Trumbull commissioner files federal suit against county officials
UPDATE: Trumbull County government leaders answered the suit by filing a motion in federal court claiming there was never a “grand conspiracy” to arrest Frenchko.
ORIGINAL STORY: Controversial Trumbull County Commissioner Michelle “Niki” Frenchko has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio, charging Trumbull County officials, including the Trumbull County sheriff and a fellow Commissioner of destroying evidence surrounding Frenchko’s arrest during a commissioner public meeting in July 2022.
Frenchko was arrested after she kept interrupting a discussion about sheriff office issues. The criminal charge against her was dismissed.
In the lawsuit, filed earlier this month by attorneys David Betras and Matt Miller-Novak, the case was summed up in the opening sentence of the filing.
“This is a case about a government which abused its police powers to retaliate against an elected official for making critical statements about the Sheriff and his political allies,” the commissioners’ lawyers stated.
Frenchko, the first Republican and woman to hold that office in Trumbull County in decades, has been the center of controversy since she took office in early 2021 after defeating incumbent Democrat and party leader Dan Polivka in November 2020.
Since becoming commissioner, Frenchko had constantly fought in public with her fellow commissioners and got into issues with staff members and other county officials. She has filed several lawsuits and has been the defendant of others filed by members of the commissioners staff. A host of candidates, including Republicans and Democrats, have lined up to challenge her for re-election in 2024.
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This story was originally published October 25, 2023 at 4:29 PM.