| ► La Prensa – 08/29/01 – Court seeking review of visiting judges’ pay |
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La Prensa – Aug. 29, 2001 – Court seeking review of visiting judges’ pay More Local Judges Charged with Theft-in-Office as Judicial Misconduct Scandal Widens
By Alan Abrams
La Prensa Senior Reporter
Three Toledo-area retired visiting judges-Stephen Yarbrough and June Rose Galvin formerly of Lucas County and Richard B. McQuade, Jr. of Fulton County-have had felony theft-in-office complaints filed against them.
The three were among nine judges named in 57 felony complaints filed in Franklin County by judicial watchdog David Palmer.
Palmer, formerly of Maumee but now living in Powell in Delaware County, is the founder of the Committee to Expose Dishonest Attorneys and Judges.
Two Franklin County judges found probable cause to hear the complaints. Evidentiary hearings are to be held May 24 and May 30 in Columbus.
The complaints allege that the judges double-billed taxpayers by seeking and accepting reimbursement for working in two counties on the same day.
Visiting judges are appointed to active status by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and are assigned by him to cases throughout the state.
Palmer said he first brought examples of double dipping to Moyer's attention in 1997 but was ignored. The following year, Palmer asked state Auditor Jim Petro to examine the pattern of double billing and was told it was legal. So Palmer decided to take matters into his own hands.
After the first round of complaints were filed last month, Palmer told La Prensa the scandal could eventually include as many as 50 judges statewide who have possibly cheated taxpayers out of millions of dollars.
Yarbrough, of Sylvania, declined to comment on the complaints citing his lawyer's advice. McQuade, of Swanton, did not return phone messages left at his home and on his cell phone. Galvin, who now lives in Marblehead, did not return messages left for her with assignment clerks at the Franklin County domestic court where she was sitting as a visiting judge.
Palmer told La Prensa he will be filing "additional felony charges against Yarbrough this week in Columbus as well as two First Degree misdemeanor charges against McQuade." The complaints allege McQuade filed false Ethics Financial Disclosure Statements wherein he lied that he never received any meal/travel expense monies from any government agency for 1999 and 2000. "That is patently false," said Palmer, "because I've been reporting on his theft of meal expense money from Lucas County since 1997."
Former Slyvania mayor James Seney, now chairman of the Ohio Rail Development Corp., has become embroiled in the controversy and has been questioned by the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Seney's involvement stems from the fact that Yarbrough rented a Columbus apartment with Seney but was routinely reimbursed $55 to $60 a night for lodging as a visiting judge in Franklin County. (Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County.)
Yarbrough said he was paying Seney to stay at the apartment. But documents obtained by Palmer show that Seney failed to claim the money he received in rent from Yarbrough on his required annual state financial disclosure statements.
When interviewed by La Prensa last month, Seney said he believed the Ohio Ethics Commission would soon "clear everything up."
But Seney's problems apparently aren't going to end there. Palmer told La Prensa that the Franklin County Prosecutor "told me to give him a list of witnesses for the hearing on the 30th, which I did by telling him to subpoena Seney and to subpoena Yarbrough's checking account to see if any of the Seney checks ever cleared the bank, which everyone thinks they likely did not."
Added Palmer, "If this be the case, Yarbrough is going down for big time felonies because he billed Franklin County 162 days for staying at Seney's."
Palmer said a Columbus Dispatch reporter covering the story told him he "got the feeling from speaking to Seney that he didn't know Yarbrough was billing for staying at his apartment. Of course, if this is true, then he never received any checks from Yarbrough," said Palmer.
Palmer said his ongoing investigation has "uncovered widespread corruption" by the judges, "who have repeatedly bilked the taxpayers for submitting fraudulent and/or fabricated per diem and/or expense claims."
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