HUBBARD — A lawyer representing Trumbull County Commissioner Rick Hernandez explained that Hernandez’s decision not to evict his tenants was a matter of contract, not ignorance.

Mark Finamore of Turner, May and Shepherd, explained Tuesday that Hernandez reached out to him immediately following a meeting with Hubbard police detective Michael Banic and police Chief Robert Thompson, after a warrant was served at the 3C Foot Spa on Youngstown Hubbard Road by city police in August.

He said they asked Hernandez if he could terminate the lease in any way, adding that they suggested they “might” be able to do it as a public nuisance within the city limits.

Finamore said he had Hernandez send him a copy of the lease — which he deemed “bare bones” for a commercial one through its fill-in-the-blanks style — and looked it over.

Finamore said the provision for what constitutes a fault and what legal reasons, if they were otherwise complying with everything in here to terminate the lease, were failure to pay at least three times and failure to fulfill any term or condition, as well as not making any repairs.

“So based upon that, I told him there is nothing in the lease that allows you to do it (evict) because of having alleged legal or even proved illegal conduct there,” Finamore said. “Under landlord-tenant law, they do have a provision that says if a local jurisdiction law enforcement agency gets a warrant from a judge and they exercise that for searching the premises, or they search the premises and make arrests for drug offenses, that gives the landlord the right to evict.”

He confirmed there was no clause for sexual misconduct in the law.

Finamore said he told Hernandez that most commercial leases have a clause in them that says that the owner, employees and guests are not to engage in illegal activities.

“If he had that, and the evidence was strong enough without, you know, even with the conviction, then he could have at least attempted to do it,” he said.

Finamore said he hasn’t had a “whole lot” of involvement with the case, other than advising Hernandez about the lack of provision enabling an eviction for alleged illegal activity in his lease and informing him about there not being an independent law under the Ohio Revised Code that enables evictions on commercial properties similar to residential properties.

In terms of why the lease agreement wasn’t tighter from the start, Hernandez explained the property was his first attempt at leasing a building.

“I don’t have properties, I don’t rent buildings, but I bought this building and I put it up for rent. I copied my accountant’s lease agreement, and that’s what I came up with — copied verbatim, changed the address, and changed the things I had to change,” Hernandez said. “(It) never crossed my mind about any kind of other verbage in the lease agreement.”

He said it was also his understanding that most people who lease properties don’t have it either.

Hernandez released a statement to news outlets Monday announcing he was waiving his attorney-client confidentiality rights, enabling Finamore to make public statements or comments on his behalf regarding the property owned by him, which was raided a second time Feb. 28, where Furong Li, 55, of Flushing, New York, was arrested and charged with solicitation, promoting prostitution and practicing medicine without a license.

Hubbard Township Trustee Jason Tedrow accused Hernandez of repeatedly lying to township residents about his knowledge of the activities during the public comment period of a March 27 weekly commissioners meeting, calling for him to resign.

Henandez said he was not aware of the illegal activities happening in the building. However, according to a Hubbard Police Department police report, he was approached by Thompson and Banic and was told solicitation was happening in the business after the August raid.

Banic, according to the police report, told Hernandez he was the best person to stop what was happening in his building. At the time, however, Hernandez responded their lease would not end until December 2024.