Tag: Butler County Ohio

Nancy Nix and I Discuss Friendships, Corruption, and the Future of Politics: Why we can’t support Roger Reynolds for Butler County Commisioner

Nancy Nix and I have strong feelings about Roger Reynolds’ decision to run for Butler County Commissioner.  We have been very supportive of Roger after he found himself in a lot of trouble with a court case that accused him of abusing his office.  While we believe what happened to him was not fair, and we have both worked to help him restore his name, we have been surprised by his behavior, especially his attempt to return to public office in the way he is.  Politically speaking, we have moved on to the next generation of consideration and have selected Michael Ryan to be the next Butler County commissioner in a race that presents some challenges.  It involves an incumbent, so support for a challenger needs to be focused and have the backing of the party.  And now that Roger Reynolds, aware of these difficulties, has decided to split the vote even further, making it even harder for Michael Ryan, it has a personal aspect to it that Nancy and I chose to discuss in front of a camera, rather than on the sidelines somewhere.  Nancy had stood by Roger throughout his court case and was really the only friend he had left in county politics.  So when he turned around to sue her for his old job back, after she had stepped in as Butler County Auditor to make sure his old office didn’t fall off the rails, the hurt was quite defined.  We both wanted to see good things happen to Roger, but the way he was going about trying to restore his name was an all-too-grotesque reminder of what had gotten him in trouble to begin with.  Because, in truth, even though we feel that what happened to Roger was unfair, the cause of the problem in the first place was a personality issue that was now manifesting itself, working against the people who had tried to help him the most in the first place, and it was alarming to discuss.

Roger is not a political newcomer.  He understands what he’s doing by joining the commissioner race this late in the process, which is the same kind of self-centered action that got him into trouble in the first place.  Even if you have political enemies within the Republican Party, how you deal with that problem says a lot about the kind of person you are.  And that personality trait is what now has Nancy and me talking as an answer to the many people who think that we should automatically support Roger Reynolds because he decided to run for public office, due to our previous support.  While our opinions about the case didn’t change, the court case process did reveal elements of Roger’s character that give us pause.  I can promise I would never find myself in the situation that Roger Reynolds did.  I have a lot of enemies who are always looking for me to stumble upon something, and that is part of the cutthroat world we live in.  And when it comes to the testimony that was most damaging to Roger Reynolds in his dispute against Sheriff Jones and Ohio Attorney General David Yost, it was his personality that ultimately turned out to be his downfall.  The love of seeing his name in lights after winning a political seat and the feeling of redemption that such an office brings with it.  Obviously, the need to run for public office is mainly for Roger Reynolds, not for the benefit of the seat.  Because Nancy Nix stepped into his old auditor role and has done an excellent job, the job performance in that position actually improved, and the people of Butler County were well served in the exchange. 

And that is where things start getting nasty in this commissioner race.  Nancy and I have been thinking about the next generation, the kind of politicians who have a clean slate and many years ahead of them.  And we endorsed Michael Ryan because of the extended runway he has ahead of him, which doesn’t have court cases and corruption charges attached to it.  And honestly, as cutthroat as politics can be, I doubt Michael Ryan will ever find himself in the kind of trouble that Roger Reynolds did, because he knows how to work with people instead of against them.  One thing that got Roger in trouble, which is why Nancy and I decided to take a pass on him for an endorsement for the commissioner job, is that he seems to like the titles that politics gives him too much.  That certainly came out in the trial.  The testimony that Jenni Logan, the former treasurer of Lakota schools, showed in his trial was embarrassing to me.  As it turned out, I still supported Roger, but with considerably less enthusiasm.  Knowing Jenni as I have for many years, there are elements of that conversation that should have never happened.  I would never find myself in that same trouble, that is for sure.  And that is a sign of a deeper problem that Roger Reynolds needs to work out.  Private sector work is a good place to do that kind of thing.  Getting back into party politics in a helpful way would be another.  However, attempting to emerge with a crash-and-burn strategy to recover name recognition was the kind of bad decision that made the trial, with Jenni Logan’s testimony, so damaging. 

