She determined that because Carter appeared to be trying to challenge his conviction — among other reasons — the case should be dismissed. District Court Judge Susan Dlott last week ended the proceeding saying, “Plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.”
Carter was found guilty on 11 felony charges in 2009 in a scheme that cost two banks more than $10 million, caused Dynus’ 2005 collapse and ignited political scandal. He was sent to federal prison for 15 years. Carter’s fellow conspirators were former company president Jim Smith, former Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers and former company employee Karin Verbruggen.
Those three pleaded guilty to their role in the deal, which included Dynus taking out $6.5 million in illicit loans from National City Bank in Butler County’s name, then using that fake deal to secure a line of credit with Fifth Third Bank.
Carter claimed Boehner, former Butler County Commissioner Charles Furmon and others falsely accused him in statements they made about the case. He named Coley in the lawsuit because he said he was an attorney for National City Bank.
Commissioner Don Dixon was not named as a party to the lawsuit, but he said he is glad the case is no longer hanging over the county’s head.
“I was glad the court acted on it in a timely fashion, there was no basis to it obviously,” Dixon said. “It’s more of just the same old mess Butler County had to go through there with a very unpleasant experience. It appears it’s almost finally over.”
Carter filed the lawsuit from the federal prison in Ashland, Ky., on June 7 and has a number of other cases still pending in the federal court.
Coley said he was not happy he had to defend himself in this matter but said this shows the justice system works.
“That’s the balance in our judicial system,” Coley said. “We give people the right to court, but we rely on courts to dismiss cases without merit very quickly. When the system works like this you can’t be too upset because he had a chance to make his case but then the court did the right thing and quickly ruled.”
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