Podcaster's trial starts

SANDUSKY — A sitting Erie County Common Pleas Court judge testified in his own courtroom Monday as a witness for the prosecution's case against a local podcaster. Judge Tygh Tone is listed as an alleged victim in the case. An Erie County grand jury indicted Ashli Ford, 40, of Milan, in March 2024 on the following charges: • Nine counts of extortion, each a third-degree felony • Four counts of intimidation, each a third-degree felony • Three counts of telecommunications fraud, each a fifth-degree felony • Three counts of falsification, each a first-degree misdemeanor According to the prosecution's trial brief, Ford's indictment indicated Tone as the alleged victim of extortion, falsification and telecommunications fraud — comprising four of the 19 counts against Ford. Specifically, prosecutors in that document claim Ford made false claims "intended to harm Tone" and "to obtain favorable resolution" in a civil protection order case against her that was being ruled on by Tone in his court. Tone was one of several witnesses who testified on Monday. Gag order At the close of Monday's hearing, visiting Lorain County Judge Debra Boros — presiding over the case because Tone is a victim — issued an order barring the Sandusky Register and Norwalk Reflector from reporting on any testimony given either verbatim or paraphrased. The order precludes reporters from reporting anything other than "opinions on the case or a simple list of witnesses who testified." Boros directed the order at the Register and Reflector, specifically. She did not give that same order to anyone else in the courtroom. The reason Boros gave for her order was due to separation of witnesses — implying that witnesses who have yet to testify could be swayed by news coverage of trial proceedings. But all trials involve witness testimony, and the Register has covered dozens of proceedings in Erie, Huron, Sandusky and Ottawa counties in recent years in which it was not subjected to a gag order. It is not clear what makes this case different, or why many local judges elect not to impose a gag order where Boros did. It's also not clear why a newspaper reporter was the only one singled out with the order, which was given verbally. No written order was produced to the newspapers by the end of the court day Monday. 'Violates the First Amendment' Dave Marburger, a First Amendment attorney and author of "Access with Attitude: An Advocate's Guide to Freedom of Information," called Boros' order unlawful. "The Ohio Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court have firmly established that an order even temporarily barring the press from publishing accounts of what happens in court violates the First Amendment," Marburger said. "It's called a 'prior restraint' of the press (and speech)." Marburger pointed to the case of News Herald et al vs. Ottawa County Court of Common Pleas, Juvenile Division. In that case, ruled on in 1996, a juvenile court judge allowed the press to attend hearings in juvenile court on whether to bind an alleged delinquent over for trial as an adult, but only on condition that the Sandusky Register, Port Clinton News Herald and Fremont News Messenger not publish what happened in court until the court decided whether the boy would be tried as an adult. A temporary restraining order was granted by a federal judge in Toledo, stopping the Ottawa County juvenile court judge from enforcing the condition that the press could not publish accounts of the hearings until after the court had ruled. Later, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a decision invalidating the juvenile judge's condition that temporarily barred published accounts of the hearings. The Ohio Supreme Court and the federal judge in Toledo both ruled emphatically that the judge's condition violated the First Amendment because it barred the press, even temporarily, from publishing what happened in court, according to the ruling. Witness list The following is a chronological list of witnesses who appeared for the prosecution on Monday: • Tygh Tone • FBI Agent David Gardner • Erie County Sheriff's Detective Mike Green • Norwalk law director Stu O'Hara • Norwalk Mayor David White • Ottawa County Sheriff Deputy Aaron Leist • Erie County Sheriff Paul Sigsworth • Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation Senior Special Agent John Saraya • Former Huron County Sheriff detective Shannon Lyons • Former Norwalk safety services director Mike White • Village of Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy The trial is set to resume at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Editor's note: This story has been updated.