Calls begin for Wendell Young to step down
Calls begin for Wendell Young to step down By Jennifer Edwards Baker | April 15, 2021 at 11:55 AM EDT - Updated April 15 at 5:16 PM
CINCINNATI (FOX19) - Calls began almost immediately for Councilman Wendell Young to step down after his indictment Thursday morning.
Young, 75, a council member since 2010, was indicted by a Hamilton County grand jury on a felony charge of tampering with records in connection with an investigation into text messages he exchanged with four other council members in 2018.
“At some point between January 3, 2018, and October 16, 2018, Young knowingly and with the purpose to defraud, destroyed text messages that belonged to a government entity,” Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Hanley said in a news release.
Cincinnati council member indicted for deleting texts
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WVXU Launching Series Examining Trust In Local Government
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Jim Nolan / WVXU
Two weeks before the May 4 mayoral primary, WVXU begins examining Cincinnati political corruption in a series called Trust In Local Government – WVXU s Public Integrity Project.
Longtime politics writer Howard Wilkinson starts the series Monday, April 19, with a look at when Cincinnati was ruled by corrupt political bosses and how it led to the adoption of the council-manager form of government in the 1920s.
On Monday at noon,
Cincinnati Edition host Michael Monks interviews council members Christopher Smitherman and Betsy Sunderman about their charter amendments to enforce ethical standards and bring more transparency to City Hall. In the past year, federal prosecutors have filed bribery-related charges against three Cincinnati City Council members: P.G. Sittenfeld, Tamaya Dennard and Jeff Pastor.
COLUMBUS – Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, three city council members from Cincinnati, four from Toledo and one from Cleveland all face criminal charges in connection with allegations of bribery and corruption on the job.
All are innocent unless proven guilty but only one, Householder, can t be suspended from his job under Ohio law.
State law allows Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to file a request with the Ohio Supreme Court to suspend local officials accused of felonies related to their official duties. But that law doesn t apply to state lawmakers and other statewide elected officials.
Householder is accused of participating in a $61 million bribery scheme that helped elect him to lead the Ohio House of Representatives, pass a $1 billion bailout for nuclear plants and defend that law against a ballot initiative to block it.