A Pickerington man who participated in a bribery scheme with former Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority member John Raphael over a multi-million-dollar food vendor contract was sentenced Tuesday to six months home confinement, community service and probation for the next four years.
Rodney L. Myers, 50, who had pleaded guilty to federal programs bribery in November 2019, was facing federal sentencing guidelines that called for up to two years in prison for his role in steering the food service contract at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Prosecutors were requesting a sentence of 20 months. A federal probation officer, using sentencing guidelines based on the potential $11.22 million food vendor Centerplate would have collected over seven years if the scheme had not been uncovered, had advised a sentence of nine years.
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Ohio State veterinary researchers hope to prevent the next pandemic
The world is still in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, but local researchers are working to stop the next outbreak right at the source.
COVID-19 is widely thought to have started in bats before jumping to another animal and then transmitting to humans in Wuhan, China, the original epicenter of the virus. That s why doctors at Ohio State University s College of Veterinary Medicine are keeping a close eye on animals right now.
Their goal, is to make sure COVID-19 doesn t infect an animal, mutate, and then jump back into the human population. They ve also got their eyes on a number of other emerging infectious diseases to try to prevent them from jumpstarting the next pandemic.
Credit WCBE Files
Former Columbus City Hall lobbyist John Raphael has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges for taking bribes from a food vendor in exchange for landing a favorable contract with the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Sentencing is pending. Raphael is a former Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority board member. Prosecutors say he used confidential information to charge clients 144 thousand dollars in bribes. In 2016, Columbus Mayor Andy Ginther s friend was sentenced to 15 months for extorting campaign contributions for city officials from traffic enforcement camera vendor Redflex.
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