'They do good.' U.S. Marshals Service hands out annual law enforcement awards

Robert Wang, Canton Repository
·4 min read
Canton police officer Zach Taylor, far right, was among several police officers in northern Ohio honored for being "honorable mention" for the U.S. Marshals Wayne Leon Task Force Officer of the Year award at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Thursday.
Canton police officer Zach Taylor, far right, was among several police officers in northern Ohio honored for being "honorable mention" for the U.S. Marshals Wayne Leon Task Force Officer of the Year award at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Thursday.

CANTON – Pro Football Hall of Fame visitors usually are talking about teams displaying amazing feats on the football field before tens of thousands of people.

But at the Hall of Fame Thursday afternoon, football legends and top law enforcement officials honored the teams of police officers and U.S. Marshals Service agents who work to protect communities from dangerous fugitives and watch over U.S. courthouses.

The U.S. Marshals Service Northern District of Ohio held its annual awards ceremony at the Hall of Fame's Nash Family Event and Conference Center, attended by roughly 300. The award winners were nominated and elected by their peers.

The ceremony also commemorated the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. It was created following the killing of Cleveland police officer Wayne Leon in 2000 by a man wanted on warrants.

Speakers included Peter Elliott, the U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Ohio; Stark County Sheriff George Maier; Jim Porter, the president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame; former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar; Pro Football Hall of Famer Anthony Muñoz; Dick Ambrose, the retired Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge and former Cleveland Browns linebacker; and Ronald Davis, the director of U.S. Marshals Service.

Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Cincinnati Bengal Anthony Muñoz addresses law enforcement officers from throughout northern Ohio during the U.S. Marshals annual award ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Thursday.
Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Cincinnati Bengal Anthony Muñoz addresses law enforcement officers from throughout northern Ohio during the U.S. Marshals annual award ceremony at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Thursday.

The task force started in 2003 with 63 officers from a few police departments. Today, it has over 350 officers and agents from 125 northern Ohio police departments, with permanent divisions in Toledo, Lorain, Mansfield and Canton. And it's made over 55,000 arrests.

"Without the marshal's leadership and without the task force these people would still be in our community preying on the good citizens of the community," Maier said.

Honoring law enforcement heroes

Porter, the former publisher of the Canton Repository, said when he became president of the Hall of Fame, he supported, with an advisory board, revising the Hall's mission statement from "honor the heroes of the game."

Porter said former NFL players on the board told him, "'We're not heroes. Heroes protect us. Heroes keep us safe.' So we changed 'heroes' to 'greatest' to save that word (heroes) for folks like you guys."

Anne Murphy, the assistant chief for the U.S. Marshals Service of Northern Ohio, recounted how officer Leon's widow Grace Leon shared that her husband would often say after the end of his shift, "You can't tell me we're not doing some good here."

Murphy said the award winners "live those words. They do good. They do good for themselves. For their families. For their teams and their agencies. And for their communities. They do good as Officer Leon did."

Who received law enforcement awards?

Here are the award winners:

  • Wayne Leon Task Force Officer of the Year: Matt Hutchinson, Cleveland Division of Police. Commended for being among the first to arrive in the morning to work on cases and among the last to leave as well as his tactical knowledge in catching fugitives.

  • Among the seven officers nominated for honorable mention for the Task Force Officer of the Year was Canton police officer Zach Taylor, commended for his experience in reducing the risks to officers' safety when apprehending fugitives and integrating the task force program with Canton police's K-9 program.

  • Susan Graves Part Time Task Force Officer of the Year: Carrollton police officer Mike Middleton commended for his weapons proficiency background and SWAT team training in executing search warrants and arrests.

  • Law Enforcement Partner of the Year: Toledo Police Department.

  • Law Enforcement Partner of the Year: Office of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley.

  • Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force Division of the Year: Toledo

  • Organizational Employee of the Year: Deputy U.S. Marshal Christopher Hodge of Toledo Division who oversaw expanding the Toledo part of the task force to seven full-time officers.

  • Court Security Officer of the Year: John Canterbury, who was commended in June 2022 for preventing a woman from bringing in a loaded gun into the U.S. Courthouse in Akron.

  • David L. Harlow Lifetime Achievement Award: Cathy J. Jones. Commended for rising from deputy U.S. marshal to U.S. marshal of southern Ohio.

  • Administrative Employee of the Year: Nicole St. Angelo, investigative analyst for Akron and Youngstown of U.S. Marshals office. Commended for taking on additional tasks.

  • Outstanding Community Partnership: WTAM Radio host Carmen Angelo for his Fugitive of the Week segments.

  • John K. Elliott Perseverance in Investigation Award: Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, Akron Division.

  • Citizen of the Year: Grace Leon. Honored for becoming a licensed social worker after she lost her husband and working with Cleveland police to help families of homicide victims.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly known as Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: U.S. Marshals Service hands out annual law enforcement awards