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Michael D. Pitman reports about Butler County, Ohio, politics, county government, countywide issues and Butler County people just like you for Cox Ohio Publishing (including the Hamilton JournalNews, Middletown Journal and several weekly papers in Butler County). He wants your suggestions and questions for more news stories. Leave a comment for him here or e-mail Michael at Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2011 > January > 31
Monday, January 31, 2011
Prosecutor candidate makes a plea
Assistant prosecutor Jason Phillabaum is asking the Butler County Commission to appoint a neutral party as interim Butler County Prosecutor. The current prosecutor, Robin Piper, is finished with the office as of midnight Monday and will be on the bench of the 12th District Court of Appeals.
On Feb. 8, the Butler County GOP Central Committee — as mandated by law — will choose someone to fill Piper’s unexpired term which ends in 2012.
Phillabaum is one of four candidates for the spot. The others are: defense attorney Michael T. Gmoser, former Butler County assistant prosecutor Lance Salyers and West Chester Twp. Police Chief Erik Niehaus (who is an attorney).
Here is Phillabaum’s plea. What are your thoughts?
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This post has been updated as of 4:19 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31.
On Tuesday morning, the Butler County Commission will vote to name an interim county prosecutor to temporarily take over for Robin Piper — who was elected in November to serve on the 12th District Court of Appeals.
Today, however, the commission decided not to discuss the appointment of a temporary successor, though Commissioner Don Dixon asked his colleagues to have an executive session to do just that.
When Dixon made the motion, neither commissioner spoke up in agreement.
So the obvious question is: Why not? Why not have an executive session to discuss the appointment?
Dixon was confused by the lack of discussion, but declined to comment about the no-vote. Commissioner Chuck Furmon said he’ll discuss the appointment Tuesday morning. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter could not be reached as of this posting (I’ll up date it if I hear from her).
According to Tuesday’s agenda, no one was listed appoint. Now when the board needed to make a temporary appointment for the Butler County Clerk of Courts position, the commission listed on its agenda days before to name Jeff Wyrick as acting/interim clerk. Wyrick was also a candidate to fill term vacated by Carpenter, who had won a seat on the county commission.
The four candidates for the post are Butler County assistant prosecutor Jason Phillabaum, defense attorney Michael T. Gmoser, former Butler County assistant prosecutor Lance Salyers, and West Chester Twp. Police Chief Erik Niehaus (who is an attorney).
A shredded conspiracy
The interim prosecutor’s appointment will only last a week, but the commissioners can name anyone they want. There were a few reports from various sources to the JournalNews that — as quoted to our reporters — people in the prosecutor’s office are “fast and furiously shredding documents.”
This apparently is a big deal because it seemed odd to be shredding documents on Piper’s last day.
So what were those suspicious documents? Well, they were bank statements from the prosecutor’s white collar division, according to a phone message left by Piper’s administrative assistant. She relayed that Piper called the rumors “silly.”
Thoughts?
Permalink | | Categories: Butler County, County Commission, County Prosecutor
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