Ohio Supreme Court dismisses O'Toole's request to set a salary for a new position
May 23—A request from Ashtabula County Prosecutor Colleen O'Toole to direct the county courts to set a salary for a special investigator position for her office was unanimously rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday.
O'Toole filed a request for a writ of mandamus on Dec. 19, 2023, asking the court to order the county Court of Common Pleas judges to set a rate for a special investigator. It also sought to preclude the judges from conducting hearings or allowing the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners to intervene in O'Toole's request, as the judges had previously allowed.
Named as respondents in the Supreme Court case were the three Common Pleas Court judges and the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners.
Both entities filed motions to dismiss on Feb. 1. Before those motions were filed, the Court of Common Pleas set a salary for the position O'Toole requested at the statutory minimum, $125 per month.
In both entities' motion to dismiss O'Toole's case, they cited the fact that a salary had been set, and argued the request was moot, among other arguments.
In a response to those motions, attorneys for O'Toole's claimed the rate of pay for the investigator was "absurdly low," and asked the court to reject those motions.
On Wednesday, all seven Supreme Court justices concurred on the decision to dismiss the case.
Ashtabula County Commissioner Casey Kozlowski said he was pleased by the Ohio Supreme Court's decision.
"I think it all boils down to us simply wanting to ask the county prosecutor budgetary questions as it relates to her request," he said. "And we never understood why she opposed such a thing. I think this reaffirms our ability to question some of the budgetary practices of her office."
O'Toole said she was disappointed by the court's ruling.
"It is unfortunate the court did not indicate its reasoning," she said. "This is an issue of great public interest, as it goes to the ability of the prosecutor's office to assist the police with effective prosecution of its cases."
This was not O'Toole's first attempt to have a salary set for a special investigator.
In May of 2023, she filed requests for funding from the Common Pleas Court judges, and the Board of Commissioners intervened in that case. At a hearing into the request, an attorney for the commissioners called O'Toole to testify on her request, claiming an affidavit she submitted into evidence earlier in the case counted as testimony, and not allowing counsel for the commissioners to cross-examine her would be unfair and prejudicial.
O'Toole was ordered to take the stand in that hearing, and after a significant amount of back-and-forth between the judges and O'Toole, and brief questioning by the commissioners' counsel, an attorney from O'Toole's office withdrew the request for funding.
