Carrie Davis filed a similar lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Aug. 31 but amended the complaint Sunday citing a different Ohio law.

MIKE ALLEN SCANDAL

• Special section: Mike Allen coverage

She filed the complaint on behalf of Hamilton County taxpayers. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Crush is presiding over the case.

The law on which the new complaint is based gives a judge the power to suspend an elected official when it becomes apparent he or she might have violated any provision of Ohio's code of conduct for attorneys, Davis says.

Rebecca Collins, 33, an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor, filed a federal lawsuit last month accusing Allen of coercing her into an affair, having sex with her during office hours and threatening to ruin her career if she stopped seeing him. Collins' suit alleges that Allen sexually harassed and discriminated against her. Her suit, in which she also names the county board of commissioners as defendants, seeks unspecified monetary damages and job promotions she claims she was denied.

Allen's lawyer, Michael Hawkins, has called Collins' accusations "outrageous and false" and said his client's 31/2-year relationship with Collins was consensual.

Davis said Allen violated the state's code of conduct by having sex with a subordinate, violating his office's sexual harassment policy and using taxpayer money to fund his affair.

"To me, this provision of the law is so strong that it provides the court - if it chooses - to immediately suspend Allen based on the information before him," Davis said.

A date for a hearing in the case has not been set.

Davis argues that the law doesn't say Allen must be convicted of a crime, but says the judge must act if he may be guilty. No standard of proof is required, she said.

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's office is investigating the sexual-harassment complaint and how the prosecutor's office responded to the allegation. The investigation came at the request of Allen's office.

Hawkins has argued in the last month that Davis' complaint has no merit because she doesn't qualify as a taxpayer and hasn't paid her filing fee.

He has asked Crush to dismiss the case.

Davis filed the original complaint as an indigent, saying she was unable to pay the costs and charges involved.

Hawkins adds that even if the court moves forward with the case, it's a moot point because Allen has withdrawn his name from the Nov. 2 ballot for re-election to the office.

Allen's term ends when the candidate elected in November takes office in the first week in January.

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