Feds amend charges against Fox to include bribery and kickbacks

Indictment amended to conform with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, prosecutors say.

Staff file photo Michael Fox.

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer Updated 2:10 AM Friday, August 6, 2010

CINCINNATI — Federal prosecutors have amended an indictment against former longtime Butler County politician Michael Fox to specifically refer to his actions as “a bribery and kickback scheme.”

The changes filed Wednesday, Aug. 4, tailor the charges against Fox to a U.S. Supreme Court opinion in June that narrowed the law that Fox was charged under to cases including evidence that defendants accepted bribes or kickbacks, according to Fred Alverson, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“This does not change anything to do with the charges or any of the facts, or any of the penalties,” Alverson said.

But attorneys for Fox said in a statement Thursday, Aug. 5, that the new indictment “could call into question the government’s motives in prosecuting Mr. Fox.”

“We do not think that taking the same facts and dressing them up to look like a new crime will save the government’s indictment,” said the statement from Cincinnati-based attorneys Ralph Kohnen and Aaron Herzig.

Fox’s attorneys have long claimed the entire corruption case has been a politically motivated attack on someone who made “powerful political enemies” in his more than three decades as state lawmaker, Butler County commissioner and Children Services director.

Wednesday’s filing could push back the trial date. U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith granted an order this week to stay the original Oct. 4 trial date, and has set a scheduling conference for Aug. 18.

Fox and co-defendant Robert C. Schuler were charged in October 2009 with conspiring to improperly benefit off a contract to build Butler County’s fiber optics network.

Fox is accused of not properly reporting $460,000 from Schuler — a Columbus-area attorney who took over the company NORMAP during construction of the fiber optics system — and other vendors doing business with the county when Fox was a commissioner.

Fox is also charged with mail fraud for allegedly failing to disclose conflicts of interest in Ohio ethics disclosure statements he mailed each year from 2004 through 2007.

Schuler also is charged with perjury for alleged false testimony he gave to a federal grand jury on Oct. 1, 2008.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.

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