3rd Rail Politics: The Politician v. the Prosecutor

We should have had a clue that Dave Yost was trouble shortly after he was first appointed Delaware County Prosecutor in 2003.  But somehow most missed it.

Susan Hollenbach is a Delaware County Republican and from 1996 until 2003 she ran the very successful child support enforcement agency that was then under the Delaware County Prosecutor.  But that quickly changed after Dave Yost was appointed to the job.

According to the civil rights and wrongful termination complaint filed against Yost in federal court, shortly after taking office he stopped assigning child support work to most of the members of his legal staff and instead employed a novice attorney for all child support enforcement work.  As a result, child support collections plummeted during this time period at a whopping 70% rate.

At the same time, Yost continued to use federal and state funds to pay portions of the salaries of prosecutors who were no longer doing child support work in violation of state and federal law.  When Ms. Hollenbach confronted Dave Yost about these issues he went ballistic. He demanded that she not speak with the county commissioners about restructuring the office.

On November 10, 2003 Dave Yost caused Hollenbach to be suspended and at 4:40 pm he arranged for the issuance of a grand jury subpoena requiring her to turn over records in her possession by 10:00 pm the same day.  Two days later a special prosecutor was appointed and there was news coverage indicating that she was being investigated for theft in office. Later, a special audit was demanded of the state auditor of the child support enforcement agency.  Hollenbach was then terminated because she could not do her job because of these numerous investigations.

Susan Hollenbach filed suit in federal court.  The criminal investigation found no wrongdoing and the state audit, issued by Republican Betty Montgomery, cleared her in full.  

Delaware County Commissioners were forced to settle the federal lawsuit for $335,000 plus her attorney fees.  Additionally, they stated in writing that Ms. Hollenbach “did not engage in criminal conduct or wrongdoing.”

Read the rest of the story here.