{"id":20693,"date":"2026-09-03T15:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=20693"},"modified":"2026-09-03T15:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:41:17","slug":"david-karmol-files-civil-lawsuit-against-judge-puffenberger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/03\/david-karmol-files-civil-lawsuit-against-judge-puffenberger\/","title":{"rendered":"David Karmol Files Civil Lawsuit Against Judge Puffenberger"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Fletcher Word<\/em>
\nThe Truth Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

David Karmol, Republican candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives, District 43, (the seat currently held by Democrat Michele Grim, who is running for re-election) has filed a civil lawsuit against Lucas County Probate Court Judge Jack Puffenberger accusing him of misapplying public funds.<\/p>\n

The source of controversy, claims Karmol, are ads that Puffenberger ran during the last quarter of 2025 through the first four months of 2026 on WTVG, abc13, advocating public awareness of a particular education initiative.<\/p>\n

Now while Judge Jack Puffenberger is not a candidate for office during this election cycle, his son, Tom Puffenberger, is and Karmol claims that since the judge plastered the name of \u201cPuffenberger\u201d across the screen during the time that his son was conducting a campaign, that helped to raise awareness for his son and to his son\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n

Karmol took his request for civil action first to the Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney in July. In that letter, Karmol urged Julia Bates, the Lucas County prosecutor, to take action and \u201cinstitute a civil action to recover funds of Lucas County\u201d by Puffenberger.\u00a0 In response, the prosecutor said in a July 13 letter: \u201cYour request is declined for the following reason: the expenditure is legitimate under Ohio law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s response to Karmol cited an Ohio Supreme Court case \u2013 State ex rel. Grendell v. Walder<\/em> \u2013 which held that, as\u00a0 Julia Bates, Lucas County prosecutor wrote: \u201ca probate court judge may properly spend money on \u2018projects that apprise the community of court-related information\u2019 such as advertising, even during the course of that judge\u2019s re-election campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Karmol\u2019s lawsuit alleges that Judge Puffenberger misused taxpayer funds through that series of televised ads that were \u201cpurportedly for public education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohio Revised Code Section 9.03(D)(8) \u201cprohibits any person from knowingly expending public funds to the benefit of a candidate, and provides a penalty therefor\u201d noted Karmol in his civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only question is \u2013 did these ads benefit a candidate?\u201d said Karmol during a press conference he held on Thursday, August 27, outside the entrance to the Lucas County Courthouse. Karmol described the ads as \u201cflashing hundreds of times\u201d and that they benefited the candidate \u2013 Tom Puffenberger \u2013 because his father Judge Jack Puffenberger was able to place the family name in the consciousness of viewers \u2013 all at taxpayer expense. According to the open records request Karmol filed, that cost to taxpayers was $60,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he does the right thing and pays the taxpayers back but if he doesn\u2019t, I\u2019m prepared to go to trial,\u201d said Karmol. \u201cI would love to put this in front of a jury of people in Lucas County and have them decide whether spending taxpayers\u2019 money to support your son\u2019s campaign is a good use of tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny citizen can bring a taxpayer lawsuit when the prosecutor declines,\u201d said Karmol of the answer he received from Bates. He also noted that a lawsuit isn\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll [Judge Puffenberger] has to do to get rid of the lawsuit is to pay back the money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The judge has declined to do that. He said in a statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a judge, I am urged by the Code of Judicial Conduct to initiate and participate in activities promoting public understanding of the administration of justice. The Lucas County Probate Court\u2019s Public Education Program is a perfect example of the fulfillment of that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis highly successful program has significantly increased public awareness of probate issues and has provided our citizens with valuable information regarding the probate process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stand behind this endeavor 100% regardless of any political gamesmanship designed to discredit the program or the Court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fletcher Word The Truth Editor David Karmol, Republican candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives, District 43, (the seat currently held by Democrat Michele Grim, who is running for re-election) has filed a civil lawsuit against Lucas County Probate Court Judge Jack Puffenberger accusing him of misapplying public funds. The source of controversy, claims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[363],"class_list":["post-20693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20695,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20693\/revisions\/20695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20693"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=20693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}