OAK HARBOR – When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was at Magee Marsh on May 11 during the Biggest Week in American Birding, he said wanted to promote Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson for a while. Wilson has been chosen by DeWine to serve as attorney general.
Wilson will begin his new role June 7 after Republican Dave Yost steps down.
“I picked Andy Wilson. I’ve known Andy for many, many years. He was a prosecuting attorney in the Springfield area, in Clark County,” DeWine said.
Wilson began his legal career in 2002 as an assistant prosecutor in Clark County after serving in the Ohio National Guard. He specialized in crimes against children and was appointed to Clark County prosecutor before getting elected for the position.
“I picked him to head up our whole efforts in regard to law enforcement. For the last four years, he has been the head of public safety, and under that is a number of different things, including the (Ohio Highway State Patrol). He understands the crime problem.”
DeWine said that he wanted Wilson for law enforcement-related roles since before becoming governor.
Wilson has done that for seven years in several positions before leading the Department of Public Safety in 2022. He began with the DeWine administration in 2019 as a special advisor for criminal justice issues.
DeWine sees Wilson as a prosecutor who knows how to work with criminal investigation.
“The attorney general does two different things. One, he or she is the lawyer for the state. Whenever the state gets sued or is in court, the attorney general is there,” DeWine said.
During DeWine’s administration, he worked the 2022 Pike County massacre trial as special prosecutor. He also worked the East Palestine train derailment as public safety director.
“Also, the attorney general is the head of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Crime Lab. The Crime Lab also has great investigators. I really found out the importance of BCI and the attorney general when I was 25 years old, right out of law school, and I became an assisting prosecuting attorney in Green County,” DeWine said. “Whenever we had a tough case with a crime scene that needed to be worked, and the sheriff would say, ‘Hey, call BCI. Get these guys down here quick.’ And they do a phenomenal job. And so, I wanted someone who really understood the importance of BCI, who had been a prosecuting attorney, who really, really got it. He’s going to do a great job.”
Contact Roger LaPointe at 419-332-2674.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: DeWine defends new attorney general pick based on Wilson’s experience
Reporting by Roger LaPointe, Port Clinton News Herald / Fremont News-Messenger
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