Note: though the victim is now an adult, I will not use her name. The podcast is a short interview with Ken Wulff from jail.
An Ohio man awaits his sentencing however an analysis of court records, testimony, and speaking with witnesses shows he’s almost certainly innocent.
A combination of lawyer incompetence, questionable judicial rulings, and poor jury reasoning may have put this man on the brink of spending years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
In November, Kenneth Wulff was convicted in Ashtabula County, Ohio of gross sexual imposition, disseminating matters harmful to minors, importuning, and more.
The charges stem from allegations made by his wife’s adopted sister that Wulff gave her numerous improper massages- half and fully naked- while she was still a minor, gave her cigarettes, porn, and other charges.
The case relied on the victim’s testimony, the cop in charge, a therapist, and video which prosecutors portrayed as a confession.
Wulff hired Sean Martin; Martin recently blew a winnable protective order case for John Cook and Michelle Preston.
Like in that case, Ken Wulff describes a lazy and incompetent attorney.
“It doesn’t seem like he put forth the effort that we needed him to put forth.” Wulff said.
Similarly, Michelle Preston said of Martin, “he did nothing,” regarding Martin’s performance in her matter.
Martin’s performance, as poor as it was, was only part of the problem.
The judge in the case, Judge Marianne Sezon, decided that a key piece of evidence would not be introduced.
“After review of the counseling records submitted, it appears that the records include counseling information related to the alleged sexual abuse by the Defendant, but also counseling information related to allegations of sexual abuse with past boyfriends (emphasis mine) and other past traumatic events in the victim’s lifetime.”
The judge claimed that introducing said evidence would “cause confusion for the jury and would potentially ‘open the door’ to the victim’s sexual activity and sexual history.” Judge Sezon reasoned.
The victim appears to be protected by rape shield laws which are, “designed to protect sexual assault victims from intrusive questioning or irrelevant evidence about their past sexual history in court, preventing them from being shamed or discredited based on unrelated conduct.” According to Google AI.
The victim’s sister and Ken’s wife, Liz Wulff, told me her adopted sister told her around 2020 that a then boyfriend, “took advantage of her and forced her to have sex.”
Check out my full interview with Liz below.
In this case, the revelation that the victim made another allegation of a sexual nature at the exact time- 2020- that these allegations were made would certainly have caused “confusion” in the jury, as the judge noted.
Confusion leads to doubt which leads to acquittals.
Several people, including Ken and Liz, told me a startling story about the victim. They said in front of a group of 3 or 4 people- which included people she had never met before- she bragged at 15 of getting high, having sex with her boyfriend, and then she paraded around the house topless in front of those same people.
Martin never asked about this during the trial, though rape shield may have protected her from this as well.
Beyond that, according to the police report from this case, the victim told three people at the time this happened. None were called as witnesses to corroborate, and it doesn’t look like Martin attempted to contact any of them.
I couldn’t find any of them either though.
The main prosecutor on this case is Michael Angiolelli, and he did not respond to an email for comment.
The victim also made another startling contradiction in the police report.
“She said nearly every day. She said that it was 50-60 times over two years.” The police report stated.
Nearly every day over two years is a lot more than 50-60 times, but according to Ken Wulff, Martin failed to ask her about this contradiction.
Other contradictions, Martin did point out.
The victim claimed that Liz Wulff witnessed her husband and sister in a compromising position.
“She stated that I came home from work and caught them together with oil.” Liz continued, “I stated that I never once came home from work and found her at my house.”
Liz said this was a key part of the trial which wasn’t true.
According to prosecutors, her husband groomed her sister.
Except, Liz worked from 2-10 PM. Her husband started work at 6PM, and she said that her father and step-mother were at the house when necessary.
No one remembers seeing her adopted sister.
Except, her father wasn’t called as a witness, so Martin failed to fully explore this contradiction.
Liz said she was asked about Ken’s schedule, starting work at 6PM. This was key because her sister claimed many of these massages started after 6PM.
Martin failed to introduce Ken’s work records, which corroborate Liz’s story, and Liz said she didn’t remember Martin pointing out this contradiction in his closing argument.
Ken told me he saw Martin writing the closing argument during the trial.
The therapist testified that in her expert opinion the victim was telling the truth, but Ken told me he doesn’t remember anyone exploring why the victim failed to talk about this alleged abuse when it occurred.
The events occurred from 2020-2022, according to the police report, but the victim didn’t come forward ABOUT THIS ABUSE until late 2024.
That delay is even more suspect when you consider the therapy notes the judge excluded.
She did talk about the alleged rape, as soon as it happened.
Had the jury been made aware of all this a not guilty verdict was likely.
Even so, the jury was handed several contradictions. Given that the case rested on the victims’ testimony any contradictions create reasonable doubt.
The jury gave prosecutor’s too much rope, in my opinion.
Liz, in her interview with me, addressed the video. In it, her husband admits to buying vape, oil, and to giving massages to the victim.
Liz said he did buy vape for himself, and oil for the couple.
She believes that he wasn’t paying attention when asked these questions. The video seems to have been done at someone’s direction to get incriminating evidence, something Martin didn’t explore during trial.
Ken is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
Post-script
I am restarting the Hales fundraiser. Check out the fundraiser to help me create more articles. Find articles one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eighth, ninth, and tenth article. Check out the fundraiser to help me create more articles.
