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CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO----Former Oak Harbor attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner appeared in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court Thursday before Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold who had called the hearing to determine if Baumgartner had found an attorney to represent her in the free speech cases pending on the complaints of retired visiting judge Richard Markus and Baumgartner's former business partner Bryan DuBois and his wife.
Baumgartner discharged attorney Jeffry Kelleher on Sept. 13 and he moved to withdraw after she said he hadn't discussed the case with her since July and had acted on several matters concerning the case without consulting her.
While the former attorney, disbarred for criticizing public officials including judges and prosecutors, has retained an attorney to represent her in the grand theft case pending against her in Erie County for stealing her own corporate vehicle, she has been unable to find an attorney willing to represent her before Saffold.
Although Baumgartner has not waived her constitutional right to counsel, Saffold says that she will be forced to go to trial without counsel on Nov. 13 if Baumgartner is unable to find one.
During Thursday's proceedings, special prosecutor Daniel Kasaris reportedly lashed out against the North Country Gazette and its coverage of the Baumgartner case, charging that NCG publisher was harassing Mandy DuBois by filing a public records request with the Erie County Health Department and learning that DuBois had been hired as a sanitarian but without disclosing the position and income on the bankruptcy petition the DuBoises have filed in federal court.
The NCG has also learned that on Sept. 13, the Chase Bank filed a complaint against the DuBoises in federal court, objecting to their attempt to discharge a debt of $9,158 incurred on their VISA credit card. In their filing with the court, Chase charged that the DuBoises, the star witnesses in the government case against Baumgartner, had obtained the money through VISA under "false pretenses, false representation or actual fraud".
Bryan DuBois entered a plea deal with Kasaris and the government in the criminal charges against him, entering into a diversion program. If it is found that DuBois filed made false statements to the bankruptcy court, his diversion deal could be revoked and he would receive prison time instead.
9-28-06
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