Judge: Stan Chesley can't be arrested in Ohio
A Hamilton County judge has ruled that no law enforcement agency in Ohio can arrest former attorney Stan Chesley on a bench warrant issued in Kentucky related to his part of a $42 million judgment.
Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman, at an emergency hearing Thursday, granted a request by Chesley’s attorney for the injunction.
It’s the latest development in the ongoing battle over how much Chesley, who lives in Indian Hill, has to pay hundreds of former clients in the long-standing fen-phen drug saga. They are seeking fees that were inappropriately charged or stolen by their attorneys from a $200 million settlement. Chesley helped secure that 2001 settlement.
Two of the attorneys are still serving prison sentences. All, including Chesley, were disbarred in Kentucky. Chesley, whose law firm was in Ohio, retired from practicing law rather than face losing his law license in Ohio.
Chesley undecided on arrest warrant
In late-October, Boone County Circuit Judge James R. Schrand issued a bench warrant for Chesley after he failed to appear at a hearing surrounding the $42 million judgment. The other attorneys have paid $17 million of that amount, and the lawyer for the former clients says Chesley owes at least $25 million plus interest.
In an interview earlier this month with The Enquirer, Chesley said he believes he owes, at most, “$6 million to $7 million.”
Chesley’s attorney, Vince Mauer, declined to comment Friday.
At Thursday’s hearing, according to a transcript, Mauer said the Kentucky warrant was issued improperly.
“I don’t believe that (Chesley) received due process,” Mauer told Ruehlman.
Stan Chesley speaks: Willing to settle fen-phen case
In court documents, Mauer said Chesley was not given an opportunity in Kentucky to explain why he didn’t show up for the Oct. 29 hearing in Boone County.
Mauer also said Schrand set a bond amount so high, at nearly $650,000, without any evidence Chesley could pay that amount. That meant Chesley could have been detained indefinitely, in violation of his rights, Mauer said in the documents.
Ruehlman, at Thursday’s hearing, said Schrand hadn’t given Chesley “his day in court, at all.” The arrest warrant, he added, “just doesn’t seem fair.”
“I think everybody needs a day to at least give their side of the story,” Ruehlman said, according to the transcript. “(Chesley) never got that chance.”
Schrand’s office said he could not comment on a pending case.
Ruehlman also expressed concern about the $42 million judgment, saying he believed it was unprecedented.
“Has that ever happened…anyplace in the United States?” he asked Mauer.
“It’s a lot of money for a summary judgment, that’s for certain, judge,” Mauer replied.
According to the transcripts, Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor James Harper said the county jail won’t detain someone who isn’t a security threat. Chesley, he said, would only register and then be released.