Butler County elected official indicted on 7 public corruption-related charges

BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio (WXIX) - A Butler County grand jury indicted a longtime elected official Wednesday on seven public corruption-related charges.

Madison Township Trustee Alan Daniel is facing three felony counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract and four misdemeanor counts of using or authorizing the use of the authority or influence of office to secure anything of value, court records show.

If he’s found guilty on all counts, he faces a maximum sentence of 6.5 years in prison.

Daniel, 76, has been under criminal investigation for more than a year as a township trustee and as a member of the Butler County Board of Zoning Appeals, FOX19 NOW has learned.

The case was ultimately referred to the Ohio Ethics Commission, which made a referral to the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office for criminal charges.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones and Prosecutor Mike Gmoser released Daniel’s indictment Wednesday morning with a joint statement that read in part:

“Holding a public elected office is a public trust and is enforceable by criminal sanctions for violations of such trust. The public has a right to expect all elected public office holders to hold office for the public benefit and not for their own personal benefit or for the benefit of their family members.”

Over the summer, State Auditor Keith Faber referred several votes Daniel cast as a trustee that Faber said directly impacted a family member and were related to the township’s road department to the Ohio Ethics Commission for further review.

Daniel voted on 20 road department ordinances in 2018 and 15 in 2019 “from which he should have abstained because he is the father of Road Supervisor Todd Daniel,” Faber recently wrote Madison Township officials.

The auditor also referred 26 votes to the ethics commission for further review that were cast in 2018 and 2019 by former trustee Thomas Hall, whose father is the fire chief, state records show. Faber recommended Hall abstain from voting on issues impacting the fire department in general.

Sheriff Jones said Wednesday the investigation continues. It is not ending with Daniel’s indictment.

“There’s been complaints made about the state auditor’s office pertaining to Al Daniel and a past trustee as far as irregularities into votes on ordinances pertaining to family members. We have been in contact with the Ethics Commission,” Jones tells FOX19 NOW.

“Al Daniel gets his day in court. I feel sorry for all the people of Madison Township who have to live and put up with these types of actions by the trustees and past trustees,” the sheriff said. “This is what happens when everybody’s family members all work at the same place and they are elected.”

Daniel voted on Feb 16, 2021, to approve zoning variances for land that his son, Todd Daniel, owned at the time. The land was developed into a Dollar General store at the corner of Keister and Middletown German roads in Madison Township, according to county records and meeting minutes.

At the time of the vote, Alan Daniel held the mortgage to his son’s property, which he also used to co-own with his son, according to records at the Butler County’s recorder and auditor offices.

Daniel also appeared to be voting as a Madison Township trustee member in violation of state ethics laws for raises for his son, according to Madison’s own meeting minutes.

Daniel most recently declined to talk to us when the township’s audit came out and we told him the auditor referred multiple votes he cast to the Ohio Ethics Commission.

When FOX19 NOW reached him on his cell phone Wednesday morning after the indictment came out and asked him if he wanted to comment, he responded: “No, probably not.”

He asked us what we were talking so we repeated that he was indicted and told him the charges.

He didn’t know he was indicted until FOX19 NOW contacted him? “That’s exactly right,” he responded.

Daniel declined further comment and also declined to refer us to an attorney on his behalf.

This is the second elected official in Butler County indicted on public corruption charges this year.

Authorities began investigating Reynolds late last summer after FOX19 NOW reported he was seeking - at times using his county elected office email account - more than $1 million in public money for road improvements on Hamilton-Mason Road between Maud Hughes and Cincinnati Dayton roads as he facilitated the sale of his parents’ property into a $20 million senior residential complex.

He emailed and/or met with county and township officials to promote the detailed proposal, according to copies of emails and interviews we did last year.

A company that Reynolds is the agent of, Liberty Way Farms, also owns property along the road in that area, according to county and state records.

That case also involves the Ohio Ethics Commission. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted sheriff’s officials as they continued to gather evidence and conduct more interviews.

Butler County’s prosecutor filed a court motion in September 2021 requesting Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and any of his assistant attorney generals be appointed special prosecutors.

Yost assigned a veteran special prosecutor to oversee the case and prosecute Reynolds, the county auditor since 2008.

Reynolds, 52, has pleaded not guilty and his attorney has repeatedly said all allegations against him are false.

A special commission appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court declined to suspend him from his job at Yost’s request earlier this year.

Reynolds was unopposed in the May primary and received the endorsement of the Butler County Republican Party in April despite the corruption charges.

Reynolds will face Democratic challenger Mike Dalesandro in the November election.

Madison Township’s former administrator, Todd Farler, told us in a recent interview that Daniel repeatedly ignored his advice, based on the township’s legal counsel, to abstain from voting on matters related to his son.

“I can’t stop him from doing it. He chose to do what he wanted to do. He would do whatever he wanted to do,” Farler said of Daniel.

Farler was the township administrator for 13 years before his contract was not renewed at the end of 2020.

