HAMILTON — More than two years after the alleged crimes, an attorney and former judge is scheduled for trial today on charges in connection with a Butler County political party fund-raising scandal.

        Mark A. Conese, 44, has denied the allegations that Conese
       led the Ohio Secretary of State to remove him from his post on the Butler elections board.

        On March 1, 2000, Brent Dixon, a part-time elections board employee, secretly tape-recorded a meeting with Mr. Conese and Donald Daiker, then-chairman of the county's Democratic Party. On the tape, the two men tell Mr. Dixon that he and similar employees would be required to surrender their after-tax salaries (about $4,800) to keep their jobs.

        The incident sent ripples through Butler's already-tense political climate, especially after it helped push Mr. Dixon's moneyed, influential family to switch from Democrat to Republican in the GOP-dominated county.

        The fallout continues.

        Many of the county's most prominent political figures have been subpoenaed to testify in the trial, and Mr. Conese has several layers of possible punishment hanging over his head: prison time, action against his law license, an Ohio Elections Commission fine, and being barred from holding any public job in Ohio for seven years, which could adversely affect his public-employees' retirement pay. Mr. Conese is a former domestic relations court judge.

        He stands accused of misconduct of an elections board member, a fourth-degree felony carrying a possible 18-month prison term, and a misdemeanor charge of soliciting or receiving improper compensation.

        Mr. Daiker, who was fined $1,000 by the Ohio Elections Commission, has not been criminally charged.

        He has been subpoenaed to testify in Mr. Conese's trial.

        Other notables under subpoena include: Mr. Dixon; Mason Municipal Court Judge George M. Parker; Butler Elections Board Director Robert Mosketti; Butler Elections Board Deputy Director Betty McGary; Butler County Commissioner Michael A. Fox and former Butler GOP Chairman Carlos Todd.

        To avoid conflicts of interest for local officials, Mr. Conese's politically charged case has been assigned to Visiting Judge Jeffrey E. Froelich. And Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper handed the case to Steve Tolbert, a former assistant prosecutor in Hamilton County who was not connected to Butler County officials at the time of the alleged infractions.

        The trial by jury is expected to last about three days in the Old Courthouse.

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