Tag: David Yost

Big Tish James is in Trouble: But David Yost did the same thing

Big Tish James, the Attorney General in New York is in a lot of trouble, not just from what she actually did, misrepresenting property transactions in Real Estate, but that she created a precedent with President Trump when she used her office to attempt to destroy him and his businesses over much less serious charges.  In the Letitia James case, in one particular charge, she stated that her father was actually her husband, which was knowing fraud.  As the New York AG, she was the prosecutor of the Trump case that threatened to put him in jail for the rest of his life, and then some.  And destroy his businesses with millions of dollars in legal fees, not just destroying him, but the rest of his family and employees.  Of course, the way she behaved toward Trump has everyone showing little sympathy for her case, now that the White House has referred it to Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice.  We can’t turn away from this one.  Clearly, James planned to abuse her power to destroy people’s lives, and she was guilty herself of worse, so she has to be dealt with harshly.  Ruthlessly, with no compassion given to her attempt to manipulate the legal parameters of her situation, even if legal experts claim that her infractions were things that everybody does.  She is the New York AG, and she did those things knowingly.   Never forget that Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization for engaging in fraudulent business practices by misrepresenting asset values to secure favorable loan terms and tax benefits.  Judge Engoron, under the push of James, found Trump guilty and ordered him to pay $454 million in a judgment, and he was barred from running a business in New York for three years.  Trump is appealing the case, and this behavior by James is needed as part of his appeal process, because the point of the appeal is to prove that the entire case was politically motivated. 

But worse than any of that is the temptation to abuse power, which we should all be concerned with after seeing how the system was thrown at Trump.  Obviously, Big Tish James was coordinating her efforts with Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, when he pressed 34 felony counts related to hush money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.  Trump was convicted on all 34 counts on May 30th, 2024.  Two months later, Trump was shot in the head by an assassin, so looking back on all these cases and conditions, it’s not hard to see how serious the opposition was to Trump returning to the White House, and Letitia James was at the heart of all of it.  While she was doing it, she was doing far worse than what she was accusing Trump of, which is a common theme among people who are given too much government power over others.  This happens all the time, and as I heard about the Big Tish case, I couldn’t help but think of our Attorney General in Ohio, who abused his power to take down the Butler County Auditor, Roger Reynolds. Roger recently held a press conference naming Yost and stating his direct involvement in trying to put Roger in jail, essentially over some political disagreements.  Severe stuff done with the same level of malice.  These are charges that most people would roll their eyes at and not consider to be a big deal.  But in all these cases, significant fines and jail time were on the table, and it was terrifying to see the massive abuses of power going on.  Roger Reynolds will never fully recover what he lost due to the case Yost put against him politically.  I am greatly relieved that Vivek Ramaswamy put his hat in the ring to be governor of Ohio and give us a good option away from Yost, who wants to run for governor and is losing terribly to Vivek.

The lesson is that we cannot give these people too much power.  Because it’s not just Letitia James abusing her power, but we’ve seen it from another Attorney General in the State of Ohio.  And it makes you wonder how many AGs in various states have the same problem.  This is why we cannot have a government that is too big, because the members will abuse their power if given half a chance.  So we should never let off our scrutiny and always be suspicious of government people.  If their office has power, you can bet they will be tempted to abuse it.  And likely will at some point.  There are just too many cases where it happens, and there is no deterrent unless they are caught, as Big Tish has been, with severe punishment.  Letitia James planned to use her knowledge as the top cop of New York, of the law, to manipulate it to serve her real estate needs.  There is no defense in her case that she knowingly lied, indicating that her father was her husband.  That’s not a clerical accident; that was purposeful fraud.  And we can’t have AGs thinking they can get away with that behavior.  So, prosecuting her is more than a political stunt or revenge for all that she did to Trump.  It’s the only means we have to keep the system somewhat honest. 

