“Quis custodet ipsos custodes?”, Juvenal

Who will guard the guards themselves?

That is the question many Ohioans are likely to be asking themselves in the wake of two current events in Ohio.

Last week, Democrat Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick was arrested in Wood County for driving with a blood alcohol content 2 ½ times the legal limit. It was later revealed that despite being told by police that she was "not free to go", Resnick drove away from police, only to be stopped again and eventually arrested. A Bowling Green city prosecutor announced Thursday that Resnick, who has ruled in favor of upholding a ban on carrying a concealed firearm because it is a "public safety" issue, would not be charged with fleeing or eluding law enforcement or with disobeying an officer.

On Friday, the unequal scales of Ohio justice were used a bit farther south, in Shelby County. Ohioans For Concealed Carry has learned that a Shelby County Grand Jury was assembled on February 4 to hear from Miami County Prosecuting Attorney Gary Nasal (a Republican appointed as special prosecutor to investigate these violations last June). Nasal presented his findings concerning the actions of Shelby County Sheriff Kevin O’Leary in releasing the protected, private information of 87 concealed handgun license-holders to the Sidney Daily News (which subsequently published 85 names and addresses).

Unfortunately for the victims, their fears (which grew as month after month passed that Gary Nasal’s "investigation" was actually nothing but a white wash) appear to have been validated. The Grand Jury has failed to return an indictment.

OFCC first reported this abuse on June 9, 2004, one day after the Sheriff disclosed the names and home addresses of all persons who had obtained a CHL from his office. Shortly thereafter, OFCC was inundated with calls for justice, and OFCC was eventually contacted by nearly 15% of the 87 victims of this unlawful disclosure. These people were, in turn, referred to Attorney Ken Hanson for private representation.

On June 17, 2004, Shelby County Prosecutor Jim Stevenson agreed to obtain the appointment of a special prosecutor from Common Pleas Judge John D. Schmitt. Gary Nasal was appointed to investigate whether Sheriff O'Leary "did release or otherwise disseminate records that are confidential under Ohio Revised Code Section 2923.129(B)(1), and against the peace and dignity of the State of Ohio, a fifth degree felony." The investigation was also supposed to examine charges that O'Leary committed dereliction of duty and violated the civil rights of the 87 license-holders whose private information was disseminated. Those crimes are misdemeanors of the second and first degree, respectively.

As OFCC has documented, there is 100% proof that the violation occurred, yet the "investigation" by Gary Nasal was stalled for nearly eight months, and a Grand Jury which supposedly heard all the evidence failed to return an indictment.

In a statement on these developments, Gary Nasal stated as follows:

"The Shelby County Grand Jury, an independant body created by law, consisting of citizen representatives of Shelby County, has examined all available evidence pertaining to the investigation of the Shelby County Sheriff's release of personal information regarding concealed carry licenses, and had deliberated thereon.

The Grand Jury, after considering such evidence as presented by the Special Prosecutor and applying the law as provided by the Court, concludes that there is no probable cause to require any person to stand trial under the Ohio Criminal Code. Since the evidence fails to establish the probability of guilt, the Grand Jury has failed to return any indictments."

OFCC has consulted with an attorney who has over three years experience presenting cases to grand juries, and who also has served as a special prosecutor in over 30 undercover criminal investigation prosecutions to review the situation. According to our consultant, "this is an easy grand jury investigation." O'Leary's letterhead is fixed atop the letters releasing the addresses (obtained from his office by public records request). Editor Billiel admitted in an editorial that he got the information from O'Leary. "Two pieces of documentary evidence, even without testimony, equals an indictment," the consultant observes.

Unfortunately for the 87 victims in this case, the Grand Jury either was never presented with this information, or received encouragement to accept O’Leary’s weak excuses rather than to view his conduct for what it was: a deliberate, and illegal, act motivated by his opposition to licensed concealed carry. There is no plausible or reasonable explanation that can explain why this Sheriff was not indicted.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

As can be seen in the first three traffic stop videos released by law enforcement, anti-CCW Ohio State Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick repeatedly denied having consumed alcohol or taken medication when first approached by police at a gas station in Bowling Green and later when pulled over on I-75 South near Cygnet in Wood County.

However, the Toledo Blade is now reporting that law, just as Sgt. W.H. Stidham of the Walbridge patrol post was about to administer a portable breath test inside his vehicle, the only Democrat remaining in statewide office had not been honest with the other officers, and in fact first tried to continue her story with the OSHP sergeant.

As the video now shows, only when presented with the field sobriety test did Resnick finally admit she had "something to drink" and then expressed disbelief with the test's result, 0.216 - more than twice the legal limit for driving while intoxicated.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

The Brown County People's Defender is reporting that on Feb. 1, at approximately 1:30 p.m., an elderly woman carrying a moneybag from the Fifth Third Bank in Peebles was assaulted and the moneybag stolen.

