COLUMBUS — The legal dispute over whether it was appropriate to freeze $8 million in personal assets belonging to a former top Ohio utility regulator caught up in a federal bribery investigation has ping-ponged once again.

In a ruling Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed the Tenth District Court of Appeals’ decision and reinstated a lower court’s order, allowing Sam Randazzo’s assets to be frozen once again. The high court determined the appeals court erred on a technicality when it unfroze Randazzo’s property.

It’s just the latest development in the yearslong fight over property belonging to Randazzo, a one-time chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Federal prosecutors last month charged Randazzo with 11 counts in connection with an admission by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. that it paid him a $4.3 million bribe in exchange for favorable treatment. Randazzo has pleaded not guilty.

Writing for the majority, Justice Pat DeWine said the three-judge panel was wrong when it unfroze Randazzo’s assets in December 2022 — a decision that had been on hold amid the ongoing litigation. The panel reversed a lower court, finding that the state had not proven it would suffer “irreparable injury” if Randazzo were given control of his property.

“The problem is that the irreparable injury showing was not appealable,” DeWine wrote.

Instead, when Randazzo wanted to object to a Franklin County judge’s unilateral decision from August 2021 granting Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s request to freeze his assets, the appropriate remedy would have been a full hearing before the trial court, the high court said. As a result, the court reversed the appellate court’s decision.

Yost made his request out of concern that Randazzo appeared to be scrambling to unload personal assets. He transferred a home worth $500,000 to his son and liquidated other properties worth a combined $4.8 million, sending some $3 million of the proceeds to his lawyers in California and Ohio.

During oral arguments in the case this summer, lawyers disagreed sharply over whether the assets should have been frozen. An attorney for Yost’s office told justices Randazzo was “spending down criminal proceeds” when the attorney general moved in to freeze his assets. Randazzo’s lawyer argued that the state needed more than “unsupported evidence” of a bribe to block Randazzo’s access to his property and cash.

Randazzo resigned as PUCO chair in November 2020 after FBI agents searched his Columbus home, close on the heels of the arrest of then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others.

The bribe that FirstEnergy said it paid Randazzo was part of a scheme that a jury determined was led by Householder to win the speakership, elect allies, pass a $1 billion bailout of two aging FirstEnergy-affiliated nuclear plants and block a referendum to repeal the bailout bill.

Householder, a Republican, and lobbyist Matt Borges, a former chair of the Ohio GOP, were convicted on racketeering charges in March for their roles in the scheme. Householder, considered the ringleader, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Borges to five. Both are pursuing appeals.

COLUMBUS — A second transgender candidate running for a seat in the Republican-majority Ohio House is at risk of being disqualified from the ballot after omitting her former name on circulating petitions.

The Mercer County Board of Elections is set to vote Thursday on whether Arienne Childrey, a Democrat from Auglaize County and one of four transgender individuals campaigning for the Legislature, is eligible to run after not disclosing her previous name, also known as her deadname, on her petition paperwork.

A little-used Ohio elections law, unfamiliar even to many state elections officials, mandates that candidates disclose any name changes in the last five years on their petitions paperwork, with exemptions for name changes due to marriage. But the law isn’t listed in the 33-page candidate requirement guide and there is no space on the petition paperwork to list any former names.

Childrey, who legally changed her name in 2020, said she would have provided her deadname if she had known about the law.

“I would have filled out whatever was necessary, because at the end of the day, while it would have been a hit to my pride, there is something much more important than my pride, and that’s fighting for this community,” Childrey said.

If she isn’t disqualified, Childrey will be running against Rep. Angie King, a Republican lawmaker who has sponsored anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and voted for bans on gender-affirming care for minors as well as barring transgender athletes from female sports.

The law has been in place in some form for decades, though it’s rarely been used and usually arises in the context of candidates wishing to use a nickname.

Last week, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said while his office is open to putting the rule on the candidate guide, they are not open to tweaking the law and that it’s up to candidates to ensure they comply with Ohio election law.

But Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that the law should be amended and that the county boards should stop disqualifying transgender candidates on these grounds. DeWine did not say how it might be amended.

