After receiving a grand jury subpoena from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Office on Tuesday, Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly plans on taking action.
Kelly was issued a subpoena requesting information on confidential informants, according to court documents, but Kelly intends on voiding it.
DeWine’s office assembled a jury because of past allegations against Kelly. The Bureau of Criminal Investigations was examining past cases, including accusations that Kelly had disposed of county records.
According to Kelly’s letter to Judge George P. McCarthy on Sept. 9, Kelly wants to quash — or void — the subpoena because no current employee from his office has been a part of a long standing investigation and that it is “unprecedented, and will have extending ramifications in the law enforcement community.”
Kelly said he notified Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn of his letter and received a response from McCarthy, saying that the request would have to be officially filed in a motion.
“The proper way to do this is to reduce the scope of the subpoena,” Blackburn said of the legal process.
Blackburn submitted a formal motion to Assistant Attorney General James Roberts.
The letter says that the subpoena’s request “has the potential to harm future investigations,” and asks for DeWine’s Office to be more specific in its requests.
Since the case is currently under investigation, Roberts is not allowed to comment on the case or provide the next trial date, a spokesman for DeWine said.
Blackburn said he has yet to receive a response from the Attorney General’s office.
“I’m sure if I or (any) of my deputies made such an expanded request for information, the court would consider law enforcement to be fishing and would require us to identify what we were searching for,” Kelly said.
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