Tuesday, February 26, 2008

County Recorder Caught!

This is an article that appeared in the Dayton Daily News on Feb. 26 2008

Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Greene County Recorder Mary Morris, in a primary battle to keep her job, and her daughter are being accused of tampering with her opponent's campaign sign.

According to a police report, Jodi Ferguson and her daughter Mallori told police they saw Morris' daughter, Melissa Caserta, using a Craig Saunders sign to cover up one of Eric Sears' signs along U.S. 68 near Spring Valley-Paintersville Road on Sunday, Feb. 24.

Ferguson, who's supporting Saunders in his primary bid for state representative of the 84th district, stopped to confront Caserta and was told by a woman in a white Cadillac parked nearby, "I'm Morris, and she's helping me," the report said.

Greene County Chief Deputy Mark Berry said prosecutors in Xenia Municipal Court are reviewing charges of criminal mischief against Caserta and complicity to criminal mischief against Morris. Saunders and Sears told deputies they wanted to pursue charges.

Saunders, who is the Xenia assistant prosecutor, said a special prosecutor would likely be requested.

Morris did not return phone calls Monday and Caserta could not be reached.

This is the second allegation against Morris this primary season. In early February, Sears said he had statements from workers in Morris' office who witnessed her order an employee to put up her election signs.

Morris denied the allegations, saying an unclassified employee volunteered to take a personal day to put up her signs.

Sears plans to take both complaints to the Ohio Elections Commission after the primary, he said.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds like a sleezy smear campagin against our Recorder. Shame On Eric Sears for going to the gutter in this race

Anonymous said...

Morris is the one that started the dirty campaign, she can't even respect her opponents signs! Sears has every right to file complaints!

Anonymous said...

Actually Sears has been in the gutter for a while, and his boys at the ddn are happy to help. This article borderlines on slander...http://www.daytondailynews.com/story/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/02/07/ddn020808greenerecorder.html?cxntlid=inform

Anonymous said...

Sears has run a clean cut campaign. Looks like Morris can't handle a little competition for her seat.

And to your DDN comment, the DDN is happy to publish anything negative about any R.

Anonymous said...

Hmm... now the real story comes out. Thanks DDN for you hard hitting investigation. Anything to bash an Incumbent Republican right? Eric Sears should be ashamed of himself.

“It’s not true,” said Morris. “We were there putting up signs and repairing ones that had blown over, and all of a sudden this lady pulls up and asked us what’s going on. She was very rude.”

Anonymous said...

Come on people, we all know Morris did this. She was well aware that her time in the office was most likely running out. Did you see the video of her and the other candidates? Did you see how bad she looked?