A powerful state senator asked that his local police chief file criminal charges against a political blogger, leading to an eventual arrest and formal accusation of telecommunications harassment, new records show.
The email from Sen. Jerry Cirino, a Lake County Republican, details three text messages he received from D.J. Byrnes, who runs The Rooster, a progressive newsletter. The text messages include Byrnes’ political commentary, him calling Cirino his oft-repeated and derisive nickname “Young Mussolini,” and Byrnes plugging his own newsletter.
It also contains a digitally altered version of Shrek, the ogre with a titular children’s movie franchise, with his penis exposed. An affidavit with Byrnes’ arrest report refers to the depiction of Shrek as “fully nude with an exposed and erect humanlike penis engaged in an act of masturbation.”
Byrnes sent the image to Cirino on May 6. Two days later, Cirino emailed Kirtland Police Chief Jeremy Fisher. He said Byrnes has “harassed” him in the past and he doesn’t want to see the “disgusting” and “pornographic” picture of Shrek.
“I am officially filing a complaint and am asking that the Kirtland Police Department take appropriate actions since this occurred in Kirtland where I live,” Cirino wrote. “I would like this harassment to stop immediately and I would like charges filed against the individual.”
Byrnes was arrested Monday at the statehouse. He spent 23 hours incarcerated before posting bail. Telecommunications harassment is a first-degree misdemeanor, the most severe classification before felony level crimes. It’s punishable by up to six months in prison if the state can prove Byrnes knowingly made a telecommunication “with purpose to harass, intimidate, or abuse.”
Police detective read the Rooster archives
The police records identify Byrnes by name, but not Cirino. However, Signal Statewide can confirm Cirino is the recipient of the text messages based on the text messages themselves and other details within the police report.
Cirino declined to comment Wednesday. In a previous interview Monday, he said he didn’t request that Byrnes be arrested but declined further comment.
The involvement of a figure as powerful as Cirino – who as chairman of the Senate Finance committee wields outsize influence over Ohio’s roughly $100 billion state budget – triggers new scrutiny over charges filed against a political critic for his speech.
The police investigation amounted to little more than a Google search, according to details provided in an accompanying affidavit. The investigating officer, Detective Jake Scott, read one Rooster article (a paywall blocked nine more). The officer also read a profile of Byrnes that appeared in Columbus Monthly.
“This article quoted Senate Director of Communications, John Fortney, labeling Byrnes as a ‘security threat,’” the police report states.
The department requested an arrest warrant for Byrnes, which was granted by Judge Marisa Cornachio, whose campaign website includes an endorsement from Cirino.
Max Littman, a Rooster contributor who has acted as a de facto Rooster spokesman since the arrest, declined to comment on the arrest reports. But he provided a copy of a statement from Byrnes, issued on Rooster letterhead including tagline “All Ohio’s depravity, all the time.”
“I believe that the facts presented in court will show that I’m innocent of the misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment,” Byrnes said.
“On the advice of my legal counsel, Bill Livingston, I will not be commenting on the specifics of the allegations. The work of shining a light on the wretched and decaying underbelly of Ohio politics is too important to be sidetracked by this attempted interference.”
