Ex-Ohio patrol leader, governor’s office at odds

February 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland’s top legal advisers tried to interfere with an investigation into a construction company’s labor practices, a former highway patrol official told The Columbus Dispatch in a story published Saturday.

The Strickland administration vigorously denied the charge, and the patrol said the probe, which began more than a year ago, remains open.

The case involves allegations that Anchor Companies, which has a lobbyist with close ties to Strickland, falsified records and didn’t pay prevailing wages to laborers who remodeled an office building leased by the state prisons department.

Former Lt. Col. William Costas, who retired this month as the agency’s No. 2 leader, said the governor’s lawyers questioned the patrol’s authority.

The Sept. 10, 2008 meeting with the patrol was attended by Kent Markus, chief counsel to the governor, and Jose Torres, his deputy. Josh Engel, chief legal counsel to the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the patrol, also was there.

“We were told we should not investigate,” Costas told The Dispatch. “The meeting had no valid purpose. There was no question we had authority [to investigate] ... they were trying to control what we did. They tried intimidation.”

Strickland spokeswoman Amanda Wurst said the lawyers’ were making sure the patrol had proper jurisdiction to avoid a possible lawsuit and to protect the ability to prosecute the case. The questioning was appropriate, there was never any interference and the investigation was never stopped, she said.

The governor’s office believes that “furious” ex-patrol leaders who left with “hurt feelings” now are lashing out over deserved questioning, Wurst said.

The patrol, which obtained search warrants and seized records and computer hard drives from four Anchor offices, submitted results of its investigation to the Franklin County prosecutor’s office a few weeks ago, prosecutor Ron O’Brien said.

No state charges have been filed, and the case remains under review, he said.

O’Brien, a Republican, said he never questioned the patrol’s jurisdiction.

“A judge must have thought they had that authority, too, or search warrants would not have been issued,” he said.

In a separate federal case, Larry Gunsorek, 63, president of Anchor Management Co., pleaded guilty Nov. 5 in U.S. District Court to charges he hired illegal immigrants to work on the state prison offices and other properties. He faces up to five years in prison when sentenced.

A message seeking comment was left Saturday at Anchor Companies in Columbus.