close

Federal judge denies motion to voluntarily dismiss Uniontown treasurer’s lawsuit

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read

A federal judge denied a request from Uniontown’s elected treasurer’s to voluntarily dismiss her federal lawsuit against the city and former and current officials.

“Contrary to plaintiff’s suggestions, this case is not in its early stages – discovery has been underway for almost four months and is set to conclude next month,” U.S. District Court Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan wrote in a brief Thursday ruling.

Earlier this week, Joel Sansone, the attorney for city Treasurer Antoinette Hodge, asked the judge to discontinue the lawsuit, but to do so “without prejudice,” meaning Hodge could refile the claims at a later date.

In his motion, Sansone said the outcome of a grand jury investigation will have an effect on the allegations in Hodge’s suit. Filed last year, the lawsuit alleged city officials have hampered her from doing her job because she is Black. Hodge also contended that a former city councilman, the city’s current clerk and other unidentified officials may have altered records to accuse Hodge of wrongdoing or misconduct.

At their July meeting, city council accepted the findings of a forensic audit that showed $106,750 in missing tax payments made in cash to her office. City officials have also asked Hodge to provide more information about the missing funds.

Sansone indicated Hodge has testified before a statewide grand jury about “alleged improprieties related to the office of the treasurer of the … city of Uniontown” and “believes she is the subject of the grand jury’s investigation.”

In addition to denying the motion, Ranjan’s order also noted that Hodge’s response and production of discovery “remain deficient,” and ordered the parties to confer regarding those deficiencies and establish a schedule for the production of and responses to all pending discovery obligations. Discovery is the exchange of information between both sides in a case.

City attorney Charles H. Saul opposed dismissing the lawsuit in a way that would allow Hodge to later refile the claims unless she provides full, complete and fair discovery.

Also, Saul said dismissing the suit with the option to refile it later would prejudice the defendants, who would be left without necessary information to timely investigate Hodge’s evidence and gather their own evidence to refute the accusations.

“Plaintiff put these serious matters at issue in this litigation by filing suit against the Defendants and asserting in her legal filing very serious, scandalous and offensive allegations that essentially contend Defendants are racists – which is completely false,” Saul wrote.

Ranjan added in his decision that if Hodge doesn’t comply with discovery obligations, the defendants in the case may move to compel the information, and seek attorney’s fees or other sanctions.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today