On Tuesday, the seventh day of the trial, the state rested and the defense called one witness, Raymond Reynolds, 82. He was questioned about offering to sell part of his property for $2.5 million to developers.
If he had sold the property, he planned to divide some of the money, about $200,000 to each of his four sons, including Roger Reynolds, he said.
Defense attorney Chad Ziepel described Reynolds as a political servant who makes the best decisions for the residents of Butler County, while visiting prosecutor Brad Tammaro said there was one basic theme connecting all the circumstances.
“(Reynolds’) endless pursuit of money,” Tammaro said during closing arguments. “That’s why we are here.”
Ziepel repeated that Reynolds never used his political position to get “special treatment” or pressure county officials to agree with his plans.
“He never made any promises,” Ziepel said during closing remarks.
Visiting Judge Daniel Hogan gave the 15 jurors (one of the four alternates was excused due to illness) instructions, and they will continue deliberations on Wednesday. The Butler County super court room was packed with Reynolds’ family and friends and those who said they hoped he was convicted.
Both the state and the defense spent extensive time Tuesday talking about Reynolds’ suggestion for Lakota Schools to use public money to build an indoor golf training facility at Four Bridges Country Club and whether he used his public office to influence county officials to approve a financing district that would provide more than $1.1 million in improvements to Hamilton-Mason Road. The cost of the TIF was supposed to be shared by West Chester Twp., Liberty Twp. and Butler County,
Reynolds lives near Four Bridges and the pro there coaches the Lakota girls golf team, where his daughter once played, according to testimony.
In September 2017, Reynolds’ office returned $2 million to all taxing districts and $459,498 to Lakota. The fees are monies the auditor’s office receives from the state for calculating and distributing real estate taxes from levies to local governments. The auditor’s office doesn’t need all the fees to operate they can be returned to the various entities.
Former Lakota Schools Jenny Logan testified last week that Reynolds proposed the “idea” to her during a meeting in December 2016. She and others from the district met with Rogers at his office on High Street to discuss bond millage. When the meeting ended, he asked the others to leave the room.
Logan, who now works for the Butler County Educational Service Center, said Reynolds proposed $250,000 — or about half of the district’s refund money for the next three years — be used to build a year-round golf academy at Four Bridges for use by the Lakota golf teams.
Logan talked to the district’s lawyers about the idea, and she was told it shouldn’t be pursued for various reasons, including using public money to build on private property.
Reynolds then proposed an option of letting Four Bridges build the facility and charging the district a yearly access fee of $250,000. Both proposals never reached the point of being voted by the school board.
“It’s not a crime to come up with a bad idea,” Ziepel said. “It was an idea that never happened.”
Prosecutors from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office have said Reynolds spearheaded a plan for a developer to expand a housing development, Liberty Grand Village, and said land owned by Gerald Parks, his father’s neighbor, would be a good fit. It was part of a couple of land development deals Reynolds tried to leverage while county auditor, according to testimony.
Reynolds has maintained his innocence and said the charges are part of a political witch hunt and that he spoke out about projects as a private citizen. Tammaro mentioned numerous times that instead of sending emails regarding real estate dealings in the county from his personal account Reynolds used his auditor’s email account as a way to “influence” people.
Tammaro said if the land owned by the Reynolds family was developed, the family would receive $2.5 million, and Roger Reynolds would make $200,000.
