The Warrensville Heights mayor is facing criminal charges. Mayor Bradley Sellers is charged in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas with petty theft and tampering with evidence.
Sellers was indicted on the misdemeanor charges by a bill of information, which is a prosecutor’s formal accusation of a crime used in place of an indictment by a grand jury.
According to court records, the offense occurred on July 3, 2018. Specifics about the incident from six years ago were not available Wednesday.
At the time, Sellers would have been serving his second term as mayor. The Warrensville Heights native was first elected to the office in November 2011. His biography says he previously worked as the city’s director of development.
“Mayor Sellers, with his development background, has prioritized the economic development and job creation agenda for the city,” the biography page noted.
Prior to his career in public service, Sellers spent 15 years as a professional basketball player. The 7-foot-tall forward was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the mid-1980s.
In 2022, he made a brief run for Cuyahoga County Executive but suspended his campaign less than two weeks after he announced his candidacy.
It’s unclear what prompted the investigation into the mayor. A special prosecutor from Summit County will try the case in Cuyahoga County.
“In order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, this case was referred to a special prosecutor on January 4, 2023,” said a representative from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
The representative confirmed the case against Sellers was referred to the Ohio Ethics Commission on January 28, 2022 and received the commission’s report back on December 9, 2022.
The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the Ohio Ethics Commission shared its findings from its investigation into Sellers, but a representative there said the findings could not be shared with News 5.
News 5 sent several requests for comment to Mayor Sellers and other leaders in Warrensville Heights, but we’ve received no response.
At the Warrensville Heights City Hall Wednesday, a car was parked in Sellers’ designated parking spot. Staff there told News 5 no one was available to comment on the case.
The court docket says Sellers is scheduled for an arraignment on September 18.
