Former Commissioner To Face Trial

A for­mer Henry County com­mis­sioner charged with hav­ing an unlaw­ful inter­est in a con­tract will have his case heard by a vis­it­ing judge.

63 year old Richard Myers on Fri­day waived his right to a jury trial in Henry County Com­mon Pleas Court, choos­ing instead to have a bench trial July 9 before Judge Ran­dall Basinger of Put­nam County.

Myers was indicted last Sep­tem­ber and lost his bid for re-election in Novem­ber. He is accused of loan­ing $25,000 of his own money to a specialty-car com­pany inter­ested in mov­ing to Henry County. He allegedly con­vinced his fel­low com­mis­sion­ers to award a $300,000 grant to the com­pany with­out dis­clos­ing his invest­ment to them.

The com­pany did not relo­cate to Henry County, and the county did not recoup the $300,000.