2 Dann officials face ethics charges

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Two former top officials in the then-Attorney General Marc Dann administration face misdemeanor ethics charges for failing to disclose money they received from campaign funds related to their former boss.

The two — Leo Jennings III of Poland, Dann’s communications director, and Edgar C. Simpson of The Plains, Ohio, his chief of policy and administration — will plead guilty to the charges Thursday in Franklin County Municipal Court, said Paul Nick, the Ohio Ethics Commission’s chief investigative attorney, who signed the criminal complaints Tuesday.

Jennings is charged with improper compensation and filing a false disclosure statement.

The complaint said Jennings took more than $15,000 in payments in 2007 from Dann’s attorney general transition fund and Dann’s campaign fund to pay the rent for a Columbus-area condominium he shared with Dann and Anthony Gutierrez, Dann’s general-services director.

The false-disclosure statement charge accuses Jennings of receiving $21,000 from the Ohio Democratic Party, $4,335 from Dann’s transition fund, $1,309.72 from a business called Cromwell & Co., and $691.99 in hotel and meal reimbursements from Dann’s attorney- general campaign without reporting them on state financial-disclosure forms as required by law.

Simpson is charged with filing a false disclosure statement for taking $1,122.50 from the two Dann funds in 2007 and not reporting the money on state financial forms.

Dann, a Democrat from Liberty, resigned in May 2008, 17 months into his term, accused of running an unprofessional office filled with cronyism and sexual harassment. Dann was never charged with criminal wrongdoing.

Gutierrez, of Liberty, was sentenced in November 2009 to 45 days in jail for six criminal counts including theft in office.

Gutierrez “gave cooperation in connection with” the Jennings and Simpson cases, Nick said.

Those three are cooperating with this investigation, he said.