Judge rejects request for restraining order over Sheriff's searches of county buildings

A judge has denied a request by the Lorain County commissioners for a restraining order preventing county Sheriff Jack Hall from looking at potential evidence he and investigators from his office seized Thursday after they served search warrants on county offices. Visiting Judge Thomas Teodosio, whom the Ohio Supreme Court appointed to oversee a separate civil case in which Hall is suing commissioners for greater access to and control over Lorain County 911, declined to intervene in the criminal case at the request of commissioners. The retired 9th District Court of Appeals and Summit County Common Pleas judge wrote that he didn't have the authority to grant the commissioners' request to prevent Hall from examining what was seized in dual searches at Lorain County 911 headquarters on Burns Road and from computer servers in the basement of the County Administration Building on Middle Avenue in Elyria. "While the search warrant and the discovery requests in the civil case may seek production of the same documents, this court is without authority to make a ruling with respect to material seized pursuant to a criminal search warrant issued by another Lorain County Common Pleas Court judge in a separate criminal investigation," Teodosio wrote. Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery, who along with his five fellow Common Pleas judges had recused himself from the civil case to avoid any appearance of impropriety, signed the criminal search warrants. Teodosio wrote that he was only assigned to the civil case. His assignment "does not include any criminal matter involving the criminal search warrants described," he wrote. Commissioners alleged that Hall was seeking to use the evidence his investigators seized as part of the ongoing lawsuit. Hall and his investigators denied this, saying the search warrants were police work related to an ongoing criminal investigation into a former vendor who had contracts with Lorain County 911. That vendor is being investigated to determine if it obtained improper access to secure and sensitive computerized law enforcement databases such as Ohio LEADS, which stands for Law Enforcement Automated Data System. The Chronicle-Telegram requested records related to that vendor's contracts with Lorain County. The ruling was handed down a day after the commissioners' private but taxpayer-funded attorneys from the law firm Gembala, McLaughlin & Pecora in Sheffield asked Teodosio to stop Hall from reviewing any of the materials, calling the searches a "vendetta." "While the warrant suggests investigation of a crime, this entire operation is nothing more than a political stunt and a backdoor means of obtaining discovery to gain leverage in" the civil case, attorney Stephen Bosak wrote. "The sheriff's unlawful motives are plain for all to see." Hall's private but taxpayer-funded attorneys from the Avon-based law firm of Wickens Herzer Panza on Friday asked Teodosio to reject the request. Teodosio "cannot issue any ruling interfering with the sheriff's performance of his duties" in the criminal case, attorney Michael Nakon wrote, and the judge agreed. Hall and the commissioners — Marty Gallagher, David Moore and Jeff Riddell — are Republicans, and have been feuding for months. Commissioners have said Hall's motive for the search warrants not only was to help his civil case, but that it was political as Riddell is running for reelection in the May 5 primary against challenger Will Schlechter. Hall said his actions weren't political. He called it "very premature" to accuse commissioners of any criminal wrongdoing. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.