Ex-police officer in prison pleads guilty

A former West Milton police officer in prison following convictions for rape pleaded guilty Thursday to an amended charge involving illegal use of the law enforcement automated database system, or LEADS, in 2019.

Kevin C. Wright, 34, of West Milton faced a felony charge, which was amended Thursday as part of a plea agreement to a misdemeanor version of the same offense. He pleaded guilty and was convicted by Judge Stacy Wall in Miami County Common

Pleas Court during a video hearing.

Wright is serving a term of 30 years to life in prison following conviction by a jury this spring on three felony counts of rape.

He was accused of engaging in sexual conduct with a girl between August 2017 and December 2019. The girl testified the conduct occurred on numerous occasions during that time. Those convictions have been appealed to Ohio’s 2nd District Court of Appeals.

The LEADS indictment accused Wright of knowingly gaining or attempting to gain access to LEADS, causing access to be granted or disseminating information from access to the LEADS on Aug. 30, 2019. The access was without the consent or beyond the consent of the LEADS steering committee, the indictment said.

County Prosecutor Tony Kendell said the inappropriate use of LEADS information was found during the investigation of the rape cases but was not associated with those cases.

Wall sentenced Wright to serve six month in prison for the LEADS violation to be served concurrent to the 30 years to life term and to pay court costs. - Nancy Bowman, contributing writer