A Pickerington man who participated in a bribery scheme with former Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority member John Raphael over a multi-million-dollar food vendor contract was sentenced Tuesday to six months home confinement, community service and probation for the next four years.
Rodney L. Myers, 50, who had pleaded guilty to federal programs bribery in November 2019, was facing federal sentencing guidelines that called for up to two years in prison for his role in steering the food service contract at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Prosecutors were requesting a sentence of 20 months. A federal probation officer, using sentencing guidelines based on the potential $11.22 million food vendor Centerplate would have collected over seven years if the scheme had not been uncovered, had advised a sentence of nine years.
John Raphael, the former influential Columbus City Hall lobbyist and one-time political ally to several high-ranking local Democrats, has again agreed to plead guilty to federal corruption charges for billing clients success fees that were really intended as bribes in return for securing public contracts, court documents show.
And for the second time since 2016, Raphael is facing prison this time for up to 20 years for his role in a bribery and kickback scheme he devised and carried out between 2013 and 2015 as a member of the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, the public entity that owns Nationwide Arena, the Greater Columbus Convention Center, a high-rise hotel adjacent to the convention center and another hotel currently under construction.