IS MAYOR COLEMAN IN LEGAL JEOPARDY?

I’ve taken a pretty long break from this blog----life changes as we move forward and it can be a challenge keeping up old routines when the cosmos shifts underfoot.

But it’s hard to ignore the buzz arising from this recent Cleveland.com story.

Treasurer embezzled money from Rep. Dave Joyce’s campaign, says letter to FEC. https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/02/treasurer-embezzled-money-from-rep-dave-joyces-campaign-says-letter-to-fec.html

Basically, according to the reported story, this is the deal:

• Until recently Mayor Scott Coleman acted as treasurer for Representative Dave Joyce’s campaign committee.
• The campaign organization filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) accusing Coleman of a list of improper actions, including:

• making $80,000 worth of improper ATM cash withdrawals; 
• shorting bank deposits; and 
• submitting false campaign report records that over-reported campaign expenses and under-reported donations/campaign receipts.

Wow!!!

Before you say, “Well that kind of record-keeping can be hard for a layperson,” remember this:

Coleman is an accountant who works as a tax manager for Progressive Insurance.

Given his professional background as an accountant and his own repeated runs for office, Coleman certainly understands both how to keep, and the importance of keeping, accurate campaign finance records. 

That’s what makes his alleged actions so egregious.

        What is even more fascinating about this story, however,
        is the fact that it got this far, into public view.

Bad publicity like this is anathema to politics and politicians. Normally I would expect this kind of thing to be worked out behind the scenes if at all possible… perhaps through reimbursement of unaccounted-for funds and the filing of an amended campaign finance report.

For whatever reason, that didn’t happen.

Instead the campaign committee contacted a local prosecutor and filed a complaint with the FEC (whose stated mission is “Protecting the integrity of the campaign finance process“). 

It might have been a necessary self-preservation move on Joyce’s part, to preserve his own integrity and that of his campaign.

So, is Coleman in legal jeopardy? My guess would be “yes”.

There is both a civil and criminal component here.

The FEC is a civil agency charged with overseeing compliance with federal election laws. It can investigate, make findings and assess hefty civil penalties for campaign law violations.

Criminal prosecutions, on the other hand, are initiated by prosecutors. We will have to wait and see if criminal charges are brought against Coleman arising out of the alleged behavior.

I would hope Coleman would be criminally prosecuted if he did what the Joyce campaign alleges.

What confidence can we have in the legal system otherwise?