The Dayton Daily News will be in the courtroom Monday as a jury is selected and opening arguments begin for Foley’s legal team and state prosecutors.
More than three years have passed since the Ohio Auditor of State raided Foley’s office in 2022. Since then, the case against him has been full of twists and turns. Political jabs, a proposed suspension, plea agreements, reversals on those agreements and allegations of a murder plot were all woven into a complicated legal web.
Office raid, investigation
The Ohio Auditor of State in November 2022 raided the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts office as part of an investigation into information received by the state auditor’s special investigation unit.
The state’s investigation into Foley spanned years and partly focused on allegations his campaign manager and former employee Elle Sollenberger used county resources and time to work on his campaign, among other claims about employees feeling pressured to put yard signs out during their boss’ reelection campaigns.
The investigation included interviews with more than 70 clerk’s office employees. This included Tyler Starline, a former Huber Heights city councilman who was interviewed by state investigators days after he was fired from the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts in 2022. Starline is expected to be a key witness in Foley’s trial, his attorneys have said.
Credit: Cornelius Frolik
Credit: Cornelius Frolik
State investigators looked into allegations that Foley in 2022 discussed with some managers giving employees higher bonuses if they contributed to his campaign, but these claims were dismissed by investigators early in their pursuit of evidence.
Investigators also looked into claims that Foley tried to arrange a meeting between Montgomery County Treasurer John McManus and an investment firm, suggesting that McManus invest some of the county’s $1 billion investment funds with the firm.
“The investigator claims that Mr. Foley told Mr. McManus that (the firm’s representatives) ‘would get him $50,000 a year in campaign contributions and he’d never have to fundraise again if McManus invested County funds with them,’” records obtained by the Dayton Daily News in September 2024 stated.
Claims that Montgomery County Municipal Court Judge James Piergies transferred funds to Foley’s office to fund an IT position for Piergies’ son were also a part of the state’s investigation.
Indictment
Foley and Piergies were indicted in July 2024 on several counts, misdemeanor and felony, that were related to political and other improper activity.
Auditor of state officials said the charges against James Piergies were connected to the employment of his son, Robert.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Visiting, retired Judge Jonathan P. Hein was appointed to oversee the case to avoid any conflict of interest.
Foley’s attorney Jon Paul Rion told the Dayton Daily News that his client “100%” denied claims against him and questioned the timing of the charges.
The charges came after Foley secured the Republican nomination for reelection to his clerk seat. Foley was running against Democratic challenger Lynn Cooper that November.
Montgomery County Democratic Party leaders had been calling on Foley to resign from office. Republican Party leaders joined the call, even asking voters not to vote for the clerk.
Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman state Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., said in August 2024 that if Foley did not resign from office, he would run for reelection to his seat without the support and endorsement of the Republican Party. Plummer rejected claims the charges against Foley were politically motivated.
“A Republican auditor of state investigated him,” Plummer said. “There’s definitely no political motivation.”
Foley rejected these requests, saying he fully intended to stay on the November ballot.
“I have stolen nothing and have done nothing to violate the public’s trust,” Foley told the Montgomery County GOP central committee in August 2024. “I have always been a protector of taxpayer money, while adding many beneficial services for the people of Montgomery County.”
Both Piergies and Foley entered not guilty pleas during their arraignment in August 2024.
Suspension proceedings
An attempt to remove Foley from his seat was initiated with the Ohio Supreme Court.
Under Ohio law, some state offices have the authority to remove elected county officials from office if the official faces felony charges that relate “to the public official’s administration of, or conduct in the performance of the duties of, the office of the public official.”
The state filed a request to initiate the suspension process on Aug. 8, 2024. A three-judge panel was tasked with determining if Foley’s charges “adversely” impacted the functions of his office, and the panel ultimately ruled against suspending Foley.
“Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber’s investigation is now coming under scrutiny as to be incomplete, one-sided and tainted with inaccuracies and ulterior motives,” said Foley during a press conference following the commission’s decision.
Piergies was automatically disqualified from serving on the bench when he was charged with felony counts and is suspended with pay, according to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Foley reelected
Foley said ahead of the November 2024 general election that he did not have the support of his local Republican Party, but he didn’t think he needed it to win another term.
In the race for clerk, Foley won 52.5% of the vote and challenger Cooper won 47.5% of the vote.
“I feel that my victory this year can be mostly attributed to what I’ve actually done in office the past six years,” Foley said after votes were counted. “The additional services we’ve added for the public, the money that we’ve given back to the county for additional needed programs and projects, and our continued presence in the community are items that come to mind.”
Foley’s reelection campaign was costly. Foley outraised and outspent every other candidate in a Montgomery County race that election, with more than $100,000 in reported expenses.
Judge resigns
In May 2025, Piergies pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing official business.
