The mayor of Butler, Ohio, is facing charges for allegedly being a creepy guy. Wesley Dingus was caught on camera by a teenage girl who said he snuck into her room and sniffed her used underwear while she was at school. It is currently unknown how Dingus knows the teen and how he was able to gain access to her home. She did the right thing, however, by reporting the local politician to authorities so he could be properly dealt with. Just because he is in a position of power doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be held accountable. It is unknown how the charges might affect his job.
On January 13, 2026, a sergeant from the Richland County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by Richland County Children’s Services, WOIO reported. The office was “sent a video showing an adult male going through [a child’s] bedroom, picking up her underwear and smelling it,” records show.
A sheriff’s deputy went to the teen’s high school the next day to discuss the incident. A representative from Richland County Children’s Services also was present. The girl told the officials that she suspected Dingus was going into her bedroom, per WOIO. She also believed he had set up a small video camera inside.
She explained that she left home for school around 7 a.m. January 13. About 15 minutes later, she got a notification that motion was detected in her room, the report read, per the outlet. When she looked at the footage, she could see Dingus go into her room and start smelling her underwear.
She got another notification at 7:17 a.m. the following day, she said. This time, the footage showed Dingus going into her room, smelling her dirty underwear, and then touching his groin area over his pants, according to WOIO.
After a continued investigation and more interviews, the case was forwarded to the Mansfield City Law Director’s office on January 26. Two summonses for voyeurism charges were prepared by deputies on February 12 after speaking with Assistant Law Director Rob Sharp. Dingus was issued the summonses the next day.
On February 19, the 48-year-old was arraigned at Mansfield Municipal Court on two misdemeanor charges of voyeurism, the Mansfield News Journal reported. He appeared in court for the arraignment, where his attorney, James Mayer III, entered a not guilty plea.
Magistrate John D. McCollister set Dingus’ bond at $10,000 or 10%. He ordered the disgraced mayor to have no contact with the teenage girl and ordered him to be electronically monitored.
Mayer told the court that despite what the girl told deputies, Dingus is not a threat to her.
Dingus is out on a $25,000 bond from an August 2025 arrest, WOIO reported at the time. On July 11, 2025, he allegedly struck a man twice with his car. The man, who was wanted by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, was fleeing police during a traffic stop. The charges against Dingus included aggravated assault, vehicular assault, falsification, and dereliction of duty. The case remains pending in Common Pleas Court.
