In 1997, Harold “Jason” Craig moved to Perrysburg Ohio from Ann Arbor Michigan where he met Kristie Koester, the mother of his two children. Jason has a career in food service and Kristie was a phenomenal dog groomer. They lived quite a simple life. In August 1998 Kristie gave birth to Brooklyn who was Jason’s best friend from day one. Two years after Brooklyn was born Jason and Kristie had Taylor in December of 2000. Taylor was going to be the muscle in the family. She was tough from the beginning. In 2003 Jason left his management position and Kristie left her job in grooming to move to Illinois to be with Jason’s family and his sick father. His father Harold died in June 2004 on the day of Jason and Kristie’s grand opening of their Sports Card and memorabilia store in Mattoon Illinois. For years Jason and Kristie had dedicated significant amounts of time raising money and volunteering for charities that benefited women and children. Jason got the bug after his efforts to raise money by living in a porta-potty for 26 days in November 2004 (see here). Jason and Kristie moved back to Perrysburg in the summer of 2005. They moved to a small neighborhood called the Heights. The Heights was a small neighborhood that seemingly considered itself a poor area. The reality was that the Heights was a middle-class neighborhood, it was just in a very wealthy city. It was at a constant growth. For decades it was considered a dangerous and drug-filled neighborhood. With that said, it was improving constantly with dedicated families.

After about two years (2007) of growing themselves, Kristie and Jason started investing money in the neighborhood. Nothing major at first. They would buy dilapidated homes and mobile homes. Just like the rest of the world, the Heights was suffering and people could not keep their homes or lost them to taxes. Kristie and Jason bought them to at least I prove the properties or to tear down nuisance homes, making high returns on reselling land to people wishing to build affordable homes or extend their property. The Perrysburg Heights had a small community center that Jason and Kristie’s kids attended and both eventually became frequent volunteers. After years of volunteering and attending board meetings, Jason was asked to join the board of directors. As one of the founders, Anita Serda testified to at Jason’s trial, he reluctantly accepted the position of treasurer. Shortly after he joined the board he accepted the chair position of the fundraising, finance, and the neighborhood beautification and safety committees. Jason left the board in December 2015 after bringing back former board members who were great successes in building the center. This after two years of fighting to keep the community center operational. That is where this corrupt case began. You will be able to see what led to Jason’s corrupt conviction.