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County Auditors Behaving Badly, And Representing Themselves in Court

By William Vogeler, Esq. on April 18, 2019

What's worse: being convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, or having no lawyer to challenge your sentence?

For Kay Rogers, it was a bit of the what the British call a "Hobson's choice." She really had no choice. She was convicted and she has no lawyer. It has a lot to do with the $4 million restitution order against her when she was a county auditor.

She filed a civil suit against the bank that is getting the restitution payments because, she says, the bank committed fraud. But as they also used to say, a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.

'Fool for a Client'

Rogers is a former Butler County auditor. She was sentenced to two years in prison in 2011 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, mail fraud, and filing a false tax return. She was also ordered to repay a $4 million loan to PNC Bank in the scandal. She reportedly approved the loan in the county's name to benefit a contractor. "I got in over my head and made a very, very bad decision," she said at her sentencing.

Now, she says, there was no loan. In her civil complaint, she says the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "confirmed there never was a $4 million loan to substantiate a loss to warrant restitution." Rogers alleges that bank executives and the government told a "litter of lies" about the loan. She is asking the federal court in Cincinnati for an emergency temporary restraining order to stop the restitution payments.

'Litter of Lies'

Attorneys for the bank filed a motion to dismiss the case. They say that Rogers has no standing and that several counts are barred by the statute of limitations. Rogers asked for more time to respond to the motion. Then she asked the judge to continue the case. She wants the bank to respond to her charges.

Karen Griffen, representing the bank, said Rogers' allegations are "virtually identical" to lawsuits filed by the contractor. Orlando Carter, owner of Dynus Corp., was convicted on multiple counts of fraud. He is serving a 15-year sentence.

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