Greene commissioners ask attorney general to intervene in DA’s investigation
Greene County District Attorney David Russo
From left are Greene County commissioners Mike Belding, Betsy Rohanna-McClure and Blair Zimmerman.
The Greene County commissioners are asking the state Attorney General’s office to intervene in an investigation by District Attorney David Russo over the public release last month of his office’s annual audit.
The commissioners filed the action for declaratory judgment Tuesday in Greene County Court of Common Pleas claiming Russo’s investigation of several county officials is “politically motivated” in an escalating feud between the two sides.
Russo last month began investigating the public release of his office’s annual audit performed by the Greene County controller in which several concerns were raised in the report, which county Commission Chairman Michael Belding posted portions of on his personal Facebook page.
Several pages of Russo’s audit were released to Morgan Township resident Clint Blaney, who serves as chairman of the Greene County Republican Committee, following an open records request to the county on Jan. 17. Belding said Friday that the two cover letters he shared in his Feb. 18 post on Facebook did not constitute the entire audit and claimed they are permitted to be released since they did not contain any sensitive information about confidential informants or investigatory tactics.
According to state law, the annual audit of a district attorney’s forfeited property fund is sent to the Attorney General’s office for review and “shall not be made public.” But an open records case involving the district attorney in York County allowed portions of that office’s audit to be released to the public, although it’s not known whether that situation is analogous to what Greene County officials provided to Blaney as part of his recent request.
In their court filing this week, the commissioners said Russo’s chief detective, Zachary Sams, requested that email records for several county employees be preserved – including from Belding’s account – from Sept. 1 until March 2, “pending the issuance of a search warrant for the investigation of the release of confidential information.” The commissioners argued that the request is a “fishing expedition” and Russo cannot continue his investigation because he considers himself a victim in the matter.
“The above referenced criminal investigation is politically motivated,” the county’s court filing states. “The Greene County District Attorney is conducting and pursuing a questionable criminal investigation in a matter in which he is the alleged victim of a crime. The criminal investigation of these county officials and employees by the district attorney is an attempt to coerce and harass these officials and employees.”
In response to the court filing, Russo offered a blistering statement Friday that took specific aim at Belding.
“To say that I am furious beyond measure with Mike Belding and his cronies’ fabricated allegations would be an understatement,” Russo said in a written statement. “Belding has surreptitiously and libelously used sensitive government documents in order to attempt to slander my name.”
No hearing has been scheduled yet in response to the filing, and it was unclear which judge would preside over the case. A spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s office said last week they were aware of the situation, but declined to comment when contacted again Friday.
The rift between the Republican-led Board of Commissioners and Russo, a fellow Republican, has been ongoing for more than a year following a disagreement over the staffing of a victims service coordinator in the district attorney’s office. The dispute has boiled over in recent months with the commissioners and Russo at odds over the district attorney’s newly formed SWAT team and his detectives confiscating the county’s “stop-the-bleed” kits as part of an investigation into their lack of distribution.
Russo has also charged several county employees in separate cases, including a 911 dispatcher who allegedly failed to send an ambulance to a Sycamore woman who died the following day in July 2020. Three current or former county emergency services officials were later charged and accused of obstructing the investigation into the woman’s death.
But Russo has made inaccurate statements about other defendants who briefly worked for the county and left their positions before being charged, or that they were county employees working directly under Belding. That prompted Belding and fellow commissioners Betsy Rohanna-McClure and Blair Zimmerman to take the unusual step Thursday of issuing a press release accusing Russo of making “false and slanderous statements” in recent local television interviews.
“Greene County commissioners are growing weary of the uncooperative, vindictive attitude of Greene County District Attorney David Russo,” the board’s statement reads. “Time and time again he summons media attention and unscrupulously targets county employees, defamed those charged as suspects and blatantly lies to the public.”
Belding filed a complaint against Russo with the state Disciplinary Board earlier this month alleging the district attorney slandered him during a television interview in January. It was not know if the board had accepted the complaint since the review process is private unless a formal inquiry commences.
Russo said he plans to respond to the court filing and insinuated he could take legal action against the commissioners.
“Belding and his cronies can be sure that this will be answered aggressively and swiftly and lawsuits will be filed against Belding regarding his actions and behavior,” Russo said in his statement. “If the residents of Greene County want change they need to support my efforts to clean the corruption out of the county. If not it will be business as usual here.”