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The Ohio Attorney General's office has appointed a Columbus law firm to represent Hocking College in a state investigation into the college's activities.
The Ohio Attorney General's office has appointed a Columbus law firm to represent Hocking College in a state investigation into the college's activities. The Hocking College Board of Trustees met in executive session for nearly two hours Wednesday before voting to retain the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, LLP. The resolution approved by the board says the Ohio Attorney General's office "has initiated a government investigation into certain aspects of Hocking College's administration." The resolution also states that "certain employees of Hocking College have been served with grand jury subpoenas and/or target letters as part of this investigation." The law firm will represent the college in the case, and also conduct its own investigation into the situation, according to the resolution. The resolution also states that all media requests to the Board of Trustees must be directed through the law firm. James Phillips, attorney for Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, declined after the meeting to discuss details of the grand-jury investigation. He said he had known about the case for only 48 hours, and did not have much information yet. Phillips said he had not spoken to Hocking College President Dr. John Light, who was not at the meeting. He had no information about why Light was not at the meeting. He did confirm that he asked for the special session of the Athens County Grand Jury to be delayed. The grand jury was supposed to meet this week, but Phillips said that he asked for the delay in order to give the attorneys more time to study the case and gather materials. "I said stop... Give us a little time to figure out what the hell's going on here," Phillips said. The Athens Messenger ran a story Sept. 16 about a trip to the Central American nation of Belize by a group from Hocking College, and raised questions about how it was funded, though the paper has been careful to make no explicit link between the trip and grand jury.
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