The Dispatch has filed a public-records complaint in the Ohio Court of Claims as the city of Powell refuses to release records of a 2015 incident in which former Ohio State assistant football coach Zach Smith was accused of domestic violence.
Powell’s police department has released only a bare-bones incident report from the Oct. 25, 2015 incident involving Smith and his then-wife, Courtney.
The 2015 incident received heightened attention when head football coach Urban Meyer fired Smith on July 23, after Courtney Smith filed for a protection order against him and allegations of previous domestic violence incidents came to light. An Ohio State investigative committee is probing Meyer’s knowledge of and response to those allegations. He is suspended with pay.
Under Ohio’s public-records laws, open criminal cases generally are exempt from public release, but Powell has said the investigation into the allegation of spousal abuse by Zach Smith was officially closed in November 2015, a month after the incident.