To the Editor:
In a recent article looking back on the one year since Marc Dann resigned from the Ohio attorney general’s office, The Youngstown Vindicator quoted Representative Mark Okey (D-Carrollton) as saying he “never believed there would be any criminal charges” against Dann.

Okey’s statement was surprising. As a leader of the impeachment efforts against Dann in the Ohio House, he certainly gave the public the impression that Dann had committed criminal acts.

The impeachment resolution, which Okey helped draft, charged that Dann had “obstructed the investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment within his office” and “willfully and intentionally issued misleading statements under oath.” It doesn’t take a lawyer to know that perjury and obstruction of justice are serious crimes.

But now we learn that Okey never really thought Dann was guilty of those acts. In fact, after Dann left office, no one has called for him to be charged with perjury or obstruction of justice. Even the Ohio inspector general’s report, which was a biased hatchet-job on Dann, didn’t accuse him of either act.

Okey’s serious but fraudulent charges were apparently included in the impeachment resolution because the rest of the alleged impeachable acts were so far below the Ohio Constitution’s impeachment standard as to be laughable. He was demagoging an already emotionally charged situation in order to pressure the people’s elected attorney general to leave office.
The Ohio Supreme Court said in 1965: “The people, by their votes, determine their choice of officers, and they should not be robbed of the fruits of such choice for slight or insufficient reasons.” Okey’s reasons for removing Dann were not only slight and insufficient but a sham.

He owes Dann and the public an apology for charging that Dann had committed criminal acts when he now admits he never believed those charges were true. Okey and other House Democrats clearly used dishonest, win-at-all-costs tactics to remove Dann for political reasons.   

Joseph C. Sommer
Attorney at Law
Columbus, OH

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