MAHONING COUNTY, Ohio - Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti is facing calls for a criminal investigation after a comment she made during a meeting last week. 

During a heated discussion over property taxes at Thursday’s commissioner meeting, Righetti said publicly “I mean, I get so frustrated with them that I want to go to Columbus and kill em all. I mean, they're just crazy.”

After the comment was made, there were some murmurs and surprised laughter was heard throughout the room.

Videos of Righetti making the comment have since been spreading on social media - with one person saying they are filing a complaint to the Ohio Attorney General's office.

So could she face any sort of trouble for this comment? Marc Dann, managing partner at Dann Law and former Ohio Attorney General, said the legal case for action would be shaky at best. 

“The State Attorney General, they have the ability to bring what is called a quo warranto Action to remove a public official. I don’t think this meets the legal standard for that,” said Dann.

Dann added that voters could file a removal petition, but legally, because it was said at an official proceeding, and it was political speech, there are multiple layers of protections for commissioner Righetti.

“At the end of the day, this is political speech, and it is highly protected. I mean there are so many layers of legal protection that she has here. She was clearly in an official proceeding, so she has immunity for what she says,” said Dann. “The first amendment right to express oneself when it comes to…particularly matters of politics and government is highly protected. And so I don’t think she’d have any risk of civil or criminal liability.”

Commissioner Geno DiFabio acknowledged Righetti's frustration, but said the comment was wrong and not something that should be said.

Here is DiFabio’s full statement:

“The statement made by commissioner Righetti was wrong and not something that should be said by anyone much less a public official.  It's my understanding she has apologized for it. I think the bigger issue is that it shows the frustration and anger with Columbus  for the lack of action on real property tax reform in Ohio. Our residents need relief from Columbus and the measures offered in house bill 96 do not provide that from our legislators.” 


Commissioner Righetti also sent a statement, apologizing for her choice of words:

“I would like to sincerely apologize for what I said in reference to officials in Columbus during last week’s Board of Commissioners meeting. Reactive statements like that have no place in the public discourse, especially from an elected official. I want to reiterate that what I regretfully said was in a moment of frustration and should not be interpreted as anything other than that. 

During my time serving our area, I have seen our county, and all counties across Ohio, being left by the state to pick up the tab of unfunded, politically motivated mandates while disregarding the increased pressure it puts on us. It is a constant obstacle as we work to ensure the residents of Mahoning County receive the best possible services and something that needs to be addressed.”


Righetti is expected to speak on the comments at Thursday's Mahoning County Commissioner meeting.