Even prosecutors can be deposed.
Posted on May 23, 2011 12:05am PDT
A judge ruled that Dennis Watkins, a Trumbull County Prosecutor and some of his employees have to participate in depositions for an ongoing lawsuit that is looking to throw out David DeChristofaro the county Engineer from his position. Attempts to suppress subpoenas, or to at the very least produce a protective order to stop the testimony from being heard, were filed recently for Watkins and assistant prosecutors Jeff Adler and James Saker. They tried to use the argument that any information that would come out in testimony may have attorney-client privileged information because their office was the counsel for DeChristofaro and every county office members. Judge Paul Mitrovich declined to permit the motion to suppress. He justified his actions by saying that any sensitive information or communication that may come up from any inquiries would be addressed on a one on one basis. If an answer is refused from the prosecutor's personnel because of a possible attorney-client privilege, actions would be made to have it addressed by the judge in the near future. Past witnesses had been questioned about the involvement of DeChristofaro at a Niles Men's Democratic Club the beginning of this year about allegations that he used county equipment to print out campaign material. And this misuse of county equipment and resources is actually the meat of the lawsuit which was filed in February against DeChristofaro. The lawsuit was brought on by Vincent Davila Sr., a Niles electrician, who wants DeChristofaro an engineer to be thrown out from office because of the investigation if DeChristofaro broke any laws by his actions of printing out material which were then distributed to precinct committeemen. It should also be noted that DeChristofaro is also in 3 other lawsuits which are in federal courts for claims of wrongful hiring of 3 employees DeChristofaro fired after he took office. 2 of the 3 lawsuits have been resolved.
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