Sarah Ramsey
Cincinnati Council Member Wendell Young is pleading not guilty to a tampering with records charge. Young filed the plea in the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Thursday.
The investigation stems from text messages exchanged between Young and four other council members in 2018. The group discussed and made decisions about city business, in violation of Ohio s Sunshine Law.
Hanley says Young further violated the law by deleting some of those text messages.
Young told several local media outlets he deleted the messages before an order not to do so, but after turning them over to the city solicitor s office and seeing them published in the media.
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Cincinnati Council Member Wendell Young is under indictment for his part in the text messaging case involving four other city council members in 2018.
Young was indicted on one count of tampering with records for allegedly deleting text messages related to the so-called Gang of Five case.
In a release, Special Prosecutor Patrick Hanley writes, The grand jury has decided that probable cause exists that Councilman Young has committed a violation of the law, tampering with records. It is my intention of taking that charge into court and establishing he is guilty of that offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison, according to the statement.
Courtesy of WCPO
A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss corruption charges against suspended Cincinnati City Council Member P.G. Sittenfeld.
In a 43-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Douglass R. Cole batted away a motion filed last December by Sittenfeld s legal team asking to dismiss those charges.
Then-U.S. Attorney David DeVillers alleged in an indictment last November that Sittenfeld accepted $40,000 in checks from undercover FBI agents and a federal informant in exchange for favorable public policy action on a downtown development.
Sittenfeld s attorneys have contested several elements of the indictment and the way it was rolled out, saying that key quotes in recorded conversations between Sittenfeld and FBI agents were cherry picked.
Sarah Ramsey / WVXU
Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld on Wednesday took a procedural first step in his legal fight against federal corruption charges as his attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case against him.
The suspended council member has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his attorney Charlie Rittgers has disputed key parts of the case brought by David DeVillers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
The charges in U.S. District Court allege Sittenfeld accepted 10 checks totaling $40,000 from undercover FBI agents in 2018 and 2019. Sittenfeld is accused of promising favorable action in council related to a potential sports betting venue at 435 Elm Street downtown in exchange for the checks.