For Nancy, as we discussed on camera, the breaking point came when Roger sued her to regain his old job and decided to turn against her.  It deeply hurt her.  As we were talking, her eyes welled up as she fought back tears.  It took a lot of courage for her in the height of that political situation to go against the logic of self-preservation and to stay by Roger’s side during that complex court case, as a friend.  Because that same arrogance that got him in trouble in the first place was now being turned on her, because the title of a job that doesn’t pay that much was much more important to him.  And now, as she was trying to build a team in politics that actually got along and worked together for the benefit of voters in elected offices, Roger was seeking redemption by tearing it all apart for his own purposes.  And while we can certainly understand wanting to restore a name, we don’t understand burning down positive things as a means to do it, which is why he found himself in court in the first place.  We all have political enemies.  Some of them are vicious.  I have a lot of nasty enemies who would love to bring significant harm to me if they could.  But it’s up to me not to fall into those traps.  Nancy Nix is a very popular and influential character.  She has the Vice President of the United States just a phone call away, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy and many other national figures of great significance.  The chance to make the kind of mistakes that Roger made is frequent, yet she avoids them and maintains a good reputation, despite the desires of her political enemies to see her downfall.  And that begins with being a good person in all phases of life, not in seeking a public position to hide personality flaws at the expense of taxpayers and voters in general.  And that is why Nancy and I had a conversation about why we couldn’t support Roger Reynolds for this Butler County Commissioner position.  There are steps that he could have used and teams he could have been a part of building.  But instead, he went for the kind of slash-and-burn strategy that got him into trouble to begin with, which was a decision he clearly made on his own, regardless of the cost.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Why I Support Michael V. Ryan for Butler County Commissoner Over Roger Reynolds: The Spooky Nook Sports Complex and vision for the future

In the ever-evolving landscape of local politics, decisions about leadership are rarely simple. They require reflection, vision, and a deep understanding of what a community truly needs to thrive. As someone who has stood by Roger Reynolds through difficult times and considers him a personal friend, my decision to endorse Michael Ryan for Butler County Commissioner was not made lightly. It stems from a clear-eyed assessment of the future of Butler County and the kind of leadership that can best guide us there.

A Legacy of Loyalty and Friendship

Let me begin by acknowledging my longstanding support for Roger Reynolds. I’ve stood with him through challenging moments, and I’ve always appreciated his dedication to public service. Roger has contributed meaningfully to Butler County, and I personally like him. But politics isn’t just about personal loyalty—it’s about choosing the right person for the right job at the right time. And in this moment, I believe Michael Ryan is that person. Roger has announced his run for this office knowing the political situation, and he did it anyway, ultimately making it more about what he wants and needs, over what is best for this commissioner seat. He has a desire to justifiably clear his name from a rough period of time. But in that process, he showed a lot of bad judgment in pushing away people who stood by him the strongest through that process, and we don’t need that kind of trouble in a commissioner office.

The Spooky Nook Sports Complex: A Symbol of Visionary Leadership

One of the most compelling reasons I’m supporting Michael Ryan is his instrumental role in the development of the Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Hamilton. Located on the site of the old Champion International Paper factory, this facility is more than just a sports venue—it’s a symbol of economic revitalization, community engagement, and visionary leadership.

Hamilton has long needed a spark to reignite its downtown economy, and the Spooky Nook project has provided just that. It’s the largest sports complex of its kind in North America, and it has transformed a once-depleted industrial site into a vibrant hub of activity. Michael says it’s the second largest, but who’s splitting straws?  It’s a pretty spectacular venue on the Hamilton, Ohio riverfront.  Weekends at Spooky Nook are packed with volleyball tournaments, basketball games, and conventions. The facility includes a hotel and event center, drawing visitors from across the country and injecting new life into local businesses.

This kind of transformation doesn’t happen by accident. It requires leadership that can bring people together, facilitate investment, and create a shared vision for the future. Michael Ryan, as Vice Mayor and City Council member, played a key role in making this happen. He didn’t just support the project—he helped create the conditions that made it possible.

The Power of Communication and Connection

Michael Ryan’s greatest strength is his ability to get people talking. In today’s political climate, shaped in many ways by President Trump’s deal-making influence, the leaders who succeed are those who can build coalitions, foster dialogue, and unite diverse groups around common goals. Michael Ryan is that kind of leader.

