Businessman may testify in his EPA case

Rauch could be a witness in his illegal dumping charges trial.

 Steve Rauch faces felony charges in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court of illegal open dumping of solid wastes and illegal operation of a solid waste facility without a license.

 

Dayton-area businessman Steve Rauch is listed as a possible witness in his upcoming trial on illegal dumping charges.

Prominent Dayton-area businessman Steve Rauch is listed as a possible witness in his upcoming trial on illegal dumping charges, and a Rauch manager facing charges may also testify.

Rauch, 64, and three of his companies are set to go trial next Tuesday in connection with illegal dumping charges filed by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

Charges against Rauch operations manager Jennifer M. Copeland are scheduled to be tried starting Monday, court records show.

Copeland, 33, is among more than 10 potential witnesses listed for both the defense and the state in the EPA case against Rauch, Bearcreek Farms Inc., SRI Inc., and Rauch Trucking Co. Inc., according to Montgomery County Common Pleas Court records filed this week.

In all, more than 30 people are listed as possible witnesses in the Rauch case involving the illegal dumping of several tons of material at West Carrollton-owned land on Hydraulic Road in 2016, according to court records.

Aside from Copeland and Rauch, the list includes: John

Crane, former Fuyao Glass America environmental health and safety manager; Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Inspector Jill Olberding; West Carrollton police Detective Robert Bell; and Carl Enterman, chief code enforcement officer for West Carrollton.

Rauch, of Germantown, and his businesses do private work and have received millions of dollars in local and federal contracts, including work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the city of Dayton and Kettering Health Network.

Indicted in November 2018, Rauch faces five felony counts, including open dumping and burning, and operating a solid-waste facility without a license.

Copeland, of Franklin, is charged with four felony counts, including aiding and abetting Rauch, according to the November indictment.

Charges against Bearcreek Farms and SRI were also filed in November 2018. An indictment against Rauch Trucking was filed in August.

Bearcreek Farms is accused of unlawfully and recklessly operating or maintaining a solid-waste facility without a license. SRI is charged with unlawfully and recklessly disposing of solid wastes by open dumping not authorized, court records show.

Rauch Trucking faces charges of unlawfully and recklessly disposing of solid wastes by open dumping at the West Carrollton site.

Pleas of not guilty have been entered for all accused parties.

Rauch-owned businesses were permitted by West Carrollton to dump at the 30-acre Hydraulic Road site the city is filling to redevelop for recreational use.

The Ohio Revised Code says only “clean hard fill” — asphalt, concrete, stone, brick, tile or block — can be dumped and buried at the site, according to Public Health-Dayton & Montgomery County.

Court records state mattresses were being hauled from the former Wyndham Hotel in Miamisburg, where Rauch’s companies were contracted to demolish for Kettering Health Network.