This was part of a plea deal, where felony charges of attempted unlawful interest in a public contract were dismissed. But Piergies had to resign from his seat.
In an August 2024 interview with the Dayton Daily News, Piergies’ son Robert said he reached out to investigators the day charges were filed against his father — even after his dad told him to keep quiet.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Robert Piergies worked for Montgomery County from 2018 through June 2024, first for the county municipal court — where his father was administrative judge until his suspension — and then in 2020 for Foley. Robert Piergies said his father helped him get hired with Montgomery County after he expressed dissatisfaction with a job he had in Greene County.
During his employment in Montgomery County, the younger Piergies said his dad asked him to help with his reelection campaign during his nonworking hours. The judge also asked his son to make contributions to Foley’s campaigns, sometimes writing a check for his son to donate, Robert alleged.
“I wanted to stay out of it. I don’t do anything having to do with politics or the public,” he said. “He said that we needed to tie Foley more strongly to the family, basically.”
Records obtained by the Dayton Daily News show $200,000 in funds were transferred from the Montgomery County Municipal Court to the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts Office for information technology work over four years.
No contest plea? No more
Foley in June 2025 changed his plea in his criminal case to no contest and was convicted of felony and misdemeanor charges related to political contribution solicitation and unauthorized use of computers.
The plea meant Foley neither admitted to nor denied the charges against him. His sentencing hearing was not publicly posted in his docket before it occurred.
Montgomery County Democratic Party leaders called on Foley to step down the day after his conviction . They held a press conference outside the county courthouse, where Foley’s office is located.
“We should not have a convicted felon in charge of our court system in Montgomery County,” said Montgomery County Democratic Party Chairman Mohamed Al-Hamdani.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Less than one hour after that press conference, Foley’s attorney called a Dayton Daily News reporter to relay that his client would be withdrawing his no-contest plea.
The Ohio Auditor of State’s Office wanted to let Foley stay in public office after his conviction, but state law doesn’t make that possible. Rion wrote in his plea withdrawal request for Foley that “it was not intended by either party that the limited misuse of a copying machine by a third party would affect a successful career.”
Hein vacated Foley’s criminal sentence, putting Foley back on the path toward a criminal trial. But before Hein made that decision, a local activist and blogger challenged Foley’s ability to maintain his seat after a felony conviction.
Challenge to eligibility
David Esrati filed a writ of quo warranto — a legal document challenging a public official’s ability to hold office or bringing forth other concerns about the scope of an official’s powers — in Ohio’s Second District Court of Appeals against Foley, calling on the court to remove the clerk of courts from office.
Esrati argues that Foley lost his eligibility to hold a public office when he was convicted of a fifth-degree felony count of unauthorized use of a computer and a misdemeanor count of soliciting political contributions from public employees. Esrati said he filed the writ because he felt no one else was taking action — “So I did.”
Esrati’s petition against Foley was dismissed by the appeals court but Esrati is working to have that measure reconsidered by a higher court.
Restraining orders
While that court case was ongoing, Foley claimed Esrati and former clerk’s office employee Starline were threatening to harm Foley.
Officials with Foley’s office announced in an October press release that Foley was filing civil protection orders against the two men.
Foley sought the protection order against Starline based on a conversation that allegedly happened over the summer that was reported to Huber Heights police Oct. 15.
Montgomery County Treasurer John McManus told an Ohio Auditor of State investigator of a phone conversation he’d previously had with Starline, in which Starline allegedly disclosed thoughts of killing Foley. Starline allegedly told McManus he had spoken with a therapist and “decided he would not follow through with killing him.” The auditor’s office investigator reported that to the police.
And Foley said Esrati, in a conversation with an assistant county prosecutor, threatened to “murder” the clerk of courts and to take zip ties to the county building and physically remove Foley from office. A transcript of the conversation was filed by Esrati in his case trying to remove Foley from office.
Esrati and an attorney for Starline pushed back on the accusations as an attempt to discredit a witness in Foley’s criminal case and an activist who legally pursued removing Foley from office.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Foley hired attorney Dennis Lieberman to represent him for the protection order case. Less than one month after Foley’s announcement of the death threats, he dismissed the petitions against Esrati and Starline.
Lieberman said that although Esrati’s and Starline’s comments were “very serious,” they were “one-off” instances. No “patterns of conduct” have been established.
Esrati called the petition against him “a huge waste” of his and his attorney’s time. He also felt the way Foley sought media attention of the civil protection orders — announced via press release from Foley’s county office — was “disconcerting.”
“This was a bad joke told to the public, with me as the punchline,” Esrati told the Dayton Daily News.
Starline in a press release sent by his attorney expressed relief. But he also posed a question: “Where do I go to get my reputation back?”
Foley’s jury trial is scheduled to span all of this week, according to court records.
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