Originally Posted - November 22, 2006

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Public officials in northern Ohio have engaged in a concerted effort to discredit former Oak Harbor attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner in an effort to make her documented, well-founded, and in some cases, already substantiated allegations of wrongdoing in government and in particular, the court system, go away.

Part of this effort has been to try to paint her as being unstable, notwithstanding that she has been evaluated no less than seven times, both at her own expense and at the expense of the Ohio taxpayers. Each time she has been found competent and the psychologist/psychiatrist has stated that she has no mental disability, the only thing wrong with Ms. Baumgartner is that she suffers from a stress disorder exacerbated by the years of legal abuse which she has incurred in the five years since she first blew the whistle on school district officials and Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter.

Since that time, the situation has spiraled out of control and the focus has been to kill the messenger and obliterate the message.

Part of the disinformation and smear campaign orchestrated against Baumgartner was first to take her law license while she was incarcerated and had no chance to defend the proceeding. Then Ottawa County prosecutor Mark Mulligan tag-teamed with retired visiting judge Richard Markus and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold to take her pharmacy license, the same judge who now is threatening to sentence her to 75 years in prison for expressing her opinion and daring the criticize the judiciary and legal system.

The methods used against Baumgartner are shocking, resulting in grave injustices and unacceptable tactics exercised by Cuyahoga, Erie and Ottawa County official, already causing her to be incarcerated 402 days.

The more she criticizes the government, the more evidence that they learn she has, the more those in power attack, engaging in an egregious abuse of power and position in an attempt to silence a vociferous, knowledgeable critic.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Daniel Kasaris and his associates have schemed with the press in northern Ohio to portray Baumgartner in the worse light possible, seeking to taint the public's perception her and prejudice any potential jury pool, trying her in the pages of the Port Clinton News Herald, the Sandusky Register which are little more than mouthpieces and paid lackeys for the officials involving in prosecuting Baumgartner. Then there's the Toledo Blade and the Plain Dealer.

One of the most malicious portrayals of Baumgartner was undertaken by Cleveland Scene, more geared for entertainment than straight and honest news.

After maliciously attacking her in an extensive article last spring titled "The Pest", now Cleveland Scene reporter Jared Klaus goes on the attack again in a forum, claiming that Baumgartner has been on "adventures", falsely reporting that she was engaged in a "high speed car chase" when the records and printed statements by law enforcement officers admit it was a low speed pursuit resulting in no traffic violations.

While technically, Baumgarter has been "convicted" of sending intimidating e-mails to Markus who has now told news media that he didn't consider the e-mails to be intimidating, she in fact pleaded no contest for the simple point of removing the entire matter from the obviously biased court of Saffold to ask an appellate court to examine the constitutionality of the statute under which she was charged, the First Amendment issues of the case, the case law precedents concerning criticisms directed towards the judiciary such as Driscoll v. Block, Kilcoyne v. Cleveland Plain Dealer and Grillo v. Smith.

The media in northern Ohio has dropped the ball by failing to undertake any independent review of Baumgartner's allegations, instead, just like the public officials, arbitrarily and capriciously labeling them false without any independent investigation, deeming them false simply because they said so.

Klaus seems to have a strange way of thinking for the media, apparently having great disdain for the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and free press but yet it's probably reasonable to believe that should anyone challenge his right to express his views and his criticisms of individuals, even those who are limited public figures, that he would be the first to scream First Amendment rights. In a forum posting at Cleveland Scene, Klaus also expresses dismay that Baumgartner intends to appeal the injustices levied, intends to seek redress of her grievances in a court of law and because she told a reporter for the Plain Dealer that she intends to take her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutional issues.

After reading the comments written by Klaus about the Baumgartner case, reader and Ohio resident Angie Caputo wrote a response.

"Jared Klaus may be the most annoying reporter alive. He actually took time, unlike most reporters, to interview Elsebeth and then I guess he was unable to grasp the seriousness and depth of what this woman has exposed - Pay to Play that includes the Ohio Judiciary. Cases are fixed by special prosecutor appointments and visiting judges and financially lucrative state contracts are steered to the participants as the reward. Insurance companies and businesses are protected. Public officials and attorneys that have been exposed receive light sentences. In return, the public officials can expect huge campaign donations and support at election time. The system is closed and justice is denied to ordinary citizens who have been wronged by a state or government agent. The entire operation is funded by Ohio taxpayer money --- public money.

"Now, it did take the Blade more than a year and numerous reporters to expose Tom Noe's (a non-lawyer) "small" role in the Pay to Play corruption in the BWC … so I think Jared was not the right reporter and obviously did not have enough manpower to investigate this case. Besides, Elsebeth reported Ohio Pay to Play concerning illegal contract steering (including biotechnology contracts) to the United States Department of Justice in the summer of 2001.

"My understanding is that the Baumgartners identified $1.4 million in illegal spending in the Benton-Carroll-Salem School District while Joe Baumgartner was a board member. The Baumgartners requested an audit, but one was never done of the years in play. (AG Jim) Petro eventually did an audit which did not include the years identified. The harassment of their daughter and the attacks on Elsebeth's professional licenses all came during and after their complaints.

"The accusations of child-sex rings and cocaine smuggling were made based on testimony of eyewitnesses (ordinary citizens) that had come forward to Elsebeth during this time while she was still an attorney. She simply tried to do her job as a good defense attorney. The problem for Elsebeth was the evidence indicated criminal activity of local and State public officials. Visiting judges and special prosecutors were brought in to contain the situation.

"Erie Voices was targeted because the website was publishing Elsebeth's factual story with evidence and documentation that proved what she had been saying all along. The power elite could not have that continue so they fabricated a case so voluminous, twisted, and ludicrous that the average person would have a tough time deciphering the maze.

"As an Ohio taxpayer, I am wondering if the new administration of State government will get to the bottom of this activity and put a stop to it and make it right? As a concerned citizen of Ohio, I am wondering if there are any reporters out there besides June Maxam, North Country Gazette, New York, that have what it takes to report the truth of this story. It will be the biggest story of your career and hopefully affect a systemic correction that is long overdue in Ohio.

"Elsebeth is a good decent woman who has tried to do the right thing. She has been smeared by a biased local media that it seems has no intention of getting to the real truth which is to expose the egregious and unforgivable waste of millions and perhaps billions of Ohio taxpayers' money that has been spent to line the pockets of Ohio public officials and visiting judges over many years.

"I would venture to guess that millions of Ohio taxpayers' money has been spent to incarcerate, harass, and destroy this one woman and her family who have attempted to expose the true nature of the Pay to Play operations of the Ohio State government and the Ohio Judiciary. The number of other legitimate cases that have been shut down by this modus operandi is unknown".

© 2006 North Country Gazette