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"Your story is (sic) Elsebeth Baumgardner (sic) is false and bizarre", the feedback form to The North Country Gazette said, submitting a comment on a story.
The author of the comment was referring to the article which appeared Monday entitled "Fair Trial Rights An Issue in Ohio Free Speech Case". http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/112105FairTrialRights.html
Former attorney and pharmacist Elsebeth Baumgartner and Bryan DuBois, publishers of ErieVoices.com, a blog based in northern Ohio which focuses on political and judicial corruption, are co-defendants in a case concerning the criminalizing of speech on the internet critical of government affairs. They've been criminally charged for exercising First Amendment free speech rights on the complaint of retired visiting judge Richard Markus who claims he was intimidated by the duo's emails to him expressing their views on various issues. He doesn't seem to think anyone has the right to criticize him.
The feedback comments went on to attack Dr. Baumgartner without any substantiation or documentation and claim that she's the one who's wasting "untold and money and time" (sic).
From all the investigation that we've done and documentation we've seen, it appears that it's quite the other way around---that public officials in Ottawa and Cuyahoga Counties are abusing the system and utilizing public money to retaliate against their critics, attempting to discredit them and financially ruin them in an effort to make them shut away and go away. Baumgartner and DuBois are forced to use their own money to defend themselves while the public officers are using tax dollars to fund their personal grudges and vendettas.
The letter writer signed his name as Norman Pennington and apparently he didn't think that a New York newspaper would know that his wife, Carol Pennington, is the former chair of the Democratic Party in Ottawa County, Ohio. We responded to the writer claiming to be Mr. Pennington at the email address provided but received no response.
Baumgartner and DuBois have been charged with multiple counts in two counties---Cuyahoga and Ottawa. While Dan Kasaris is prosecuting the publishers in Cuyahoga County, let's not forget that Mark Mulligan is prosecuting them in Ottawa County.
And Mark Mulligan is a Democrat, obviously strongly supported by Carol Pennington and the Ottawa County Democratic Committee.
As Paul Harvey says, now we know the rest of the story. No wonder Norman Pennington shows such disdain for Ms. Baumgartner, even claiming that she doesn't deserve the title Dr. Baumgartner. Her allegations go to the heart of the political and financial livelihood of Markus and Mulligan and many other Ohio public officers. Well, Mr. Pennington, Ms. Baumgartner not only has a doctorate's degree in pharmacology but also holds a juris doctorate, graduating at the top of her law school class. Dr. Baumgartner has made full disclosure. You should have too.
Mark Mulligan is spending public funds to prosecute Bryan DuBois on one count of felony intimidation and one count of felony retaliation, a count based solely on alleged "false statements" posted on the internet. Even if the statements were proven to be false, that's a civil matter, not criminal. Sixty years of U.S. Supreme Court case law says you can't criminalize free speech. But then if those public officials wanted to attack Baumgartner and DuBois civilly, they'd have to spend their own money---just like Buamgartner and DuBois are having to do to defend the unconstitutional charges brought against them.
Mulligan is prosecuting Dr. Baumgartner for 39 counts of indirect criminal contempt lodged against her by Judge Richard Markus because Baumgartner told him he was corrupt and for pointing out alleged misconduct in court filings in a civil case against brought against her by Kellen Smith, member of the Benton-Carroll-Salem school board, a case which Markus was adjudicating although he later claimed that he was intimidated by Baumgartner. Apparently not intimidated enough to make a full disclosure and remove himself from the matter as required, not intimidated enough to levy a $175,000 judgment against her.
And guess what, not surprisingly the records appear to show that plaintiff Kellen Smith is a staunch Democrat, along with Pennington, and a supporter of prosecutor Mulligan---another tidbit that Pennington conveniently forgot to mention.
Remember, Markus is claiming that Baumgartner intimidated him and retaliated against him. Seems like the other way around----how to abuse your position to get even with a critic. Using the judicial powers to get even is illegal---seems like Baumgartner and DuBois have a prima facie case of intimidation and retaliation against Markus and Mulligan.
Let's not forget that Pennington's wife's favorite Ottawa County prosecutor, Mr. Mulligan, was also prosecuting Dr. Baumgartner's husband, Joe on a count of civil contempt and tried to have him incarcerated for 30 days and then pay a $1,000 fine to make the charge go away. The charge was quickly dropped when Joe asserted his right to a jury trial. Oh yeah, the judge was Richard Markus.
Gee, Dr. Pennington, why didn't you make full disclosure of all of this in your feedback form? We understand that Norman Pennington is a medical doctor who opened his own medical imaging company, Midwest Medical, a few years ago. His website shows no updates since 2002. While Pennington says that "I used to live in Oak Harbor", last year's phone book shows an Oak Harbor address. Medical credentials show a Cleveland address for him and his medical imaging company is in Fremont, Ohio. There's also a local address listed for him and wife, Carol in Fremont, Sandusky County.
Dr. Pennington also forgot to mention that Mark Mulligan's assistant, Michael Bassett is now the central committee chair for the Ottawa County Democratic Party and Pennington's wife was the executive committee chair. After Pennington and his wife moved from Oak Harbor, apparently Bassett-Mulligan's right hand man, ascended to chair of the Ottawa County Democratic Party---but Mr. Pennington forget to mention that in his feedback form too.
He also forgot to mention that Mulligan and Markus teamed up to label the Baumgartners as vexatious litigators after they filed a lawsuit against Mulligan complaining of intimidation and harassment as the result of them reporting the alleged harassment of their children and alleged thefts at BCS.
While Mr. Pennington harshly attacked the credibility of Dr. Baumgartner, we think that perhaps he is the one who should look in mirror because it appears that he's the one with the credibility problem, along with a lot of northern Ohio public officers like his friends Markus and Mulligan.
Now that full disclosure is starting to surface, we and a lot of other people are beginning to see the whole story. 11-23-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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