The thief was described in the newspaper as a tall, thin man with black hair, facial stubble, wearing a navy blue, nylon hooded jacket with white pin stripes down the sleeve, tan jeans and white shoes with red soles. The man fled on foot down Elm Street toward Fifth and Fourth streets and the railroad tracks.

Despite the fact that there were several witnesses, the newspaper says no arrest have been made.

The newspaper makes no mention of the fact that Fifth Third bank affirmatively disarms its customers, and advertises their defenselessness to criminals, by posting "no-guns" signs.

IS CRIME ON THE INCREASE IN POSTED BUSINESSES? Is advertising that customers and employees inside your business are defenseless really such a "safe" idea? Click to view a list which documents crimes committed in businesses posted with "no-guns" signs.

Related Story:
Fifth Third: Signs not posted to keep criminals out; They want to keep YOU out

In response to the shooting of off-broadway acctress Nicole duFresne by Manhattan mugger last week, CNN.com has published tips on "How to survive a mugging".

The story is based on a press release by the Washington-based National Crime Prevention Council, which is now circulating a list of tips on how to survive a mugging.

"It demonstrates that confronting an attacker is probably the worst thing you can do," council spokesman Todd Post is quoted as saying.

When it comes to the statisics of self-defense and surviving a violent attack, Todd and CNN have got it all wrong.

Consider this evidence:

"Murder rates decline when either more women or more men carry concealed handguns, but the effect is especially pronounced for women. An additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about three to four times more than an additional man carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for men." More Guns, Less Crime. John R. Lott, Jr.

Raw data from the Justice Department’s annual National Crime Victim Survey show that when a woman resists a “stranger rape” with a gun, the probability of completion was 0.1% and of victim injury 0.1%, compared to 31% and 40% respectively, for all stranger rapes. For all rapes, women who resisted with a gun were 2.5 times more likely to escape without injury than those who did not resist, and 4 times more likely to escape uninjured than those who resisted with any means other than a gun.” (Southwick, Journal of Criminal Justice, 2000)

A Dept. of Justice survey found that 40% of felons chose not to commit at least some crimes for fear their victims were armed, and 34% admitted having been scared off or shot at by armed victims. (James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous, Aldine de Gruyter, 1986)

Of course, because she is a law-abiding citizen, duFresne's 19-year-old attacker didn't have to fear that she was armed on the streets of the gun-control-friendly city of New York.

As a way of illustrating absurdity, OFCC's Ken Hanson has prepared some other tips for surviving victim disarmament zones, which can be viewed by clicking the "Read More..." link below.

The Mansfield News Journal has published an update on progress concerning the investigation of a spate of home invastions in Richland County.

Once victim, Eunice Wilburn, told the News Journal she lives in fear after being victimized in a recent home invasion.

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"I'm scared every time someone pulls in the driveway," the 57-year-old Washington Township woman told the newspaper. "It has people around here scared. I can't blame them."

According to the story, an armed, masked man who wore camouflage clothes and sunglasses knocked on Wilburn's door and tied up her, her mother and an 18-year-old visitor Dec. 10.

Wilburn says he was in the house for 30 minutes before fleeing with three purses and an undetermined amount of money.

The story goes on to say Richland County sheriff's detectives are working on that case and a second home invasion Dec. 28 in Shenandoah. In that incident, two white men reportedly held a retired farmer and his wife at gunpoint and took an undisclosed amount of cash, some paperwork and checks. The two men tied up the couple.

Detective Bob Mack told the newspaper they have made some progress in the Shandoah investigation but that the Washington Township case is going a bit slower.

"It's pretty much at a standstill until we locate two key people that we need to talk to that have some knowledge on this," he is quoted as saying.

In the meantime, the newspaper says Wilburn has taken precautions to protect herself.

"My doors are locked. The windows are locked," she said. "I'm also getting a security system.

"It's really bad when they come in on older people. That put the fear of God in me."

Wilburn said she hopes the suspect doesn't come back.

"When he left, he took the combination to the safe..."

Elsewhere in Ohio, the attorney for another home invader is upset with Licking County Common Pleas Judge Thomas M. Marcelain because he imposed a 33-year sentence on his client, Roger G. Millette. Millette, who the Newark Advocate says "spent the better part of the last 25 years in prison for a series of violent crimes." Millette pled guilty to charges related to storming into a pregnant Johnstown woman's home on Dec. 18, 2003, tying her down to a bed and robbing her at knifepoint. His attorney was expecting a lighter sentence in return for his cooperation.

Related Story:
Woman answers knock, finds gun at her head

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