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Background: News footage of Ashli Ford outside of court (WTOL). Inset: The logo for Ashli Ford’s podcast, “Allegedly” (Patreon).
An Ohio-based true crime podcaster was found guilty of intimidating city officials in a Facebook post she wrote in 2023.
Ashli Ford, 40, was convicted of four of the counts against her on Thursday after going on trial for a total of 19 charges, 16 of which were felonies. According to court documents obtained by local CBS outlet WTOL, Ford was found guilty of four intimidation charges and acquitted of the others, which included extortion, telecommunications fraud, and misdemeanor falsification.
Ford, who is the host of the “Allegedly” true crime podcast, was indicted in March 2024 after a September 2023 Facebook post in which she named several city officials in Norwalk, Ohio, and made a number of allegations against them.
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The Facebook post in question, published on Sept. 22, 2023, specifically named Norwalk Mayor David Light, law director and prosecutor Stuart O’Hara, safety and service director Michael White, and former Norwalk police chief David Smith and accused them of allegedly corrupt acts.
All of them were witnesses for the prosecution during the trial.
Along with her accusations, Ford wrote a series of threats against the city officials, including, “I know that I have you on your knees” and “This is your VERY LAST opportunity to end this in a respectable manner.”
Ford went on to write, “I will slowly crumble the reputation [of] every single person who stands in the way of justice,” adding, “I will escort you to your demise in a manner more akin to Malcolm X than Martin Luther King Jr.”
In her post, the screenshot of which was obtained by WTOL from the Erie County Clerk of Courts, Ford claimed that she would expose “every single low down dirty deed” including misspent fines, obscene photos, “shut up settlements,” a “human trafficking drug ring,” “suicides that ain’t suicides,” and more.
WTOL reported that when Ford published the post, she was already facing two criminal falsification charges in connection to accusations she had allegedly made against the Norwalk Police Department. She was ultimately acquitted on those charges.
Ford is due back in court for sentencing on June 16 and faces nine to 36 months in prison plus a fine of up to $10,000 for each of the four counts.
In a Facebook post following the verdict, Ford wrote to her audience, “Your support means everything to me. I am okay. God built me to withstand storms like this. I continue to walk in faith and without an ounce of fear. The actions throughout my life will always defend me.”