“We shouldn’t be denying ballot access for that reason,” the governor told Cleveland.com’s editorial board. “It certainly should be fixed.”

DeWine recently vetoed a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, but the state House overrode that veto. The Senate is expected to do the same Jan. 24.

In various ways, all four transgender candidates have been affected by the law’s name-change notification requirement.

Vanessa Joy, a real estate photographer from Stark County running for the Ohio House, who legally changed her name in 2022, was the first to be disqualified for omitting her deadname from petition paperwork. She appealed her disqualification but was denied. Joy is now working with legal counsel and the Ohio Democratic Party to try to change the law.

Joy says the current law is a barrier to transgender individuals who want to seek office but do not want to disclose their deadname — the name a transgender person was assigned at birth but does not align with their gender identity.

Ari Faber, a Democratic candidate for the Ohio state Senate from Athens, was cleared to run but must use his deadname since he has not legally changed it.

Bobbie Arnold, a contractor from West Alexandria running as a Democrat for the Ohio House, had her possible disqualification dismissed Tuesday by the Montgomery County Board of Elections and will be on the ballot in the March 19 primary.

When presenting the facts of Arnold’s situation to the county board Tuesday, the board’s director, Jeff Rezabek, recommended the members take no action on the disqualification. He noted that the candidate guide did not list the rule and that there is no evidence Arnold was intentionally deceitful toward voters about her identity. The members went along with Rezabek’s recommendation.

However, under the state law, if Arnold were to win her election, she could still be removed from office for not disclosing her deadname. Arnold is consulting her lawyer about that part of the law but hopes that between Joy’s work with her own team to change the law and DeWine’s call for candidates to stay on the ballot, that won’t be an issue come November.

For now, she’s excited to start campaigning.

“It’s important for the overall well-being of our society that every voice has an opportunity to be heard,” Arnold said. “And that’s something that we’re not experiencing right now in Ohio.”

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Samantha Hendrickson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

COLUMBUS— Bernie Moreno, a Trump-backed candidate for Ohio’s crucial U.S. Senate seat who touts his success in business, faced multiple lawsuits alleging discrimination against employees in the run-up to the sale of his high-end Cleveland car dealership, an Associated Press review has found.

Three discrimination suits were filed in Cuyahoga County between 2015 and 2017. Two accused Moreno and Bernie Moreno Cos. of gender and age discrimination, respectively. The third, in which Moreno was not named, alleged race discrimination against a dealership run by a BMC subsidiary.

A campaign spokesman said that the two employees who sued Moreno directly now support his Republican U.S. Senate campaign and that Moreno, who was born in Bogotá, Colombia, prided himself on giving equal opportunities to all his workers.

Moreno’s performance in business was cited by former President Donald Trump as he endorsed Moreno in the three-way primary with Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan last month.

“Bernie Moreno, a highly respected businessman from the GREAT State of Ohio, is exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate,” Trump said, using the acronym of his “Make America Great Again” slogan.

The discrimination claims come to light as Republican support has begun to coalesce behind Moreno since Trump’s endorsement, with recent endorsements by U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. The winner of the GOP primary March 19 will face third-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, among Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbents this year in the narrowly divided Senate.

Brown characterizes his fight for “the dignity of work” as a key policy and campaign priority, while Moreno has said he is running for the Senate to support policies “good for American workers and families.”

All three lawsuits identified by the AP were settled out of court, and terms of any resulting settlement deals were kept private. Often, such deals include a clause preventing either side from disparaging the other.

The first lawsuit, filed in 2015, accused BMC and Moreno of gender discrimination.

Female former dealership supervisor Cara Wilson, then of Streetsboro, in Portage County, alleged Moreno repeatedly belittled her about being a mother, sometimes in front of her peers.

She told the court Moreno called her “a bad leader but a better mother” and once, when she approached him about her flex time arrangement, he said, “Lots of people are single parents, put your kids in f—-ing daycare.”

