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Betty D. Montgomery
Betty D. Montgomery is a former Ohio lawyer basic, auditor of state, state senator for District 2 and prosecuting lawyer for Wooden County. She is at present of counsel with Mac Murray & Shuster LLP.
Since leaving workplace, I’ve usually shunned public touch upon points within the information.
Nonetheless, as soon as I learn Michaela Burriss’ column criticizing Attorney General Dave Yost and the legislation relating to legal caps in tort cases on monetary damages, I really feel that I need to.
I applaud and respect Burriss’ dedication to sexual assault victims. Tragically, she is aware of too effectively the challenges and sorrow these victims face. As a former prosecutor, I personally witnessed these sorrows firsthand, prosecuting and investigating too many of those crimes.
Burriss has opined on Yost’s work as auditor of state, prosecuting lawyer, in addition to lawyer basic.
As a former auditor of state, prosecuting lawyer, and lawyer basic, I’m effectively conscious of the duties and obligations of those places of work, so please allow me some observations.
Burriss’ feedback fail to acknowledge that public officers take an oath to faithfully execute and defend the structure and the legal guidelines handed by the Ohio Common Meeting. As an lawyer, she is aware of this.
Yost’s oath requires him to defend Ohio’s legal guidelines – even when he disagrees with them.
Failure to take action could be a breach of his oath and his authorized duties. Most significantly, failure to take action would allow one individual to overrule the desire of a legislature elected by the people of the state of Ohio.
To allow this to occur could be to undermine one among our fundamental democratic principles of checks and balances. To take action would enable one person to dictate the law of the land. In defending the legislation — the place he makes clear within the authorized submitting that the legislature ought to take into account making exceptions to the monetary caps for sexual assaults — Yost is doing his job.
Extra:How to submit guest opinion columns to the Columbus Dispatch
The battle between private conscience and public responsibility is baked into these public positions. Thus, his authorized obligations at all times danger being at odds together with his private opinions.
Usually the general public confuses this, not understanding the excellence between non-public conviction and public duty.
As lawyer basic, Yost additionally had a responsibility to seek the release of the injunction in the heartbeat bill to which Burriss refers, as soon as the case was determined within the state’s favor. This was his job.
Burriss feedback on a prosecution that then-Prosecutor Yost brought, which resulted in a plea.
That plea couldn’t have been taken except it was primarily based in truth. The court docket doesn’t take a plea till the choose personally examines the defendant to make sure that the plea relies in truth, and that the plea is given voluntarily and knowingly.
Ought to the choose really feel that these standards should not met, the choose would not settle for the plea. Yost was prosecuting a criminal offense. This was his job.
Burris was additionally involved about an investigation by the then-Auditor of State Yost of the potential misuse of public {dollars} in some public help applications.
This, too, is his job.
I’m personally conscious of the dedication Yost and his workers have in serving to these victimized by sexual assault and different crimes. There’s a vital deal with serving to crime victims by Yost and his workers: The work of lawyer basic DNA labs helps in identifying rapists.
The tireless work of a complete part of the workplace —the Crime Victims Providers part — is to be applauded. Amongst its many different duties, this part runs the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination program, reimbursing medical services for conducting forensic medical exams for victims of sexual assault.
Yost has created a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam tracker, permitting rape victims to anonymously verify the standing of their proof package testing. Reflective of this dedication to crime victims are also the multimillions of {dollars} given out by the workplace as grants to crime victims and rape disaster programming.
Moreover, Yost has reached out to native prosecutors, providing the assistance of his Special Prosecution Section, created to assist native prosecutors prosecute troublesome circumstances. Over 100 sexual assault circumstances are at present being dealt with by that part.
Additionally, in 2019, Yost organized a bipartisan group of former attorneys basic to support and eliminate the statute of limitations for rape. It didn’t go, however Yost nonetheless helps this initiative.
These are simply just a few examples of the workplace and the lawyer basic’s dedication to rape victims and crime victims typically.
This isn’t the work of somebody who “protects the abuser.” He follows the legislation and his oath. He would not “ferociously” defend predators, he ferociously protects victims.
I write this to make sure that the general public understands the duties and obligations of prosecutors, attorneys basic, and auditors of state. I additionally wish to be certain that the general public is aware of concerning the dedication of Lawyer Common Yost and his very competent workers to serve the customarily most weak in our society.
They achieve this admirably – regardless of the criticisms and misunderstandings that usually predictably happen.
Betty D. Montgomery is a former Ohio lawyer basic, auditor of state, state senator for District 2 and prosecuting lawyer for Wooden County. She is at present of counsel with Mac Murray & Shuster LLP.
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