A judge says the woman arrested at a Nelsonville council meeting can present a critical piece of evidence at trial
By: Joshua Hoerner
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — A critical piece of evidence will be admissible in the criminal trial of a woman arrested at a Nelsonville City Council meeting in April.
Nguyen asked for the opinion after she was replaced on the council last year despite her claim the seat was still hers.
Voltolini concluded that Nguyen, who was serving as council president when she was replaced, had not been properly removed and was still a council member.
The criminal case was brought against Nguyen after she was arrested for disrupting a council meeting on April 14. Nguyen claims that as a council member she had the right to speak up at the meeting.
The case is scheduled for a trial by jury beginning Thursday.
The city of Nelsonville filed a motion to prevent Voltolini’s decision from being introduced as evidence at trial.
Bradley Nicodemus, the special prosecuting attorney representing Nelsonville, argued this document would only confuse the jury because Nguyen has not sat on council in over a year.
“If the jury hears we have an attorney that says she’s on council and council president and one of my witnesses is also the council president, it absolutely confuses the jury,” Nicodemus told the judge at a hearing on the motion Monday.
Nguyen’s attorney, Joshua Brown, argued that because the legal opinion is now a public record, it should not be suppressed. Brown also said the opinion is central to whether Nguyen reasonably believes she is still a council member.
Nicodemus ended up dropping his objection to the evidence, but said he still has concerns the jury will end up focusing on whether the opinion is correct. This is not the issue the jury needs to decide in this case, only whether it was reasonable, based on the opinion, for Nguyen to believe she was still a council member. The judge ended up ruling that the opinion is admissible.
The question of whether Voltolini’s opinion is correct is the subject of a civil lawsuit Nguyen filed last year after she was replaced on council. The city tried to have that case dismissed, but the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a decision early this year that the case can continue.