“Mr. Schmidt was utilizing the office primarily to conduct nongovernmental business,” said special prosecutor Roy O’Brien, who was brought on to handle the case because Schmidt’s wife, Suzanne Schmidt, is Greene County’s assistant prosecutor.
Schmidt on Monday submitted his resignation, which was announced Tuesday afternoon as he appeared before Visiting Judge Sumner Walters during a scheduled hearing. He was required to resign as part of his plea agreement. He also was ordered to pay restitution to the county and the Ohio Ethics Commission, which he did after the hearing.
His attorney, Bill Meeks, said Schmidt, who was a decorated combat veteran and has no previous criminal record, made a series of bad judgments and did not realize the error of his ways until after the fact.
The Greene County Commission appointed Dan Mercer, a Democrat, as interim treasurer. Mercer, a former treasurer’s office employee, will serve as the county treasurer until a replacement is selected by the county GOP’s central committee.
The GOP precinct committee representatives, comprising the central committee, must meet within 45 days to pick a replacement to serve out the rest of Schmidt’s term. County voters will pick a new treasurer in the November 2012 election.
The investigation
The Ohio Ethics Commission launched an investigation into Schmidt in June 2007 after a former employee filed a complaint against him alleging ethics law violations.
The commission conducted numerous interviews with current and former employees and reviewed hundreds of documents from private and public groups that did business with Schmidt’s private companies.
Former and current employees told investigators that immediately after they were hired to the treasurer’s office, Schmidt ordered them to perform various duties for his private business.
One deputy treasurer said Schmidt made her write personal letters to his family members and perform appraisal work and prepare billing statements for a private law firm with whom Schmidt had a business relationship. She estimated from 2003 to 2006 she spent about nine hours each week performing tasks for Schmidt’s private business.
Schmidt used his office’s staff and its fax machine, e-mail, phones and data accessing accounts for purposes related to his private businesses, the report states. Investigators found about 834 documents related to Schmidt’s private work on his office’s computers, which took about 455 hours worth of work to produce, the report states. A former chief deputy treasurer said those files were only a small fraction of the total private work she performed.
The investigation also identified $49,300 in services performed by Schmidt for the Greene County Probate Court in his capacity as a private attorney. This violated the public contract provisions of Ohio law, which forbids public officials from benefitting from any contracts with the same governmental entity that employs them.
“This just wasn’t incidental or occasional, this was repetitive, on daily and weekly basis, with his staff,” said David Freel, the commission’s executive director.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-0749 or cfrolik@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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