MANSFIELD — The former executive director of the Richland County Mental Health and Recovery Services was found guilty on seven criminal charges Thursday, including one felony charge of having an unlawful interest in a public contract.
Visiting Judge Mark Wiest immediately sentenced Joe Trolian to pay a $2,500 fine and court costs totaling $569 after a jury found him guilty on all charges — including six first-degree misdemeanors — following a four-day trial in Richland County Common Pleas Court.
Wiest, who retired in 2022 after 42 years as a Wayne County Common Pleas Court judge, didn’t impose jail time or any probationary period for Trolian, 56.
Contacted by Richland Source after the trial and sentencing, Trolian declined to comment.
Trolian, a Lexington resident, was dismissed by the mental health board in November 2023 after 20 years with the agency, including the final 16 as the executive director, for “neglect of duty and failing to inform the board of underlying interest in contracts and expenditures.”
Attorneys for Ohio Auditor Keith Faber secured an indictment against Trolian in September 2025.
(Below is a PDF with the indictment filed in September against Joe Trolian.)
At the time, Faber’s office said his special investigations unit launched a probe in October 2023 after receiving a complaint that Trolian benefited financially from contracts for services for RCMHRS.
The auditor alleged Trolian used his public position to secure a contract for training that he knew would benefit his wife, among other issues.
The most serious charge alleged Trolian hired a Nevada-based company, Train for Change, which employed his wife, to provide a trio of two-day training sessions in the summer of 2022.
For those presentations, the Mental Health & Recovery Services board paid Train for Change almost $30,000. Trolian’s wife received $4,850 from her employer, not the mental health board.
According to a story Thursday in the Mansfield News Journal, the judge said Trolian’s wife earned the money she was paid through the Nevada-based company for which she worked.
“There were no public funds taken by anyone,” Wiest said, according to the MNJ story.
“This is a case where the defendant knew better or should have known better,” Wiest said, according to the News Journal story.
The judge said he considered those factors before deciding on Trolian’s punishment on all charges, including three misdemeanor counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract and three first-degree misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest.
“I don’t think he’s likely to reoffend,” Wiest reportedly said. “I don’t think he needs supervision by a probation officer, but there does have to be a penalty.”
Trolian, who didn’t testify during the trial, has maintained his innocence since the issues were made public three years ago.
“Under his leadership, the agency has seen significant growth in funding and
community engagement. The current treatment by the board is not just a disservice to
Trolian but a disheartening message to a man who has given so much to Richland
County,” his attorney, Jami Oliver, said in 2023 after he was dismissed by the mental health board.
Trolian began work at the agency in August 2003 as the clinical director and became the executive director in October 2007.