He’s personable, approachable, and genuinely interested in what others have to say. When you put him in a room with people from different backgrounds, he doesn’t create division—he creates conversation. That’s a rare and valuable trait in politics, and it’s one of the reasons why the Spooky Nook project was able to move forward. Investors felt confident that the city government would support their efforts, and that confidence was rooted in the kind of leadership Michael Ryan exemplifies.

A New Generation of Politicians

Michael Ryan represents a new generation of politicians—leaders who don’t wait for opportunities to come to them but actively seek out ways to improve their communities. He was elected in 2017, during Trump’s first term, and he brought with him a fresh perspective and a proactive approach to governance.

This isn’t the era of traditional politics anymore. The days of sitting in an office and waiting for constituents to come knocking are over. Today’s leaders need to be out in the world, building relationships, attracting investment, and thinking creatively about the future. Michael Ryan understands this, and he’s already demonstrating it—even before officially becoming commissioner.

Aviation and Economic Development

A perfect example of Michael Ryan’s forward-thinking approach is his involvement with Joby Aviation. He’s been working to establish connections with the Dayton International Airport area, where a new factory is being built to produce air taxis. This is cutting-edge technology, and it represents a major opportunity for Butler County to position itself as a hub for innovation and transportation.

Michael Ryan isn’t waiting for someone else to take the lead—he’s already out there, laying the groundwork for future partnerships and economic growth. That kind of initiative is exactly what we need in a commissioner.

The Contrast with Roger Reynolds

Again, this isn’t personal. Roger Reynolds has had his time in office, and he’s done some good work. But his approach is rooted in a more traditional style of politics—one that doesn’t always align with the demands of today’s rapidly changing world. His decision to run again feels more like an attempt to redeem his personal brand than a genuine effort to serve the community in new and innovative ways.

In contrast, Michael Ryan is focused on the future. He’s thinking about how to revitalize Middletown, attract enterprise zones to Hamilton, and create sustainable growth across Butler County. He’s not just reacting to problems—he’s anticipating opportunities and acting on them.

Leadership for the Right Reasons

Ultimately, leadership is about seeing and doing things that other people can’t do for themselves, or understand at the time. It’s about putting the needs of the community ahead of personal ambition, and I think with Roger Reynolds, he has a need for personal redemption because of what he’s been through.  But he’s had a chance to do things in the past and we know what we’ll get from him.  Michael Ryan has shown that he can do more, and is a fresh start. He’s not running for commissioner to boost his own profile, which comes naturally as part of the job—he’s running because he believes in Butler County and wants to help it reach its full potential.  He’s what the future looks like and he brings with him a lot of fresh perspective.

He’s already proven that he can attract investment, facilitate dialogue, and bring people together. He’s shown that he understands the complexities of economic development and the importance of proactive governance. And he’s demonstrated a commitment to transparency, collaboration, and long-term planning.

A Vision for Butler County’s Future

As we look ahead to the future of Butler County, we need leaders who can think big, act boldly, and unite our communities around a shared vision. We need commissioners who understand the importance of infrastructure, innovation, and investment. We need people who are willing to work around the clock to make our county a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

Michael Ryan is that kind of leader. His work on the Spooky Nook Sports Complex is just the beginning. He has the energy, the ideas, and the relationships to take Butler County to the next level. Whether it’s aviation, tourism, or enterprise development, he’s already laying the foundation for a brighter future.

Conclusion

So yes, I’ve supported Roger Reynolds in the past. I’ve stood by him, and I still consider him a friend. But when it comes to choosing the best person for Butler County Commissioner, my support goes to Michael Ryan. He’s the right leader for this moment, and I believe he will do an outstanding job.

If you haven’t visited the Spooky Nook Sports Complex, I encourage you to go. See for yourself what visionary leadership can accomplish. And when it comes time to vote, you won’t go wrong in supporting Michael Ryan—a leader who listens, connects, and delivers.  And has an eye for a future that people can really get excited about. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

The Child Pornography of 73-Year Old Howard Saal: You can’t trust professionals, anywhere

