By Cindi Andrews
Enquirer staff writer

U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel explained the facts of Hamilton County politics to a Washington, D.C., lawyer and gave a pop quiz to prominent local attorney Stanley Chesley on Wednesday.

He failed, however, to get the adversaries to agree on how to move forward with the county's case against the Bengals and the National Football League.

Hamilton County commissioners, represented by Chesley and Robert Furnier, are trying to take over a taxpayer's lawsuit that alleges the team and the league illegally used their monopoly power to coerce a new stadium and favorable lease terms out of the county in the 1990s.

Football officials deny the antitrust violations. But more to the point of Wednesday's hearing, they're challenging the validity of a lawsuit the commissioners want to join.

Spiegel ruled in February that Groesbeck resident Carrie Davis has a legal right to sue the Bengals and the NFL in federal court. The team and league disagreed.

They say the county shouldn't be allowed to take over a lawsuit the team and NFL believe is flawed in the first place.

"We don't want to litigate this case under a cloud," said Robert Pitcairn, the Bengals' attorney. "... It is a treacherous path that they are pushing us on."

Spiegel, attempting to keep the case moving, asked Chesley how else the county could get involved. Chesley didn't immediately come up with the answer Spiegel was looking for. (Answer: The county could intervene in the lawsuit.)

No matter, though, because Gregg Levy, the NFL's attorney, said letting the county intervene in the lawsuit is equally unacceptable.

Levy said he doesn't understand why the county doesn't just file a new lawsuit.

"You know what's been going on down here in Hamilton County?" Spiegel asked Levy, explaining some history behind the controversial case.

The county prosecutor is trying to stop commissioners from hiring Chesley to pursue the case. "There's a lot going on before getting to the merits of the case."

Prosecutor Mike Allen, who is independently elected, is fighting Commissioners Todd Portune and Phil Heimlich in both state and federal courts, but he has so far been unsuccessful.

Commissioners say they were forced to sue because of the increasing likelihood of a county financial crisis.

The half-cent stadium tax passed by voters in 1996 was supposed to pay for the Bengals' Paul Brown Stadium and the Reds' Great American Ball Park. Because of a slowdown in retail sales, however, the stadium fund will probably need extra money starting in 2006 or 2007.

Chesley said the Bengals' and NFL's objections are delaying tactics to put off the day they have to let him see internal documents and interview football officials to prepare for trial. An appeals court review would take 18 months, and filing a new lawsuit would set the case back six months, he said.

"That's a message to say, 'Don't take on the Bengals and the NFL,' " Chesley said. "And guess what? They win."

Both sides now await Spiegel's decision.

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com