Judge: Brinkman is "real culprit"

Two women convicted of falsifying election petitions to meet quotas for bonuses were put on probation and ordered to do 200 hours of community service, but a judge said they were minor players in a much larger “mean-spirited campaign.”

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman reiterated Monday what he said last month when Lois Mingo and Precilla Ward pleaded guilty to charges of election falsification: that State Rep. Tom Brinkman, who headed up the petition drive for the unsuccessful effort last year to repeal the city’s gay rights ordinance, should be charged.

“To cheat on petitions in an election is to really rob people of freedom. It’s the foundation of democracy,” Ruehlman told the women. “You have to pay for that.”

Ruehlman, a Republican, went on to say: “I still think real culprit is Rep. Brinkman.”

“I know politics,” Ruehlman said. “Somehow (Brinkman) falls between the cracks and is not prosecuted… the guy in power is the one who should have been indicted.”

Brinkman, R-Mount Lookout, was not in court Monday. When contacted by the Enquirer, Brinkman said “no comment” and hung up.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, a Republican, previously explained Brinkman’s conduct was in a “gray area” and was a not clear-cut violation.

A grand jury heard the case and declined to indict Brinkman, according to Deters.
Ruehlman said during the sentencing that Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor David Stevenson told him during pre-trial discussions in chambers that Brinkman changed signatures, but that Stevenson was now “backing off” that statement.

Stevenson did not return a call for comment.

Brinkman told the Enquirer last month that he made no changes.

The petitions were an effort by Equal Rights Not Special Rights to overturn a gay rights ordinance passed by Cincinnati City Council in spring 2006 that protected gays and lesbians from discrimination.

The group, chaired by anti-porn activist Phil Burress, collected two signatures more than the 7,654 signatures needed to get the referendum on the ballot.

Equal Rights Not Special Rights contracted with Brinkman to help collect signatures. Brinkman in turn used some workers from Labor Ready, a temporary job agency, to help collect the signatures.

Mingo, 48, of St. Bernard, and Ward, 33, of Winton Place, worked for Labor Ready. Each earned bonuses based on the number of signatures they collected. It’s not clear how much the bonus was.

Citizens to Restore Fairness, an offshoot of Equality Cincinnati, a local group that works for the rights of gays and trans-gendered people, challenged the petitions. They filed a complaint with the Hamilton County Board of Elections saying many of the signatures were phony.

In several instances the names and addresses of the signer were crossed out and replaced with the addresses of registered voters in order to make the signatures valid.

Burress withdrew the petitions, but the complaint was forwarded to prosecutor’s office.
Prosecutors determined campaigns are allowed to strike out information on a petition, but only if it’s done ‘under the direction and by the authority of the signer.”

Brinkman told prosecutors a lawyer had wrongly advised him that the addresses could be altered.

David Miller, vice president of public policy for Citizens for Community Values, a sister organization of Equal Rights Not Special Rights, said Brinkman did nothing wrong and that the right people were prosecuted.

“Anyone that commits election fraud needs to be prosecuted,” Miller said. “We encouraged this action to be taken as soon as we heard about it. Tom Brinkman did the same thing.

“Those who have committed election fraud have been properly prosecuted and sentenced,” he said.

Gary Wright, the former president of Equality Cincinnati, who filed the complaint against Brinkman with the Board of Elections, said he still isn’t satisfied.

He wants an independent prosecutor to look at Brinkman’s role in the fraud.

“The prosecutor’s office can’t possibly be objective,” Wright said. “The judge let the prosecutor’s office off too easy.”