Attorney General Mike DeWine and Legislative Inspector General respond to OCA's request

Hours after the release of our public statement on the moral crisis at the Ohio Statehouse, Attorney General Mike DeWine and Legislative Inspector General contacted the office of the Ohio Christian Alliance in response to our request. 

The Attorney General explained that he is not the policing authority directly in these matters, but that the State Highway Patrol has the policing authority. A letter has been sent to Colonel Pride of the Ohio State Highway Patrol requesting their attention to the investigation. The Attorney General also stated that the Inspector General Randall J. Meyer is the agency that would carry out the investigation. Attorney General DeWine stated that his office is available to provide them with whatever additional resources they may require. 

The Legislative Inspector General has already been vigorously collecting information (according to one source). The Legislative Inspector General stated that if he saw anything that was criminal in nature, he would personally call law enforcement and turn it over to them.  He could not indicate if he was in possession of such material at this time. 

The original report on 11/28/17 by the Dispatch at 12:30 p.m. was very positive and simply reiterated our letter in their online copy. However, an updated version at 3:30 p.m. included the following:

(The Speaker's response)

"Brad Miller, spokesman for Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, said the speaker acted swiftly and decisively on all allegations pertaining to the House.

'It is a shame that an organization like this would resort to spreading lies and politicizing this issue in an effort to distract from the facts,' he said. 'We have been, and will continue to be, fully transparent and responsive in these matters. We have been transparent and responsive to further inquiries following Goodman's resignation and have worked closely with JLEC and the Inspector General on this issue. Any allusion by the Christian Alliance or others to the contrary is false.'"

Unfortunately, this response by the Speaker's office is not a good indication. What we are pleased about is that young people who work at the Statehouse can be confident that there are others overseeing what is happening and are not going to allow it to go unchecked. I hope this gives them some level of confidence. We have received numerous words of encouragement from many people across the political spectrum. They say that we are doing the right thing, and emphasize it needed to be done.