The lawsuit alleged Wilson was stripped of her flex time schedule, was blamed for her dealership’s poor performance despite being deprived of the leeway given to male counterparts to make key decisions and was wrongfully fired.

Reached by phone, Wilson said she and Moreno “are great friends now” — as evidenced by the fact she hosted a fundraiser for his campaign last fall — and declined to comment further.

In a 2017 lawsuit, a Black former service manager at an Akron Infiniti dealership operated by BMC subsidiary M9 Motors, alleged that he was targeted for discipline and then demoted after taking concerns to human resources about white peers and a subordinate being paid the same or more than him.

Ronell Thompson claimed racial discrimination led to his demotion and eventual wrongful termination. Reached by phone, he referred a reporter to his lawyer, Peter Mabley, who confirmed in a statement that his Cleveland-area law firm represented Thompson and that the matter “has been resolved” — which suggests Thompson is limited by a settlement agreement from discussing details.

In the third lawsuit, filed against BMC and Moreno the same year, an award-winning, top-performing saleswoman who was 67 alleged gender and age discrimination. Dolores Wolfe, then of Rocky River, a Cleveland suburb, claimed that she was repeatedly passed over for promotions in favor of white males, some in their 20s.

She told the court she was preparing to take a new job in New York when Moreno flew in to meet with her and persuaded her not to resign by offering a promotion complete with increased salary, benefits and bonuses. She said she passed up the out-of-state position and stayed, only to have the promotion never materialize. She told the court her treatment caused her economic and emotional distress and physical sickness.

In an interview, Wolfe said that her lawsuit “had to do with business issues” and that Moreno is a tremendous businessman who would make a great U.S. senator.

“Every female who worked for him, and every age group who worked for him, were generously treated,” she said.

Moreno campaign spokesman Conor McGuinness said in a statement that Moreno knows Wolfe and Wilson personally and “they have all moved past any previous misunderstandings.”

He said Moreno is “a proud minority businessman” who based his company “on the colorblind principles of merit and hard-work.”

“As someone who has previously experienced discrimination himself, Bernie has always been committed to giving opportunities to all of his workers, regardless of race, color, gender or creed,” his statement said.

Robert Foehl, a professor of business law and ethics at Ohio University, said multiple lawsuits against a company “doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something systemically wrong.”

“The devil’s in the details,” he said.

Foehl said it’s not unreasonable to expect a company of BMC’s size to have a robust anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation training program for its managers.

“It’s really incumbent on the employer in these traditionally male-dominated industries to be sure that they’re working within the bounds of employment law, ensuring that they’re providing those opportunities to, not just the men in the work setting, but also women in the work setting, and ensuring equal opportunity for all those based on their protected characteristics,” he said.

In response to the AP’s reporting, the Moreno campaign produced an open letter signed by 23 former female employees vouching that he treated them fairly and respectfully.

A BMC subsidiary, M10 Motors, also faced a lawsuit in Florida unrelated to discrimination. The civil rights class action brought by Andres Gomez, who is blind, alleged a Coral Gables Infiniti dealership’s website was inaccessible to the visually impaired, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. A settlement agreement was reached in the case in 2020.

COLUMBUS — Several transgender candidates for state office in Ohio are facing challenges and even outright disqualification for omitting their former names from petition paperwork under a little-known state elections law, confronting a unique dilemma as they vie for office in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

Three of the four candidates for Democratic seats in the Republican-dominated Ohio House and Senate have either been challenged or disqualified for not putting their former name — also called a deadname — on circulating petitions to get on the ballot. State law mandates that candidates list any name changes in the last five years, though it isn’t in the Secretary of State’s 33-page candidate requirement guide.

Additionally, the petition paperwork does not have a place to list any former names and exempts name changes due to marriage.

Arienne Childrey, a previously certified candidate from Auglaize County hoping to run against Rep. Angie King, a Republican sponsoring anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, has her own disqualification hearing Thursday.

But just Tuesday, Bobbie Arnold, a contractor from West Alexandria who had been certified, had her possible disqualification dismissed by the Montgomery County Board of Elections. A message was left with the board’s director, Jeff Rezabeck, seeking comment Tuesday.

