Mike Fox gets 4-year prison sentence


Enquirer file photo
Former Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox has been sentenced to spend four years in prison.

Written by
Sheila McLaughlin

Former Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox was sentenced today to spend four years in prison.

But U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith said Fox can turn himself into U.S. Marshals at an undetermined date after he has completed the initial stages of recovery and rehabilitation for a recent knee replacement.

He attended Monday's court hearing in a wheelchair.

Fox, 63, had asked Beckwith to let him spend the four years on home incarceration because of multiple medical conditions and the need for 22 medications.

He had agreed to the term as part of a plea agreement in a public corruption case that stemmed back to about 2002.

Fox pleaded guilty earlier to complicity to mail and wire fraud and failing to filing a false tax return.

He said he was not surprised by the judge's decision.

"It is what it is," he said. "Some day you the get the bear and some day the bear gets you."

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120...eakingnews

In 1993 he creates Butler County Transportation Improvement District, which helps create an east-west connector highway from Hamilton to Interstate 75 that would later be named the Michael A. Fox Highway. And in 1997, he was censured by Ohio House for ethics violation; resigns from the Ohio house to become a Butler County commissioner. Then, in 2004 the Fox Highway (Ohio 129) was renamed the Butler County Veterans Highway after opponents objected to naming the highway after a living person.

What a man!

(03-12-2012 02:41 PM)ctipton Wrote:  In 1993 he creates Butler County Transportation Improvement District, which helps create an east-west connector highway from Hamilton to Interstate 75 that would later be named the Michael A. Fox Highway. And in 1997, he was censured by Ohio House for ethics violation; resigns from the Ohio house to become a Butler County commissioner. Then, in 2004 the Fox Highway (Ohio 129) was renamed the Butler County Veterans Highway after opponents objected to naming the highway after a living person.

What a man!

Judging by that picture, he doesn't look like he's going to fair too well in the pen, unless of course he gets some min security/jail-lite facilities.

Jailed auditor: Don't take my savings


The Enquirer/ Tony Jones
BUTLERAUDITOR METRO Kay Rogers the Butler County Auditor is running for re-election even though her political party (republicans) has endorsed her opponent. April 20,2006

Written by
Dan Horn

Former Butler County Auditor Kay Rogers says federal prosecutors will bankrupt her family and leave her children without a home if they seize her retirement savings as part of her punishment for fraud crimes.

Her lawyer described the attempt to take the money as a “draconian action” and asked a federal judge on Monday to intervene on Rogers’ behalf.

He said Rogers, who is serving a two-year prison sentence, would be unable to support her family or herself after her release if prosecutors follow through with the garnishment of about $250,000 in retirement savings.

“How much more can you destroy a person?” said her attorney, Konrad Kircher. “This garnishment goes way beyond punishment. This would prevent her from ever living a normal life again.”

Federal prosecutors could not be reached Monday, but they asked U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith last month to approve a request to seize Rogers’ retirement accounts. They said the goal is to help recover some of the $4 million lost in the Dynus fiber-optics scandal that shook Butler County and resulted in four criminal convictions.

Rogers, a single mother of six children, pleaded guilty more than three years ago to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to filing a false income tax return. She was sent to prison last July.

Prosecutors described Rogers as a catalyst for the scandal and said she signed several documents on behalf of the county wrongly certifying that Dynus had completed certain work in a multimillion-dollar deal to recruit customers for a 100- mile fiber optics network.

Without her signature, prosecutors say, National City Bank would not have released about $4 million in loans for the project. The judge ordered all of the defendants to repay the money, which gave prosecutors the ability to seek assets wherever they could find them.

Kircher said taking Rogers’ entire retirement savings, including her 401K, would leave her “unable to support her family ... and without incentive to become a productive citizen” upon her release.

He said Rogers’ 26-year-old son, Sean, is handling family finances while Rogers is in prison and is using the retirement savings to pay the mortgage and to cover expenses for the other children, including two minors.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll...303120138/