By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEBANON - A veteran magistrate in two Warren County courts was forced to resign from one of his jobs after he was accused of dishonesty for skipping out early from a county-paid legal seminar.

But the attorney said he did nothing wrong and questions whether he was forced out by county GOP politics.

Jeff Richards said Judge Mike Powell told him to resign as magistrate in Juvenile Court a day after word went out that Mr. Richards was seeking appointment to the Domestic Relations seat that comes open next month when Judge James Flannery moves over to a general Common Pleas judgeship.

County Prosecutor Tim Oliver has expressed interest in the seat.

"I don't know if it had anything to do with it. But it makes sense," Mr. Richards said.

Judge Powell denied the allegation.

"It's absolutely not true," he said. "I was completely unaware, when I asked for Jeff's resignation, that he had communicated to anyone in the party that he was interested in the job." He characterized the reason for the firing as "a breach of trust."

"It is a coincidence," Judge Powell said of the political aspects. "I took no pleasure in firing Jeff. None at all. Unless there was some valid and legitimate reason to do it, I certainly would not have."

Mr. Richards, who has been reprimanded in the past for disrespectful treatment of parties involved in his court cases, was forced out of his 14-year job at Warren County Juvenile Court on Nov. 27 following allegations that he skipped the last day of a legal seminar the county paid him to attend Nov. 13-15 at Mohican State Park in Perrysville.

Court personnel records show that Mr. Richards instead traveled about 60 miles to Columbus for an unrelated legal conference on mayor's court and drunken driving cases, which was required to keep his magistrate's job in Waynesville Mayor's Court. Mr. Richards makes $3,600 annually for presiding over the twice-monthly Mayor's Court sessions.

Warren County paid for the $150 Perrysville seminar, as well as Mr. Richards' salary of $320 a day for two days of the conference, representing time he normally would have been paid to sit on the Juvenile Court bench.

Mr. Richards, who was paid $40 an hour for 24 hours a week at Juvenile Court, received authorization from the judge in September for the Perrysville seminar. Records show he applied in October and paid $120 for the separate mayor's court conference, which was sponsored by the Ohio Municipal League.

"Technically (the county) would have paid me for Wednesday and Friday. I went to the seminar Wednesday and Thursday, so they got two days worth. That's what they were paying me for anyway," Mr. Richards said.

"They called me in and said, `You should have taken a vacation day.' I said, `Sure, fine, I'll take a vacation day.' Then they said (it was) too late. I still don't think I did anything wrong."

The county received a $50 reimbursement from the Ohio Supreme Court's Judicial College for the missed conference day.

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com