Michigan has a similar elections law, which mandates candidates list any name changes in the past decade. It’s unclear if other states have one. The Associated Press reached out to several election experts and organizations tracking election laws, and none were aware of how many states require candidates to disclose name changes.

The Ohio law has existed in some form for decades, with the current version in place since the 1990s. It’s rarely been enforced in Ohio over the decades, usually in response to candidates wishing to use a nickname on the ballot.

The latest case involving a legal name change was resolved in 2023 by the Ohio Supreme Court, after a mayoral candidate sued the Washington County Board of Elections for disqualifying him for failing to disclose his former name on his petition paperwork. The state’s highest court ruled for the board.

Vanessa Joy, a real estate photographer from Stark County, was the first of the candidates to be disqualified for omitting her deadname, despite being certified. She appealed the disqualification but was denied.

The Stark County Board of Elections did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday as their media official was not in the office.

Joy said in a recent email release that she is working with legal counsel and the Ohio Democratic Party to change the law. While she agrees with the spirit of the law, she said it’s become yet another barrier for transgender people fighting to be heard.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told Cleveland.com’s editorial board Tuesday that the boards of elections should stop disqualifying transgender candidates for omitting their deadnames and that some sort of change is in order to ensure their ballot access.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose told AP last week that his office is not open to changing the law but is looking into mentioning it in the candidate guide.

He said it’s important for people to disclose who they are and any former identities, so the voters know who is asking to be put on the ballot.

“Candidates for public office don’t get anonymity,” LaRose said, also noting that the guide carries a disclaimer that it does not list every rule and that candidates should seek counsel on any additional rules that could impact them.

But to the transgender community, revealing a deadname — or the name assigned to them at birth that doesn’t align with their gender identity — could lead to personal safety issues.

Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Montana lawmaker who was silenced by the state House, had her name change records legally sealed before holding office. However, she said that didn’t stop people from trying to dig up her birth certificate and harass and threaten people connected to her deadname.

Zephyr said she also finds LaRose’s argument about candidates not getting anonymity “hollow” since the statute exempts name changes due to marriage.

“For the Secretary of State to say public figures don’t get anonymity while allowing that for women who are getting married fails to recognize the seriousness of the issue for trans people,” she said.

Ari Faber, who is running for the state Senate from Athens, Ohio, is the only one of the four not impacted by the law. He has not legally changed his name and was not allowed to run under his current name, so his paperwork contains his deadname.

Joy, Arnold and Childrey all were adamant that if they had known about the law, they would have disclosed their deadname. Running to represent the LGBTQ+ community is important to them, especially as bans on gender-affirming care and barring transgender athletes from female sports are likely to become law in Ohio.

“If I am kicked off the ballot, then I have every intention to refile for the very next election and I will do whatever they want,” Childrey said. “I will put my current name, my dead name, at what age I was potty trained. I don’t care what they want on the form. I will continue to fight this battle.”

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Samantha Hendrickson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

An Ohio elected official’s constitutional rights were violated when her colleagues on a county board of commissioners had her arrested for criticizing the sheriff during a public meeting, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Niki Frenchko, the lone Republican on the three-member Trumbull County Board of Commissioners, was placed in handcuffs by sheriff’s deputies at the commissioners’ meeting on July 7, 2022, and charged under an Ohio law that makes it a misdemeanor to “prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting.” The law prohibits obstructive conduct or speech that “outrages the sensibilities of the group.” The charge was later dropped,

Frenchko — who livestreamed her arrest on Facebook — subsequently filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, saying she was ordered to leave the meeting and placed under arrest for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech, and that the sheriff’s department lacked probable cause to charge her.

U.S. District Judge J. Philip Calabrese agreed.

“Here in America, we do not arrest our political opponents,” the judge wrote. “This case tests that longstanding norm as well as our Constitution’s robust protections for free speech that allow us to criticize our representatives and public officials.”

Calabrese ruled that the sheriff, two deputies, and both county commissioners named in the suit — one of whom has since left the board — are personally liable for damages. A hearing on damages will be scheduled later.

