The Highland County Press

An area resident (herein referred to as the “plaintiff”) filed a civil suit in federal court against numerous county officials and other individuals and businesses, alleging that his civil rights had been violated.

The resident filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Nov. 5, according to court records.

Listed as defendants are: Highland County Community Action Organization and its current and former employees and contractors, both individually and collectively; current and former Highland County Commissioners, both individually and collectively; Highland County Prosecutor’s Office and Individual Prosecutor; The Highland County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Highland County Sheriff and an individual HCSO Deputy; local and national media; the American Arbitration Association and one of its employees; two employees of the Ohio Department of Development; and two different lawyers and a law firm.

As previously reported, the attorney attended Highland County Commission meetings in 2022 making complaints and allegations regarding plumbing, electrical, and other work completed at the (attorney’s) residence through the Home Air Conditioning Assistance Program and the Impact Program and community housing preservation (CHIP) of Community Action.

Mark Current, Highland County Community Action’s then-housing director, said he was investigating the complaints. As reported on 5 May 2022, according to the Current, work on the home was completed in 2019, with the solicitor completing final certification and client satisfaction in June 2019 “stating his overall experience was excellent” and signing a “positive” satisfaction report the CHIP customer. Questionnaire in May 2019.

Current conducted an investigation that involved interviews with HCCAO staff and contractors and a home visit. The report shows that Current, along with Commissioner Terry Britton and other HCCAO representatives, reviewed each of the allegations at the residence and wrote a response to each. For many of the allegations, Current said the investigation turned up “no evidence” to support the claims.

Highland County Commissioners met with Highland County Community Action representatives to again discuss conflict resolution options for the issue on April 19, 2023. In an attempt to resolve the conflict with the homeowners, Current said at the time that the state was recommending that they begin the “final step in the dispute resolution process,” which was arbitration through the American Arbitration Association.

According to court filings, the arbitrators dismissed the lawsuit’s claims against HCCAO.

Now, the lawyer has filed a “civil rights suit alleging that the defendant(s), acting under color of state law, have deprived them (the lawyer) of a right guaranteed by federal law or the Constitution.”

The lawyer is seeking $30 million for alleged “malpractice, defamation, forgery, invasion of privacy, and stress and emotion”; for defendants who do not say they are disabled; and for “stress and emotions” on a family member living with the litigant.

The lawyer is also asking for “an apology” from all the defendants “for all the stress and emotions”.

The attorney filed a 54-page complaint and then another 333-page document with various emails, articles, photos and handwritten notes.

The barrister included The Highland County Press in the civil action.

Highland County Press publisher and owner Rory Ryan responded this week to the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, in part as follows:

“Please consider my response to Case no. 1:2024cv00636, filed Nov. 5, 2024.

“(The attorney) includes my newspaper, The Highland County Pressin Hillsboro, Ohio, publishing quotes made by Mr. Mark Current of the Highland County Community Action Organization, Inc. during an April 2023 meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners.

“According to the litigation, (the attorney) was falsely accused of ‘stalking’ by Mr. Current. (The lawyer) further claims that this was reported in the local papers (plural).

“Granted, there are two separately owned and operated newspapers in Hillsboro, Ohio. As you can see from the attached newspaper website links (copied to the Court this week), our newspaper did not include Mr Current’s allegations of “stalking”, nor did we publish the name (of the solicitor) in our coverage of the April 2023 meeting of The Highland County Board of Commissioners’ identity of the litigation (and we’re not including it in this story.)

“Furthermore, we have also not published Mr. Current’s ‘lurking’ statements from the April 2023 Board of Commissioners meeting in The Highland County Press print edition, nor on any online social media or news sites.

“Finally, this week my business received a return address letter from the US District Court Clerk by certified mail. It was postmarked from Mount Orab, Ohio. It sits unopened in my office.

“The handwriting is most similar to that included in the file of Case Number 1:2024cv00636. (An attached image was sent to the Court and is posted online with this story.)

{Note: As a side note to the Court, if in fact the handwriting on the return address is that of an employee of the Court and is being mailed from Mount Orab, Ohio, please let us know and I will take action appropriate. If the Court wants the still unopened mailing, I can provide that as well.}

“Therefore, pursuant to 28 USCS 1927 for Vexorious Litigation, I respectfully request The Highland County Press and his representatives to be removed from Case no. 1:2024cv00636″.