Wednesday, January 12, 2000
Auditor doesn't trust prosecutor to be her counsel
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — The Butler County auditor says the county prosecutor isn't doing his job — and she wants someone to replace him as her office's legal counsel.
“I believe you can no longer represent fairly and impartially my interests as auditor, or the interests of the auditor's office,” Kay Rogers wrote in a letter Tuesday to Prosecutor John F. Holcomb.
The pair have been at odds over a number of issues, including Mr. Holcomb's recent filing of an Ohio Ethics Commission complaint against Ms. Rogers. The Democratic prosecutor claims Ms. Rogers, a Republican, misused her position for personal benefit. Ms. Rogers denies that.
Mr. Holcomb said Tuesday he hadn't yet received Ms. Rogers' letter.
“I have always represented her office well, and there never has been any complaint about it,” he said.
As county prosecutor, Mr. Holcomb is charged with providing legal services for county offices in addition to handling criminal matters. However, some county offices
recently have expressed dissatisfaction with his office's work; the county commissioners employ their own attorney but still consult with Mr. Holcomb's staff.
Ms. Rogers' letter says she is concerned that conflicts of interest and political motives are influencing how his office deals with hers.
Citing a procedure outlined in state law, Ms. Rogers wrote to ask the county commissioners and Mr. Holcomb to jointly apply to the county common pleas court to appoint another lawyer for her office.
She also wrote to Michael Sage, the court's chief administrative judge, and said: “It is my expectation that Mr. Holcomb will sit on this and not take any action. If this is the case ... I ask that the court consider such action as an abuse of discretion by the prosecutor and provide the necessary authorization.”
Mr. Holcomb didn't say how he might respond to Ms. Rogers' re quest. But Michael A. Fox, County Commission vice president, said he hopes Mr. Holcomb goes along with the request to name another attorney.
“I would think that John would respect an officeholder's right to be represented by counsel that they can trust and acts purely in the interest of the public. It's clear that the relationship between John and Kay doesn't lend itself to the kind of relationship that an officeholder needs with their attorney,” Mr. Fox said.
Ms. Rogers said she thinks Mr. Holcomb, whose campaign fund-raising practices she criticized in October, is “too busy playing politics right now by trying to dig up dirt on other officeholders.”
She said he retaliates against his critics, which is why he brought ethics allegations against her a year and a half after one of the incidents occurred.
Mr. Fox said: “You want your lawyer to help keep you out of trou ble, not work hard to get you into it.”
Mr. Holcomb alleges that Ms. Rogers in April 1998 improperly used county employees and equipment to clean her flooded basement. Ms. Rogers said that the employees used personal vacation time to help her and that one employee who drove to her house in a county car reimbursed the county for gas mileage.
He also alleges that she tried to use her position to influence the outcome of a criminal case involving a man she's dating. Ms. Rogers acknowledged that she called a victim's advocate in November 1999, but she says the purpose was to discourage the man's ex-wife from contacting him or Ms. Rogers.
Ms. Rogers said such domestic conflicts occur between many couples, and they're not criminal, so she feels singled out.
However, Mr. Holcomb replied: “She wasn't singled out at all. ... I'm not going to sweep it under the rug.”
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