The judge expressed misgivings about the state law itself but declined to strike it down, as Frenchko had sought.

“If they’re going to do this to me in broad daylight at a public meeting, I had a duty to take them to task so they can’t do it to someone else,” Frenchko, who is running for reelection this year, told The Associated Press. “It’s so off the mark of what America should be.”

Messages were left for Sheriff Paul Monroe and current Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa, both of whom were named as defendants. An email was sent to their lawyer seeking comment. An appeal was expected.

The Ohio case echoes other recent instances in which elected officials have been punished over speech.

In Montana, Republicans silenced transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephry last year after she refused to apologize for telling colleagues who supported a ban on gender-affirming care that they would have blood on their hands. In Tennessee, Republicans expelled Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two young Black Democratic lawmakers who have since been reappointed and reelected, for breaking procedural rules during a gun control protest on the House floor.

Frenchko took office in 2021 as the first GOP commissioner of Trumbull County in nearly three decades, quickly developing a reputation as a “dissenting and often unwelcome voice” on the board, the judge noted. Commissioners’ meetings became notoriously contentious, with disagreements over policy frequently veering into personal invective.

It was against that backdrop that Frenchko, Cantalamessa and since-retired Commissioner Frank Fuda began bickering over Frenchko’s criticism of Sheriff Monroe after an inmate death at the Trumbull County Jail.

At one point, Cantalamessa told Frenchko: “You are talking about the chief law enforcement officer in Trumbull County; it’s unacceptable,” according to a transcript cited by the judge. Fuda then called for a sergeant in the back of the room, telling Frenchko, “You got a choice, you wanna apologize to the Sheriff, fine; if you don’t, we’re going to move on.”

Frenchko plowed on. That’s when a sergeant went up to the dais, pulled Frenchko’s chair back and ordered her to stand up and leave the meeting. She was put in handcuffs outside of the meeting room.

Calabrese, in Tuesday’s ruling, said the evidence showed that Frencko’s “speech caused her arrest.”

The defendants are not entitled to immunity from damages, he wrote, because the law has “long recognized that any reasonable official would know that the First Amendment does not countenance the arrest of a person for engaging in protected speech.”

One of Frenchko’s attorneys, David John Betras, a former Democratic Party chairman of a neighboring county in northeastern Ohio, said he represented the Republican official in court because the case has “nothing to do with politics.”

“We can’t arrest each other because you disagree with them politically. Once you start down that slope, it’s bad news for all of us,” Betras said. “Who arrests someone for disturbing their own meeting?”

The criminal charge against Frenchko was dropped several weeks after her arrest.

Police said investigators had earlier interviewed Albert Alderman, 33, after he called 911 shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday and said Kelsie Barnier, 29, was unresponsive. Police initially reported no signs of trauma on the body. But police said the Lucas County coroner later concluded that Barnier died of strangulation and ruled the death a homicide.

Police said they contacted Alderman and he agreed to meet, but he later refused to do so. SWAT detectives sent to his home saw him driving off shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday, police said. Police tried to stop him, but he fled and later stuck a handgun out of his window and pointed it in the direction of officers, police said. An officer fired a round into the rear window of Alderman’s vehicle, police said.

He later abruptly stopped the vehicle, got out and pointed a gun at officers, police said. Four officers then fired, and he fell to the ground.

Alderman began to get back up and again pointed the weapon at officers, and they continued to fire, causing him to fall again with the gun in his hand, still pointed at officers, police said. Eventually they were able to kick the weapon out of his hand, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The officers will be placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, and two officers are seeking medical attention for hearing loss sustained during the events, police said. The officers’ information, body-worn camera footage and dash-cam footage will be released later, officials said.

The program application is available for review on the Ohio Department of Development’s website. Applications can be submitted now until 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1.

Historically, the Ohio Opportunity Zone Tax Credit was available once per fiscal year.

However, changes made in Senate Bill 225 by the 134th General Assembly added a second application round per fiscal year, according to the release.

