The arraignment of former Washington County deputy Mitchell Ruble, charged with the February 1981 murder of sheriff’s Lt. Ray “Joe” Clark, is slated for 1 p.m. today before Washington County Common Pleas Judge Randall Burnworth.

Ruble, 63, of 4000 Ohio 530, Lowell, was arrested without incident Sept. 16 at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office on Fourth Street and remained in the county jail Wednesday on $2.5 million bond. He’s charged with aggravated murder of Clark who was shot more than 33 years ago while in the kitchen of his home on Dodd’s Run Road in Warren Township.

“We do believe revenge was the motive for this crime,” Sheriff Larry Mincks said following Ruble’s arrest last Tuesday.

And Assistant Attorney General Joel King, acting as prosecutor in the case at the request of Washington County Prosecutor Jim Schneider, confirmed during the bond hearing last week that Ruble had been fired from the sheriff’s office in 1979 due to “incidents of violence and intimidation.”

Former Washington County Deputy Dana Spencer said one of those incidents involved a suspect from which Ruble was attempting to obtain a confession.

Spencer was a parole officer for the State of Ohio at the time, working out of Marietta from an office in the county courthouse.

“I found this out probably a year or two after the murder,” he said. “There was a deputy who was training and relatively new at the time, and Mitch was his training officer.”

Spencer said they arrested a juvenile in New Matamoras and then Ruble had the other deputy drive the car.

“(Mitch) apparently roughed him up pretty good trying to get a confession out of him and told the deputy to pull over to the side of the road,” Spencer said. “Mitch took the juvenile down toward the river and came back five or 10 minutes later with the juvenile soaking wet from the chest up and admitting everything he wanted to hear.

“This new deputy was pretty upset by the situation,” Spencer said, adding that the deputy sought counsel from someone he trusted and was told he needed to tell Mitch’s superior.

Bob Schlicher, former Washington County sheriff, had joined the office as a deputy shortly after Clark’s death and was eventually assigned to investigate the case.

“It’s important to note that Lt. Clark didn’t fire Mitch Ruble, but he did investigate the incident and would have reported his findings to (then-Sheriff Dick Ellis),” Schlicher explained. “Normally that’s what would happen. The facts would be gathered, then reviewed by the sheriff and prosecutor.”

He said the case was never far from the mind of anyone at the sheriff’s office over the years, but the department’s resources were limited at the time of Clark’s murder.

Schlicher said that’s one reason why, after he became sheriff, he developed a detective bureau and a crime scene unit.

“Lt. Clark may have been killed in 1981, but for many of us it was just like yesterday,” he said.

Former deputy Chris Forshey joined the sheriff’s department on March 7, 1981, a month after Clark’s death.

“Myself, Bob Schlicher, and Steve Holland were on the Marietta Police Department at the time of the murder and we knew the sheriff’s office was short on personnel, so after our shifts with the city were over we volunteered to help with the investigation-going door-to-door and canvassing the surrounding neighborhoods,” Forshey said.

He said the Clark case helped precipitate all three MPD officers joining the sheriff’s department within the next three months.

“By taking the road patrols we primarily freed up more of the longer-term sheriff’s personnel who worked really hard on the Clark case,” Forshey said. “And in all the years I worked there the case was always a priority for the sheriff’s office.”

On Wednesday Major Brian Schuck with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said evidence found by investigators at Ruble’s property along Ohio 530 near Lowell was continuing to be processed and that effort would likely be ongoing for some time.

“The search warrant was finally sealed late last week, and we’re now dedicating our time to processing the evidence and sharing that information with the prosecutors from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office,” he said.

Schuck also noted that a search of properties surrounding the 5-acre Ruble farm had continued through Tuesday afternoon.

Jill Del Greco, public information officer with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said today’s arraignment will include a formal reading of the charges against Ruble.

“The defendant will be asked to enter a plea to the charges, and it’s possible the judge will set pre-trial hearings or even a trial date at that time,” she said.

A public information request has been submitted for Ruble’s personnel file from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, but Mincks said the file was forwarded to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office last week. Another request for the file was submitted to the AG’s office this week.

Jasmine Rogers contributed to this story.