Case against former Liberty superintendent hinges on constitutionality of wiretap law
WARREN, Ohio - Whether or not former Liberty School superintendent Joseph Nohra can be tried on six felony charges depends on how an appeals court weighs in on the constitutionality of Ohio’s wiretapping law.
Documents filed by the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office ask the Eleventh District Court of Appeals to reverse last year’s decision by common pleas court Judge Ronald Rice to dismiss six of the eleven charges handed up by a grand jury a year ago.
Nohra allegedly recorded videos of private conversations among five district employees with a hidden camera in a carbon monoxide detector near their desk.
Nohra was originally set to go on trial in January. However, Nohra requested the court to reconsider its previous ruling denying his motion to dismiss the indictment for vagueness.
Defense attorney David Betras argued that the law lacks sufficient guidance to place an ordinary citizen on notice of the standards of conduct they prohibit and invite arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.
While prosecutors argued that the language of the statute refers to any communication where the declarant has a reasonable expectation of privacy, Nohra countered that the recorded conversations occurred in areas where there was no reasonable expectation of privacy.
Betras said Nohra had installed the camera with the consent of the school board.
Trumbull County assistant prosecutor Chuck Morrow tells the appeals court that no law supports Judge Rice’s ruling on the state wiretap law, which according to Morrow is modeled after a federal statute.
"There is no rational line of reasoning that any ordinary person would believe that the clandestine placement of an audio/video camera above an employee's desk to record conversations would not constitute an invasion of that person's right to privacy,” writes Morrow in the merit brief.
The prosecutor wants Rice’s ruling reversed and asks that the case be sent back to the trial court.
The Ohio Attorney General has submitted a brief to the appeals court supporting the prosecutor’s office.
Five misdemeanor civil rights charges filed against Nohra remain on hold until the appeal is decided.
