COLUMBUS – A former Ohio State Highway Patrol commander accused of stalking a subordinate’s wife put a GPS tracking device on her car so he could follow her after she ended their affair and the woman says he kept a ball of her hair at his home.
Those are among the allegations contained in a federal criminal complaint against William Elschlager, who was arrested Wednesday evening by Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies and made an initial appearance in federal court in Columbus on charges of cyberstaliking and “deprivation of rights under color of law.”
Elschlager’s attorney told The Marietta Times that arresting Elschlager instead of allowing him to surrender on his own was meant to embarrass the 19-year veteran of the Highway patrol.
“He’s not been indicted by a grand jury,” attorney George Cosenza said. “He’s been arrested on a criminal complaint, and I’m sure he’ll face this head-on just like the other charges in Washington County.”
Federal authorities accuse the 48-year-old former commander of the patrol’s Marietta post of having an affair with another state trooper’s wife in 2015, when Elschlager held the rank of lieutenant in the patrol, and say he began stalking her after the relationship ended.
(The woman) was at ELSCHLAGER’S house and went to use the bathroom. She saw a drawer was open and there was a large ball of hair. (She) asked ELSCHLAGER about the ball of hair. ELSCHLAGER told her the ball of hair was made up of hair he had found in his house. (The woman) believed the hair was hers. –Official complaint against William Elschlager
According to court documents, the victim described Elschlager as being “creepy.” Specifically, according to the victim, she found a large ball of hair in the defendant’s home that he said he had made from hair he found in his house and that she believed to be her hair.
She says she would awake from naps at Elschlager’s home to find him taking photographs of her sleeping when she did not know he was in the home with her.
The woman says Elschlager pulled her over while in uniform, frequently followed her, texted her knowledge of her whereabouts and showed up at her residence unannounced.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office searched Elschlager’s home and electronic devices in January 2016 and found GPS tracking software on his cellphone and a real-time GPS locator on a computer. Investigators called the woman to confirm that she was in West Virginia as the real-time locator indicated and watched as she drove back into Ohio.
Investigators determined that the GPS tracker had been attached to her car for two months.
State court charges of stalking and accessing personal information about 10 other women from a law-enforcement database were previously dismissed. Elschlager still faces one count of tampering with records and six counts of theft for allegedly stealing guns that were supposed to be destroyed while serving as a patrol sergeant in central Ohio’s Delaware County.