Under Senate Bill 225 provisions, Ohio Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) investments occurring July 1 — Dec. 31, 2023, are eligible for tax credit consideration for the application period beginning in January, the release said.

Eligible applicants include entities that invested in an Ohio Qualified Opportunity Fund which, in turn, invested that capital in a Qualified Opportunity Zone property in Ohio, according to the release.

Opportunity Zones are low-income communities where new investments may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.

Ohio has 320 Opportunity Zones in 73 counties across the state.

More information on program eligibility and the application process can be found on the Ohio Opportunity Zones Tax Credit webpage at development.ohio.gov/opportunityzone.

The Ohio Department of Development empowers communities to succeed by investing in Ohio’s people, places, and businesses.

Learn more about our work at development.ohio.gov.

High-profile vehicles are defined as height exceeding seven feet and six inches, the release said.

The following types of vehicles will be banned from traveling on the Ohio Turnpike until the travel restriction expires or is canceled, according to the release.

• All high-profile tow-behind trailers, campers, boats, and enclosed trailers. (Fifth wheel trailers are excluded.)

• Commercial trucks towing an empty single 53-foot trailer

• All mobile homes, office trailers and livestock trailers

• All long combination vehicles (LCV) that include long double-trailer combinations exceeding 90-feet in length. (Enclosed trailers only, including Conestoga type trailers)

• All LCV triple-trailer combinations.

The following types of vehicles will be permitted to travel on the Ohio Turnpike:

• Self-propelled motor homes

•  Low-profile trailers

• Fold-down camper trailers

•  Pickup trucks with slide-on camper units

• Vehicles towing fifth-wheel type trailers or any other type of trailers towed by passenger vehicles or pickup trucks

• Commercial trucks towing single flatbed or box-type trailers

• Commercial trucks towing a single 53-foot trailer with cargo/loaded

• Commercial trucks towing a car hauler trailer

•  Commercial trucks towing flatbed double-trailer combinations more than 90 feet

• Commercial trucks towing any double-trailer combinations less than 90 feet
• Two-axle buses less than 40 feet

•  Buses with three or more axles less than 45 feet.

The travel restriction on the Ohio Turnpike will be continually evaluated throughout the duration of the weather event, according to the release.

COLUMBUS — An Ohio woman facing a criminal charge for her handling of a home miscarriage will not be charged, a grand jury decided Thursday.

The Trumbull County prosecutor’s office said grand jurors declined to return an indictment for abuse of a corpse against Brittany Watts, 34, of Warren, resolving a case that had sparked national attention for its implications for pregnant women as states across the country hash out new laws governing reproductive health care access.

The announcement came hours before her supporters planned a “We Stand With Brittany!” rally on Warren’s Courthouse Square.

A municipal judge had found probable cause to bind over Watts’ case. That was after city prosecutors said she miscarried, flushed and scooped out the toilet, then left the house, leaving the 22-week-old fetus lodged in the pipes. Her attorney told the judge Watts had no criminal record and was being “demonized for something that goes on every day.” An autopsy determined the fetus died in utero and identified “no recent injuries.”

Watts had visited Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital, a Catholic facility in working-class Warren, about 60 miles southeast of Cleveland, twice in the days leading up to her miscarriage. Her doctor had told her she was carrying a nonviable fetus and to have her labor induced or risk “significant risk” of death, according to records of her case.

Due to delays and other complications, her attorney said, she left each time without being treated. After she miscarried, she tried to go to a hair appointment, but friends sent her to the hospital. A nurse called 911 to report a previously pregnant patient had returned reporting, “the baby’s in her backyard in a bucket.”

That call launched a police investigation that led to the eventual charge against Watts.

Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri told Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak the issue wasn’t “how the child died, when the child died” but “the fact the baby was put into a toilet, was large enough to clog up the toilet, left in the toilet, and she went on (with) her day.”

Her attorney Traci Timko said in an interview that Ohio’s abuse-of-corpse statute lacks clear definitions, including what is meant by “human corpse” and what constitutes “outrage” to the reasonable family and community sensibilities.

