This is the final chapter in a five-part investigation. To start at the beginning, click here.
ATHENS, Ohio — On Jan. 22, 2024, the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office identified Harmony Wharton in indictments of Tonia and Daniel Martin on drug trafficking charges. The indictments alleged that Harmony Wharton not only bought narcotics from the New Marshfield couple, but funded their “drug trafficking organization.”
Harmony Wharton and her husband, Bryan, had socialized with Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn and his wife during the Whartons’ 12-year marriage: playing golf together, hanging out at parties together, even vacationing together in Las Vegas. Blackburn told the Independent he and Bryan Wharton haven’t been as close recently because of a “massive break” in their relationship in early 2023.
However, Harmony Wharton’s defense attorney, Scott Petroff, stated in a Jan. 31 affidavit that he believes Blackburn is using the power of his office to improperly interfere in the Whartons’ divorce to tilt the outcome toward Bryan Wharton.
Blackburn told the Independent that his “personal and professional knowledge” informed his belief that Harmony Wharton has a substance use problem, but that he “absolutely” did not use personal knowledge to inform the investigation of her involvement with the Martins.
Blackburn told the Independent that his personal relationships do not compromise his prosecutorial decision-making.
In the Independent’s final story in our investigation of Petroff’s allegations, we look at the impact of Blackburn’s actions on the Whartons’ ongoing divorce and examine the ethics of Blackburn’s actions in his investigation of Harmony Wharton.
Impact on the divorce
In his affidavit, Petroff stated that when he voiced concern about the impact of Blackburn’s investigation of Harmony Wharton on her divorce, “Blackburn dismissed my concerns out of hand.”
However, Bryan Wharton has cited the Martin indictments in motions in the divorce.
On Jan. 31 — nine days after the Martins were indicted — Bryan Wharton filed a motion in the divorce case to reduce Harmony Wharton’s parenting time. According to the motion, he and Harmony Wharton had previously been splitting parenting time roughly equally.
Although the motion does not focus on alleged criminal conduct, it does note that “Harmony was identified as a drug trafficking co-conspirator in the indictment of Tonia M. Martin.” He attached Tonia Martin’s indictment as a supporting exhibit.
“Bryan also has serious concerns about how Harmony’s potential criminal charges will affect [their child] going forward,” Bryan Wharton’s divorce attorney, Sierra Meek, wrote in a court document filed Feb. 1. “[The child] needs to have a stable parent at home that can provide [the child] with stability. Unfortunately, at this time, Harmony is not that parent.”
He also referred to Harmony Wharton’s alleged role in the Martin cases in divorce filings in a motion to secure his child’s passport
Harmony Wharton told the Independent, “Because my name was listed in an indictment … he was able to even request a modification of parenting. That’s how I could lose my kid.”
In the Feb. 1 filing — a response to Harmony Wharton’s motion for emergency relief, which included Petroff’s affidavit — Meek cited Harmony Wharton’s prescription medications and $40,000 in bank withdrawals made over a two-year period to connect Harmony Wharton to the Martins’ case.
Bryan Wharton also used the Martin case to support his allegations that Harmony Wharton has a substance use problem.
In the Feb. 1 filing in the divorce case, Bryan Wharton included photos of medications prescribed to his wife and results of a Nov. 30, 2023, drug test showing that Harmony Wharton tested positive for amphetamines. The photographed medication bottles include one for a generic version of Adderall, an amphetamine commonly used to treat attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.
Another prescription bottle in the photos is for oxycodone, the drug allegedly trafficked by the Martins. The Feb. 1 filing connects Harmony Wharton’s prescription for the opiate to the Martin case, but misidentifies oxycodone as an amphetamine.
The drug test included in the Feb. 1 filing shows Harmony Wharton tested negative for opioids.
In the filing, Bryan Wharton said that his wife has provided no evidence that her amphetamine prescription was valid at the time of the Nov. 30, 2023, test, although the filing provided no evidence to the contrary.
Harmony Wharton told the Independent she did not misuse the medications, but took them as medically appropriate for her pain.
She told the Independent she had a neck reconstruction surgery, from which she did not properly recover — in part, she said, because of Bryan Wharton’s alleged physical abuse. She said she has had “a dozen or more procedures to alleviate pain, specifically nerve pain, so that I don’t have to have increases in medication.”
The Independent cannot verify Harmony Wharton’s allegations of physical abuse. Bryan Wharton has not been charged with domestic violence in either the Athens County Court of Common Pleas or Athens Municipal Court. He declined to comment for this series.
Harmony Wharton told the Independent on June 5 that the Martin investigation “is still being discussed and every time we go to court, so, I mean, the impact is severe.”
Petroff told the Independent that, in his opinion, the way in which Bryan Wharton has used the criminal case against Harmony Wharton in the divorce demonstrates that Blackburn “provided material benefits to a friend of his” through his office’s actions.
In Bryan Wharton’s Feb. 1 filing, Meek argued “it is ridiculous to suggest” that Blackburn intentionally intervened in his friend’s divorce because it would constitute a risk to his livelihood.
“What advantage is [Blackburn] attempting to obtain? This appears to be Harmony’s paranoia and baseless assertions,” Meek stated in the document.
Meek declined to comment for this story, as did Harmony Wharton’s divorce attorney, Elizabeth Werner.
“Dismissed” concerns
Petroff also stated in his Jan. 31 affidavit that “I requested that Blackburn appoint a special prosecutor to the case given his close personal relationship with Bryan Wharton and the fact that his investigation would surely be used to benefit his friend during the divorce. Blackburn refused the request.”
