Judge Fleegle keeps alleged misconduct in major drug trial under seal – Files remain sealed – Y-City News

In the days following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as protests erupted across the country, a local judge sealed the records in a massive drug trial that many believed would have thrust Zanesville into the national spotlight.

The files, whose seals have yet to be opened by Muskingum District Court Judge Mark Fleegle, allegedly contain evidence of racist comments by prosecutors, allegations that elected officials are using illegal drugs and that county funds are being diverted for unknown, unauthorized purposes.

As Y-City News worked to uncover the alleged evidence, they were threatened with criminal charges and imprisonment if we revealed the existence of the sealed files – threats that the press often only faces in repressive regimes. The originator of these threats was previously under FBI protection, which federal authorities would not confirm, and was also reportedly previously the target of a federal investigation.

Federal officials, we are told, were aware of the files and allegations, including former U.S. Attorney David DeVillers, who ensured no federal charges were brought — and kept the matter local and confidential. DeVillers, in turn, received tens of thousands of county tax dollars after leaving federal service as a special prosecutor in what many have repeatedly described as a bribery deal to protect local officials.

In early 2020, the biggest drug trafficker ever caught in Muskingum County, Dwight Taylor, was arrested. He was taken into custody at a home owned by longtime girlfriend Deborah Kirsch, who purchased the property from District Judge Jay Vinsel in the 1990s after Taylor was arrested for violating probation. He faces a return to prison. He was released within a week of the property being soldVinsel was an assistant district attorney at the time. Muskingum District Court Judge Mark Fleegle was district attorney in the late 1990s and hired Vinsel. He told the local newspaper the two had known each other since he was 12; Fleegle presided over the criminal trial against Taylor and Kirsch in the 2020s.

Sheriff Matt Lutz said at a news conference after Taylor's arrest that law enforcement had struggled to build a case against the drug lord in recent decades, even though he was closer to the powerful than they would like to admit. Judge Vinsel, for example, reserved hunting rights on Kirsch's property, and several sources say the two knew each other well; the same sources claimed that Taylor paid protection money to avoid arrest and prosecution.

After his arrest, authorities also arrested Kirsch, who eventually hired a Dayton law firm to represent her. While she was being held on $1 million bail, her attorney, John Paul Rion, filed a motion in her defense, just days after the death of George Floyd sparked racial tensions across the country. The following day, Judge Mark Fleegle sealed the motion, a highly unusual move. No motions were sealed, for example, in Taylor's case or in the months that followed when members of a massive drug cartel were arrested, according to a review of each case's filing.

In one of those cases, State of Ohio vs. Jose Gonzalez, a Texas judge came to Muskingum County to defend the cartel member who spoke no English. The attorney, Orlando Jiminez, claimed that $350,000 in cash had disappeared in the case and that his client still had valuable information about the local drug trade. “We wouldn't want to try to go any further up the line,” Jiminez said in court.

If a lawyer knows that the file contains private or confidential information that should not be disclosed, such as the name of an informant, he or she will usually notify the court in advance so that the information does not become public. However, this does not mean that the information will not be made available during the trial.

According to sources, information in that file contained evidence of racial slurs by members of the Muskingum County District Attorney's Office, including the N-word, as well as inappropriate behavior such as the alleged use of bodily fluids, which likely amounted to a sex crime.

The documents filed also allegedly contained evidence that elected officials were using illegal drugs and that county funds were being misused.

In an attempt to confirm or deny the allegations, Y-City News reached out to many officials, including Judge Mark Fleegle, who refused to discuss the matter or provide context. After confronting Fleegle about the matter, he barred the media from entering his courtroom under the pretense that the court was updating its media presence policy. This continued for many months, effectively preventing Y-City News from covering matters in the Muskingum County Court of Common Pleas.

Unlike in other complex drug cases, the defendants were not bound to a federal court. Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney David DeVillers was the chief federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Ohio at the time, giving him ultimate authority over whether federal criminal charges would be brought or misconduct investigations initiated. After leaving federal service, Judge Fleegle – in his capacity as Chief Judge of the Court of Common Pleas – authorized the appointment and disbursement of funds to DeVillers to serve as a special prosecutor in Muskingum County; a move that a previous investigative article in our publication found extremely unusual – We also found that he was wrongfully paid from a court fund.

Y-City News has covered hundreds of cases before Judge Fleegle over the years and has found him to be extremely professional and ethical in his conduct. This deviation and lack of explanation is very unusual. Judge Fleegle had multiple opportunities to comment or make a statement over a period of several months.

To protect the individuals named in the event the allegations are proven false, Y-City News is not naming the defendants. To protect sources and methods, Y-City News is not providing further context on the details of the evidence as presented to the court. Federal authorities in the Southern District of Ohio declined to comment.

Y-City News continues to investigate. Do you have additional information about this situation, other information you feel our news organization should know about, or would you like to bring to our attention a matter that needs to be investigated? We would like to hear from you. Contact us at (740) 562-6252, email us at [email protected], or write to us at PO Box 686, Zanesville, Ohio 43701. All sources are kept strictly confidential.