Former Portage County court mediator charged with mailing feces to elected officials
A former Portage County Common Pleas Court mediator has been charged in federal court with sending more than three dozen items through the mail containing feces to elected officials in Ohio, Kentucky, California and Washington, D.C.
The investigation started after mailings sent to 25 Republican members of the Ohio Senate were intercepted by Statehouse, Cleveland and Akron post offices before reaching the senators, according to a statement from Ohio House spokesman John Fortney.
'It's another crappy day': Investigation underway into feces mailed to Ohio GOP senators
Richard John Steinle, 77, of Suffield Township, is charged with violating federal law titled Injurious Articles as Nonmailable, which makes it illegal to mail certain hazardous materials including feces.
The investigation started around July 3, when Postal Service management became aware of letters sent to three Ohio state senators that contained suspected feces and the words "pig" and "racist" written on enclosed pieces of paper, according to an affidavit filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio by a U.S. Postal Service inspector.
On July 27, a postal inspector conducting surveillance on Steinle followed him from his home off Pontius Road near the Summit County line to the post office on Wedgewood Drive in Ellet, where he said he watched Steinle put a letter in the drive-up box while wearing a glove.
The investigator and two Postal Service employees later opened the box and found a letter addressed to the campaign office of U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, they said. The letter contained a dollar bill and suspected feces, according to the affidavit.
Overall, more than three dozen mailings were said to have taken place between August 2021 and July 29, when two letters containing suspected feces were delivered to U.S. district courts in California.
All of the mailings had the return addresses of the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals and the O'Neil's Building in downtown Akron and an appeals court staff attorney's home in Kent. According to the affidavit, the appeals court attorney said he suspected Steinle, who had previously been employed as a mediator with the Portage County Common Pleas Court. The attorney, who was not named, said his wife, also an attorney, had refused to represent Steinle in a complaint against Common Pleas Judge Laurie Pittman.
According to court records, Steinle had filed a civil complaint against Pittman in 2017 after he said she fired him after 17 years of service for writing a letter to the editor in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The complaint was settled in 2018.
Steinle's initial appearance before the court was Friday via video before Magistrate Judge Carmen E. Henderson in Youngstown. He was released on a $20,000 unsecured bond. The next hearing in his case is set for Aug. 25.
Eric Marotta can be reached at 330-541-9433, or emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Portage County man allegedly mailed feces to Republican officials
