BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Veteran lawyer Doris Houser Allen was indicted Tuesday for her role in the jailing of an innocent man.
A Hamilton County grand jury charged her with perjury, tampering with records and tampering with evidence in a domestic violence case.
"We aren't going to turn our backs on this kind of violation of the law," Prosecutor Joseph Deters said. "There is a difference between puffing (up a case) and lying. This is so clearly over the line."
Mr. Deters said Ms. Allen, of Walnut Hills, would receive a summons to appear in court.
If convicted, all three felonies carry possible probation. Otherwise, she could face up to 5 1/2 years in prison.
Ms. Allen's legal problems began when the Cincinnati Bar Association (CBA) said she dictated false charges and vouched for the lies when client Sylvia Huff filled in the affidavit required for a temporary protective order and criminal complaint.
As a result of that affidavit, estranged boyfriend Dwayne E. Harris spent one night in jail and five weeks awaiting trial before Ms. Huff recanted and charges were dismissed.
CBA sent its accusation to the state Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline, where Ms. Allen acknowledged: "I shaded the facts because it's necessary to do that on a criminal complaint. . . . It was perjury, (but) my motives were pure."
The board asked the Ohio Supreme Court to suspend her license for six months, but it refused without explanation. Stunned, CBA asked the Supreme Court to reconsider a disciplinary ruling for the first time in more than 15 years.
"It doesn't matter what idiotic remarks I made, I didn't commit perjury," Ms. Allen told The Cincinnati Enquirer -->last month. "I don't feel like I admitted anything. . . . I didn't lie."
She said Ms. Huff couldn't afford a custody case, so she did the best she could for the $500 her client could pay: She helped her fill out the Municipal Court affidavit.
"The evidence did not show that I helped her lie or that she lied," Ms. Allen said.
The affidavit said:
"Defendant recently released from penitentiary on charge of felonious assault with gun spec. Appeared twice on 3-25 and 3-26 at Roberts Paideia Academy and threatened me and my three small children. Defendant is armed and dangerous. I fear for my children's safety. They are afraid to attend school."
Ms. Huff said she told Ms. Allen that much of what she was dictating was false: Mr. Harris came to the school only once; he did not threaten her or the children there; she did not know whether Mr. Harris was armed and dangerous; and she did not know what a "gun specification" was.