The study of institutional failure is fundamental to a proper society, and it’s vital that everyone understands the inherent failures, especially in the case of Howard Saal, the 73-year-old former geneticist and dysmorphologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.  He was recently indicted and arrested on federal charges for possessing and transporting child sexual abuse material as investigators found 153,000 images and 470 videos on his electronic devices, with some of the victims being as young as newborns.  The Children’s Hospital doctor admitted that he photographed children during exams as “glamour shots.”  Saal surrendered his medical license in July of 2025 and is currently out on bond, facing up to 20 years in prison.  The hospital itself has tried to distance itself from the doctor, but this has rattled people’s trust in the process because they usually think of doctors as being wiser and above such matters.  So understanding how and why people would do something like this is essential, especially when we are dealing with sexual perversion that migrates into children.  We see this kind of thing way too often to ignore, and this isn’t some loser hiding in his mom’s basement.  But was a very mature person of elderly years working in a very responsible position at a well-respected hospital.  People need to trust these kinds of authority figures, and this case is proof that nobody can really be trusted.  The best solution to this kind of situation is always to be a little cautious when dealing with everyone.  And don’t give out trust like candy.  We often trust professionals and experts because we are too lazy to do the work ourselves, and the unsettling element is that there are many Howard Saals out there looking to take advantage of people, especially children. 

I learned more about child pornography and sex abuse than I’ll ever care to know recently as I was a foreman for a grand jury in Butler County, Ohio.  And let me tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed that job.  I enjoyed indicting bad guys and convincing the other jury members to move toward aggressive resolutions.  It was a very satisfying job, and I could have done it every day of my life, finding significant meaning in the experience.  But before that experience, child pornography was something I had heard about, but didn’t think much of it.  It seemed to me like something impossible to do, where grown adults were involved in sexual activity with children because of the apparent size difference.  But for several cases, as a grand jury, we had to watch evidence of child pornography by people prosecutors were trying to indict.  Regarding Butler County, I would like to mention that some truly dedicated prosecutors had their hearts in the right place for the job.  It would be challenging to sift through thousands of these images and still maintain sanity.  I saw just a fraction of what they did to prepare these cases, so as I watched my fellow jury members crying over what they saw, imagine how the prosecutors felt having to look at that stuff all day long, preparing for these indictments.  Most of the people on my jury, about half of them, were moms, and seeing kids sexually abused on video was too much for them, and they broke down quickly at the grim reality of the abuse they had to watch.  There’s not much that rattles me about anything.  Watching those videos was tough.  But seeing how much child pornography is out there, it is even worse.  These were not isolated cases by a few degenerates.  These were common and were getting worse as our society loosened its sexual predilections. 

One way this harsh reality is concealed in our society is that nobody feels they can express an opinion about it unless they are a professional.  That is the first problem, where we surrender logic to authority figures like Howard Saal, and they find they can abuse that power for their own distorted thinking, keeping it concealed from society at large.  However, I have many opinions on various subjects.  And I know enough about everything to be a professional in hundreds of different professions.  And I’m happy to argue with any psychologist on the deterioration of the human mind that descends into child pornography any time anybody wants to.  Chances are, I know more about psychology than people working in the industry.  Sexual perversion is a dangerous path to take.  As teenagers emerging from puberty, it’s pretty simple.  Find a member of the opposite sex that you want to procreate with.  Get married.  Have children.  When nature selects you for termination, take it like an adult and die quietly as the world lives on.  When you step away from that path and make sex a recreational activity that increases in sign stimuli as adults move into their 20s and 30s, things get complicated.  To keep the things that provoke arousal, constantly recreating that initial stimulation, more and more perverse acts have to be accepted by the mind.  And by the time people get into their 50s, 60s, and 70s, natural sex has long left the mind, and a very diabolical thought process has to take place to carry sexual thought into an arousal state that satisfies the urge.  The danger lies in people who don’t develop hobbies as they age, such as model trains or flying airplanes, during their leisure time.  If they are still pursuing sexual satisfaction, they are likely going to engage in behavior that is illegal or diabolical.   