When Ivanchak bound the case over, he said, “There are better scholars than I am to determine the exact legal status of this fetus, corpse, body, birthing tissue, whatever it is.”

COLUMBUS — The Republican-dominated Ohio House voted Wednesday to override GOP Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of legislation banning gender-affirming care for minors and restricting transgender women’s and girls’ participation on sports teams, a move LGBTQ+ activists say would severely restrict the everyday lives of transgender youth in the state.

The override propels closer to law a ban on gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies and sets restrictions on mental health care for transgender individuals under 18. The legislation also bans transgender girls and women from girls and women’s sports teams at both the K-12 and collegiate level.

DeWine previously said he vetoed the legislation to protect parents and children from government overreach on medical decisions.

The House voted to override the veto 65-28 along party lines. The Republican-majority Senate is expected take up their own override vote on Jan. 24.

Rep. Gary Click, a Republican Baptist preacher from Sandusky County and sponsor of the bill, has maintained that the measures protect children who cannot provide informed consent for such life-altering care. He hopes that the override, and possible related future legislation, will encourage doctors and other individuals who may be afraid to testify against gender-affirming care for minors to come forward and speak their minds.

“We have to get away from allowing our medical institutions to be captured by ideology,” Click said.

Rep. Beth Liston, a Democrat and Columbus-area pediatrician, said on the floor that she was struggling to “comprehend the arrogance of the people in this room” who voted to override the veto and enact these bans, as they are not medical or mental health professionals.

Liston went on to encourage the LGBTQ+ community, saying there was still hope and pointed to recent votes by Ohio citizens to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution and legalize marijuana as evidence that the people could still have impact on these bans.

At least 22 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and many of those states face lawsuits. Courts have issued mixed rulings, with the nation’s first law, in Arkansas, struck down by a federal judge who said the ban on care violated the due process rights of transgender youth and their families. Enforcement is blocked in some states, and the laws have been enacted in others.

The care has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.

At least 20 states have approved a version of a blanket ban on transgender athletes playing on K-12 and collegiate sports teams statewide, but a Biden administration proposal to forbid such outright bans is set to be finalized in March after two delays and much pushback. As proposed, the rule would establish that blanket bans would violate Title IX, the landmark gender-equity legislation enacted in 1972.

DeWine vetoed the bill Dec. 29 of last year, then on Jan. 5, signed an executive order and announced proposed regulations designed to address some of the elements the bill covered while allowing non-surgical gender-affirming care for minors, such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments, to continue.

The executive order bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors, even though medical professionals say they weren’t occurring anyway.

DeWine’s proposals, alongside his executive order, have garnered harsh criticism from supporters of the bans and their opponents alike. The proposals include mandating a “contractual relationship” with medical care teams for both transgender children and adults and comprehensive and lengthy mental health programs before any treatments or surgeries.

None of DeWine’s rules tackle the sports ban provision. He told reporters last week that he would not address that particular ban and felt gender-affirming care was more important at this time. On the House floor, Republicans continued to push that such bans were about fairness and protection for girls and women and sports while Democrats categorized them as bullying kids.

DeWine’s break from his party’s status quo, which he has touted as a “pro-life” decision, has drawn backlash from fellow Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, and conservative Christian groups even with his proposed regulations. Trump posted to Truth Social that DeWine had fallen to the “radical left,” that he was “done” with Ohio’s governor and urged legislators to override.

Less than 24 hours before DeWine’s veto, Lt. Gov Jon Husted, who is currently running for governor in 2026, voiced his support of the bans on social media and said that he hoped the measure would become law.

While opponents such as Democrats, families with transgender children and LGBTQ+ people are rallying against the veto, with possible legal challenges being explored after the Senate’s expected override, they are not happy with DeWine’s proposals either.

Equality Ohio, an organization seeking to preserve rights of the LGBTQ+ community, said in a statement that “as drafted, the proposed rules fundamentally change how Ohio medical systems operate and disrupt care for existing patients, including adults” and that DeWine’s proposals would impose broader regulations on the transgender community.

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Samantha Hendrickson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.