“He was a very, very dear friend of both my wife Fran and myself,” DeWine said. “There hasn’t been a major decision that I’ve made where I did not consult him and get his opinion.”
Schenck followed DeWine in the prosecutor’s office in 1981 and was the state’s longest-serving prosecuting attorney when he left in 2006. He was then appointed an assistant U.S. attorney and last served as an advisor and assistant Ohio Attorney General.
His tenure in office and flamboyant personality — friends often called him by the nickname “Wild Bill” —made him an enduring figure in the eyes of the legal community and the media, which latched onto his accessibility and knack for offering up colorful anecdotes. In recent years he struggled with health problems for which he was hospitalized and alcohol abuse.
DeWine most remembers his friend for his compassion. “He was someone who always related to the underdog,” he said.
Schenck grew up in Winchester, Va., and earned a law degree at Ohio State. He married four times and is survived by four daughters and a number of grandchildren. Arrangements are pending.
His work to ensure that victims of crime receive compassionate treatment through an often traumatizing ordeal is Schenck’s lasting legacy, said Suzanne Schmidt, Greene County’s first assistant prosecuting attorney who started in the office shortly before Schenck was elected prosecutor.
“He was a pioneer in victims’ rights legislation and putting together a team approach for trials,” Schmidt said.
Schenck formed the county’s victim-witness division in 1982 and served as president of the National Organization for Victim Assistance. He testified before congressional committees, including in 1994 when he advocated for the Violence Against Women Act. The legislation strengthened rules, particularly in sexual assault cases.
“That was a dramatic change for women nationally,” Schmidt said.
Gregory Lockhart, former U.S. Attorney for Ohio’s Southern District, met Schenck in 1976 and their careers often dovetailed until Schenck left the federal office. Schenck was the most gifted trial attorney in the region, Lockhart said.
Lockhart said Schenck had a way of connecting with everyone in the courtroom — from the victims to witnesses. He remembers the reaction Schenck once got from jurors seated for a sexual assault case involving a minor.
“I remember him doing the closing argument and when he finished there wasn’t a dry eye in the jury panel,” Lockhart said. “I was just watching this guy work and was in awe of his ability to connect the events that occurred in such a way with feeling and drama.”
Over the past decade the long-time prosecutor found himself on the wrong side of the law and investigated for a series of incidents. They included wrecking a county car he was continuing to use after he left office in 2006, and OVI arrests in December 2013 and two within a week in August 2015.
“That’s not the guy I knew all the years I worked with him,” Lockhart said Friday. “He obviously had his demons that he wrestled with like a lot of us.”
The Wild Bill nickname had nothing to do with drink, Lockhart said, but everything to do with his personality, which got larger at Ohio State football games.
The two once traveled together to the University of Michigan, where they watched a game-winning Buckeyes drive from a snowy sideline. As Ohio State converted yardage, Schenck taunted Michigan fans above them in the stands by signaling after each OSU first down.
“The snowballs would rain down on us,” Lockhart said.
In a 1994 interview with the Dayton Daily News, Schenck said, “Most people know I’m hyper and manic and somewhat of a character. It’s not that I’m wild in my conduct. I’m wild in my personality. I’m so enthusiastic about anything for which I have a passion and a cause for which I believe.”
Looking back Friday, DeWine said, “No one could outwork” Schenck and those who never saw him try a case “have really missed something.”
“Bill was the best lawyer that I have ever seen in a courtroom. Watching him try a case was like watching an artist at work.”
There was never any question among the Greene County trial team then that Schenck would make the prosecution’s last pitch to jurors, DeWine said.
“He always gave the last closing argument, which is the most important.” DeWine said.
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