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Judge OKs change of venue for ex-mayor Layshock’s trial
By Ed Runyan
NEWTON FALLS
Visiting Judge Barbara R. Watson said Friday she will approve a request by a special assistant prosecutor to move the misdemeanor ethics case against former mayor Pat Layshock to Ravenna Municipal Court.
A jury trial in the case is expected to last two to three days and begin in August or September.
Julie Korte, chief investigator for the Ohio Ethics Commission and special assistant prosecutor in the Layshock case, asked to move the trial from Newton Falls Municipal Court because of pretrial publicity and because of “a number of issues in the community” involving Layshock that have made news in the past.
“We feel there would be a better chance of getting a fair and impartial jury in another community,” Korte said after the hearing.
Layshock, 55, of Paige Court, is charged with two ethics counts alleging he participated directly in meetings, discussions, deliberations and other actions from Jan. 22, 2009, to Feb. 23, 2009, “intended to benefit the business interests” of his brother, Ken Layshock, also of Newton Falls.
At the time, Ken Layshock and a business partner were attempting to attract a Forum Health medical facility to a location on state Route 534 south of the Pamida store.
Pat Layshock set up two meetings involving business people as well as local and federal officials designed to secure federal funding for water, sanitary sewer and road improvements that would have aided the project, officials have said.
The federal funding was refused, and the project never happened.
Layshock, after Friday’s hearing, said he has rejected an offer from the Ethics Commission to drop the criminal charges and accept a public reprimand.
“I rejected that. I believe it’s important to clear my name totally of these charges,” Layshock said.
Korte said she had discussed a plea with Layshock’s attorney, Michael Rossi, but it appeared the case was going to trial.
Layshock was mayor of Newton Falls until November 2010, when he was ousted in a recall election.
Among the controversies that have involved Layshock in recent years was a felony criminal charge brought against him by a special prosecutor that alleged that Layshock disrupted public services in January 2010 while he was mayor. Police said Layshock refused to get out of the way of a Newton Falls ambulance on its way to an emergency call.
Judge Watson ruled that there was sufficient evidence to bind the charge over to a Trumbull County grand jury, but the grand jury refused to indict Layshock.
There also were months of legal battles involving Layshock after he resigned as mayor in July 2009 and then tried to rescind the resignation.
Eventually, after filing civil suits in several Warren-area courts, a judge restored Layshock as mayor in late 2009.