Gov. Bob Taft never asked for nor received expungement of his criminal record in connection with the "Coingate" investment scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation. His former executive assistant, J. Douglas Moormann, said he also never asked to have his record sealed.

Gov. Bob Taft never asked for nor received expungement of his criminal record in connection with the �Coingate� investment scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers� Compensation.

His former executive assistant, J. Douglas Moormann, said he also never asked to have his record sealed.

The Ohio inspector general�s office is looking internally into why it had those names as among five whose records had been expunged, which would have meant the public could have no longer seen them and public officials could have no longer even mentioned them.

Spokesman Carl Enslen said a newly hired investigative attorney apparently conducted an incomplete search when he checked for court records.

�I think it was bad research on this on our part,� Enslen said. �We�ve got to do a much more thorough combing of the record.�

Inspector General Randall K. Meyer had said the only names of defendants who were left out of his report on the scandal last week were five who were granted expungements. The names of Taft, Moormann and three others charged in the case were not included.

Enslen said once the inspector general completes its internal review, a new report probably will be released that includes the involvement of Taft and anyone else whose record was not actually expunged.

Taft called his attorney, William Meeks of Columbus, after he started getting calls about the expungement from reporters following up on yesterday�s Dispatch story based on the apparently inadequate research by the inspector general.

�Nobody has ever filed an expungement request for him,� said Meeks, who represented Taft when he pleaded no contest to and was found guilty of four ethics violations in 2005. �There has never been an application or a motion.�

Meeks said both the city attorney�s and county prosecutor�s offices confirm that.

Both Taft�s and Moormann�s case files still are available in the electronic records of the Franklin County Municipal Court clerk�s office.

Moormann failed to report a loan from Toledo-area coin dealer Thomas W. Noe, who remains in prison after making off with millions of dollars from the state�s investment in his rare coins and other paraphernalia.

drowland@dispatch.com

The above story corrects information previously reported by The Dispatch . The earlier story is below:



Records of the investigation and court proceedings of the only governor in Ohio history convicted of a crime are now closed to public view � forever.

Gov. Bob Taft�s criminal record has been expunged, meaning that information is now sealed under Ohio law, and any government official who divulges it could face prosecution.

The records of four other defendants caught up in the scandal sparked by investments in rare coins by the state Bureau of Workers� Compensation also have been expunged, including Douglas Moormann�s, Taft�s executive assistant.

Taft pleaded no contest and was found guilty by a judge in August 2005 of four ethics violations for making false statements on his financial-disclosure statements. He paid $4,000 in fines, $76 in court costs and issued a public apology for not disclosing 52 golf outings, meals, hockey tickets and other gifts worth almost $6,000 from Toledo-area coin dealer Thomas W. Noe and others.

�I don�t really want to talk about it,� Taft said yesterday when asked about the expunging of his criminal record. �It happened a long time ago, obviously.�

The expunging became evident, oddly enough, by what was not contained in last week�s inspector general�s report recounting the scandal. The names of everyone who was prosecuted were included in the report, except for Taft, Moormann and three others. (There was a passing mention of Taft, but not in relation to his criminal case.) Inspector General Randall J. Meyer said the law prevented him from including the involvement of anyone whose record had been sealed.

Jim Manken, chief legal counsel for the inspector general, said the office had an initial list of those whose records were expunged so investigators knew who to leave out of the final report.

�We made sure that our records were sanitized,� he said.

Moormann, charged with failing to report a loan from Noe, was not mentioned in Friday�s report. He pleaded no contest in 2006 to ethics charges and was fined; he also received an �admonishment� from the Federal Election Commission for his role in facilitating illegal Noe campaign contributions.

Another missing name was Noe�s former business partner and friend, Timothy LaPointe. After testifying as star witness against Noe, LaPointe pleaded guilty to three counts of tampering with records and in January 2007 was sentenced to three years in state prison.

Also absent was the name of Cherie N. Carroll, the executive secretary for Taft�s chief of staff, Brian K. Hicks. Carroll helped coordinate the �Noe Supper Club� where the major GOP donor would ply friends with food and favors. She was found guilty in connection with accepting gifts from Noe and fined $1,000.

The final missing name was Keith R. Zolkowski, a former investment officer/equity trader from Columbus with the Bureau of Workers� Compensation, who pleaded no contest and was found guilty in April 2007 on one count of having a conflict of interest. He was fined $200 and ordered to perform 30 hours of community service plus make $408 in restitution.

Manken said the forced omissions from the �Coingate� report are causing the office to seek legislative permission to exempt the inspector general from the expunging law.

�We believe what we do has a purpose above and beyond a criminal conviction,� he said.

Part of the purpose of making an investigatory report public is making recommendations that other offices can follow, and detailing wrongdoing that can serve as a deterrent.

Now, however, when an individual at the center of an inspector general�s report gets his or her record redacted, the entire report must come down � something that�s not just hypothetical but has happened, Manken said.

Those convicted of a misdemeanor can apply for expunging a year after the charge is released by the county. The prosecutor can object to the request, which must be decided by a local judge, who is to �weigh the interests of the applicant in having the records pertaining to the applicant�s conviction sealed against the legitimate needs, if any, of the government to maintain those records.� The judge also is to determine whether the applicant has been rehabilitated.

But, since the records are sealed � and no public notice is required before they are removed from view � the public does not know whether any prosecutor objected to the sealing nor which judges granted it.

drowland@dispatch.com