Taxpayers will fund Simon Leis' "nonsense"

We got a little out of sorts Saturday morning reading about Judge Ruehlman granting Leis’ request to hire tax-funded private attorneys to sue the county commissioners, especially that he “did not elaborate on his reasons.” Fortunately, a county source close to the action was available to give us some clarification about this ruling, and here’s how it goes:

“Ruehlman had no choice in allowing the sheriff access to counsel.”

There it is, “no choice.” Hardly as mysterious as the Enquirer made it seem. Our source went on to explain that that doesn’t necessarily mean the sheriff’s attorneys will actually sue because “there are absolutely no grounds to do so. That is the also the Prosecutor’s (Deters) opinion and one the Prosecutor shared with Leis.” Was Leis listening?

So, Norwood taxpayers, are we ready to fund private attorneys for the sheriff and possibly the commissioners, too? Does the brand new Hamilton County Commission need the threat of a Leis lawsuit before they’ll come up with an alternative jail (tax) plan? From the looks of it, no, since the commissioners may be revving up a new jail task force as soon tomorrow. We welcome any insight our readers may have on this because from where we sit right now, this looks like some really bad theatre on the sheriff’s part, or rather, “nonsense” as the County Administrator Thompson called it.

1/3/07 UPDATE: There’s an investigative piece on this at www.cincinnatibeacon.com. Court documents tell an intriguing story about the attorney fees.