If Trump had not won the election of 2024, he would be in jail and broke right this very minute.  All his wealth would have been confiscated, and his businesses destroyed.  And he would never leave jail alive again.  That is what Letitia James did to him, and she got her rigged conviction to hang over Trump a felony that state control could then use to their advantage over a political rival.  David Yost did the same thing to Roger Reynolds for holding an improper interest in a public contract to destroy a political rival over what Roger says was a disagreement over property tax assessments.  When we allow attorney generals to split hairs like that and destroy people with their positions, they better be squeaky clean.  And that is not the case with Big Tish.  She is guilty and deserves to have the book thrown at her and then some.  And a strong message has to be sent to all those like her who are thinking of doing precisely what she did to Trump.  This is exactly why we can never support a large government that gets away from our control.  While we need people to do these jobs, they need enough power to do them.  But we cannot allow them to get so powerful that they feel entitled to do what Big Tish did to Trump, while over the same period, she was lying on legal transactions in a far worse way, and thought she would get away with it because she was the Attorney General.  The power went to her head, and she fell to corruption.  And for the Department of Justice to set things right, they need to use Letitia James’ words against her since she set the precedent for prosecution with her actions against Trump.  The same rules apply now to her.  Only in her case the written evidence in own her hand is to the point where nobody else could be guilty.  And that is how justice must be applied.

Rich Hoffman

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

Roger Reynolds is Found Not Guilty Again: But What’s Next, managing a big tent party

Yes, I am happy that the Ohio Supreme Court declined the state’s request to appeal former Butler County auditor Roger Reynolds’ appeal of the utterly unfair conviction thrown his way for the improper interest in a government contract.  What it all amounted to was a political squabble imposed on Reynolds, who was doing a great job as an auditor, and despite the charges tossed against him, he was still popularly elected.  However, while there was a conviction initially in court that had to be overturned, Roger Reynolds had to resign from his position.  It looked like he might have had to spend jail time over the charge at that time.  But Roger won his appeal, as I said he would.  I knew the facts of the case and the personalities involved, and my thoughts toward Roger’s innocence never wavered.  And neither did our mutual friend Nancy Nix, who had been treasurer and resigned from her position to fill the auditor position, being left open by Roger as he dealt with all these legal issues.  Nancy came to court most days while Roger was going through his ordeal to support her friend.  Her first thought about the whole matter was to ensure that the good policies utilized for the county’s people under Roger’s direction could be maintained in his honor, which she has done.  However, Nancy Nix is a good person for that job in her own right, and now, some time has passed since she has been doing the auditor job very well.  Her old treasurer’s job has been filled by another person doing an excellent job also.  Butler County, Ohio, is one of the few places in the world where the budget operates in the black, above water.   And that is a trend we want to continue now that Roger can serve again in a public office.  The most important thing is the quality of the government given to the people who need it and the viability of the big tent party of the Butler County GOP. 

I have been reminded how much I have liked Sheriff Jones recently, as we have talked on several occasions.  We’ve been on opposite sides on several issues, most recently this whole prosecution of Roger Reynolds, which cost Reynolds a lot of money and lost reputation over what I would consider a purely political issue that happens in the background more than it should.  It’s tough to run races in primaries and between presidential years, where a party tends to come together nicely if there is a strong personality at the top of the ticket.  And a few years ago, when the Butler County GOP was going through an identity crisis, nobody knew what was going to happen to Trump, if he’d even be back; a lot of Republicans strayed back to their corners of influence and placed their bets toward the political direction they thought would set priorities.  So everyone entered a kind of primary mode where Republicans battled Republicans for public attention, and brand damage to those candidates and the party in general occurred and, at times, got out of control.  Well, I knew where the politics were going, and I said so all along, and it’s shaping up just as I thought and said it would.  I wish more people listened.  But here we are, and people did what they did to each other. I want everyone to thrive.  I was happy to hear that Roger’s appeal on his conviction was held up under Supreme Court scrutiny.  I am proud and glad that Nancy Nix has been running Butler County as an auditor.  And I was thrilled to see Sheriff Jones with Hulk Hogan at the Liberty Township Kroger, bringing a lot of joy to people in Butler County who desperately needed it. 

The can was kicked down the road for a long time, and Nancy has had to deal with the hard stuff.

