Dover’s attorneys want mayor’s request denied, say he ‘doesn’t have clean hands’
DOVER (WJER) (March 31, 2022) – Attorneys for the city say the mayor does not have clean hands, and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to stop three employees he fired from returning to work.
Mayor Rick Homrighausen is trying to get Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court to issue a temporary restraining order against the city to stop those employees’ return to work. He’s also asking the court to make the city pay his legal bills related to the employees’ appeal of their terminations.
Law Director Doug O’Meara and the city’s attorneys want the case dismissed and the restraining order denied.
In a court filing this week, they cite the 15-count criminal indictment against the mayor, which he pleaded not guilty to Wednesday.
“When you walk into court asking for equitable relief, you have to come in with clean hands,” O’Meara said. “He is claiming that he is a taxpayer, and he’s filing it as a taxpayer. I would respectfully submit to everybody that he not only doesn’t have clean hands, the hands are very dirty, and therefore he can’t go forward on that basis.”
In the meantime, the three employees have returned to work following the State Personnel Board of Review’s approval of a settlement agreement last week. Homrighausen’s civil case and restraining order request are still open, though, with oral arguments scheduled for April 11.
Homrighausen has said he won’t comment until the issues are resolved in court.