Judge denies podcaster's motion

SANDUSKY — The visiting judge presiding over the case of a local convicted podcaster has denied her motion to have her guilty verdict overturned. On June 2, Ashli Ford, 40, of Milan, along with her newly retained counsel, Peter Pattakos, filed a motion seeking to have her acquitted on the four counts of intimidation — each a third-degree felony — that she was found guilty of on May 22. In a four-day bench trial, visiting Lorain County Judge Debra Boros found Ford guilty of those four charges and not guilty of 15 other counts — including extortion, telecommunications fraud and falsification — in her 19-count indictment. The four intimidation charges stem from a Facebook post directed at Norwalk city government officials — Mayor Dave Light, law director Stu O'Hara, former Norwalk police Chief David Smith and former Norwalk safety services director Mike White. The post claimed she would bring the men to their demise, "more akin to Malcolm X than Martin Luther King Jr." Ford and her defense attorneys have argued from the beginning that her remarks are protected First Amendment speech. Boros denied Ford's motion in a one-sentence response on Tuesday, according to court documents. "Defendant's motion for acquittal is denied," the document states. Ford is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. on July 16.