The latest allegation, contained in court documents filed last week, claims that attorney Ken Lawson used a client to shoplift suits for him.

        More on that later. First, a primer on the lawsuit's cast of characters:

        Mr. Lawson has accused Cincinnati Vice Mayor Alicia Reece of attempting to interfere in his attorney-client relationship with Angela Leisure.

        Mrs. Leisure, of course, is the mother of Timothy Thomas, whose shooting by Officer Stephen Roach sparked last year's riots. The lawsuit claims that the vice mayor tried to force her to fire Mr. Lawson and accept a low-ball settlement from the city.

        The middleman for this alleged conspiracy was limo company owner James Washington, a close confidant of the vice mayor's. In his answer to the lawsuit last week, Mr. Washington's lawyer, R. Scott Croswell, levels the following allegations:

        • Nadine Weaver, the Washington employee who set up the meeting between Mr. Washington and Mrs. Leisure, is “a hustler, a professional thief and a professional shoplifter” who told Mr. Washington she shoplifted fur coats and suits for Mr. Lawson.

        • Mr. Washington, who is also African-American, believes Mr. Lawson “uses race as an issue for his personal gain.”

        Mr. Lawson's lawyers said the allegations are preposterous and that his business suits, like his lawsuits, are custom-tailored.

        “It's an attempt to shovel as much mud as possible into a court filing in order to damage the reputations of Mr. Lawson and Mrs. Leisure,” said lawyer Scott Greenwood.

        Mr. Croswell did not return a call seeking comment. But Ms. Reece's lawyer, Ross Wright, said Mr. Washington's response vindicates her because Mr. Washington says the vice mayor never asked him to interfere.

        “It substantiates what we've said all along,” he said.
        Your tax money: Cincinnati's Arts Allocation Committee recently doled out $30,099 in direct subsidies to local artists.

        Among the works commissioned: $4,000 to choreographer Diane Natalie Germaine for a new dance titled All Fall Down; $3,750 to sculptor Merle Rosen for bronze sculptures and reliefs with dream symbology; and $2,089 for an interdisciplinary work by David Timothy Rohs called The Ashes.

        According to the committee's report, Mr. Rohs' work involves a room, a scale model of the city, an ash-scattering mechanism, and photography.

        Also receiving funding was olk musician Jake Speed, who got $2,880 to record an album.

        While he's convinced every music critic in town that Jake Speed is his real name, it's really Jeremiah S. Riordan.

        He's the son of Deputy City Manager Tim Riordan.

        Globe-trotting: Russian has become the unofficial second language of Cincinnati City Hall.

        City Manager Valerie Lemmie has announced plans to translate the city's Web site (which, for varied and nonsensical reasons, is actually at www.rcc.org) into Spanish. But after that, she'd like to have other languages as well — beginning with Russian.

        Chto vy skazali?

        That's right, Russian. As Councilman Chris Monzel points out, Russians comprise the second fastest-growing immigrant population in Cincinnati.

        Mr. Monzel spent a year in Belarus teaching English. Councilman David Pepper once worked in St. Petersburg for then-Vice Mayor Vladimir Putin. And Ms. Lemmie — a self-described Russophile — said she's picked up some Russian herself in trips there over the last decade.

       City Hall reporter Gregory Korte can be reached at 768-8391 or gkorte@enquirer.com.
       

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