MOUNT VERNON — A 3 1/2-inch thick court file has been compiled in Knox County Common Pleas Court over the past two years, hours of depositions have been taken, dozens of legal briefs filed, and hundreds of hours of lawyers’ work have been billed. But after more than two years of legal sparring on both sides, Michael Wagner of Fredericktown filed a motion for dismissal without prejudice regarding his lawsuit that was filed on Jan. 30, 2006, against several defendants in Knox County.
The defendants named in the suit were Craig Reed, Adam Taylor, Jeffrey Hall, Fredericktown Police Chief Jerry Day, Knox Pages/ECR Corp., and WMVO/WQIO. His allegations against each individual and the media outlets listed, were numerous and extensive.
A Nov. 5, 2003, incident on Fredericktown Mayor Roger Reed’s property resulted in Wagner’s arrest for assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He later pled no contest to disorderly conduct/persisting. Wagner had been defeated in the 2003 mayoral race by Roger Reed.
According to attorney Nick Tomino, who represented Day in his official capacity as chief of police for the village of Fredericktown, the case had been dismissed voluntarily by Wagner. “Now, he dismissed it without prejudice, and that means he can refile within one year.”
Tomino added that after the defendants in the case filed motions of summary judgment, which require the judge in the case, visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran, to make a decision for judgment based on papers filed by both sides, it was a short time later when Wagner’s motion to dismiss was filed.
Tomino’s motion on behalf of Day asserted that there was “no genuine issue of material fact” regarding the suit. “Faced with those motions, Mr. Wagner and his attorney made the plans to withdraw the case. Otherwise, he would have filed a response to them, and he chose not to.”
James Banks, attorney for Wagner, was not able to be reached.