While all this was happening, I watched the speech at the Trump rally in Arizona, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Trump in what I thought was a jaw-dropping speech.  But, again, I called that one almost two to three years ago when nobody in the nation saw that coming.  (I did!)  And I was enormously proud of Trump, who just survived an assassin’s bullet just a few weeks ago, making the Republican Party such a big tent that even an ultra-liberal Bobby Kennedy Jr could join our fight for what’s right.  Because I do like Bobby Kennedy, even though my typical position on Democrats is to destroy them, hook, line, and sinker.  Bobby Kennedy would be great for Trump’s administration in many ways, and it took guts to join Trump and for Trump to open up that tent to accommodate him.  Polling-wise, Trump didn’t need to.  However, Trump did what was best for the party and sought to bring in as many people as possible who could fit into the GOP tent, which is what the game should be about.  Thinking of a big tent, I couldn’t help but think of Nancy Nix, who I have watched go through the same challenge in Butler County.  It is hard to deal with so many strong personalities and be sincere to them all.  And while Roger was going through his horrible ordeal, Nancy never left his side.  She was genuinely loyal when, politically, it would have been better for her not to be.  It took real guts and sincerity. 

So what happens now, with Roger Reynolds able to run for public office again, is that he wants to be vindicated and restore his name to righteousness.  And I have wanted to see that happen for several years now.  I want to help him do that personally.  As I have talked to everyone about these issues privately, to me, it comes out as the kind of family scabbles that have to be resolved ahead of a Thanksgiving dinner where everyone is arguing about the football teams playing between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers, who is better, who should go to the playoffs, and which team will win that day.  It’s all the NFL as far as I’m concerned, and nobody should try to kill each other over the outcome.  But those kinds of conversations get heated when people start arguing, especially when millions of dollars are at stake and the personal reputations of so many people.  Ultimately, what matters in politics is that people get good government from people willing to do the job.  I see a path for Roger going forward, but he can’t reset the table and have Nancy move back to the treasurer job, and he just slides back into his old auditor job.  There must be a primary process where he could challenge Nancy for that seat in the next term.  The people of Butler County are getting excellent work out of that auditor position, and Nancy made a productive tag team effort to make sure they didn’t miss a beat.  But we don’t need more personal destruction, especially with the great opportunities coming from a second Trump term.  I would encourage everyone to look at the big picture and play the cards they have, and not the ones you wished you had.  Play the hand you’re dealt and do good things with them.  And in the scheme of things, I love Nancy Nix.  Especially when things are not hunky dory, Nancy has shown that she is a good person even when it doesn’t pay to be, and I like that in people.  In my way of thinking, she is the kind of person around whom you build a political party.  Everyone needs to find their way to the kitchen table she sets and get along for the good of Butler County, Ohio, and an excellent Republican Party that people can and should be very proud of.  And it would be my advice not to fall in love with job titles.  But in the good work that needs to be done, no matter what it is.

Rich Hoffman

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

The Alvin Bragg of Butler County: Roger Reynolds was only guilty of trusting people too much

It’s a local issue, but I’d say it’s common around the country. It’s not just in the case of Alvin Bragg, the New York District Attorney paid for by George Soros, who abuses their power for purely political purposes. The case where I live in Butler County, Ohio, of Roger Reynolds is just as malicious an example of abuse of the law as the one leveled against President Trump. I’ve talked about the Roger Reynolds case before, he’s the former auditor for Butler County who was just sentenced to 30 days in jail after being found guilty of an improper interest in a public contract, and his sentencing came around the same time as the big public spectacle of the Democrats throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Trump to attempt to destroy his next run for President. I know more about the Roger Reynolds case than what Fox 19 News, who pushed the case along by blowing on it with the help of Sheriff Jones, will say in public. From the beginning, the case against Roger Reynolds was political. It was about two alpha political types who were fighting for supremacy within the Butler County Republican Party, and it was over family disputes more than anything. All the parties involved could be said to have an improper interest in public contracts with all the cross-pollination of family members that goes on in these cases, so what Roger did with his interest in a golf academy partnership with Lakota schools shouldn’t raise any eyebrows. Most reasonable people wouldn’t have given the matter a second look.

