Volume 82, Issue 6
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Finance and Felony Ryder Fried, Victor Kallon & Jack Wolf, Reporters
The office of the Inspector General has launched a bombshell investigation into irregularities throughout Governor Cael. J Saxton’s campaign. On Friday, the office’s completed report was disclosed to The Hetuck. For transparency purposes, it is important to note that The Hetuck had a simultaneous ongoing investigation into the Governor's campaign and can confirm many of the details laid in the report. It is under Buckeye Boys State policy that state office candidates must fill out an expenditure form covering all campaign costs. The Saxton campaign noted in their official expenditure form that they had spent $0 on advertising. This raised obvious eyebrows, leading to a deep dive into the Saxton campaign by both the Hetuck and the Inspector General. Details of the Inspector General’s report will be summarized below. In filing the expenditure form, the Saxton campaign initially noted that they had received nine $20 donations and one $300 donation from Seth Coyle, county chair of Deweese County. This $300 donation explicitly violates regulations listed in the Buckeye Boys State Gold Book. The $300 donation was later ripped up and was never cashed. However, the Saxton campaign claimed they had actually received eleven $20 donations, as opposed to the nine initially mentioned. The extra two donations were turned in 24 hours late by the Saxton campaign. Saxton’s campaign was the last one to turn in the expenditure forms, having done so considerably after the deadline. Hetuck staff was curious about the $300 donation, even if it was never cashed. Reporters Jack Wolf and Ryder Fried interviewed Mr. Coyle on the afternoon of June 16th. In this discussion, Coyle admitted that he helped design and distribute Saxton's advertisements. However, Coyle did not purchase these advertisements from Campaign Headquarters. When asked who bought the advertising materials, Mr. Coyle brought up Governor Saxton and Lt. Governor Benjamin Lerner. Coyle said, “They bought the materials.” This directly contradicts Saxton’s written pledge of $0 spent in advertising at Campaign Supply Headquarters. Coyle’s confession obtained by The Hetuck is not the only evidence proving Saxton’s $0 spending claim to be inaccurate. The Inspector General was able to find one of Saxton’s pay stubs of $200 directed to Campaign Supply Headquarters. This is just further proof against Saxton's claim of $0 spent. The fact that Saxton spent his own money on campaign advertising leads to the assumption that his $0 claim was not a ‘clerical error’ (like Saxton claims all of the irregularities in his campaign to be). It can be inferred that opposed to a ‘clerical error,’ Saxton’s $0 pledge was a fraudulent claim, and moreover, likely a lie (The inference previously stated was not a part of the Inspector General’s report, but rather a seemingly obvious assumption based on the $200 check found by the Inspector General). Lerner, however, never pledged to not buying campaign advertising. The Inspector General’s report says that Lerner spent $500 on advertising along with the $350 fee for running for Lt. Governor. This puts his expenditures at $850. When arriving on campus, each delegate at Buckeye Boys State was given $600. During the campaign process, no running candidate had a permanent occupation, so no income was coming in via salary, meaning $600 was all the money Lerner directly received. This means that Lerner spent $850 and only had $600, putting him at a $250 deficit. This also implies that the Continued on pg 2
2 The Hetuck
Finance and Felony Continued from page 1
-ght in the latter stages of the campaign process was purchased illegally, as Lerner did not have the money to purchase these ads. (Again, the inference previously stated was not a part of the Inspector General’s report, but rather a seemingly obvious assumption based on the math of Lerner’s expenditures). It is important to note that the Saxton campaign only received $220 in donations (11 x $20 as the $300 donation was not cashed, being illegal). Even if the donations to the campaign were transferred to Lerner’s bank account, he would still have been in debt (as 250>220) and had purchased the final ads illegally without having the proper means to pay for them. The Inspector General’s report never explicitly writes this, but it is rather obvious, presuming it is illegal to buy ads without being able to pay for them. This concludes The Hetuck's summary of the Inspector General's Report. Parts of this summary were carried out by Hetuck staff, and not all facts listed came directly from the Inspector General. As a final send off, the second paragraph of the conclusion from the Inspector General’s report will be shared below. “...Investigators analyzed several pieces of financial documentation and interviewed members of Governor Cael J. Saxton’s Cabinet. Investigators determined several errors were made on Governor Saxton’s Campaign Contribution and Expenditures form. Investigators determined Governor Saxton declared $0 in campaign materials purchased, despite having contributed $200.”