Socially, we recognize the danger of a 50-year-old having sex with a 20-year-old.  Or even an 18-year-old.  Our 18-year-old daughter couldn’t or shouldn’t ever bring home a boyfriend who is 60 years old.  We don’t like to see such things, even if they may be legal, because they are destructive to our minds and can’t bring anything good.  So, to further step outside the boundaries, sex with children of any age is the ultimate power trip for an adult who wants domination over people in a weak intellectual condition.  Human beings often struggle with power over others, and the role of an adult over a helpless child can be particularly perilous.  And we should never assume that because someone is a professional, they have learned to deal with these emotional temptations.  And based on my experience with that grand jury, this appears to be a common occurrence.  It’s not just a random occasion here and there.  The more sexual our society has become, the worse sex with children has emerged as common, and not unique.  It appears that adults often seek to exert power over others, which is why they tend to target the most vulnerable.  So while people are shocked to learn that a respected doctor at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati has a serious addiction to child pornography, and that they took their own children to him under an understanding of trust, and that trust has now been shattered, this isn’t the only guy doing this.  It’s a common occurrence in our schools, among medical professionals, and in every professional class.  And trusting any of those professional types was a dumb idea.  Leaving us to figure out the future without them having nearly the kind of power they have today.  Trust is something that everyone needs to earn.  We should not give it away so cheaply because we are too lazy to protect the innocent from the diabolical hiding behind professional titles like wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Because the minds of many of these people are not functioning correctly.  And this case with Howard Saal is just a small glimpse into that ominous, dark world of child sexual predators. 

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Apoorva Ramasway is a Really Good Person: One of the big reasons to support Vivek Ramaswamy for governor of Ohio

There was never any question about supporting Vivek Ramaswamy for Governor of the State of Ohio.  But after meeting with him at his launch ceremony in West Chester, Ohio, I feel even better about it.  Of course, he is a great talent that can speak the peel off an orange.  But so can a lot of con artists.  The question everyone always wants to know about these kinds of things is how can they know they can trust him?  What makes a person trustworthy, even if they have the gift of gab?  After all, there are a lot of salespeople out there who can sell you just about anything who aren’t worth 2 cents as people.  So what makes Vivek Ramaswamy a good person, good enough to be made Governor of the State of Ohio?  Well, I have a proven tactic that I use to qualify people, especially adult people, that has worked for me over the years: I measure a person’s worth based on what kind of spouse they have.  They can sell pretty words to the public all day, but if they partner with a terrible person as a spouse, you should always question the person’s validity.  As a general rule, good people tend to attract other good people.  And bad, toxic people tend to do the same.  You don’t often find a toxic person choosing to be married to a high-quality person.  They are attached to them for a reason.  So judging a person based on the worth of their spouse is quite good as an accurate measurement, and I am thrilled to say that Vivek Ramaswamy’s wife is top-class and a very good person. Upon meeting Apoorva Ramaswamy, I found that I liked Vivek even more.  They are a nice couple who work well together in ways that are bigger than the jobs they do in life.

I don’t mind saying it, and there are certainly more that I can think of, but at this Vivek Ramaswamy event were some very good friends of mine who were part of setting up everything in the background.  And we are friends for a reason that goes beyond political considerations.  I know a lot of people, but I put more trust in these people for a lot of reasons, most of which start with their spouses.  For instance, when people ask me, “How can you trust George Lang?  He’s a RINO establishment figure.”  I can say to them that I can trust him in ways I wouldn’t trust other people, largely because of what I know him that is different from other people, especially people in a decisive Senate role.  Why George?  He has a wonderful wife in Debbie, who is just as solid as a person can get.  They are a good couple, and they are at an age where they travel a lot, and the fruits of a lot of hard work are emerging, and they are living a good life.  They work well together, and things were not always as good as they are now.  I remember when the political left was trying to throw George in jail just for knowing John Boehner.  Even in the toughest of times, Debbie has always been loyal to George, and as a couple, they are always trying to do the right thing, and I have come to know both of them pretty well over the years in ways that far exceed politics.  If George Lang had never been a senator and never was again, he and his wife would still be friends with me and my wife.  They are good people to know.

And why do I like her so much? People always ask me about Nancy Nix.  Well, what’s not to like?  She is as good as they get.  She comes across as a good person as a politician due to her many sincere desires for the world to be a better place, and I have come to know her over the years as a person with profound convictions toward biblical goodness.  But I’ll say that her husband Bob Leshnak is perfect for her.  Sometimes, it takes a while to find people who can work with them instead of against them.  When you are a person like Nancy who is naturally attractive and has a very outward projecting personality, you can attract a lot of bar flies.  But as a naturally good person from a good family, she knows how to sort through all that to find a great spouse in Bob.  He is good for her and doesn’t work against her, and they just come out as a good couple when you talk to them in any setting.  How can people be expected to manage your government financially or ethically if they can’t manage their own homes?  I could say that I know Fran DeWine a bit, enough to see that she makes the current governor of Ohio a far better person than he would otherwise be.  They are childhood sweethearts, which makes him a person that can at least be brought to reason because he has managed a long marriage to a good person.  I have met Melania Trump on several occasions and always said she is the key to why President Trump has become the kind of good person he is at this stage.  Spouses say a lot about the people we know, publicly. 

