretty unmatched by anybody in any lawyers in Puming County. And like I said, I've gone. We're providing justice for my clients. Hopefully with the help of the people to vote for me, where I can provide justice for the entire community on a larger scale. Thank you so much. Wow, we've been listening and talking with John Grevin, who was a candidate for Summit County Prosecutor in the Great City, an area of Akron, Ohio, with the many different municipalities that make up Summit County. So to our audience again, thank you, and keep fighting the good fight. Let's all remember that we can make our communities better, our cities better, our states better, in this great country a better place for all of us. Let's just keep remembering to do better and God bless you John Grevin, and to our audience, thank you again. Taking This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where Real Talk Lives. Visitors online at fcbpodcasts dot com.
