ORIENT, Ohio — A high-ranking corrections employee has been charged in the death of Lt. Rodney Osborne after a fatal shooting during a training session in Pickaway County in April.
David Pearson, the special operations commander for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, was placed on administrative leave the day after the shooting. Now he has been charged with negligent homicide, a misdemeanor.
Osborne was shot in the chest, according to autopsy reports. He died at the hospital.
Family members of Osborne said they were “extremely distraught, upset and frustrated” after learning the news of the misdemeanor charge, according to their attorney Mark Kitrick.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol had been investigating the shooting as reckless homicide and Kitrick said the family was expecting a more serious charge.
“It is tragic and it is shocking, this misdemeanor charge, for what was easily reckless homicide, if not homicide,” Kitrick said. “A misdemeanor is 6 months and a fine, I mean it is a joke in my opinion, it is a joke.”
Pearson’s specific alleged role in the shooting remains unclear, even to family members, Kitrick said.
“We don’t know anything. Still, they won’t let us get an unredacted report, we can’t talk to witnesses so you can imagine how frustrated the family is,” Kitrick said. “My printer lost black ink, you print out the investigation there is nothing to read, it is all black so we don’t know what the heck happened.”
Osborne was a beloved husband and father and had worked at ODRC for 13 years before his death.
“Whoever is responsible must be held accountable. There is no accountability right now and certainly a misdemeanor is not accountability,” Kitrick said.
An attorney for Pearson declined to comment.
Pearson is not in custody, according to court records. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 7.