But Sheriff Jones obviously by his actions wanted to keep Roger Reynolds from running for another term and support another person for that auditor position, so he and David Yost, the Attorney General in Ohio, all of who consider themselves Republicans, decided to use the law to their advantage and knock off a political rival by applying it against Roger Reynolds. At first, they started with a number of allegations that caused the initial court case, all of which Roger was found innocent on. But at the end, right before the case went to trial, Sheriff Jones added another charge from way back into the last decade involving Lakota schools, which is always the source of some level of corruption in our community, and they added it to the prosecution’s pursuit of anything against Roger Reynolds to get him out of office. It was precisely the same kind of behavior that we witnessed from Democrats against President Trump, especially coming out of the office of Alvin Bragg. Legal analysis of the Bragg case has been laughable and is obviously all about abusing the law to knock off a political rival and to put them in jail to keep them from running for political office. Well, it’s not just Alvin Bragg or the Biden DOJ who are abusing their authority; we see the exact same thing going on in Butler County, Ohio, among Republicans fighting for power and abusing the law to do what they couldn’t do at a ballot box, destroy a person so they don’t have to deal with them within party politics. When it comes to Sheriff Jones, this behavior doesn’t surprise me. But the Attorney General of Ohio, David Yost, was pulled into it, which was very disappointing. Because you’d like to think that, as Republicans, they wouldn’t get themselves involved in that kind of behavior. Yet, here they were, throwing charges at a political rival until something sort of stuck. And that last charge involving Lakota only stuck because they didn’t give the defense much time to prepare for it. They arrived in court to listen to the witness from Jones, who has been close to the Sheriff for many years and were surprised by her testimony. I know all the characters very well, including the witness.   She was involved closely with the Matt Miller superintendent controversy and had just indicated that she was leaving Lakota schools as the treasurer because that story was about to explode. The Sheriff put his arms around all of them and helped them out in ways that could be scrutinized in the same way that Roger Reynolds was in court. But needless to say, the defense team for Roger Reynolds was put on their heels a bit, and a guilty verdict by the jury was applied because of the ambiguity left in the wake. It was an odd situation that left room for doubt. 

If the Roger Reynolds defense team could do it over, I think they would love to, but a judge batted away the request. The political pressure was too great to mount up any charge possible to ruin Roger Reynolds politically, and the court system wanted to move on. There was no pursuit of justice, as Sheriff Jones indicated, with many haughty comments in the wake of the sentencing. The Sheriff was gloating about his ability to destroy a political rival in the same way that Democrats have been in using the law to attempt to destroy President Trump. There was no pursuit of justice; it was all about destroying other people for purely political purposes. I see the fault in all these cases as more of a sporting problem. People trust the refs too much in these kinds of things, and there are always going to be malicious characters who take advantage of a gullible public to rig these games because they know people won’t pursue recourse because they want to trust the legal system, often to their own detriment. 

However, all too often, just like in sports, we see occasions where the refs rig the game for lots of reasons. It’s not the skill of the players in those games who win and lose; it’s how the game is called by the referees who do. Refs are only human; they have problems too. And they can get caught rooting for one team or another, and those calls for justice may not be equal depending on the players. As a society, we play sports as kids and learn team sports concepts, which I would argue ruins many people’s minds with the wrong values. But more than that, we learn to trust what the referees say, even if we don’t agree. And we take that malfunction into our adulthoods and then apply that same level of respect to the legal arena. We don’t typically question what a judge says or a sheriff. And we like to think that our state Attorney General would be above picking sides out of political alliances. But the truth is that they are not above such corruption. They are human, and when they have too much power, they are going to be tempted to abuse it. And that is clearly what happened with Roger Reynolds; he was the victim of an abuse of power by a political rival that wanted to knock him off the stage. And he probably trusted everyone involved in the process too much, ethically, which is an important lesson. He’s still the great guy that people voted for, and if he could run again, people would vote for him again. People see through this kind of phony prosecution, just as they do with Trump. But corruption is a very real thing, and it happens all too often. Just because they call themselves Republicans in Butler County, we have the same kind of thing going on that we find so objectionable with Alvin Bragg in New York. It happens more than people want to admit, and while it’s on everyone’s minds, it would be an excellent time to consider whether or not we want to trust what the refs say without more scrutiny. Because they are prone to human frailty, and if we trust them too much, they could ruin our society beyond repair. 

