Rotten to the Core Analysis

Rotten To The Core

At first glance Mansfield Ohio seemed to be a typical middle-America town. Mansfield, once described by a reporter as, "a town with 56,000 people, 200 churches, and NO massage parlors" had more going on than what appeared. Author Martin D. Yant wrote of his experiences with Mansfield's Sherriff's Department and other area agencies in his renowned book, "Rotten to the Core".

As the title suggests, something was wrong at the core of Mansfield's administration and officials. In Yant's book we learn that there is corruption on nearly all levels of authority; Judges, the Sherriff, city council members, even the coroner. With most the corrupt officials and agencies working together their powerful alliances were too much for anyone to fight against; or so they thought. When a young editor came to Mansfield from Chicago in 1977, the corrupt forces that had intimidated and run the city for so long were about to meet their match.

Martin Yant is a journalist and author who began his career in Pittsburg in 1971. Yant is best as an investigative journalist and is passionate about uncovering scandal and helping individuals who have been wrongfully convicted. Even to this day Martin D. Yant continues independent journalism and has helped exonerate at least nine innocent inmates so far; all of whom were sentenced to be put to death. Martin Yant's passion is apparent after reading his book "Rotten to the Core" because he places his life, family, and career on the line in order to give truth a voice in Mansfield.

Perhaps the most well known story of Mansfield corruption to those who have not read Yant's "Rotten to the Core" is that of the Mansfield Judge Richard Christiansen who continuously would drink and drive. I remember hearing about this myself before I read the book as well; I just had no idea the connections involved within the community to prevent Judge Christiansen from being prosecuted. The Assistant City solicitor who tried promoting the prosecution of Judge Christiansen lost his job immediately afterward, and the News Journal's GM Mr. Blake was great friends with the judge (hence the lack of media attraction).

Judge Christiansen's drinking and driving is not all that uncommon in America; small potato's in comparison to what else Yant reported in his investigative book on Mansfield. For example, something a little less common would be the crimes committed by coroner Dr. Thabet. Richland County coroner Dr. Thabet ran numerous scams as coroner including covering up the cause of death (fabricating lab-results) on individuals who were victims of the Richland County Sherriff's Department, and stealing from the dead persons he performed autopsies on.

Although I knew about the Sherrifs being "horrible" before reading Rotten to the Core, I didn't know

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