When a person goes into court our laws require that the system provide them with a fair and unbiased opportunity to make their case.  The attorneys on both sides of the issue attempt to frame the issues by filing various motions and other paperwork in support of or in opposition to the positions of the parties.

The judge is assumed to be the unbiased arbiter of these matters.  He or she is to review the various motions and material and rule upon them according to how the courts above have ruled on similar issues in the past.  If a judge is unable to be unbiased, or free from outside obligations, then the judge has a legal duty to step aside and have a visiting judge take over.

As you know, suit was filed against several of the current and former directors, officers, and employees of the Apple Valley Property Owners Association.  That suit was filed on December 20, 2007.

Ultimately, we have won at nearly every step of the way.  When Judge Eyster made rulings that were clearly erroneous, we were able to get him overturned at the appellate level.  And when an unbiased visiting judge was brought in to replace him on an earlier related case, we were also able to prevail because the law was on our side.

We have characterized this process as the legal dance.  Even though the law was clearly on our side, it has been necessary to go above Judge Eyster, time and again, to force him to follow the same laws that he has sworn to uphold. 

But this process consumes time and financial resources and lets the bad actors have more time to commit further bad acts.  And we’ve never really understood the reason why for this until now. 

Let me explain.

In early 2004, Judge Eyster’s wife, Carol Garner, was hired to be the Development Director for Knox Community Hospital.  Her only job is to raise the approximately $14 million that the hospital needs for its various programs and projects.  And she has done well, raising several million dollars so far from various community leaders and companies.

In 2006, the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court disqualified Judge Otho Eyster from presiding over a case that involved one of these donors to the hospital.  That donor had given approximately $23,000.00 to the hospital and helped to raise more.

Now fast forward to this year.  One of the key issues in our case concerns the approximately $450,000.00 in unlawful loans made by First Knox National Bank to the Apple Valley Property Owners Association.  The loans were made by Mark Leonard, a Vice President of the Bank.

In an effort to stymie our discovery, the bank and the defendants in this case filed various motions to quash, grant protective orders, and dismiss these claims.  All of the motions were granted by Judge Eyster despite the fact that the law is on our side.  All of these issues are currently on appeal, once again.

But here’s the curious part that has helped put all of the pieces of this puzzle together.  The attorney that represented First Knox National Bank on this matter is Kim Rose.  Mr. Rose is also a member of the board of directors of Knox Community Hospital.  In effect, Mr. Rose is Judge Eyster’s wife’s boss.  He is also currently interviewing to replace Garrett Ressing as the new attorney for the Apple Valley Property Owners Association.

His client, the First Knox National Bank, has made contributions of at least $100,000.00 to Judge Eyster’s wife for the hospital.  The vice president of the bank who made the loans to Apple Valley, Mark Leonard, is a friend and lunch companion of Judge Eyster.

Judge Eyster has been asked to recuse himself from this case and end the legal dance.

Steve Elliott, Editor & Publisher