At Vivek’s West Chester event, I got to talk to him in great detail, but that wasn’t new.  I could also walk around with his wife and talk to her one-on-one.  And I found it interesting that she had a good relationship with Representative Jennifer Gross, who is too Tea Party for many people.  It says a lot about Apoorva in a good way and about Vivek with the doors closed.  Apoorva was a very classy woman, full of life and spirit, and I kept thinking she would be an ideal First Lady of Ohio.  She comes across well in all the right ways.  But what is most apparent is that she and Vivek are a power couple that feeds off each other.  We’re not talking about a couple of people climbing through social power to achieve a status through won elections.  These people are personally good and want to share that with others in a leadership way.  This is a much different set of standards than the traditional power couple that only share their desire for public power, and once that is not in their lives through a lost election or bad financial times, their relationship breaks apart.  Spouses aren’t helping each other if they plot divorce behind their spouses’ backs and are always jealous of the other people in their lives because they are insecure in the foundations of their relationship.  When you meet people who have people in their lives that they are building families with and who are willing to walk through all the fires of life together, you can know that there are unique qualities you can trust in them as public servants.  And that is undoubtedly the case for Vivek Ramaswamy and his wife, Apoorva.  They will still be a good couple once the days of politics are done, a few decades from now.  They will be defined by what they do together rather than what they convince people to give them in the form of trust and social management.  They are good because they are good, and they work together, which is the best trait of all.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Visiting the Butler County Jail: What it takes to maintain a free society

It was great for me to get a chance to tour the Butler County Jail.  I have had a lot of questions about it and its use, how much it costs, and what its helpful role in society is.  The Butler County Jail is one of the most expensive in the state, and it’s certainly significant, with around 1000 inmates being held at any particular time.  As part of the obligation of a grand jury where I was the foreman, the prosecutor’s office in Butler County arranges for everyone to see where the people in the cases considered for indictment are going or being released.  For me, it was important to have context on several fronts.  And, of course, you can’t go to the jail without seeing Sheriff Jones.  Overall, my experience was very good, and I think in regards to Sheriff Jones, it has been a rough couple of years.  But I have seen in him a lot of seriousness in establishing himself as one of the biggest MAGA supporters in Southern Ohio.  We might have disagreements that have significant consequences on people we mutually know.  But I have seen him work hard to establish himself as an unquestioned supporter of justice and order.  Seeing him in his natural habitat, the jail, was also good for me.  And get a sense of what it’s like living in his shoes.  And why his appearance with Hulk Hogan at the Liberty Township Kroger significantly benefited the big picture of law and order in Butler County.  I’ve had a chance recently to see Sheriff Jones at his best, and I certainly have an appreciation for good work, which he has displayed with seriousness.  The whole experience was very beneficial in that I have an excellent understanding of what it takes to run a prosecutor’s office, what their challenges are, how it relates to the inmate system, and what it takes to essentially maintain the criminal conduct of a small percentage of a population of over 400,000 people.  Competition is good for everyone, and some people step into the challenge while others crumble under pressure.  And to that point, I am glad that Butler County, Ohio, hasn’t lost its way and has some of the country’s best people when the pressure is applied.  Politics is a blood sport.  It’s good to never get to a point where you can’t at least be friendly with people.  Because, in the end, it’s all about serving a public need.  And once the rubber hits the road, we can all be proud of our Butler County Jail.

