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A message from GOP Party Chairman

For weeks now there have been reports that Columbiana County Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Gamble was party to an incident at Pinky’s Lounge in New Garden, Ohio involving serious breaches of confidentiality and just plain inappropriate, illegal behavior by one in his position. This breach in confidentiality concerned highly sensitive and confidential information contained in an active Coroner’s Investigation relating to the tragic death of a local young lady, who in fact died of natural causes.

A letter was sent by the mother of this deceased young lady to the County Prosecutor, Robert Herron, detailing the full extent of the transgressions committed by Mr. Gamble. Explicit details of that letter should remain confidential. A follow up call was made to Mr. Herron, however. Yet there has been no response back to the family.

So now there has been a formal complaint filed by the family with the Ohio Bar Association’s Board of Professional Conduct, demanding that a formal investigation of this matter be undertaken to determine if there were: 1) any ethical breaches committed by Mr. Gamble and 2) whether there have been any Ohio laws broken by Mr. Gamble.

Since Ohio law [ORC 102.03 (B)] prohibits public officials or employees from disclosing or using, without appropriate authorization, any (confidential) information acquired by that public official or employee for reasons not necessary to the proper conduct of governmental business, it is clear that Mr. Gamble broke the law. This would be a violation of First Degree Misdemeanor in the Municipal Court if charged and found guilty.

In light of the seriousness of this matter, I believe John Gamble should be asked to publically answer questions about just what happened at Pinky’s Lounge a few weeks ago. And, depending upon how he answers these questions, I believe he should be asked to step down from his current duties at the county prosecutor’s office pending a full investigation.

Mr. Gamble has already been charged with violating the Hatch Act, for which a visiting judge has had to be appointed. He faces potential jail time for the infraction. Yet he continues to run photographs of civil service police officers in his ads, suggesting they endorse his candidacy, even after said offciers have asked these photos be taken down.

Recently Mr. Gamble was cited with four counts of “willful contempt” of court and assessed nearly $5,000 in fines for same by a different visiting judge. At one point in time the Judge threatened to jail Gamble that very day if he did not wipe the smirk off of his face.

Now, Mr. Gamble may face charges of First Degree Misdemeanor for which yet another visiting judge may need to be appointed and for which jail time is a possibility.

John Gamble has repeatedly displayed a pattern of conduct that is not only unethical but illegal and just plain unbecoming of a chief law enforcement officer. This conduct needs to be known about by the voters of this county before somebody this unfit even gets close to serving as the prosecuting attorney of the county.

Dave Johnson,

Chairman, Columbiana County

Republican Party

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