Rich Hoffman

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Nancy Nix is the New Butler County Auditor: Roger Reynolds files a Brady Motion that should prove his innocence from political theatrics and State activism of procedural misconduct

There is good news out there worth discussing, specifically that Nancy Nix is going to be sworn in on February 13th for the recently opened auditor job; she is undoubtedly the most qualified to provide a professional continuity to the great work that Roger Reynolds has done in that role for years. Nancy Nix is outstanding in her own way, which is why she was so easily picked to fill that vacancy after a recent trial against Roger Reynolds found him guilty on one of the charges, meaning he needed to step out of the job that voters had just popularly picked him for, knowing that there was a court case trying to establish that he had shown an unlawful interest in a public contract. Thinking back on the trial, which took place right before Christmas in 2022, there were seven charges in total, the seventh one came on during the summer of 2022, and that was the one that he was found guilty of, and it involved Lakota schools. Yes, the same Lakota schools that has had all the Matt Miller controversy, so there is plenty to talk about regarding that one. Once the trial started, Roger’s defense was able to get a charge waived, so this Lakota schools charge ended up being Count Six, and it specifically alleged that Roger Reynolds suggested a partnership between Lakota Schools and the Four Bridges Golf Club to expand an indoor golf training facility for the Lakota golf teams. Jenni Logan, the Lakota treasurer at the time, gave a testimony that the defense did not have adequate time to prepare for; they were caught by surprise by a number of things, which occurred because it was a late charge tossed on by the Sheriff’s office and the unique activism of the Attorney General, David Yost inspired procedural misconduct that left a one sided testimony that the jury sided with in the wake of further corresponding evidence to the contrary. 

Now I know all the characters in this story, and from my perspective, it was 100% politically inspired. You can tell by how the court case was either pushed out to accompany election results or rushed to prevent the defense from obtaining all the information they needed to argue everything in court. Of the original five counts, which were the bases of the case investigated by Sheriff Jones and his department, as reported by Channel 19 news, Roger Reynolds was found innocent on all those counts. This Count Six was added later, right before this case was set to go to court in the summer of 2022, as Jones and David Yost were trying to pressure Roger Reynolds to step down from his auditor role. Based on how things looked, and again, knowing some of the situation personally, it looks like they wanted to put overwhelming public pressure on Roger to avoid court since the system was stacked against him and open up that auditor seat for a pick more favorable to their political desires. That last part is my statement based on knowledge of the case. But it’s not hard to connect the dots; the trial was pushed back to a date after the 2022 election to see if Roger would win re-election, which he did. So the trial was used as a backstop to force him to be removed from office with one of those seven charges. And of those, only one stuck, the one that the defense had the least amount of time to prepare for, not surprisingly. 

However, after the trial, the defense obtained one of the Four Bridges emails that they indicated in a recently filed Brady Motion asking for a new trial just for Count Six that directly contradicts the testimony provided by Jenni Logan. The motion indicates that the prosecution knew of these emails, which weren’t revealed until after the trial because the State suppressed them. Not a surprise, given the political nature of this entire endeavor. I’ve read the Brady Motion filed by Roger’s defense team, which is consistent with what I thought about the case from the start. If the thousands of pages of documents and emails obtained by the State were applied, which they were fully aware of during the trial, but kept from the defense so they wouldn’t have time to prepare a proper defense, then that Count Six would have had a different resolution. One particular email referred to in the Brady Motion as the “Powell Email” directly contradicts the testimony of Jenni Logan, who was the sole witness by the State in support of Count Six. That specific email would have provoked the defense into calling testimony that would have inspired an innocence declaration based on the content, which is different from the Lakota treasurer’s memory of the case, which was quite old to begin with. As it turns out, Logan was interested in the proposal and was undoubtedly not pushed into any considerations.