Petroff told the Independent on July 19 that the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office is now handling Harmony Wharton’s portion of the case. He told the Independent the change came after he threatened legal action against the county.
In a June 18 email, the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on its involvement in any investigation into Harmony Wharton.
Seeking a special prosecutor this far into the case doesn’t make up for Blackburn’s action or inaction over potential conflict of interest regarding Harmony Wharton, Petroff said.
“By appointing a special prosecutor now, he doesn’t absolve himself,” Petroff said in an interview. “The misconduct has already occurred.”
Petroff believes that Blackburn has used a double standard in cases involving each Wharton. Blackburn immediately sought a special prosecutor in a domestic violence case against Bryan Wharton, but not for the investigation of Harmony Wharton in the Martins’ case.
“If Keller Blackburn openly admits that a special prosecutor would be appropriate in any case involving Bryan Wharton … it’s pretty plainly obvious to see that he should appoint a special prosecutor for any case involving Harmony,” Petroff said in an interview.
Blackburn told the Independent he requested a special prosecutor for Bryan Wharton’s case because his office had already begun investigating Harmony Wharton’s alleged involvement in the Martins’ case — and because he was familiar with “the truthfulness of the parties involved.”
Richard Dove, director of the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct, said cases involving personal friendships are not a black-and-white issue. Neither the Ohio Ethics Commission nor the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct explicitly prohibit prosecutors from investigating friends, representatives of both organizations told the Independent.
“There’s a variety of circumstances that could trigger the appointment of a special prosecutor,” Dove said, which may depend on “the nature of the friendship.”
The Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers state that a conflict of interest may manifest if: “the lawyer’s ability to consider, recommend, or carry out an appropriate course of action for that client will be materially limited by the lawyer’s responsibilities to another client, a former client, or a third person or by the lawyer’s own personal interests.”
Heather Zirke, the director of the Miller Becker Center for Professional Responsibility and an assistant professor at the University of Akron School of Law, said Blackburn’s relationships with the Whartons could constitute such a conflict.
“These situations are exactly what the rules [of professional conduct] want lawyers to avoid, when they have these personal relationships,” Zirke said.
Additionally, prosecutors carry special responsibilities under the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct. Investigations involving someone the prosecutor has had a personal relationship with or that could benefit a personal connection reflect “adversely on the minister of justice, somebody who is obligated to represent the interests of the state and the community, and suggest that there is perhaps an abuse of the office,” Zirke said.
Before Delaware County became involved in the investigation, Athens County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew Sanderson reached out to Petroff on Feb. 23 to take over communication around Harmony Wharton’s case. That isn’t enough, Petroff said, because a conflict for the prosecutor is a conflict for his whole office.
“If it’s an assistant prosecutor who has the conflict, then you can wall that assistant off from the case,” Petroff said in an interview. “But you can’t do that when it’s the elected prosecutor.”
Zirke agreed that a conflict of Blackburn’s would apply to others in his office, because “Blackburn would still have oversight over all cases,” she said.
In an interview, Blackburn described Petroff’s concerns and assertions regarding alleged conflicts of interest as “offensive” and “cheap.” He denied that his office’s handling of the cases was influenced by his personal relationships with the Whartons.
“Obviously, they’re unrelated,” Blackburn said. “I’m concerned about anyone who is addicted to drugs. I’m concerned about the spread of illegal drugs in our community.”
To Blackburn, Petroff’s assertions are “a little scary, though — that someone who’s doing a job investigating a large case — someone can start making accusations against them, without any basis of fact, no supporting issue.”
Because of the power of their positions, prosecutors must avoid even the perception of a conflict of interest, said Carissa Byrne Hessick, an expert on prosecutorial abuse of power at the University of North Carolina.
“We give American prosecutors significant power to conduct investigations and encourage plea bargains,” Hessick told the Independent. “Prosecutors are rarely asked to explain how and why they wield that power. As a result, when there are reasons to question a prosecutor’s motives — as there are in this case — it is difficult to dispel the perception that a prosecutor is making decisions for inappropriate reasons.”
Expert: Little accountability for prosecutors
Petroff asserted that Blackburn had an “ulterior motive” for pursuing Harmony Wharton’s prosecution, which in his opinion could constitute an abuse of process. Petroff said in an interview that he and Harmony Wharton “reserve the right” to pursue their abuse of process case against Blackburn moving forward.
“We haven’t eliminated that possibility,” Petroff said.
Few other mechanisms could hold Blackburn accountable for the misconduct Petroff alleged, Hessick said.
“The vast majority of prosecutors run for office unopposed, so voters have no ability to vote them out,” Hessick said in an email. “Other methods of accountability — such as bureaucratic structures that would require reporting — do not really exist in most states.”
Zirke said that anyone in Ohio concerned with any attorney’s potential misconduct — including prosecutors — can file a grievance with the Ohio Supreme Court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, an investigatory agency. (The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct oversees attorney discipline).
A joint investigation by Columbia Journalism Investigates, NPR and the Ohio Newsroom of prosecutorial misconduct in Ohio “found a system that rarely acts on misconduct claims involving prosecutors and that allows prosecutors to skirt standards, unscathed.”
Blackburn, a Democrat, has never faced a competitive election. He was appointed to the seat in 2011 after former prosecutor David Warren resigned. He was elected to the seat in 2012 and re-elected in 2016 and 2020. He’s up for a fourth term in the November general election.
As in his previous ballot appearances, Blackburn is unopposed.
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