Ohio Judge Tells Staff to Quit FOP, Lodge President Reports
An Ohio common pleas judge told nine members of his staff to quit the Fraternal Order of Police, according to the group’s Zanesville president, Tom Porter.
Porter, also a Zanesville police officer, claims that Judge Mark C. Fleegle directed the individuals to resign from the lodge last month, the Columbus Dispatch reports. The nine members affected were probation officers, a bailiff and an administrator. Porter claims that Fleegle gave the order after the FOP voted to support a referendum aimed at repealing a bill that limits public employees’ collective bargaining rights.
According to Porter, who believes the directive is unconstitutional, Fleegle’s staff told him that the judge was concerned about impartiality, should court cases related to the recently enacted legislation come to his courtroom.
This justification is ridiculous, says the president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, Jay McDonald.
“If the judge requires his employees to not be involved in anything that might end up in his courtroom, he may as well require them to live in a bubble,” McDonald told the Dispatch.