The reality of any free society, especially when there are so many people in it, is that there will always be 1-2% who fall off the rocker and can’t live in a free society.  For whatever reason, they can’t function in a world where free people need to be free.  Crime threatens that freedom and has to be dealt with.  This means you either have capital punishment and get rid of those people, or you lock them up so they can’t hurt anybody and perhaps hope to reform them.  But if you do that, you must feed and house them.  And doing that with other people who are also on the fringe of society is difficult.  I’ve been to the Butler County Jail several times but only seen Sheriff Jones’ office, the conference room, and their press conference area.  I’ve never been past those front office areas into the booking area and the general population, which is a vast complex.  It doesn’t look like a county jail; it resembles a prison system on a large scale.  After visiting the jail, it is easy to see why the federal grants are essential and why the operation would cost over 80 million dollars.  It’s a prominent place with a lot of moving parts.  And you have to have it.  Police work is not like a school where you can debate the merits of education and what it provides to society.  When you have criminals who can’t be roaming around causing trouble, you must put them somewhere.

So, as I was walking around with the jail staff, I was thinking about how many people it takes to staff a place like that, three shifts a day, seven days a week.  I did tour the cell pods, specifically a cell within the pod where a couple of inmates were removed from their daily routine and placed in the laundry room to see how they lived.  Their cell was not much larger than a closet.  It had a little sink and a toilet, with a bunk bed beside it.  There was a tiny television and a little table where two people could sit and play a game or talk.  There is little room to walk around and do anything else.  And to imagine being in there for more than a few hours would be devastating to a human mind.  And there are many cell pods for as far as the eye can see.  Each of them has to have at least one officer to maintain the population of that triangular pod.  In each pod is a shower, a rec room, and a place where they can make phone calls to the outside world or receive visitors, all of which must be monitored by jail staff.  One thing that surprised me, and I was curious about, was the recreational areas attached to the jail pod.  They have a little screen window that allows fresh air into a half-court basketball court.  But there isn’t any accurate indicator as to the outside world.  An inmate could go for a long time without seeing if the sun was out or the day was sunny. 

Touring the jail, you could feel the hatred of the inmates.  They see you coming and going, but they have lost that freedom and hate you for it.  While I was touring, the inmates were placed in their cells, and they gazed out at the inspection with ruthless hunger.  It’s hard not to feel sorry for them, for everyone, even the jail employees.  It’s a rough job, but yes, somebody has to do it, and for the staff there, everyone I talked to, it takes a unique person even to want to do a job like that.  It’s not like they can call off work.  Somebody has to be there to deal with so many inmates, who are always just a fringe moment away from chaos and mayhem.  It does help that Sheriff Jones has such a big personality because it does take that to pull all those elements together.  Human beings and emotions can be messy, but intent goes a long way.  And to run the Butler County Jail and the criminal justice system so that ordinary people, the rest of the 400,000 people of Butler County who expect to roam about freely without impediment, without the Butler County Jail and a system of prosecution, there is no mechanism to have a free society.  If anything, the jail should be more prominent and have more employees because running a place like that takes a lot of time to hold so many people who have fallen off the rocker in society.  I spent a lot of time talking to the guards and getting my mind into their shoes, and I appreciate their work.  It takes money and personality to bring attention to these things.  I would like to see a lot more people going to jail.  But you can’t put everyone there.  And I’m glad people who want to do it work at the jail.  It’s essential work that is taken for granted all too often.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Roger Reynolds Has His Conviction Overturned on Appeals: When people like Fat Alvin use the power of government to destroy political rivals

It was a rigged, political case in Butler County. And the prosecutors wasted a lot of tax money on a personal hit job.

I wish people would listen.  I feel like that frustrated parent who has all the answers but has to stand by and watch their kids make dumb mistakes that cause them much pain and suffering anyway.  And if you care about everyone, it can be a harrowing experience.  But essentially, from the beginning, the prosecution against Roger Reynolds, the popular Butler County Auditor, was as flimsy of a case and motivated by the same intentions as the Fat Alvin case in New York against President Trump.  These are purely political cases where the prosecutors are trying to use legal warfare to take out political rivals.  In this case, it was elements of the Republican Party in Butler County, even extending into the Attorney General of Ohio to exert power and position within the party.  It had nothing to do with any actual crimes committed.  Roger Reynolds found himself having the law used against him in a weaponized format, something that happens more often than people would like to think, over disagreements regarding family connections and how tax money is spent, just theorizing on such spending.  And for that Roger Reynolds has had to pay a fortune in legal bills, lose over three years of his life professionally, during his prime income-building years, and was popularly elected into a very powerful auditor position only to be removed from office because of a conviction on a last minute charge tossed over the fence to attempt to get anything to stick against him to get a jury to put him in jail for 30 days and ruin his political career for the rest of his life.  The case had nothing to do with justice but everything to do with power, who controls the legal system, and how they can then use it to take out political rivals.  And nothing more.

