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I've never been a person, even under pressure, to fly off the handle and
just say whatever comes to mind, especially in a courtroom. I've always felt
more comfortable taking time to think things over before saying anything, and
this time was no exception. At this point though, I thought to myself that if I
was going to be railroaded again I wanted them to know that I had a pretty good
idea of what was going on and that I was going to continue to fight back. I
wasn't afraid of them.
As we still sat at our table in the front of the court, Art and I had a
brief discussion regarding the fact that we had just lost the case he said we
"couldn't lose" and my feeling that the hearing was rigged. I wanted
Art to stand up and say something, but he absolutely refused, so with great
apprehension I stood up and asked to address the court.
When Judge Spore granted my wish, I told him that, with all due respect, I
felt this hearing was as phony as the hearing in the Rossford mayor’s court. I
also told him that I felt that he was as corrupt as the politicians in Rossford
and that this hearing was rigged. I then refused to ever pay the fines he
assessed against me and walked out of the courtroom.
Now you'd think in a real court, with a real judge, after saying what I did,
they would have at least held me in contempt of Court. Remarkably though, Judge
Spore just looked at me and smiled; he never said a word. It didn't matter to
him what I said because he knew that he had just accomplished what Rossford
wanted him to accomplish. Case closed.
At this point, there was no doubt in my mind that someone in Rossford had
indeed pulled some pretty big political strings in Perrysburg to get a guilty
verdict in this hearing.
As we left the building, Art and I were still discussing why we lost the
case and why he talked me out of asking for a jury. I wasn't accusing Art of
anything. As a matter of fact, I was actually still impressed with him. But I
wanted to know how he could have misjudged this situation so badly. I reminded
Art that he had basically guaranteed me right from the beginning that they'd
never pull this off, yet I just sat there and watched them do it.
Art assured me that he didn't misjudge anything nor did he make any
mistakes, and he was as shocked at the outcome of this hearing as we were. He
then swore that once he got this case out of the hands of the local
politicians, including Judge Spore, he would have this verdict overturned. More
importantly, they would be punished for what they did and we would be
compensated for our losses.
Art was so positive at this point that he would get this guilty verdict
overturned in the Appeals Court and win a judgment in the Rossford case that he
wanted the case on a percentage basis. Now remember. Art wasn't fresh out of
law school. He'd been a seasoned trial lawyer for twenty plus years and he came
highly recommended as one of the best trial lawyers in Toledo. Surprisingly,
Art never filed that appeal. It was all a lie. You have to ask yourself, why
would an attorney take a case, especially on a percentage basis, and not try to
win it? It doesn't make sense. Why would he even waste his time? I mean, if you
don't think you can win the case or if you just don't want the case why not
just say so? The answer is: they were paying him off or they had something on
him.
Either way it worked, because Art was so persuasive about his being able to
win these cases that I never in my wildest dreams thought that he was
sabotaging them. To make matters even worse, there was no way of knowing that
he was doing it either. Now in all fairness, Art did file a $4,100,000 lawsuit
in the Rossford case, but as I would find out years later, the suit wasn't worth
the paper it was written on.
To this day I still can't say exactly when or how they got to Art, but if I
had to guess, I would say it was right around the time of this hearing. Look at
it this way, with Art now in their back pocket and as our attorney, they could
totally control the outcome of any further litigation and guarantee its
failure.
Looking back and carefully thinking this over, I now believe that after they
struck whatever deal they made with Art, they told him to convince us any way
he could to keep him on the case, especially after losing the case in
Perrysburg. And what better way to convince us than to take the case on a
percentage basis? I believe at this point in the case the Good Old Boy
Political Network felt that they finally had the situation under control, and
the last thing they wanted was for me to fire Art and find another attorney.
Well, the next bizarre turn of events would take place with the Rossford
mayor’s preliminary hearing for assault. When we arrived for the preliminary hearing
there was Judge Spore sitting on the bench. Before we ever got started, I
explained again to Judge Spore in a polite, calm but sincere tone that I did
not believe it was possible to achieve a fair hearing with him sitting on the
bench. With all due respect to his position, I felt that he was a corrupt
judge; so that's exactly what I told him. This time though, Judge Spore stated
in a somewhat aggravated tone that he was sorry I felt that way, and he was
tired of my accusations. He never claimed that my allegations were incorrect.
He was just tired of them. Before the hearing proceeded any further, Judge
Spore agreed to remove himself from the case and allow another judge to be
appointed to hear the case. I thanked him and left.
Shortly thereafter another preliminary hearing was held with a different
judge. This time though, the Political Good Old Boy Network screwed up, because
they allowed an honest judge to be appointed to hear the case. I say that not
just because we finally prevailed in a hearing, but Judge Wetli actually came
across as being sincerely interested in the truth. It wasn't just "in one
ear and out the other" as before; he actually seemed sincere.
After listening to everyone involved, Judge Wetli apparently felt there was
some merit to what we told him, because he decided to have the mayor of
Rossford charged with assault.
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