Former state Rep. Matt Barrett won’t be charged for reportedly lying to police about knowing women in topless photos — one of which he displayed to a high school class last year — found on a state-issued memory stick.

Sandusky County Prosecutor Tom Stierwalt found nothing to warrant charges against Barrett, said Norwalk Law Director Stuart O’Hara, who declined to provide specifics.

Stierwalt, who reviewed the Norwalk police and Ohio Highway Patrol investigation at O’Hara’s request, was traveling Friday and could not be reached for comment.

“We’re very happy it worked out the way we thought it would,” Jack Bradley, Barrett’s attorney, said. “Everyone knows Matt and his family have gone through a lot, and it’s nice that it’s over.”

Barrett, D-Amherst, resigned last month after the police investigation had been completed and turned over to prosecutors.

House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus, said she demanded Barrett’s resignation after he confessed that he had lied about knowing the women, but Bradley said Barrett had planned to resign anyway.

When the photo flashed up on the screen during Barrett’s presentation at Norwalk High School on how a bill becomes a law in October, he immediately shut down the computer and finished his lecture using paper handouts.

Barrett and Democrats said at the time that one of his four children, a teenage son, had been responsible for the photos. Barrett, an attorney and former Amherst councilman, had asked for the investigation into the photo and others found on the memory card, saying he had nothing to hide.

Bradley said Barrett wasn’t trying to derail the police investigation when he lied about knowing the women because he believed officers were trying to determine how the pictures ended up on the memory stick and how they were projected, not their identities.

“He wasn’t trying to mislead the investigation,” Bradley said. “It was very embarrassing to know the women in the photos.”

The decision not to charge Barrett was announced the same day Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann confessed to having an affair while in office. Three members of Dann’s staff were forced out because of a sexual harassment scandal that forced Dann’s admission of infidelity.

Democrats already have moved beyond Barrett’s scandal, said Phil Saken, spokesman for the House Democratic Caucus, which will name Barrett’s replacement.

“If it’s over, it’s over,” Saken said of the investigation. “We’ve moved on to find an appointee to fill the 58th House seat and someone to run in November.”

Barrett, who won an uncontested Democratic primary in March, was supposed to face Republican Terry Boose, a former Huron County commissioner, in the November general election.

State Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, said he was glad to learn Barrett wouldn’t be prosecuted.

“I hope Matt can move forward with his life,” he said.

Bradley said Barrett will now focus on healing his family and his legal practice.

“There’s always family concerns and business concerns, but that’s just something he and his family will have to deal with,” Bradley said.

Bradley said he doubts Barrett will face sanctions as an attorney because he wasn’t criminally charged.

“If there’s no criminal conduct, there’re no disciplinary concerns,” he said.

Barrett did not return calls seeking comment.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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