DeVine made right decision

It will be up to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to determine if a media coordinator employed by Seneca County commissioners should be spinning for public officials by attacking newspapers and their reporters with false claims of witch hunts and biased reporting. Seneca County Prosecutor Derek DeVine It's an important question. Seneca County Prosecutor Derek DeVine on Wednesday asked Yost to assign state agents to investigate and coordinate the AG's office being appointed special prosecutor to determine if county resources were used improperly when Sheri Trusty, the media coordinator, wrote a willowing critique of the news story, "Frankart family has dispute," Oct. 12. The news article detailed information from two police reports and court records about a court battle involving county commissioner Bill Frankart and his former daughter-in-law over custody of Frankart's granddaughter. Trusty posted the offending article she wrote in response to the news story at the commissioners' website Oct. 14, but it was removed the next day when issues were immediately raised by a local attorney and a resident about whether it was an appropriate use of county resources. They asked DeVine to decide; DeVine is asking Yost to decide. DeVine saw his obvious conflict as legal counsel for commissioners, so the decision to seek an independent investigation and a special prosecutor to avoid the appearance of a conflict makes sense. There's reason to be cautiously optimistic that a finding will be fair, but reason still to be wary. The attorney general's office — in its role in situations like this — has forever been problematic. The bureaucracy too often wins over common sense. Yost also has been one big disappointment in the past when assigned as special prosecutor; there's no sure bet he'll come back with answers that make sense about whether local governments can fund attacks on reporters when they don't like what's getting reported. In 2021, Yost falsely prosecuted a woman for falsification after she reported a strange sexual encounter. She was a brand new rookie with the Put-in-Bay police when she went to a July 4 party at the summer home of a detective from the department. Yost said she made up a story of being raped; a judge determined he was dead wrong about that and acquitted her of wrongdoing. Thanks, Dave Yost. Two other women it was discovered had similar stories — they said the same man raped each of them after drugging them or getting them drunk quickly with over-spiked drinks — but Yost went ahead with the falsification trial, anyway. If not for the judge's wisdom, Yost might have gotten her convicted and sent to prison. He's never taken steps to charge the man; never explained why he charged the woman; and he's never apologized for it. He's stone silent. In another criminal case in which Yost's office served as special prosecutor, earlier this year, he lost at a homicide trial in Richland County of a jail guard who can be seen on jail surveillance video evidence standing on top of a man until the breath is knocked out of him. The man later died; his family never received justice. Fortunately, Prosecutor DeVine, in this case, also asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to review the county's attack on a reporter. At least, in this instance, there will be a check on Yost's ability or inability to fairly review the facts and deliver a competent determination. Nobody is looking for the proverbial pound of flesh. But, in our view, it is an important question whether county resources were used to attack a reporter because a county official did not like what was being reported. If that did happen, steps must be taken to ensure it doesn't happen again.