Farler said he contacted the state auditor’s office and Ohio Ethics Commission in early 2019 and asked them both to intervene.

“That’s when I figured I would become a whistleblower and the board would not renew my contract,” he said Wednesday.

Farler’s contract was not renewed when it expired on Dec. 31, 2020. He tells FOX19 NOW he was put on administrative leave in October 2020 via a note left on his desk.

McGuire declined to comment Wednesday.

The state auditor issued a finding for recovery against Schenck over the summer to recoup fees charged for late tax filings and bill payments, state records show.

Schenck, the fiscal officer for more than 20 years, repaid $24,395 in fees and penalties from the Internal Revenue Service for late filings and $749 in late fees and interest charges for credit card and utility payments, according to the state auditor’s office.

“I greatly enjoyed working in Madison and for the residents of Madison Township. I just wish they had better elected officials that were looking out for the residents instead of themselves,” Farler told FOX19 NOW on Wednesday.

The Ohio Ethics Commission provided Daniel with a legal opinion dated Sept. 27, 2006, addressing just this issue - and it was at his request.

FOX19 NOW obtained a copy of it from the Ethics Commission through a public records request.

“You explained that you recently abstained from voting on a motion for a three-percent pay raise for all road workers, including your son. The motion did not pass. You further explained that your son was then excluded from the motion for the pay raise and you voted on the motion and the motion passed. You asked if the Ethics Law and related statutes prohibit you, in the future, from voting on an across-the-board wage increase for all road workers in the township because your son is the road superintendent.”

The commission provided Daniel with the following brief answer:

“.....the Ethics Law and related statutes do not prohibit you from voting on another trustee’s motion for an across-the-board salary increase for the road crew, as long as the increase is not established on a basis other than membership in the class of employees, will not affect your son’s employment in a differential manner than other members of the class, and does not secure, renew, modify, or renegotiate the terms of your son’s individual employment relationship with the township.”

His resignation came after Butler County officials scheduled a meeting to consider removing him from the BZA at the request of Madison Township residents who were upset over his vote for the Dollar General store.

“Mr. Daniel exploited his position and intentionally chose to participate in the zoning variance process with obvious knowledge of this conflict. His actions damaged the integrity of the process and the work content of the BZA,” one of the residents, Bret Frank, said when he appeared in person before Butler County Commissioners on Sept. 13, 2021.

Daniel and his son, Todd Daniel, purchased the property in question together for $87,500 on Oct. 29, 2004, according to the Butler County Recorder’s Office.

Until recently, other records filed in January 2013 at the recorder’s office show Alan Daniel held the mortgage for $36,000, plus interest.

That same record also shows Todd Daniel’s wife “of said mortgagor releases to Mortgagee all rights of dower in the above-described property.”

Daniel no longer held the mortgage to the property because it was sold in October 2021, Todd Daniel told FOX19 NOW that month.

Denise Goll, chief deputy at the Butler County Recorder’s Office, told us in October 2021 that Daniel sold the land for $250,000 and the new owner, CD DG Germantown LLC of Texas, took out a $1.49 million mortgage on it.

In his October 2021 BZA resignation letter to Assistant County Prosecutor Dan Ferguson, Daniel wrote that he was resigning “with regret.”

“It has been an honor to serve the people of Butler County for so many years,” his letter states. “I have always tried to do my best to make decisions that were in the best interests of the County and the residents, and I believe I have done some good along the way.

That was little consolation for Frank and the other Madison Township residents who were upset over the land deal.

They also filed a federal lawsuit, alleging county officials including the Butler County Prosecutor’s Office failed to take action when residents told them about it.

Their lawsuit named Butler County, its board of zoning appeals, and Daniel, both in his professional and personal capacities.

The residents’ attorney, Matt Miller-Novak, told FOX19 NOW at the time: “When the process you offer is this corrupted, you didn’t offer a process at all.”

The residents lost their federal lawsuit and, more recently, an appeal.

Their objections to the new Dollar General store can’t stop the project despite Daniel’s “corrupt” behavior, the courts determined.

“The actions of Alan Daniel and the Zoning Board to have allowed Daniel to vote in favor of the variances despite his conflict of interest are offensive. The citizens of Butler County, including plaintiffs, deserve better from their governmental representatives,” Dlott’s decision states.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, writing that “the corrupt manner in which the decision was made does not change this analysis.”

FOX19 NOW reached the residents’ attorney Wednesday.

“When two federal courts come to the same conclusion, that Mr. Daniel acted in an unethical manner and violated Ohio law, this was the clear result. I don’t think they had a choice, quite frankly. You gotta prosecute the guy.”

Todd Daniel did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

He passionately defended his dad to FOX19 NOW in an interview on Oct. 8, 2021.

“I have prayed a lot about this. I just felt it was the right time to stand up for him. He should have abstained from the vote and we all know that now.

“When you are in a small community, there’s votes that come up on a regular basis that are going to affect either your neighbor or your family or someone you care about. That’s the reality when you are in a small community. You just have to do what’s right for the community and keep moving forward.”

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