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Messy divorce story goes public
(by Dave Lange - March 11, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Messy divorce story goes public
Readers of our Geauga Times Courier newspaper were treated last week to a front-page story headlined, "Handcuffed ex-wife points finger at mayor." With handcuffs, an ex-wife and a mayor, that story was irresistible reading to anyone with normal human curiosity.
But as the mild-mannered editor, I initially didn't want to print it. When our Geauga County reporter Joseph Koziol Jr. brought it to my attention a week and a half earlier, my initial response was that we shouldn't get sucked into the middle of an ongoing divorce saga, even if one of the parties happens to be the mayor of the City of Chardon. Nothing good comes from domestic warfare.
Nevertheless, I found the story to be compelling. So I told Mr. Koziol we would consider printing it -- if the handcuffed ex-wife was serious enough about her allegations to take them a step beyond calling us, the media, by filing an official complaint.
Well, Jennifer King, the ex-wife of Chardon Mayor Philip King, proceeded to file a complaint with the Cleveland office of the FBI. At least she said she did. Unlike other police agencies, which are bound by public-records laws to release reports to the public, including the media, the FBI insists that it's above such laws. It refused to even acknowledge whether such a complaint has been filed.
According to Miss King, at 8:30 on the evening of Feb. 8, two police cars, lights flashing, pulled into her Chardon driveway, and two officers pushed their way into her home. She said they grabbed her, placed her under arrest, put her in handcuffs and hauled her off to the Geauga County Safety Center. Wearing only pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, she was subjected to two body searches, including touching of her breasts, she said.
The official account of the incident, according to the Chardon Police Department, is somewhat different, particularly the manner in which Miss King's home was entered and that the only body part touched was her arm.
But the basic facts are not in dispute. Two police cars were sent to her home. She was picked up on a warrant, cuffed, taken into custody and later released on bond.
Miss King's crime was a parking citation, which was left on her vehicle last September outside the Geauga County Courthouse, where she was attending a divorce hearing. According to police, she failed to settle the ticket at a scheduled Oct. 15 court hearing and still failed to settle it after a final notice was issued on Dec. 11.
People who fail to settle their tickets after receiving warnings shouldn't expect the problem to just go away, and Chardon Police Chief Timothy McKenna said his department routinely handles such matters in a similar fashion. In fact, he said, his officers have gone as far as Toledo to apprehend parking scofflaws, which is a mighty far fetch.
Miss King, however, said she suspects that the mayor, her ex-husband, had something to do with her rude treatment. Mayor King vehemently denied that accusation. Indeed, if that were the case, it wouldn't be a very smart move on his part. Getting mixed up in messy divorces may not be the wisest move for police or journalists either, but sometimes it goes with the territory.
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