By Cindi Andrews
Enquirer staff writer

Hamilton County is now officially suing the Cincinnati Bengals and the National Football League.

U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel on Monday granted the county's request to take over a taxpayer lawsuit that accuses the Bengals of illegally using their monopoly power to get a new stadium and favorable lease terms.

Spiegel's ruling also frees the county to begin requesting sensitive internal Bengals and NFL documents relevant to the case and to begin interviewing football officials.

"This order says that discovery starts now," County Commissioner Todd Portune said. "We'll finally be able to get at the information that was withheld from this community from the very beginning."

The federal lawsuit contends that team owner Mike Brown falsely claimed in the mid-1990s that the Bengals needed a new stadium to make enough money to field a competitive team. The league added to the pressure by limiting the number of new franchises, forcing cities to compete to get and keep teams.

Hamilton County voters responded by approving a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for both Paul Brown Stadium and the Reds' Great American Ball Park.

Bond payments and stadium operations will cost the county almost $1.15 billion over the next 28 years.

The suit seeks up to $600 million in damages.

The trial could take place in January or February, said Stanley Chesley, the attorney hired to represent the county.

"This is a very important decision," Chesley said Monday. "I think this will be a landmark antitrust case."

Spokesmen for the Bengals and the NFL said they had not yet reviewed Spiegel's ruling Monday and could not comment.

Their attorneys had argued that the current plaintiff - Groesbeck resident Carrie Davis - didn't have the right to sue and if the case wasn't valid to begin with, the county couldn't take it over. They asked Spiegel to let the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals review Davis' standing before the case went forward. The judge rejected that request Monday.

"Upon careful consideration - and reconsideration - the court remains confident that its earlier conclusion regarding Davis' standing ... was hardly 'clear error,' and was and is correct," Spiegel said in his ruling. "The court finds it notable that the (Bengals and NFL) were unable to cite any 6th District precedent that specifically prohibited or found improper the decision reached in the earlier order."

It was that earlier ruling - an 81-page opinion concluding that Davis had a legitimate case - that prompted the county to get involved.

Portune originally sued as an individual in May 2003 after he couldn't get a second vote for the commissioners to sue. He also filed a lawsuit in state court that was thrown out.

Davis took over the federal lawsuit for Portune when he learned his participation prevented him from voting on related issues as a commissioner. Spiegel's February ruling convinced Commissioner Phil Heimlich to give Portune the second vote he needed to put the county in the suit.

They hired Chesley and attorney Robert Furnier to represent the county in the case, despite the objections of Commissioner John Dowlin and Prosecutor Mike Allen. Allen is still appealing the hiring in court.

But with the immediate legal hurdles cleared, Chesley said Monday he already knows whom he wants to depose, or interview, first: Bob Bedinghaus.

As county commissioner in the 1990s, Bedinghaus championed the construction of two stadiums. He has worked for the Bengals since cost overruns at Paul Brown Stadium cost him his county office in 2000.

The NFL, which is protective of its finances, also faces the specter of the court requiring that information be shared with the county.

Portune and Heimlich say they remain open to settling the case by renegotiating the Bengals' lease. It is one of the most generous in the NFL, requiring $11.7 million in rent payments in the first nine years, no rent the second nine years and county payments to the Bengals in the final nine years. It also gives the team some control over riverfront development.

"My only interest is in getting a lease that's fair to the taxpayers and fair to the team," Heimlich said.

---

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com