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WARREN -- The personal attorney for Trumbull County Commissioner Niki Frenchko has asked the prosecutor's office to refer the investigation involving Frenchko to a special investigator.
In an email from attorney Matt Miller-Novak to William Danso, head of the civil division in Trumbull County, Miller-Novak accused the sheriff's department of involving itself in "political matters."
"This time, they are allegedly investigating her regarding a worthless piece of plexiglass, which served no functional purpose we can see," Miller-Novak states in the email.
A police report was filed April 19 with claims that Frenchko took a hammer to a plastic glass divider attached to a desk where she sits in the board's meeting room.
The divider had been placed under the board's large desk to keep heat from a small heater she keeps underneath from blowing on the other commissioners.
Frenchko previously said she has a small heater under her desk because her hands get cold during the commissioners meetings. She also previously noted that the other commissioners won't let her turn the temperature in the room up past 72 degrees.
Just moments before the commissioners' public meeting April 19, Frenchko walked up to the desk area and saw that a plastic glass divider that she removed the night before had been replaced and bolted in between the desk area.
Frenchko, according to Commissioner Denny Malloy, unsuccessfully attempted to manually pull the divider from under the desk. She then walked from the meeting room and returned with a hammer.
"More importantly, the department is investigating her over this new office dispute only three days after she filed suit against the sheriff for battering her unlawfully seizing her property, and unlawfully interfering with her civil rights," Miller-Novak states in the email.
On April 17, Frenchko's lawyers filed a federal lawsuit against the Sheriff Paul Monroe, Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa and former Commissioner Frank Fuda and two deputies over her arrest July 7, 2022, during a commissioners meeting.
The two deputies also named as defendants -- Sgts. Robert Ross and Harold Wix -- handcuffed the Republican commissioner during a contentious point in the meeting where discussion centered on an inmate, whom Frenchko claimed was diagnosed at the hospital with meningitis and was not treated properly at the jail.
At the behest of Fuda, the commissioners' clerk was reading a letter from Monroe asking Frenchko to apologize for these allegations that were made at an earlier meeting.
When Frenchko spoke over the clerk, Cantalamessa said she was being disruptive. A sheriff's deputy also said Frenchko was disruptive, then two deputies led her from the room in handcuffs.
"The sheriff's department simply has established a pattern of attempting to shove square pegs in round holes to criminally punish their rival for her critical speech," Miller-Novak states in the email. "Regardless, in the meantime, the department has done nothing to investigate potential crimes that county agents have committed against Commissioner Frenchko."
Miller-Novak lists five examples of this from two events. The first event is Frenchko's arrest. The email states Monroe and the two deputies who arrested Frenchko should have been investigated for interfering with her constitutional rights.
The email also claims that because Miller-Novak believes there was no probable cause for the arrest and he believes the sheriff and his deputies were motivated to punish Frenchko, the arrest amounts to unlawful restraint.
Miller-Novak states that Cantalamessa also should be investigated, because he is accused of admitting that his phone deletes messages, which may have contained evidence, so it could amount to unlawful tampering of evidence.
The second event occurred in March. During a county budget hearing at the county planning commission office, Frenchko made a suggestion that nurses should handle some of the medical concerns from inmates at the jail.
When Monroe got up to discuss the issue, Frenchko sought to adjust her cellphone to record him. The next moment, the phone was heard hitting the table.
Frenchko previously said the phone's stand was in her hand when Monroe sought to move it.
Miller-Novak's email states that Monroe's "seizing" of Frenchko's phone was retaliation for her recording a public meeting. Also, because the phone was attached to her, the email claims the event also could be considered menacing.
Miller-Novak's email states that neither the sheriff's department nor the prosecutor's office have investigated these incidents. He states that he and David Betras, Frenchko's other personal attorney, reccommend that the allegations be referred to an independent investigator.
"We advance that the basic American concepts of Equal Protection and fundamental fairness, which are supposed to guide our governments' police powers, demand that all government officials in Trumbull County, including the commissioners, sheriff, deputies, and any other involved individuals, receive the same treatment," Miller-Novak states in the email. " It should only follow that a commissioner who was unlawfully arrested, battered, detained, punished, seized, and menaced may also warrant the same protections as a transparent piece of worthless plastic. She certainly, at the very least, deserves investigators who she is not presently suing for violating her civil rights."
DANSO'S RESPONSE
Danso said these matters are under review, so he cannot comment on them specifically. He noted that the County Risk Sharing Authority, or CORSA, is appointing council for some of the county's pending litigation, so he cannot comment on pending or possible future litigation.
Generally, Danso said that the prosecutor's office does not investigate incidents.
"This office is not an investigative agency by statute," Danso said.
Other agencies, like law enforcement or the attorney general's office, investigate and gather evidence, then the prosecutor's office argues the case from there. Danso said it is very rare that the prosecutor's office makes referrals to investigators, although it has in the past.
He said anyone wishing for an investigation to take place on any matter should contact the attorney general or a law enforcement agency.