Central to his claim is the contention that these officials pursued charges after the Butler County Prosecutor initially declined to do so.”
County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser told the Journal-News Reynolds is mistaken.
“Roger’s recollection is in error, I specifically never discussed any aspect of the case against him with him and never would have said anything about a case that I was involved in at all,” Gmoser said. “I was never asked to consider the efficacy or legitimacy or legality of the charges against Roger Reynolds by anybody.”
Reynolds was indicted in February 2022 on five counts for bribery and leveraging his public office to further his own interests on charges related to trying to help his family develop land in Liberty and West Chester townships.
A separate felony charge was added alleging he asked Lakota Schools officials — namely former school Treasurer Jenni Logan — to use $750,000 over three years of the unspent fees he routinely returned to taxing bodies each year for a golf academy at Four Bridges Golf Course, where his family lives. The jury in December 2022 found no fault on the development claims but guilty on the Lakota charge.
The Ohio Supreme Court essentially exonerated Reynolds of any criminal wrongdoing last August — when it refused to disturb the appellate court’s not guilty decision.
“Even assuming Reynolds had some corrupt motive, the discussions about the Four Bridges proposal occurred in late 2016 and early 2017, the proposal itself was almost immediately abandoned, and the charges did not appear until late 2022, after Logan was contacted by law enforcement,” the appeals court wrote in part. “On these facts, it is ultimately impossible to establish that Reynolds employed the authority or influence of his office to secure the authorization of a public contract in which he had an interest.”
Reynolds ran for re-election and won in the midst of his legal troubles. He tried but failed to convince the high court he should be reinstated.
He told the Journal-News he doesn’t plan to sue the people he feels wronged him, but he will ask county voters to support him next year when he runs either for county auditor or commissioner.
“I’ve been wanting to clear the air for a long time and share my side of the story so that’s what I’m doing, I want to share with people what’s happening at Butler County and the state level,” he said. “I certainly plan to look at a couple different positions in 2026 and decide where I feel I have the most benefit to the taxpayers of Butler County. I truly enjoyed working for the taxpayers.”
He said he isn’t going to sue because, “the county taxpayers have already incurred enough expense from the sham investigation and trial.”
To bolster his re-election bid Reynolds has developed a website where he has posted evidence he claims prove he was railroaded. The only new allegation, buying a witness, is supposedly backed up with emails between County Administrator Judi Boyko and Logan.
He claims county commissioners Don Dixon, T.C. Rogers and Boyko gave Logan a lucrative consulting contract in exchange for her testimony against him.
“Don Dixon was calling for my resignation right away, same with the sheriff, same with Yost, they were the only ones doing it and we know Don Dixon didn’t want me there, wanted me to resign,” Reynolds said. “Then ironically his right-hand person Judi Boyko is out soliciting Jenni Logan for $150 an hour and she’s testifying at the grand jury, I can’t draw a thicker line.”
The county had been without a finance director since February and due to pressures from the pandemic, Boyko was having difficulty finding a replacement.
Reynolds says Rogers told him they all knew Logan was a grand jury witness. Rogers acknowledged he said that, but told the Journal-News he talked to Logan about the consulting contract before she was involved in the Reynolds case.
“I talked to her and I knew she wanted to retire, at my initial call she didn’t even know if she wanted to take a job,” Rogers said. “I encouraged her to do so but not once was there any conversation about Roger Reynolds, I was just trying to fulfill a need. Had I known about that I probably wouldn’t have wanted her to be here for the simple reason that if she’s involved in some controversy we didn’t need that.”
The emails Reynolds posted on RogerReynoldsOH.com between Boyko and Logan began on July 5, 2022 with Logan sending a proposed consulting agreement, Boyko replied saying she’d review it and asking about a start date. Logan responded on July 8 she planned to travel after her retirement on Aug. 1 and could start in September.
“I am going to take the month of August to travel and heal a little quite honestly,” Logan wrote.
Reynolds posted two interviews between investigators and Logan on May 5 and June 9.
On July 13 just after 8 a.m. — 42 minutes before the sealed indictment pertaining to Lakota was filed — Boyko wrote “First, congratulations. I’m sure you feel so relieved and can finally exhale,” and went on to discuss the consulting contract.
Boyko told the Journal-News she was referring to Logan’s retirement.
“The email exchange between Ms. Logan and me that Mr. Reynolds maligns as some clandestine overture is simply a congratulations for her then recent retirement from Lakota. It is disturbing and unnecessary for these circumstances to be maligned for self-serving interests,” she said.
“In 2022, the County found itself without a Finance Director for nearly nine months before I approached a retired school treasurer to provide consultancy services. The County utilized Ms. Logan’s vast knowledge and substantial experience in government sector finance to maintain county finance operations amid no director nor sufficient finance support staff.”
Dixon told the Journal-News everything about this situation was aboveboard and “as far as I am concerned, this case is closed.”
Reynolds is also resurrecting some claims he made during the pendency of his prosecution.
“Over the years Rick Jones and I have butted heads, not because I feel I was doing anything wrong, I was just doing my job and he didn’t like it and he’s a bully. That’s not a surprise to anyone, he’s proud of being a bully, he uses it to his political advantage, there’s a term for that, it’s called lawfare,” Reynolds said. “What Rick Jones started and Dave Yost teamed up with him on was wrong, it’s not what the constitution reads. I was never innocent; I was always guilty to them and they just looked for a way to try and prove it, regardless if they violated my Brady rights or withheld documentation or failed to go interview key witnesses.”
His attorney attempted to get him a new trial after the conviction based on a Brady violation, saying the prosecutors hid exculpatory evidence. The evidence was an email from the Four Bridges gold pro Gene Powell dated April 26, 2017 discussing the golf academy. Visiting Judge Daniel Hogan who presided over the case — after all seven Common Pleas Court judges recused themselves — denied Reynolds’ new trial request.
“The proposal included a $750,000 investment over three years by Lakota for a golf academy/facility at Four Bridges. Nearly two months later Gene Powell, in the email, presented a different proposal to Four Bridges management,” Hogan wrote. “The email contains nothing of impeachment value. There is nothing exculpatory about the email. The email does not create a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different.”
He says Jones came after him because he didn’t like it when he posted financial records online after he took office in 2008. He says Yost prosecuted him as punishment for challenging the Ohio tax commissioner on a mandated property value hike.
Dominic Binkley, Yost’s deputy press secretary responded to the allegations saying, “Reynolds is completely mistaken. Even though his conviction was overturned on appeal on technical grounds, he was in fact convicted by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Jones and Logan could not be reached for comment.
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