EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — Records show that at the same time a fired state trooper was applying to become an East Cleveland police officer, investigators say that he was involved in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.
Now, a Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Ra'Von Wiggins on six counts of sexual battery, six counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and one count of furnishing alcohol to the teen girl.
According to a police report, Wiggins met the teen during a career day in 2018 when she was a freshman at John Marshall High School.
Investigators said Wiggins was 21 years old at the time. The girl was 15.
She told police the pair started dating but that Wiggins told her "she should lie and state she's 18 years old" if his mother asked her age.
According to the police report, the relationship turned sexual, including one incident on July 21, 2018, when the teen said Wiggins gave her tequila shots.
She told police she "blacked out and lost consciousness" but that the couple had sex.
A copy of Wiggins' application to become an East Cleveland police officer is dated July 12, 2018.
Wiggins becomes the 19th past or current East Cleveland police officer indicted in the last two years.
"When this is all over, you'll be able to write a book because it seems like the saga will never end," said longtime East Cleveland activist Art McKoy.
Last summer, News 5 Investigators discovered a review of East Cleveland police personnel files found one in four of the city's officers had either been fired or resigned, facing termination from other departments before being hired by East Cleveland.
Wiggins was one of those officers.
Records show he was hired in October 2018 despite being fired by the Ohio State Highway Patrol in January of that year.
According to Wiggins' state personnel file, he was removed from his position as a trooper because his "performance during the probationary period has been unsatisfactory."
Now, with another officer with a questionable past facing criminal charges, McKoy is again calling for a change in who the city hires to serve and protect.
"Keep those scums with those bad records out of our department and let us as citizens be whole again with the great police department," McKoy said.
The accuser, who is now 22 years old, told police she "does fear that she will run into Ra'Von again due to having to travel through East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights at times."
East Cleveland's acting police chief says that Wiggins resigned as a full-time officer in October but remained an auxiliary officer with the department until supervisors learned of his recent indictments and terminated him.
Wiggins is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges Tuesday morning.
In January, a former East Cleveland police officer was sentenced to six months in prison for using a Taser on a handcuffed man and attempting to falsify police reports about the October 2021 incident.
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