Posted on 08/17/2005 1:07:05 PM PDT by wildwood
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Gov. Bob Taft, under investigation for not reporting numerous golf outings as required by law, will be charged with four criminal misdemeanors, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Taft, a Republican and member of a distinguished U.S. political family, would be the first Ohio governor to be charged with a crime.
If convicted, he could be fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail on each count, though time behind bars was considered unlikely. Taft will be charged later Wednesday, said City Prosecutor Stephen McIntosh, who declined further comment pending an afternoon news conference.
Investigators have looked for weeks at Taft's alleged violation of a law requiring officeholders to report all gifts worth more than $75. Though long anticipated, news of the charges were still a stunning conclusion to a process Taft began in June when he announced the lapse.
The charges would come three months after Taft stressed at an ethics conference the importance of ethical behavior for public employees. "Public employees can enjoy entertainment, such as golf or dining out, with persons working for a regulated company, or one doing business with the state, ONLY if they fully pay their own way," he said in the May 11 speech at Xavier University.
Taft, 63 and nearing the end of his second term, would be the highest-ranking official to be charged in a ballooning state investment scandal. His former chief of staff was convicted of an ethics violation in July.
Other Ohio governors have come under investigation, including Republican George Voinovich, investigated for unproven allegations he laundered campaign money, and Democrat Richard Celeste, whose connections to a contributor who owned the failed Home State Savings Bank were examined.....
(Excerpt) Read more at wtol.com ...
oh, i know. i can only hold my head and groan in agreement. i totally agree with you on all this. the GOOD news is if, prosecuted by other repubs, taft would RESIGN. acting as if being charged with 4 misdemeanors (2 years in jail, thousands in fines) should not affect his term is an embarrassment.
N.E. Ohio pings....
If a gift is not reported as required by law, does it not then become a bribe? He's just another posterior orifice.
i dunno...i dunno....dems have been salivating for months over this and noe...i'm not so optimistic. taft can't run again anyway.
Taft is term limited out, but the dems are paving the way for a "D" in office, should be interesting!
BFD! Term limits followed by hanging is the only way.
Maybe hardcore Reps will not vote for a Dem, but many Independents and moderate Reps will certainly be more inclined to vote for a Dem because fo Taft.
And why is Taft a RINO, as some people here claim?
Over the last six years what state has increased spending the most (72%) and increased taxes atleast 3 times. You guessed it Bob Shaft's Ohio. Add to it his duplicity in stalling concealed carry and his picking (a now replaced) social liberal Lt. Governor.
I didn't vote for him last time (of course there was no chance of the Dem winning - if there was I'm not sure what I would have done.)
Maybe we should call for his impeachment.
He is a big spending politician who fought Ohioans on 2nd amendment issues until political reality forced him to sign a CCW bill. A bill intowhich he dropped as many poison pills as possible at the bidding of the Ohio State Patrol (who are known to shoot each other in circular positioning in gunfights) and other corrupt police administrators.
Go Blackwell!!
If greens fees are more than $75 in that part of the country, I'd be surprised.
that was a pretty eye opening article and i think someone else posted it earlier last night..
.the columbus dispatch=rino
taft=rino
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