Thursday, September 02, 1999
Sheriff Leis no stranger to political controversy
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The career of Hamilton County Sheriff Simon L. Leis has been marked by one political fight after another, and, in most of them, he threw the first punch.
Since he became county prosecutor in 1971, and later as a common pleas judge and county sheriff, he has been a lightning rod for controversy. And most of the controversy has centered on Mr. Leis' longstanding crusade against pornography.
The national spotlight was first focused on Mr. Leis in 1977, when, as county prosecutor, he gained a conviction against Hustler publisher Larry Flynt for pandering obscenity.
The conviction was later overturned, but Mr. Leis was successful in running X-rated businesses out of the county.
Mr. Leis also stirred controversy as prosecutor by pursuing producers of the stage play Oh, Calcutta! which contained nude scenes, and going after an X-rated distribution warehouse in Blue Ash.
From 1982 to 1987, he was on the common pleas bench, but he voluntarily left the bench in 1987 to be appointed sheriff.
In 1990, many in the community thought he went too far when he tried and failed to get a conviction against the Contemporary Arts Center for its dis play of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs.
In 1995, Mr. Leis was furious at then-County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters, after Mr. Deters decided against prosecuting a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Kenwood on pornography-related charges brought by Mr. Leis.
The two feuded publicly, much the way the sheriff and Mike Allen, Mr. Deters' successor as prosecutor, are now locked in a battle over Mr. Leis filing his own lawsuits and bypassing the county prosecutor's office.
Riverfront designers may take cue from Louisville
Sheriff filed dozens of lawsuits
Sheriff Leis no stranger to political controversy
Whose fault is it when we lose doctors?
Ex-Miami students found not guilty
Riverfest solution may be the bus
Labor Day is summer's final 'full party time'
Study links gene with blood clots
Subpoenas issued over Booth residence
Insurers win in legal opinion
Mahoney case puts focus on DUI law
Teacher union wants to recruit for CPS
Emissions tests start after 5-year delay
Second hidden pregnancy causes family new anguish
Slices of not-so-ordinary life in Northern Ky.
Airport operators plead guilty
Arrest no solace to victim's family
Cincinnati SAT verbal score rises
City officials woo Chabot
Clogged Ky. 16 defies easy fixes
Orange barrels demand a polka
Sculpture takes viewers online
Naked Cowboy gets even more exposure
GET TO IT
Governor's race prime political entertainment
Acclaim for Middletown 'dynamo'
Arlington mayor race heating up
Boone development: Draw a line?
Burglary call leads to marijuana drug bust
Cleveland suburb starts writing tickets for phoning while driving
College math hard for grads
Deters: Turn tobacco pact into cash
Fairfield to conduct citizens police course
Ludlow mayor denied his say
School cafeteria's gone; cafe is in
TRISTATE DIGEST
Upcoming: updated uptown Oxford
Volunteers labor to finish park