“Sid the Kid” Found Guilty on Two Counts Paul Paciorek & Saijayshuk Pandrangi, Reporters
Siddhartha Paruchuri, the Inspector for the Attorney General, was arrested on eleven state counts, including those of ‘Destruction of Evidence', ‘Practicing Law Without A License’, and ‘Drafting An Unauthorized Document’. This all stems from a nearly unbelievable story about a man with a big dream. Paruchuri, also nicknamed “Sid The Kid'', was a former Nationalist governor candidate who lost in the primary race. He then took a position under the Attorney General as an Inspector. Amid rumors about Governor Cael Saxton’s finances, Paruchuri decided to take matters into his own hands, and conduct an investigation. According to an interview with an anonymous government source, he was interested in obtaining the financial records of Saxton. He allegedly approached Jahari Henry, the Secretary of State, and requested the campaign and expenditure sheets from Henry on behalf of the Attorney General. The anonymous source then claims that Henry told Paruchuri that he would need to subpoena him in order to obtain the document. This should have been the end of the story for Paruchuri. He was not a licensed attorney and could not legally subpoena Henry by his own means. Paruchuri was determined to obtain this document, though, and decided to pursue this through illegal means. According to the anonymous source, Paruchuri illegally purchased a red star, an indicator that he passed the Bar exam, even though he had not done so. Paruchuri barged into Henry’s office, and claimed he was subpoenaing Henry, saying, “Boom! Subpoena!” Paruchuri then explained that he was suing Henry in order to obtain the document, but also that once he had possession of the document, he would drop the suit. Henry, be
The Hetuck 3
“Sid the Kid” Found Guilty on Two Counts Continued from page 2
-lieving that Paruchuri was a licensed attorney, handed the document over via the auditor. Henry and his staff were later notified, according to the source, that not only had Paruchuri not actually passed the Bar exam, and thus was not a licensed lawyer, but that the Attorney General’s staff had not been looking into the case at all. Paruchuri was then arrested and charged with 11 various counts. When asked for an official statement about the situation, Attorney General Anthony Eaglowski had this to say, “The [anonymous] state employee acted on their own, without orders from my office, and wasn’t able to be contacted for some time. It is my understanding that that action is currently working its way through the courts and being penalized, however, I am not aware as to the exact details of the case and cannot speculate as to guilt or innocence.” Paruchuri instantly went on the defense, reportedly hiring seven different attorneys to defend him, and offering a $10,000 bonus if they could get him off scot-free. After a brief meeting with the Supreme Court, the prosecuting team were informed that they only had jurisdiction over a small number of these charges, and decided to drop a majority of the filed charges, keeping only the counts of ‘Faking the Bar Exam’ and ‘Obtaining an Illegal License’ for the Supreme Court to rule over. The Supreme Court trial (State of Ohio v. Sid The Kid) was held at President’s Hall on Friday afternoon. The case was presided over by Chief Justice Grayson Segars. There were six justices present during the trial, with Griffin White being the only one not present at the time. The defense, led by attorney Spenser D. Denton made the case that since the information that Henry had withheld was public record at the time, and that Paruchuri had the right to see the document. They argued that since Paruchuri had not presided over any trials or used his status as lawyer to do anything he had not been legally able to before, that his faking of the Bar exam did not matter. The prosecuting party, led by Nick Grillis, argued that even if the document was public record, Paruchuri’s act of subpoenaing Henry with an illegitimate status as an attorney was unlawful and deceptive. After both sides dispersed for a short recess, the court reconvened with the verdict ready to present. The court unanimously decided that Paruchuri was guilty of both counts. They ruled that his punishment would be to give an oral heartfelt apology to the court for, in Justice Segars’ words, “wasting our time”, as well as write three different apology letters, one to the Boys’ State Bar Association, one to Jahari Henry and his staff, and one to Cael Saxton, all at least a half-page long, and all written in purple crayon. When asked whether he was proud of what he had done, Paruchuri said, “H*ll yeah.” After a long and crazy three days, Paruchuri’s story had finally ended with a crazy Cartoon by Adam Boogaard trial and even crazier ending.
