Three CORE members attend arraignment of Billirakis, Norris, Scott and Endry; a report from Mary Ellen Angeletti

From: Mary Ellen Angeletti, September 19, 2006

Subject: Today's Hearings for Former STRS Bd. Members

Kathie Bracy, Chuck Angeletti, and Mary Ellen Angeletti attended the arraignment hearing today, Tuesday, Sept. 19th at the Franklin County Municipal Courthouse in Courtroom 4C in Columbus. The arraignment scheduled for 9:00 a.m. did not begin until 9:45 before Judge Scott D. VanDerKarr. Mike Billirakis was called first and was represented by his own attorney whose name we did not get. Billirakis waived his right to a jury trial and entered a plea of "No Contest" to the charges of two counts of conflict of interest for accepting tickets to Hairspray from the Frank Russell Company as well as accepting tickets to a Cleveland Indians game from Salomon Smith Barney. He was also charged with two counts of filing false financial disclosure statements with the Ohio Ethics Commission. Even though he entered a plea of No Contest, his attorney made a statement attesting to his fine character and contended that Billirakis considered himself to be innocent. Then Billirakis offered, "I'm sorry. I did the best I could." He was ordered by the judge to a $250.00 fine to be paid by Feb. 2nd, to serve 60 hours of community service, to be under a one year community control, and to pay STRS $275.00. [He was observed exiting the courtroom in tears. KBB]

Eugene Norris was called next and was represented by attorney, Ben Espy. He also waived his rights to a jury trial, and entered a plea of "No Contest" to the charge of one count of conflict interest and a count of filing a false financial disclosure statement for accepting and failing to disclose the New York City Hairspray tickets from Frank Russell. All are misdemeanors. Ben Espy also spoke to the judge concerning the character of his client. Norris was ordered by the judge to a $250.00 fine, to serve 60 hours of community service, to be under community control for one year, and to pay STRS $275.00.

Deb Scott was called next and was represented by attorney, Ritchie Hollenbaugh. She had the same charges against her as Eugene Norris did. She was ordered by the judge to the same as Norris above.

Last called was Joe Endry who was also represented by Ritchie Hollenbaugh. He entered a plea of "Not Guilty" to the identical charges against Norris & Scott. His attorney advised Joe to change his plea from not guilty to No Contest which he did. However, it was noted by Hollenbaugh that since Endry had paid back to STRS in March of 2006 the cost of the Frank Russell tickets, he was ordered to pay a fine of $250. by Feb. 2nd, serve one year of community control, and serve only 30 hours of community service.

Present at the proceedings today were Paul Kostyu of the Canton Repository, David Freel of the Ohio Ethics Commission, Lara Baker, prosecuting attorney and OEC investigator Paul Nick. Also present were TV cameras from channel 7 in Dayton for WHIO TV, and a female reporter from the Columbus Dispatch whose name we did not get.

After the proceedings, the press interviewed Ritchie Hollenbaugh who told the reporters, " The system is unfair. The STRS Board members are not paid nor compensated." Following Hollenbaugh, the press interviewed David Freel of the Ohio Ethics Commission who responded to Hollenbaugh's statement by saying, "The fact that the STRS Board members are not paid and are volunteers should not negate their fiduciary responsibilities." He volunteered that the four STRS Board members all knew that the itinerary for the New York trip had been arranged by the Frank Russell Company who did business with STRS and they had all previewed this itinerary before taking the trip. Lara Baker was interviewed next, and she offered that other staff members were to be charged for a mixture of other incidents which occurred at STRS. She said that the statute of limitations would not have a bearing on these charges to come. When these other charges will be made depends on the evidence. She volunteered that the Broadway show incident is DONE.

After this interview, the press grabbed Kathie, Chuck, and me and asked to interview us because of our t-shirts. We agreed to be interviewed. Following this, Channel 7 from Dayton advised that our interview would be accessible through whiotv.com & click on wastebusters. It should be available later today. The TV interview will show in Dayton tonight on the late news or possibly tomorrow on channel 7.