Man charged with shooting off-duty officer at East Fork State Park back in jail

BATAVIA, Ohio (WKRC) - A Clermont County man returned to jail Tuesday after a magistrate ordered him held on a $75,000 cash bond for the shooting of an off-duty police officer and his son. Wesley Seitz, 23, faces two misdemeanor charges of assault for Monday’s incident. The off-duty officer and his son were hunting in the woods at East Fork Lake State Park when they were hit with birdshot. The off-duty officer told a 911 call taker that the person who shot him took off in a red truck. Both are recovering at home. Seitz initially posted $4,000 bail Monday and was released from jail, but when he pleaded not guilty to the charges Tuesday, Magistrate Anita Bechmann raised his bail to $75,000 cash. “The presumption of innocence is sacred to this court, OK? Also sacred to this court is the need to protect the citizens in our community,” Bechmann told Seitz during the hearing. Prosecutors argued for a high bail because of Seitz’s prior criminal record. Currently, he’s on probation for a receiving stolen property case from 2017 and a hit-and-run accident from 2018. “The allegations listed in the affidavit allege he left the scene of this accident as well, so it’s certainly an alarming pattern of behavior that’s developing,” said Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Teran. In the 2017 case, an incident report from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office states Seitz claimed to have bought a UTV that was reported stolen from someone in West Virginia. However, Seitz later admitted to taking the item and power tools from a property. He returned the items. And in 2016, a family filed a civil lawsuit against Seitz for an incident in 2012. Seitz admitted to setting the family’s vehicles on fire after they cooperated with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in a deer poaching investigation in which Seitz was charged when he was a juvenile. Seitz’s attorney, Joshua Crousey, asked that Seitz be placed on house arrest because he has a history of showing up for court appearances and is not a flight risk. Bechmann also granted a request for a stalking protective order, which requires Seitz to stay at least 500 feet away from the victims, and he must turn over his firearms to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The case is still being investigated and more charges could be filed. Seitz will be back in court on May 3.