Appellate Court Upholds Trial Court Ruling Denying Clapsaddle Post-Conviction Relief

Dustin R. Clapsaddle, incarcerated at Richland Correctional Institution

A former educator has lost another appeal in the Ohio Third District Court of Appeals.

Dustin R. Clapsaddle was convicted on charges of rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition and kidnapping following a four-day jury trial in June of 2024, and he was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison in October of that year.

He was also classified as a Tier III Sexual Offender.

The appellate court upheld his conviction and sentence in October of 2025.

Clapsaddle then petitioned for postconviction relief on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel, but that was denied in February of this year by Judge Jonathan Hein, who was assigned to the case after Judge Steve Christopher recused himself from the civil case, and that ruling was then appealed.

Clapsaddle stated that his attorneys never informed him about a plea agreement that was offered by the state that would have allowed him to plead guilty to sexual battery and all other counts would have been dismissed.

Court transcripts of the trial however show that Clapsaddle, when asked by Judge Steve Christopher, stated that his attorneys did discuss the plea agreement with him, and they reviewed the protentional outcomes of going to trial.

The transcript further shows that Clapsaddle declined the plea agreement when it was presented to him by his attorneys.

In its ruling on Monday, the Ohio Third District Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court’s findings that Clapsaddle failed to provide credible evidence to support his ineffective assistance claim and affirmed the trial court’s judgement.