The Brady Motion indicates that the State withheld material it knew to be exculpatory evidence, violating all kinds of laws. Now for context, the investigators in this trial are the same people who found Jenni Logan’s partner at Lakota schools, Superintendent Matt Miller, innocent of criminal wrongdoing when he admitted in a police report during this same period of time that the same people were prosecuting the Roger Reynolds case, that Miller’s police admission that he fantasized about “drugging, molesting, and video recording three kids from Lakota schools” was not criminal conduct. But Roger Reynolds, a respected Auditor of Butler County, abused his position by just thinking of a partnership between Lakota schools and the Four Bridges Country Club to help kids have a golf academy. To say the least, there is some procedural inconsistency, and that is being extremely polite. And both Jenni Logan and Matt Miller were offered jobs by mysterious forces to get away from the limelight at Lakota schools while things played out as a direct reaction to that Matt Miller police report. If this were not a political case, there likely would have never been a Count Six, let alone all the direct influence of the Attorney General’s office anyway. This case, from the beginning, was political and desired to abuse the control of the law to eliminate political rivals, which worked primarily regarding the suppression of evidence that looks to be intentional by the procedural renderings observed along the timeline. I think Roger has a good argument for a Brady Motion, and it would be well worth the effort and cost to ensure that a person found guilty of a felony has an opportunity at fairness. Not just for his sake but to repair the bad reputation that the court is now carrying because of this case. We want to show that the law cannot be used as a weapon, but as an arbiter of justice for everyone, no matter the political pressures.

Yet the biggest concern was that out of all this, Butler County taxpayers would lose the great work that had come out of the Auditor’s office. And now that Nancy Nix is stepping into that role, at least good government is returning to them, as Nancy has worked closely with Roger for a long time. Political turmoil is a constant hazard, especially when you do a good job and some people don’t want such a good job done. Roger Reynolds has undoubtedly been a target for political inspiration against him due to his high level of competence. And Nancy Nix as her own great person is great for that role. She will face many of the same forces, of course, but she is certainly skilled enough to navigate those dangers in her own way. But ultimately, we must make sure our courts work. In Roger’s case, if there is evidence that would find him innocent because right now he has a felony on his record that will last his entire life, and if he doesn’t deserve it, which based on the evidence suppressed by the State, appears to be the case, well then he should have a proper day in court to defend that charge, and not to be a victim of misconduct that uses the courts as a political weapon, rather than a defender of justice and honor. 

Rich Hoffman

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The Indictment of Roger Reynolds: Is it the pursuit of justice, or a political hit

I brag all the time about how great the Republican Party is in Butler County, and with the corruption indictment of Roger Reynolds that is the hot story this week, I still feel that way. Yet, I’ve known Roger for more than a decade, and I know him to be an excellent auditor for the people who elected him. As I said before, I view the land story that Channel 19 covered back in September of 2021 as a hit piece by Jennifer Edwards, who looks to target Republicans often in stories pitting people against each other to make news, not just reporting it. Her hit piece against Roger and other members of the Liberty Township trustees was obviously political, to attack the Republican brand ahead of the November election. Essentially as I see it, the Roger Reynolds story is one where old family entanglements can get mushy with the duties of an elected office. I find much of it hard to believe, and I think the story is mainly about emotions than logic. But for me, it doesn’t erase all the good work Roger has done over the years. And as I always say, the law is the same at 9 AM as it is at 9 PM or any other day of the week or year. If Roger broke the law, then the law should apply. However, watching Sheriff Jones’ face glow with glee during the indictment announcement made me think of some hypotheticals. Jones was too happy about the indictment, and some of the ways he said words in his presentation triggered questions that are worth consideration since what we are all talking about here are the ethics of an elected office and whether or not Roger Reynolds actually broke any laws, or that the case is a legal dispute between two parties over land. Did Roger abuse his office? Well, if we conclude that he did, doesn’t it open up a whole lot of questions about Sheriff Jones?

