Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly recently retained Attorney Brad Koffel to represent him in his criminal case. Kelly faces 25 criminal charges, including various counts of theft.
On Friday, the judge imposed a gag rule so that the details of this case do not leak to the media.
"We're going to decide this case based on the evidence, and not on anything else," said Judge Patricia Ann Cosgrove.
All parties connected to this case are now prevented from commenting on it to the media. This ban does not extend to the attorneys handling the case because they are held to a separate set of ethical guidelines when it comes to speaking with reporters.
At the time of Friday's hearing, Kelly's office was facing contempt of court for failing to produce select subpoenaed records. The judge offered to rescind the contempt of court order if they produced the remaining documents by 4pm that same day.
Assistant Prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, Allan Regas, is serving as legal counsel for the sheriff's office. He argued that the subpoenas were excessive and unreasonable, saying that his office had already spent up to 300 hours compiling more than 40,000 documents.
Regas' role as counsel for the sheriff's office ended with the subpoena issue. On Friday, Mr. Koffel entered as the attorney that would be present throughout the remainder of the case. The final pre-trial date is set for August 29th and the trial date is set for September 29th.
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