Motion attempts to poke holes in affidavits filed by witnesses

Clermont County’s newest Commissioner, Archie Wilson, has filed a motion to transfer the defamation lawsuit filed by the Slaby family against him to Clermont County.

The motion also includes, in an effort to disprove comments the defense has said the Slaby’s attorney made on television and radio, transcript excerpts from witnesses in the case, and one case in which the witness said the affidavit was false.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, alleges Wilson made a statement during his recent campaign for commissioner that his incumbent and Independent opponent for Commissioner, Scott Croswell, and Clermont County Prosecutor Don White, had worked with Gary and Brenda Slaby to cover up the death of their infant daughter and that Wilson stated the infant was not only dead prior to being left in Brenda Slaby’s car on Aug. 23, 2007, but was also being sexually molested by her father. The statements were allegedly made during an Aug. 2, 2010 meeting of the Union Township Republican Central Committee.

Debra Siegroth was not present at the meeting, however, she signed a sworn affidavit on Sept. 27 stating that she had been told by Clermont County Common Pleas Clerk of Courts Barb Wiedenbein that Wilson had allegedly made these statements at the meeting in which Wiedenbein was in attendance. According to her affidavit, Siegroth confronted Wilson and asked him if he made the specific statement calling White and Croswell corrupt and comparing the alleged cover up to the case of Wilson’s father’s death, which the affidavit says occurred in West Virginia.

According to Wilson’s motion, Siegroth was interviewed Dec. 1. The motion quotes a portion of the deposition in which Siegroth said she had not read the affidavit before signing and after reading it she found it to be false.

“(White) brought (the affidavit) down, and I’m going to tell you something that I’m not proud of, but I didn’t read it,” Siegroth said during her interview. “I just signed it. And the reason I did that is I trusted Don (White) to put down what I had said.”

Siegroth said about 33 minutes into the deposition that she merely asked Wilson if he said “something bad” about the prosecutor and she said Wilson told her he was just repeating what he had heard.

The motion states that Wilson’s father’s death was handled by the Kentucky criminal justice system, not the West Virginia system as stated in all four affidavits. According to the motion, Wiedenbein stated in her deposition she did not remember Wilson mentioning West Virginia.

White said in an interview with The Clermont Sun Thursday, Dec. 30 that lawyers always prepare affidavits for witnesses. In Siegroth’s case White said he has not had an opportunity to read her deposition, but he knew she was aware of the contents of the affidavit before she signed it.

“I prepared the affidavit after a conversation with her and she came into my office. Either I read it to her or she read it, and she left that day without signing it,” White said. “On another day I was out of the office and I received a phone call from one of my staff saying that Debbie was there and she wanted to sign the affidavit. So I told them to give it to her and she signed it when I wasn’t there.”

White said Siegroth was a Wilson supported who was upset by the comments.

“She didn’t believe I could possibly do that so she confronted Archie,” White said.

White said he asked several people to sign affidavits after he heard about the Aug. 2 meeting. He planned to have the affidavits as a way to prepare to defend himself against the allegations.

“I was doing it in the event it became an issue down the road because I wasn’t there,” White said. “The affidavits were prepared for me to defend my office. I asked if they would sign affidavits now because in these situations people down the road sometimes try to change their statements. I wasn’t going to let Archie get by with making these statements.”

He said he requested an audience with the members of the Union Township Central Committee who were present at the meeting so he could provide them with the facts of the Slaby case. When his request was denied he said he sent a letter to each of the roughly 50 member of the committee detailing the case and his actions in 2007. White said he wanted to handle the matter privately and never sent a copy of the letter to any local media outlets. However the Cincinnati Enquirer obtained a copy of the letter and detailed White’s comments in an article dated Sept. 22.

He said he never contacted the Slaby family to make them aware of the comments. After the affidavits were signed he placed them in the Slaby case file. White said the case was closed and so it qualifies as a public record viewable by any member of the public who asked to see it. He said when the Slaby’s attorneys requested the file for review they also requested to see the affidavits which were included in the file.

Wilson’s motion uses excerpts of Siegroth’s testimony to counter White’s and the Slaby’s claim that Wilson had repeated the allegations before and after Aug. 2 to “dozens (if not hundreds)” of people, which the motion states was further supported by the fact that the three additional witnesses, Wiedenbein, and Union Township Trustees Matt Beamer and Robert McGee stated they had not heard Wilson repeat the claims before or since Aug. 2.

Wiedenbein signed an affidavit on Sept. 15. She said White did not tell her what the affidavit would be used for.

“He said it’s just a back up for what you heard,” Wiedenbein said in an excerpt of her deposition. “I don’t know (why she signed the affidavit). I just did. I trusted Don…I didn’t think it would go this far…if anything would have come of it I thought it would have been something between Archie Wilson and Don White.”

According to the trustees’ testimony, Assistant Prosecutor Todd Soffel prepared their affidavits after interviewing them. McGee testified that the affidavit was read to him over the phone and he requested changes before signing it. McGee also received a copy of the complaint in early October. It was filed on Oct. 26, one week before the election.

Wilson’s lawyer, Brian Sullivan, said the timing of the filing points to the purpose of the lawsuit, which the motion states was to hurt Wilson’s campaign for commissioner.

“This case arises from the efforts of many, including elected officials in Clermont County, Ohio to covertly draft and obtain affidavits weeks in advance of a contested election for Clermont County Commissioner,” the motion begins. “Laying in wait for the right opportunity, six days before the election, the trap sprang with the highly publicized filing of this defamation lawsuit against Commissioner-Elect Archie Wilson.”

The motion argues that the case should be heard in a Clermont County court because the case’s only connection to Hamilton County is the fact that the Slaby’s live in the Hamilton portion of Loveland. The alleged statements were made in Union Township by a Batavia Township resident to Clermont County residents. The comments were investigated by the Clermont County Prosecutor’s Office, and all witnesses in the case reside in Clermont County. The motion says that Ohio law does not respect the plaintiff’s place of residence as a significant reason for choosing the proper court to hear the case.

In the initial complaint the Slaby’s note that the alleged statements were published throughout Hamilton County in the Cincinnati Enquirer, and that the personal injury they received from the publication occurred in Hamilton County where they live, go to church, dine, and in their community.

Sullivan, of the Cincinnati law office of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, said his office is continuing its fact-finding mission as they await the Slaby’s response to the motion for a change of venue by their lawyers at Waite, Schneider, Bayless, & Chesley Co. L.P.A., of Cincinnati. The discovery process will likely introduce additional documents to the case and result in further depositions. After the filing the parties will then await a ruling on the motion by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Winkler. White said he has not yet been called for a deposition in the case.