Reynolds’ attorney Chad Ziepfel filed the motion for acquittal on the charge of unlawful interest in a public contract on Jan. 4. A jury found Reynolds guilty on Dec. 21 in Butler County Common Pleas Court of the fourth-degree felony. Reynolds was found not guilty of three felony charges and one misdemeanor charge.
Reynolds, 53, faces six to 18 months in prison, with a potential fine of up to $5,000. Because of the felony conviction he is not legally permitted to hold elected office and the county commissioners have named Joe Statzer as interim county auditor.
He is scheduled to be sentenced by Visiting Judge Daniel Hogan on Feb. 15.
Reynolds’ conviction was related to a proposal he made to the then-treasurer of Lakota Local Schools.
In September 2017, Reynolds’ office returned $2 million to all taxing districts and $459,498 to Lakota. The fees are monies the auditor’s office receives from the state for calculating and distributing real estate taxes from levies to local governments. If the auditor’s office doesn’t need all the fees to operate, they can be returned to the various entities.
Reynolds approached the treasurer of the school district and suggested the district use public money to build an indoor golf training facility at Four Bridges Country Club.
He lives adjacent to the club, and the pro there coaches the Lakota girls golf team, where his daughter played at the time, according to testimony.
Former Lakota treasurer Jennifer Logan testified at trial that Reynolds proposed the “idea” to her during a meeting in December 2016. She and others from the district met with Rogers at his office on High Street to discuss bond millage. When the meeting ended, he asked the others to leave the room.
Logan, who now works for the Butler County Educational Service Center, said Reynolds proposed $250,000 — or about half of the district’s refund money for the next three years — be used to build a year-round golf academy at Four Bridges for use by the Lakota golf teams.
Logan talked to the district’s lawyers about the idea, and she was told it shouldn’t be pursued for various reasons, including using public money to build on private property.
Reynolds then proposed an option of letting Four Bridges build the facility and charging the district a yearly access fee of $250,000. Both proposals never reached the point of being voted by the school board.
Ziepfel said in the acquittal motion that there is no evidence a contract between the schools and golf club was authorized, because it never made it past the preliminary stages, and there is no evidence that any such contract would have been a “public contract.” He also said there is no evidence Reynolds used the authority or influence of the auditor’s office to secure authorization of any contract.
Tammaro said in response the defense presented no evidence at trial related to the charge Reynolds was found guilty of and “(The) defendant simply retreads the same arguments rejected by the jury.”
The law requires proof that influence was used to secure authorization, not that a contract came to fruition, according to Tammaro.
“The crime is complete when defendant employs the authority or influence of his office in order to secure authorization of the public contract. The question is whether, at the time defendant used that authority and influence of his office, he was doing so in order to secure authorization of a public contract. At the moment defendant uses his influence for the forbidden reason, the crime is complete,” Tammaro wrote.
He added, “The fact the target of the improper influence had higher ethical standards and resisted defendant’s unlawful influence does not legitimize defendant’s use of unlawful influence.”
Tammaro said the jury’s verdict was based on sufficient evidence and “defendant is not entitled to acquittal simply because the jury believed the state’s theory of the case.”
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