Updated mid-morning and again at 7:45PM on 7/20
Update 3 posted on 7/21 at 9:15 AM
Update 4 posted at 9:45 AM
The Cincinnati Enquirer has the story of a Republican judge ripping in to State Rep. Tom Brinkman saying that he was the "real criminal" in a case of petition tampering.
The petitions were an effort to overturn an ordinance passed by Cincinnati City Council in spring 2006 that protected gays and lesbians from discrimination.Let's get to what the judge said:
The group, chaired by anti-porn activist Phil Burress, collected just two signatures more than the 7,654 needed to put the referendum on the ballot.
Citizens to Restore Fairness, a group born out of Equality Cincinnati, the leading local group working for the rights of gays, lesbians and transgenders, challenged the petitions and filed a complaint with the Hamilton County Board of Elections pointing out hundreds of fake signatures, including those of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Reds owner Bob Castellini.
In several instances, the names and addresses of the signer were crossed out and replaced with the addresses of registered voters in order to make them appear valid.
Burress withdrew the petitions, but the complaint was forwarded to prosecutors.
Prosecutors determined campaigns are allowed to strike out information on a petition, but only if it’s done “under the direction and by the authority of the signer.”
The Republican judge said the lawmaker should be charged with complicity to election fraud, acted without ethics and suggested the state House of Representatives should toss him from office.Hamilton County Prosecuter Joe Deters did put the Brinkman allegations to a grand jury, which failed to indict the state representative. Deters called Brinkman's actions "not a clear cut violation" and was a "gray area."
“It’s terrible,” Ruehlman said during the women’s plea hearing. “It takes away the right to democracy. It takes away the right for people to decide issues when you cheat like that.
“This is an important issue in the city, for a lot of people in the city,” Ruehlman added.
Ruehlman’s harsh rebuke came after Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor David Stevenson told him Brinkman admitted he changed more than 1,000 addresses on the petitions to make them valid.
...
A lawyer wrongly advised Brinkman that the addresses could be altered, Stevenson explained to Ruehlman.
That’s not a good enough excuse, Ruehlman said. He added even his grade school-age granddaughters know not to sign somebody else’s name. “Under the complicity stature it could be complicity,” he said.
“He’s the real criminal,” Ruehlman said. “What he did is terrible, almost defrauding. A layer of foundation of our democracy is voting and free elections. To cheat the voting system… he’s a state rep on top of that…”
Two women who worked as temps for the organization were indicted for altering the petitions.
I have an email in to Mr. Brinkman and will publish anything that he might want to add to the story.
It would appear that this judge has used some rather heated rhetoric that the grand jury didn't agree with... It is just these sorts of tactics that leads these groups to be cast in such a poor light. Republicans and conservatives ought to know better to leave these sorts of shenanigans to the professionals: Democrats. I don't agree with the judge on his rebuke of Brinkman, but I do agree with his sentiment that this sort of thing undermines the system and shakes the faith that the community has in these groups and their missions.
UPDATE: Liberal Brian Griffin of Cincinnati Blog fails to mention that a grand jury cleared Brinkman...no bias there at all, dude. And Bill Sloat of the Daily Bellweather at least gets Brinkman's side of the story in to his piece, but also fails to mention the grand jury failed to indict Brinkman on these allegations.
Guys: The grand jury part of the story is important...it really is...
UPDATE 2 (7:45 PM): WLWT Channel 5 gets in the act...no word about the grand jury in this story either.
UPDATE 3 (7/21 9AM): I just received a reply to my email to Tom Brinkman on the subject and he has no comment because it takes two to engage in a war of words and this particular topic fails to advance the Republican agenda, so he chooses not to participate.
UPDATE 4 (9:30AM): At least BSB mentioned that a grand jury failed to indict Brinkman. I'm not so sure I can agree with the idea that Deters saved the day. And I certainly have a problem with the assertion that Republicans are subverting the electoral process. Remember who was slashing tires on Election Day in Milwaukee? It wasn't Republicans...and that actually happened as opposed to the fairy tales being told about the '04 election in Ohio.
