The incident has the parent considering filing a lawsuit against the school board member, said his attorney Thursday.
The video showing Lakota Board of Education member Isaac Adi was obtained by the Journal-News with the parent’s permission to use for this story, and its images appear to show Adi reached out and grabbed the phone after becoming visibly agitated by their questions about his vote to temporarily shut down all public comment.
Adi, who is a local business executive in the first year of his first elected public office, is seen vigorously defending his vote, which he said was prompted by the possibility of a pending settlement to a recent federal lawsuit filed by a Lakota resident’s attempt to speak at school board meeting.
“After the board shut down public comments indefinitely. We briefly spoke with Isaac (and) he was putting his finger in my face and being aggressive, so I took out my phone in public to document for our safety,” wrote Justin Rhine on a social media post after the exchange with Adi.
“He (Adi) tried to steal my phone and (Rhine’s wife) had to step in between us,” said Rhine, whose wife is a former Lakota school board candidate from the 2021 fall election.
“We were trying to explain the importance of freedom of speech and this is how he behaved WHILE(sic) being recorded. We also explained that the reason they (school board) keep getting sued is because they keep breaking the law. NOT(sic) because parents are speaking. He didn’t want to hear it apparently,” wrote Rhine, who declined to comment further beyond his posted comments.
Adi was reached by phone by the Journal-News Thursday afternoon and said he was due for a pending business meeting but promised a return call afterwards, but none was forthcoming.
Adi was also sent the short video clip by the Journal-News, along with multiple emails and other digital messages Thursday all seeking his comments, but he did not respond.
In recent months the governing board of Ohio’s eighth-largest public school system has been embroiled in controversy as Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller was the focus of an investigation by the Butler County Sheriff’s office — based on allegations — but no cause for criminal charges were found, said officials in the county prosecutor’s office.
Nevertheless, the non-criminal allegations prompted the school board in late September to vote to hire a private investigative firm to review some of Miller’s behavior.
Rhine’s attorney, Matthew Miller-Novak, who is no relation to the superintendent, told the Journal-News that Adi’s apparent action of grabbing Rhine’s phone was “unlawful” and may warrant the filing of a lawsuit accusing the board member of committing battery against the school parent.
“We’re considering all our options at this point in time,” Miller-Novak said.
“What is pretty well documented in that video is an action of battery. Battery is the intentional, offensive or harmful contact with person of another. So it doesn’t have to be a punch in the nose. It can be stripping a phone out of someone’s hand,” he said.
Butler County Sheriff officials, whose deputies provide security during Lakota school board meetings held in Liberty Twp., said Thursday no incident report has been filed by anyone regarding Monday evening’s clash.
Miller-Novak said: “If my client (Rhine) had yanked (Adi’s) phone out of his hand, I’d probably would be telling you about the arraignment right now.”
He said Adi’s behavior was “unlawful.”
“Whatever frustrations he (Adi) is going through, or he felt like he was suffering at that point in time, lashing out by yanking someone’s phone out of their hand or their property is entirely inappropriate in a number of ways.”
(Editor’s note: Because no charges have been filed against Lakota Superintendent Matt Miller, nor have any accusations been made public by the district, the Journal-News is not reporting the allegations.)
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