On Monday, May 13th, 2024 after many years of fighting for his innocence, a 10th District Court of Appeals in Columbus reversed the conviction against Roger Reynolds from a few years earlier, bringing somewhat to an end the long ordeal that started for him back during Covid when some of the people from Roger’s office as auditor stopped coming to work over Covid rules.  Now I get Roger’s position. I’ve talked to him about it, and I am even more traditional regarding the COVID rules for employment.  Doctors don’t run our economy and when they stuck their noses into our business with all these new globalist Covid rules, they were way over the line.  It was the job of science to figure out how to stop COVID-19 and its spread with science.  Not to shut the world down with a bunch of new rules to establish a new normal.  And some of these kids then, and now, thought that meant they could all work from home to avoid spreading the virus.  When Roger had to deal with that trend in his office, he let people go for not coming to work, and that made people mad.  People then promised their family members that they had the power of the law at their back and could get revenge on Roger.  At that point, an attendance issue then became a big labor one where communist policies seep into the assumptions of a government workforce, and the power of government is then weaponized against that assumption. 

At that point, Sheriff Jones made it his mission to go after Roger Reynolds, spend money on investigations, and waste a lot of money in court proceedings to destroy Roger Reynolds’s life in court.  Many different charges were thrown in Roger’s way, with the power of the Attorney General being added to the mix, trying to make the former auditor look like a corrupt official who had abused his power of office for personal gain.  But nothing was sticking, and Roger was found innocent of all charges.  At the last minute, this issue with Lakota schools and a country club golf connection came up, and Roger suggested to the treasurer that some tax money being returned to the school be applied to a venture that he thought would be a good idea.  It was just a discussion about how to spend tax money.  But Sheriff Jones and the prosecutors threw the weight of their office to destroy the life of Roger Reynolds in precisely the same way that Fat Alvin has been doing to Trump.  Over the last few years, we’ve seen it happening more and more as these same tactics have been used nationwide.  It has been the collision of why people pursue big government jobs to have immense power over innocent people, which is the problem.  When government is sought and used to give power to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it, abuse of government then becomes the subject, and the warning of why we never want to give any people, no matter who they are, too much power through government to abuse others over a quest for power.  In most cases, even if the prosecutors get a conviction, they are being overturned on appeals.  But by the time a defendant spends years trying to prove their innocence, their lives are destroyed in the process.  So, even if they don’t go to jail, they are destroyed in the process.  Now that Roger Reynolds has had his conviction overturned, where does he go to get his reputation back?

I am proud to call Roger Reynolds a friend through all this.  I’ve told him this when I’ve seen him throughout this process.  I am proud of how tough he has stayed in proving his innocence.  I want to see him get back into elected office and do good work because when political enemies see you as that much of a threat, I want to see people like Roger sticking it to those powers to keep things honest.  I would hire Roger Reynolds before and after this appeals ruling because Roger is one of the good guys.  And in a world run by evil and malicious people, like Fat Alvin in New York is against Trump, they are the ones who need to be punished and be fired from government work whenever possible.  I remember the day the indictments came down against Roger and the people who called me to talk about it, very haughtily.  These were small-government conservatives who were impressed with Sheriff Jones’s power to drum up charges to essentially take down a rival within the Republican Party.  And I was surprised how many people played along with it because it was wrong.  I knew it was a crooked case from the beginning because I knew all the people involved and understood the rivalry in ways that weren’t reported in the media.  But what surprised me was how vicious the ordeal became, where the lawyers were the only ones who profited.  They are pleased to have millions of dollars wasted on their services over an issue that essentially was just a family rivalry within a political party.  And this is why we must always watch how people use government power, and why we can’t give too much of it to any one person.  Because they can’t handle the temptation to abuse it.  However, in the case of Roger Reynolds, he was always innocent of those ridiculous charges.  And it’s fantastic that the appeals court saw the case for what it was and reversed the conviction.  Justice still works, even if it takes a while, and a lot of money has to be spent on it to get it.  Let’s go back to dueling, as I say more often.  It was a lot cheaper, and the real bad guys usually went away, saving taxpayers a lot of money in the future.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707