Case against man accused of cutting power to St. Elizabeth Edgewood building dismissed

A grand jury on Thursday chose not to indict a Park Hills man accused of cutting power to a building on the St. Elizabeth Edgewood Hospital campus, causing an eye clinic to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medication, court records show.

After an insufficient number of grand jurors voted to indict 34-year-old David Redding, Kenton County Circuit Judge Kate Molloy ordered him discharged, his bail exonerated and any bond posted in the case refunded.

Redding was charged in March with a single count of first-degree criminal mischief, court records show. The grand jury's decision means the charge has been dropped.

Redding was receiving treatment at St. Elizabeth Edgewood Hospital for a mental health evaluation on the night of Aug. 31, Edgewood police said in a criminal complaint. He was not on a 72-hour hold, the maximum amount of time under state law someone can typically be hospitalized involuntarily.

St. Elizabeth's security staff received an alarm on a generator at the surgery center building on South Loop Road just after midnight on Sept. 1, police said, adding the alarm was tripped because the building's electrical generator was switched off.

Security camera footage showed Redding in the same general area as the generator switch just five minutes before it was turned off, though he was not recorded turning the switch off, the complaint states.

The security video also showed Redding walking around the building as he tried to gain entry through several doors locked by key codes, police said.

With the generator turned off, the Cincinnati Eye Institute's second-floor suite inside the surgery center lost electricity, the complaint says.

The office held a number of injectable prescription drugs which needed to be refrigerated at temperatures between 3 and 8 degrees Celsius, police said.

Since it took roughly seven hours for the office to regain power, around 135 dose units of medication, totaling $246,616, were destroyed, according to the complaint.

Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said his office has no intention of filing additional charges against Redding.

"This matter was handled civilly between the victims and Mr. Redding’s family who came up with a substantial amount of restitution for the uninsured portion of the loss," Sanders wrote in an email to The Enquirer.

"We were satisfied with this resolution because of Mr. Redding’s mental health condition at the time of the offense and his family’s willingness to compensate the victim for their loss," he added.

Daniel Schubert, Redding's attorney, has yet to respond to a request for comment from The Enquirer.