I’ve often thought of Sheriff Jones as a great asset to Butler County. But, since Trump left office and Joe Biden has been in the presidency, Jones has turned more into a Democrat than the guy who plays a Republican on TV and at public speeches. The way that Jones went after Congressman Thomas Hall over a voting record, with name-calling and sheer intimidation in public, comes to mind as an abuse of power of an elected office. Voters picked Thomas, yet the Sheriff made quite a public spectacle out of destroying his credibility on WLW radio to many thousands of people. I thought Thomas defended himself well, but the question remains about Sheriff Jones, what was he thinking in doing so? Was he trying to intimidate an officeholder, to exert power over the Republican Party of Butler County in ways that didn’t represent the voters? Surely not. But based on the kinds of things that Jones said in his press conference about the indictment of Roger Reynolds, doubt was indeed cast on the situation. Why would Sheriff Jones be so happy to bring about an indictment of a fellow Republican? His glee sounded as if he were a Democrat about to put a Republican in jail over some bogus charge, an allegation anybody could make against anybody. Given how the Sheriff treated Thomas Hall, might it not be logical to conclude that the Sheriff took a particular interest in the Reynolds case for some strategic move? For a local land dispute to make it to the Attorney General of Ohio directly, some political investment would have to be involved, raising eyebrows. 

Then there was the strange action on Sheriff Jones’ mask politics, where he had been leading the country against mandates. Suddenly, a few weeks ago, as the new school board at Lakota was getting set to vote to remove mask mandates, and the teacher’s union was all upset about it, Sheriff Jones flipped his position. It was an extraordinary move for him. What was going on? Well, I know more than I’m letting on here. But for the sake of the hypotheticals of this evolving case, questions are good to ask, especially in public figures who are declaring injustice among long-time Republicans in the team-building of party politics. I remember years ago when I published the pay rates of the local police departments, and I was shocked by how many family members Sheriff Jones had in many townships. It brought a question to my mind about Sheriff Jones himself and his relationship with members of Congress, senators, and area trustees. What was he really saying when he bragged about beating down some politician like Thomas Hall on city-wide radio? “Don’t get on my bad side. Or the same thing will happen to you.”  Whether or not that was the intention, I can say that I know many politicians who feel that way. Was that feeling created on purpose by the Sheriff? Is that part of his brand within the party? And is he really a Democrat trying to infiltrate the Republican Party with liberalism disguised as good ol’ fashion police work? 

Watching Jones stumble over the word “start” in his press conference, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was getting stuck trying to justify to himself how the investigation into Reynolds even started. By the way, I watched his body language. He acted like a guy who knew he was doing something wrong yet was trying to hide it behind justice. Thinking of all these things, I couldn’t help but wonder if some family member of Jones had worked in the office of Roger Reynolds and maybe had a falling out like many employees do with their bosses. With so much family on the government payroll, it would certainly be a conflict of interest if Jones was out in the county intimidating public officials into behaving the way he wanted them to, to protect his family members employed by some of those politicians. And if that were the case, which it may or may not be, how would it be different from what Jones was accusing Reynolds of doing, based on a Channel 19 report, meant to smear area Republicans and refer the investigation up the food chain to the Attorney General’s office, and smear the headlines all over the national news? It comes out looking like a lot of “unlawful use of authority” to me and many spoonfuls of “conflict of interest.”

If the law was broken, everyone should pay for their incursions. If Roger is guilty, then he is guilty. I would be surprised if he were, but I’ve seen plenty of railroad cases before, and this whole issue has the smell of a political hit. It looks like some kind of revenge scheme that is being hidden behind some token law and order façade. I hope that’s not the case. But if Roger is guilty, then where do we draw the line between public life and protecting family concerns? Roger might have made mistakes with his case because of family entanglements, things that he wouldn’t usually find himself involved in. But couldn’t the same be said when an officeholder, such as a sheriff, intimidates officeholders who employ family members? And what happens if there is some termination of employment? Would the Sheriff get personally involved? Would he retaliate? Well, he has shown the signs of that behavior. I’m sure we’ll find out. For now, I feel I need to defend my political party in my hometown from this embarrassment that the Sheriff has communicated to the world. Should we be mad at Roger? Or should we be angry at the Sheriff? Well, I want to see all wrongdoers get punished for their crimes. But are we talking about crime here, or are we talking about revenge? Time will tell, but politics is a blood sport, and to my way of thinking, I think these kinds of debates are necessary to make the best party possible under the most divisive circumstances that may emerge. 

Rich Hoffman

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