Temps plead guilty, but judge calls Rep. Tom Brinkman “the real criminal”

Did he change petition addresses or not?

State representative and C.O.A.S.T. co-founder Tom Brinkman got an earful yesterday from Judge Robert Ruehlman about what Ruehlman says was his complicity in an election fraud case. Rep. Brinkman was not indicted, but two Labor Ready temporary employees who circulated petitions last year to repeal Cincinnati’s gay-rights ordinance were indicted for changing addresses of signees. The prosecutor told Judge Ruehlman that Rep. Brinkman admitted that he himself had changed more than 1,000 addresses, but Brinkman says he personally did not change any information on the petitions. Who’s not telling the truth here?