O'Reilly ad gets more scrutiny

Sharon Coolidge reports:

A three-member panel of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline found probable cause Monday in a disciplinary complaint against Attorney Jim O’Reilly, who is running for the 1st District Court of Appeals.

The complaint, filed by Cincinnati attorney Steve Goodin on behalf of O’Reilly’s opponent, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker, alleges misconduct by O’Reilly. Specifically, the complaint says O’Reilly’s television advertisement is false.

The complaint will now go before another three member panel of the board for an evidentiary hearing. If misconduct is found, the Ohio Supreme Court could impose sanctions ranging from requiring O’Reilly to pull the ad, to fines or even sanctions on O’Reilly’s law license.

“I am not worried,” O’Reilly said. “I know when we get to the hearing stage, just as with the Ohio Elections Commission, there will be a positive outcome.”

The finding comes after a member of the Ohio Elections Commission calling O’Reilly’s attack ad misleading. But the four-member commission found no probable cause that the ads are false.
O’Reilly’s ad says Dinkelacker jailed an alleged rape victim, made an error that allowed Larry Flynt to go free and continue selling pornography in Hamilton County and prosecuted the only death penalty case commuted by Gov. Bob Taft.

Goodin argued that all three claims are false and misleading, a violation of judicial canons that forbid a judicial candidate from running a television ad that is false, or if true, that would be deceiving or misleading.

“It’s factual that Judge Dinkelacker was involved in these cases, but it is extremely misleading to say the cases were overturned because of his actions,” Goodin said.

An Enquirer analysis of O’Reilly’s ad shows:

It’s dubious that Dinkelacker’s handling of the case allowed Flynt to continue to sell pornography. There’s no guarantee Flynt would have been convicted in 1999 - and it was the prosecutor who initially agreed to the deal.

Dinkelacker did jail a woman who alleged she was raped in 2003, after she failed to appear in court. But she later admitted she lied about parts of her story - testifying that she agreed to have sex with the defendant for $20. The man she accused was acquitted.

Taft granted clemency to Jerome Campbell, a man Dinkelacker helped put on death row. But the decision, made when he was an assistant prosecutor, had more to do with the DNA than the prosecution.