4 The Hetuck
The Annexation of White County Patrick Burse, Reporter
Thursday evening, the presentation of flags to the cities and counties was confusing to many. When White County won the county flag for the evening, the President County Commissioner Bryan Bandow of Wagonseller County went up to accept the flag, while the rest of their group chanted, “We own White,” and Welsh County cheered, “We own Bishop,” a city in White county. Eventually and reluctantly, a county commissioner joined Bryan on the stage. After all of the confusion of the evening, and as things began to settle down, the information as to why these claims were being made came to light. Rumors began to go around that Wagnoseller County annexed White County earlier in the day, and in interviewing the commissioners of Wagonseller, the rumors were found to be true. Wagonseller commissioner Jacob Goubeaux told reporters that Thursday afternoon, he had the idea to annex another county, and they took the idea and ran with it, writing up the paperwork. The paperwork was a proposal to the other county to buy some of said counties land in order to build a college campus. Brought to Welsh county initially, the proposal was read by Commissioner Jackson Triplett and denied, because the proposal was an attempt to annex the county. After a threat of blackmail from Welsh, the two counties negotiated terms so that when Wagonseller did annex a county, Welsh would be compensated. They agreed and signed legal paperwork stating that if Wagononseller were to annex White County, Welsh would be given the city of Bishop and 10% of county profits. Wagonseller then gave the proposal to White County, who skimmed the document and agreed to the terms within it, giving away their entire county to Wagonseller. Now, after papers have been signed and notarized, White is unhappy with the shady agreement and plans to take legal action against Wagonseller for supposed fraudulent and invalid terms.
Dr. Jerry Kelley Crosses the Border Ryder Fried, Reporter
Dr. Jerry Kelley came a long way to Buckeye Boys State and was not disappointed. The director of American Michigan Boys State drove four hours from Ann Arbor to visit the five Michigan delegates participating in the Ohio program. Kelley, a former Vietnam veteran, had come down to Ohio Boys State due to the cancelation of the Michigan program. Michigan Boys State, which is usually held at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), was initially going to be online due to the uncertainty with the GVSU campus and following COVID guidelines. The problem was that for the online version to be executed, a minimum of 100 Michiganders would have had to sign up. After only 67 delegates pledged themselves as attendees, the Michigan version was to be canceled. About a week before the Ohio program was to start, Buckeye Boys State staff member Christie White allowed Michiganders to come to Ohio. Kelley had goals for his trip. First, he wanted to visit the five Michigan delegates, especially Benjamin Lerner, the Lt. Governor hailing from Royal Oak, Michigan, a hometown he shares with Kelley. The Michigan Boys State Director also intended to see how the Ohio program was run. After receiving a tour around the statewide and citywide offices, Kelley found himself impressed. When asked what part of Ohio Boys State he would add to Michigan’s program, Kelley responded with the positions of assigned executive offices. Kelley, an Oakland University graduate, saw great value in having separate departments, such as a disability office, inside the cabinet of the governor. At the end of the day, a couple hours after Kelley’s tour had concluded, an assembly was held at Millett Hall, home of the Miami RedHawks. During the assembly, Kelley was called to the podium by Governor Cael Saxton. Kelley was introduced to a standing ovation, displaying how much appreciation Ohio delegates had for him and how glad they were that Kelley decided to drive down from the Wolverine State.