Jury finds Lorain County Recorder Mike Doran not guilty of groping woman

ELYRIA — A jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes Wednesday before finding Lorain County Recorder Mike Doran not guilty of misdemeanor sexual imposition for allegedly groping the girlfriend of one of his best friends last year. An eight-member jury heard several hours of testimony before reaching the verdict on the lone third-degree misdemeanor following a one-day trial in Elyria Municipal Court, overseen by Visiting Judge Patrick Carroll. Doran, 42, of Elyria, hugged defense attorneys Benjamin Kleidman and Andrew Ortner after the verdict was read. "I'm glad this is over," Doran said after the verdict. Doran testified Wednesday in his own defense, denying allegations that he touched the alleged victim sexually or even harmlessly and innocently. The alleged victim and her then-boyfriend recorded Doran making an apology over the phone. It was played for the jury, but Doran testified it was just his way of trying to salvage his friendship with the alleged victim's boyfriend. The alleged victim testified she and Doran were sitting on a couch in the basement of his Denison Avenue home on April 25, 2025, when he sat "uncomfortably" close to her and touched her "inappropriately." An 18-year-old Akron woman, she was dating one of Doran's friends at the time. She alleged that Doran touched her outer and inner thighs and her genitals over top of her pants while the two of them were alone in the basement. The Chronicle does not name alleged victims of sexual assault and is not naming the woman's former boyfriend because to do so could identify her. The woman, who was still in high school at the time, testified she was waiting for her then-boyfriend to pick her up from the Doran home. She did not have a driver's license nor a car. The woman testified she felt uncomfortable and told Doran multiple times she did not want to be touched, but he did so anyway. She testified she never provoked him. She testified she had once trusted Doran and his wife, Christina, to whom she disclosed the alleged groping two days later, but had since become afraid of Mike Doran. "If you were touched inappropriately, you'd have some trauma, too," she testified, telling told the jury she wasn't making anything up. It took everything just for her to go to police three weeks after the alleged incident, she testified. "I know what was done to me and I'm going to stand on that truth," she testified. Mike Doran "touched her outer thigh. He touched her inner thigh and he touched her crotch," special prosecutor John Reulbach Jr. told the jury. "That's a crime in the state of Ohio." The alleged victim told Mike Doran to stop, he didn't, and that's "inappropriate" and "offensive," Reulbach told the jury. Kleidman said the alleged victim didn't act like a victim after the alleged incident, going out to dinner with her boyfriend and Mike Doran that same night. Mike Doran testified he apologized for something far less serious than what she eventually told police he did — something he didn't even do. "'I'm sorry, I truly am telling you I won't do anything like this ever again,'" Mike Doran said on the recorded phone call — the "this" being an allegation of "uncomfortable" touching, he testified. "I thought she accused me of touching her leg. I didn't touch her leg. But I thought I could apologize and make it go away," Mike Doran testified. "I just wanted to fix the friendship that was there before." Mike Doran testified he learned only after reading a police report that the woman had accused him of touching her genital area over top of her pants. He denied that allegation completely. Kleidman told the jury his client's "confession" was taken out of context, a small portion of a 24-minute conversation with the alleged victim and her boyfriend that wasn't even fully recorded. Only 10 minutes of the call were captured; Mike Doran never admitted to any specific conduct, he said. "At no point did (the boyfriend) or (the alleged victim) tell Mike Doran what's going on," Kleidman told the jury. All the boyfriend said was that Mike Doran had made his girlfriend "uncomfortable," he said. That testimony was in opposition to what the ex-boyfriend told the jury about the recorded apology. "I knew exactly what we were talking about" and that was uncomfortable and inappropriate sexual touching, the man testified. "To me it was crystal clear." Christina Doran stood by her man. Mike Doran "denies touching her and I believe him," she testified in her husband's defense. In his closing argument, Reulbach said the Dorans had "a very strong motivation to be less than truthful here." "The evidence strongly shows he committed the offense" then apologized for it, Reulbach said. A Republican, Mike Doran was elected county recorder for the first time in 2020. He was reelected in 2024 to the office, which keeps records of the real estate and property ownership in the county. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.