It has been with a great sense of satisfaction that I have watched first hand the implosion of the corrupt "officials" running the show in New Rome.  I am a government teacher in the community adjacent to New Rome, and their ineptitude has been a sparkling example of how not to conduct a "government" at the local level.  My story with the New Romans dates back to 1989 when I was a newly hired teacher and coach in the community.  The first year of the mail-in registration process for license plates in Ohio was a real mess.  I sent my payment in, but there was such a response that there was a six-week backlog on sending out stickers.  A letter detailing the problem was sent to anyone affected, along with instructions to keep the letter in your car until the sticker arrived.  As I was leaving football practice one fall evening, I was pulled over by one of New Rome's finest because the current sticker was not affixed to my plates.  Being a new resident to the area, I was not at all concerned, especially since the DMV had sent a letter clearing up the situation.  When I explained the problem to the "officer", he returned with the letter to his cruiser and told me to wait while he checked on the story.  This was my first experience with ever being pulled over, even to this day I have received no tickets of any kind, so I figured the matter would be resolved quickly.  Imagine my surprise when I looked into my rear view mirror and saw two
officers approaching my car with their guns drawn; one a chrome-plated shotgun.  The arresting "officer" chambered the round of the shot gun, pointed it in my face and instructed me to exit the car and walk to the back of the vehicle.  As members of my football team drove by, as well as students from my classes, I was handcuffed, placed in the back of the
cruiser, and told to keep my mouth shut as my car was searched for any "incriminating evidence."  I was told that I was being placed under arrest because of a warrant that had been issued for me, and that my car was being impounded.  After  about an hour of humiliating, painful waiting in handcuffs in the back of a cruiser, I was notified that a further check of my information had resulted in what they termed as a "mistaken identity."
My car was left with the back seats removed, which I had to fix when I finally got home, and the "Chief of Police" arrived to tell me that regardless of what the DMV had told me, I was still being fined $96 for having no sticker and $96 for the warrant that had been issued.  He also advised me that if I planned to remain in the community I would pay the fines and keep "my nose clean."  When I got home that night I contacted an attorney and a man I had worked for in college, who at that time sat on the state board for the Fraternal Order of Police.  By the next morning my attorney and my former employer had each contacted the New Rome Mayor's Court to notify them that the matter was being bound over to the Franklin County Municipal Court System, and that the F.O.P. Board was interested in
the matter, as well.  That afternoon I received a call from the mayor at that time requesting a meeting with himself and the two officers involved.  At a hastily prepared meeting I was informed that all charges were being dropped, and a letter had been prepared for me to post in the locker room and my classroom explaining that a mistake had been made.  When I asked what warrant had come up in the first place, I was told that I had been mistaken for a sixteen-year-old runaway.  Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have not had enough hair to look like a sixteen-year-old since I was fourteen, so that's unlikely, not to mention that that would be an interesting way to deal with a young runaway. The two officers were
admonished in front of me, and I was assured that there would be no further problems.  Having had a chance to view New Rome's repeated, complete dismissal of any and all rights of due process, it has been truly rewarding to see the complete dismantling of a truly corrupt institution.  It is also rewarding to know that my "clean-nosed" teaching career in this
community will outlast the inept regime that took so many liberties with the powers of a local level of government, and that justice has finally been served.