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In what some might call a rather anti-climactic outcome to a five-year state investigation, the former president of Hocking College and his wife pleaded no contest in Athens County Municipal Court Friday afternoon to a handful of misdemeanor charges.
As part of a plea bargain, John Light, 80, and his wife, 59-year-old Roxanne DuVivier, who was a top college official during her husband's tenure, have paid a combined total of $500 in fines. DuVivier, in addition, has paid more than $19,000 in restitution to Hocking College and to the Ohio Ethics Commission, which helped investigate the case.
Light and DuVivier both appeared in court for the plea hearing. Neither chose to make any comment in court on their sentencing, when given the opportunity to do so by Judge William A. Grim.
The charges against Light, who left the college in 2009, stemmed from his failure to correctly report on his OEC ethics disclosure forms the full amount the college reimbursed him for travel expenses over six years. The charges against DuVivier stemmed from her involvement in a state grant-funded project from which she profited personally.
A spokesman for the Ohio Attorney General's office, contacted Friday, said that agency cannot quantify how much taxpayer money was spent on the investigation into Light's latter years as president of Hocking -- a probe that had been going on since 2006.
The OEC portrayed the outcome of the case as a blow against the misuse of public dollars.
"It's unfortunate that these two individuals violated both the law and the trust of those who attend or work at Hocking Technical College," the agency's executive director, Paul Nick, said in a prepared release. (Nick is apparently unaware that Hocking dropped the "Technical" from its name in 1991.) "This case illustrates the problem when public officials or employees neglect their responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used to benefit the public interest rather than their personal interests."
The charges against Light said that from 2002-2007, he consistently understated on his ethics forms the amount the college paid for his travel expenses, by more than $46,000.
The charges against DuVivier were based on her involvement in a state grant-funded project to develop student-advising software. She is alleged to have improperly paid herself $9,244 in salary for her work on the grant, though she was on the college payroll at the time.
DuViviver also earned more than $40,000 for consulting work with a private company, then authorized a contract with the firm for more than $25,000, and used her college staff, resources and email to carry out business dealings with the firm. In addition, it is alleged, DuVivier was paid $14,000 by another company for work she did on the software developed with the grant.
>Attorneys for Light and DuVivier maintained, following the plea hearing in Athens County Municipal Court, that neither had actually committed any crime, but took the plea agreement to put an end to a long-drawn-out investigation.
Mike Miller, a former Franklin County prosecutor, represented DuVivier. Miller said he believes that if the case had gone to trial, Light and DuVivier would have won, but that she and her husband were willing to take the deal offered by the state to make the investigation go away.
"Five years is a long, long time," Miller said. And when special prosecutors from OEC and the Ohio Attorney General's office offered a deal that involved only small fines and restitution, "that's very difficult to turn down," he said.
Miller said he doesn't fault the state for pursuing the case, but believes it may have been chasing a false scent.
"They thought there was something there that wasn't there," he said.
Miller also pointed out that the salary amount paid to DuVivier on the grant project was also paid to two other Hocking staffers, neither of whom has been charged criminally.
Julie M. Korte, chief investigating attorney for the OEC, was one of two special prosecutors who handled the case, and she presented the state's case Friday. Korte said the reason the other two staffers weren't charged is because they were DuVivier's subordinates, making her responsible. Korte made no comments in court during Friday's plea hearing to expand on the criminal complaint the state had lodged against Light and DuVivier.
Attorney R. Kevin Kerns, who represented Light, noted that there has been no allegation by the state that any of the travel expenses Light had reimbursed by the college were invalid -- only that he failed to report them properly to the OEC. When this was brought to Light's attention in 2007, Kerns said, Light quickly contacted a lawyer, and took steps to fix the reports.
"This case isn't about John receiving anything improperly," Kerns told Judge Grim. "He's never been a taker from the college."
Light pleaded to one count of filing a false financial disclosure statement with the OEC. DuVivier pleaded to one count of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, and three counts of conflict of interest for a public official.
The attorneys for Light and DuVivier said in court Friday that they intend to seek an expungement of their clients' criminal records a year from now. The state has indicated it won't object.
