Decision still pending over $68,000 in attorney fees in Lorain County records lawsuit

ELYRIA — It will take more legal arguments before a visiting judge decides how much Lorain County will have to pay an Avon Lake man who had to sue the county in 2024 for public records held by former prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson's office. Visiting Judge Thomas Teodosio said Friday at the conclusion of an hourlong hearing in Lorain County Common Pleas Court that he would give plaintiff James Barilla and defendants including the Lorain County commissioners until after the holidays to make further arguments. Barilla and his attorney, Jonathan Rosenbaum, are asking the court to award them $68,000 in legal fees and expenses, "reasonable," they argued because they had to fight Tomlinson and Lorain County government for public records related to a $100,000 employment settlement Tomlinson paid his former employee and girlfriend, Jennifer Battistelli. Teodosio gave the parties until Jan. 15 to make additional written arguments. Former chief assistant Lorain County prosecutor Gerald Innes and Barilla testified on behalf of Barilla's case, and former chief assistant prosecutor Dan Petticord testified on behalf of the county. Innes, who retired from the prosecutor's office five years ago, testified that Rosenbaum's hourly rate of $350 seemed "very reasonable" given his legal experience and other factors. Barilla testified he agreed to pay Rosenbaum $350 per hour for his work and thought Rosenbaum deserved it for the work he did. Petticord, who helped Tomlinson draft the settlement agreement with Battistelli, was a defendant in the lawsuit until Teodosio dismissed him from it. He said he was aware when he negotiated the settlement in fall 2023 that Tomlinson and Battistelli were romantically involved. Petticord, who ran a losing campaign for Common Pleas judge in 2024, recused himself from representing Tomlinson in the settlement and an outside law firm took over negotiations. He testified he did that because he believed Barilla and Rosenbaum "would use this settlement against me politically." Petticord and Tomlinson are Democrats. Barilla is a Republican. "I felt strongly that my best personal interest would have been for the prosecutor to settle this matter and come out and make a statement about it and put it to rest. I thought that would be in my personal interest," Petticord testified. "I do not fully trust my feeling that that was also in the best interest of my client, so I felt that I had to recuse myself." Barilla sued Tomlinson and the commissioners in February 2024 to get records related to a $100,000 legal settlement Tomlinson paid Battistelli in 2023. He argued the settlement was excessive, illegal and done in secret, and asked the court to make Battistelli to pay the money back. Teodosio sided with the county in October, finding no wrongdoing in how the settlement was done. Battistelli was a former election campaign volunteer and client of Tomlinson who became his employee and girlfriend after he won the 2020 election. She resigned in late 2023, alleging discrimination and harassment in his office and wrote up, but never filed, a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Tomlinson initially refused to release the document, but Teodosio later forced him to. Tomlinson and his chief of staff, James Burge, were at one point charged with felonies for allegedly trying to get Battistelli to withdraw her allegations. Those charges were dismissed in Elyria Municipal Court in November 2024 when Battistelli failed to appear as a witness. Sheriff Jack Hall and special prosecutor James VanEerten, the elected Ottawa County prosecutor, are investigating whether Tomlinson broke the law in the Battistelli affair. Tomlinson and Burge have always denied wrongdoing. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.