Complaint: Endorsements of Rich Resendez campaign for Lorain County sheriff in 2024 broke the law (UPDATED)

This story has been updated with a statement from the Lorain County Corrections Union. A former elected official has filed a complaint with local and state officials claiming that Rich Resendez, one of two Democratic candidates for sheriff in the March 19 primary, is breaking the law by using the support of public law enforcement unions to further his goal of being elected in 2024. Musto Complaint Letter can be read at tinyurl.com/9xmb26vr Mike Musto, a former Columbia Township trustee, sent a letter to Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson dated Feb. 19 demanding an investigation into Resendez's campaign. In it, he said he was "greatly disturbed by the behavior" of Resendez "in his political pursuit for the office of Lorain County Sheriff." Resendez is an employee of Tomlinson's office. The former Lorain police officer and sheriff's office commander is campaigning to be sheriff following incumbent Sheriff Phil Stammitti's decision not to run for another term. Now a resident of North Ridgeville, Musto wrote that the actions of Resendez and other law enforcement officials named in his complaint "have eroded the confidence in the election process by attempting to wrongfully influence the outcome of the 2024 primary election." Resendez is in a primary fight with Rick Thomas, the former police chief in North Ridgeville, former Lorain County Community College Police Academy commander and the current director of corrections at the county sheriff's office. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Jack Hall in the November general election. Hall is unopposed in the March 19 Republican primary. Musto's letter alleges "criminal culpability" of other police officers, including sheriff's deputies and corrections officers, and asks Tomlinson to present his complaint to the Ohio Attorney General's Office for review. Fourteen other law enforcement officers — including officers of the Lorain County Deputies Association union, county jail corrections officers, a former corrections officer currently facing criminal assault charges for allegedly beating a jail inmate, a Lorain police officer, a Sheffield police officer, and a U.S. Department of Homeland Security special agent — are named in Musto's complaint. The letter is copied to the Lorain County Board of Elections, Ohio Elections Commission, Ohio Ethics Commission and attorney general's office. Musto said Tuesday that he is out of Lorain County politics for good, but still wanted to "do something to help Lorain County." He said he is tired of "back door, against-the-law stuff" and believes that the deputies association and other unions like it are breaking the law when they endorse political candidates. Musto said he's backing Hall for sheriff in 2024. "I always back Republicans if they're OK, if they're good people," he said. "I haven't seen anything to make me not like him." Musto said he would have filed an identical complaint like the one he has against Resendez if a union backed Hall for sheriff. Musto isn't a fan of Thomas, either, he said. If Hall wasn't running for sheriff, "I wouldn't vote for anybody" for the job, he said. Filing the complaint is "what I have left to do, I do want to see Lorain County get cleaned up," he said, saying he's been worried about the direction the county has taken since the 2010s. Resendez said Tuesday that he believes the complaint is simply "a political attack" on him. "I believe I'm the front-runner in this current campaign, in my opinion," he said, "and that this is a political attack on the men and women in law enforcement in the county and specifically on the men and women of the Lorain County Sheriff's Office." In a statement Tuesday, Tomlinson said he had reviewed Musto's complaint and a letter "alerting me to the fact that many of the Lorain County Sheriff deputies are wearing T-shirts promoting the candidacy of Rich Resendez for sheriff." "Mr. Musto complains that the deputies should not be engaging in political activity. I do not supervise the deputies and have no control over their political activity," Tomlinson wrote in a statement to the Chronicle-Telegram on Tuesday. "Rich Resendez, however, is not a classified employee and is permitted to engage in political activity." "Moreover, Mr. Musto's complaint involves a civil matter. I have no authority over civil matters outside of those that involve county business. I intend to contact Mr. Musto in the next few days so that we can discuss the matter in as much detail as he would like," the elected prosecutor wrote. In a statement provided to The Chronicle on Tuesday, Adam Shaw, president of the Lorain County Deputies Association, called it "unfortunate that the race for Lorain County Sheriff has turned into this." "As this is not the first time members of our union have been 'complained' about regarding this race, we fully expected this and more to come," he wrote. "It's sad to see attempts to silence members of the LCDA from having any opinion if it does not match others. We have turned everything over to our legal team, the Fraternal Order of Police Ohio Labor Council, and would direct any further inquiries to them." David Edwards, Lorain County Corrections Union director, also weighed in on Musto's complaint in a statement to The Chronicle. "If candidate Jack Hall was behind Mr. Musto filing this complaint it was out of desperation," he wrote. "If Mr. Musto filed this complaint on his own behalf then he should better educate himself on election rules. Those named in the Corrections Division, including my supervisor did absolutely nothing wrong. As well as the endorsement by the Lorain County Deputies (Association) endorsing a candidate." In his complaint, Musto alleged that Resendez, while serving as Tomlinson's appointed deputy chief of staff for operations and personnel and also holding a commission as a reserve police officer with the Lorain Police Department, "solicited … classified civil servants to pose with him for multiple campaign advertisements that were posted on Facebook" starting in October. Resendez also sought political endorsements from them and from fraternal police organizations in violation of state and federal law, he wrote. Campaign materials showed sheriff's office employees and others posing with Resendez and wearing "Rich Resendez for Sheriff" T-shirts in photographs on "partisan campaign materials." One sheriff's deputy, Jason Smith, was wearing his uniform in one of the photos. Quoting Ohio law, Musto wrote that civil service employees are forbidden from taking part in partisan political campaigning other than to vote or express political opinions. The officers "knew or should have known their actions well surpassed their right to vote and freely express political opinions and Resendez knew or should have known the solicitation of their likenesses … violated the law," Musto wrote. He went on to provide examples of the deputies and officers posing for photos at events including the Sheffield Township Community Days event in October and the Operation Open Heart Breakfast with Santa in December, which were posted on the Resendez for Sheriff Facebook page. In a letter signed by Shaw, the deputies association endorsed Resendez on Jan. 23. Musto said that violates the Hatch Act. The 1939 Hatch Act "limits certain political activities of federal employees, as well as some state, D.C., and local government employees who work in connection with federally funded programs," according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel's website. "The law's purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation. " The Lorain Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 also improperly endorsed Resendez two days after the deputies association did, Musto wrote. Other police employees allegedly used government resources to solicit potential endorsements for Tomlinson and Resendez in their ongoing election campaigns, he wrote. Musto's complaint further states that former Lorain County Jail corrections officer Ruben Ortiz, who is facing misdemeanor charges in Elyria Municipal Court for allegedly assaulting an inmate in the jail in August, was "directly or indirectly" solicited by Resendez "to aid in the success and promotion of his campaign." Ortiz has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. He has filed for arbitration and is contesting his firing by Sheriff Phil Stammitti in November, according to Musto's complaint. Overall, Resendez "has engaged in reckless behavior which is expressly forbidden by law with respect to the public servant's office," Musto wrote, asking the attorney general's office to investigate "and take appropriate and swift legal action against the parties named." Tomlinson wrote a two-paragraph memo to Resendez in August, saying that running for elected office while employed with him "is prohibited unless permission is specifically granted by me." The memo gave Resendez that permission, according to a copy reviewed by the Chronicle-Telegram, which Tomlinson "conditioned on your maintenance of the expected professional standards of performance and behavior in both your professional and political efforts." Contact Dave O'Brien at dobrien@chroniclet.com.