Former Mentor police chief to serve as Lake County grand jury foreman

The recently retired Lake Metroparks chief ranger is serving as the Lake County grand jury foreman for the October 2018 session.

Dan Llewellyn served five years as the Metroparks’ chief ranger before retiring this year. He previously spent a decade as Mentor’s police chief. Llewellyn was appointed foreman by Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge Vincent A. Culotta.

During his time with the Metroparks, Llewellyn initiated and developed many programs to enhance management and safety of the more than 40 parks encompassing 9,000 acres of park lands and trails in the county, according to a news release from Culotta’s office.

He provided professional advisement to the park director on security issues and general park planning concerns. He also established a positive and cooperative interaction with the parks’ departments and surrounding police and fire departments, the release stated.

Llewellyn started as a patrolman with the Mentor Police Department in 1979.

He served as police captain from 2001 to 2003, where his duties included the managing of the patrol, detective, and juvenile divisions, including internal affairs investigations, and supervising the SWAT operations and hostage negotiation team for the police department according to the release.

From 2003 to 2013, Chief Llewellyn served as police chief. In that role he initiated programs emphasizing positive police interaction with the community, achieving a 94 percent approval rating from Mentor residents, according to the release.

Culotta said that Llewellyn’s professional background and experience provides the necessary leadership to the grand jury so that its duties “may be executed in a most efficient and diligent manner.”