ATHENS, Ohio — Continuing to claim prosecutorial misconduct, an Athens woman has appealed her conviction on charges related to a July 2025 drunken incident.
Jennifer Sweat was found guilty by a jury in May on charges of disorderly conduct (a first-degree misdemeanor); resisting arrest (amended by a court order from a first-degree to a second-degree misdemeanor); obstructing official business (a second-degree misdemeanor); intimidation of an attomey, victim, or witness in a criminal trial (a third-degree felony); and assault on a peace officer (a fourth-degree felony).
The jury found Sweat not guilty of an additional fourth-degree felony charge of assault on a peace officer (for which the disorderly conduct charge was a lesser included offense) as well as a third-degree misdemeanor sexual imposition charge.
Sweat was sentenced at a hearing June 16.
Sweat’s charges pertained to a 2025 incident during which she was intoxicated and stopped by police for allegedly lying topless on top of a man on West Union Street, according to a report from the Athens City Police Department. She is alleged to have smacked the responding officer’s butt. Then, during her arrest, she allegedly attempted to kick the officer and threatened him.
One of the assault charges, the intimidation charge, and the dismissed sexual imposition charge against Sweat were added by a grand jury through a superseding indictment, which replaced Sweat’s initial indictment.
Sweat argued in court filings and at a hearing that the added charges were brought because she had rejected a plea deal from the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office that would have required her to participate in a diversion program. The prosecutor’s office oversees a diversion program to provide treatment to those facing criminal charges related to substance misuse, as an alternative to jail or prison.
Sweat argued the charges were added as retaliation for her pursuing her constitutional right to a jury trial.
“My right to trial was being impeded on,” Sweat told the Independent in an interview. “Like, ‘You’re either going to face this scary case or you’re going to take what I say.’ You know, that felt like an intimidation to me.”
Sweat told the Independent in an interview that she believes that without vindictive prosecution, “I would have gotten misdemeanors, and this would have been done with.”
Instead, Sweat said she fears she will always live with a felony record in the shadow of what she described as “my worst drunken night.”
Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn did not respond to a July 8 phone call request for comment or July 7 and July 8 email requests for comment sent to his office.
Blackburn said at a March 18 hearing on Sweat’s prosecutorial misconduct allegations that a decision to seek new charges is a standard part of pretrial negotiations. Sweat’s attorney argued that just because the practice is common doesn’t make it right.
Judge George McCarthy said he did not see any evidence presented that demonstrated vindictiveness.
Sweat’s appeal was filed June 29 in the Fourth District Court of Appeals.
Sweat specifically appealed the court’s “ruling denying the motion to dismiss the superseding indictment based on vindictive prosecution,” according to the notice of appeal. The superseding indictment added felony charges against Sweat.
In addition to the vindictive prosecution claim, Sweat’s notice of appeal also pertains to the jury verdicts themselves as well as “the rulings on objections and evidentiary matters” and “the denial of the Criminal Rule 29 motions.” No further detail was provided in the notice of appeal.
The Ohio Public Defender’s Office, representing Sweat, did not respond to multiple phone and email requests from the Independent for comment on this story.
Sweat was not sentenced to any prison time, though McCarthy said at Sweat’s June 16 sentencing hearing that she could have been sentenced to years in prison.
“It is to her credit, she doesn’t have any prior instances or convictions, and that there was no physical harm caused here,” McCarthy said at the hearing.
Four days before Sweat’s June 16 sentencing hearing, she had another drunken run-in with police in Athens, in violation of her bond conditions. The incident did not result in an arrest. But the prosecutor’s office asked that Sweat be required to complete a community-based correctional facility program as a result of the incident. The minimum-security STAR Community Justice Center is the region’s community-based correctional facility.
At the June 16 sentencing hearing, McCarthy said that the prosecutor’s ask to send Sweat to such a facility was “a little harsh.” He ultimately sentenced Sweat to an inpatient treatment program and five years’ community control. Violations of her community control conditions could result in prison time.
McCarthy ordered Sweat be held at Southeast Ohio Regional Jail after the sentencing, until she could be transferred to an in-patient facility.
Sweat told the Independent she was held at the regional jail for a week and has since been in a program at Mended Reeds Mental Health in Lawrence County. Sweat said the program has been effective at helping her access mental healthcare, which she said “was always my issue.”
However, she said she does not believe her local service industry job will be open for her to return to after she completes the program.
Additionally, she said her new felony record and the conditions of her community control are not conducive to effectively healing from the issues with which she’s struggled.
“I feel like it’s ultimately going to make my life worse if I don’t have access to better schools, better jobs … better housing,” Sweat said. “Because I’m a felon, then I’m just going to continue to be pushed down into the seedy underbelly of the world.”
Sweat said her felony record is what motivated her to appeal the case. The appeal will be heard and resolved by a three judge panel.
