LORAIN — Former state Rep. Matt Barrett is no longer with his family’s law firm.

Barrett, D-Amherst, resigned from the Ohio House of Representatives last month after it was learned he had lied about photos of topless women that were displayed to a Norwalk High School government class last year.

It was unclear why or how Barrett left the law firm of Miraldi & Barrett, of which his father, Benjamin Barrett Sr., was a founding partner.

The remaining partners in the firm — the elder Barrett, Benjamin Barrett Jr. and David Miraldi — did not return calls seeking comment. County Common Pleas

Judge Jim Miraldi, who left the firm when he took the bench in 2007, also declined to comment.

A receptionist at the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and medical malpractice work, confirmed Barrett was no longer with the firm, and he has been removed from the company’s Web site.

The scandal that led to Barrett’s resignation from the Ohio House seat he won in 2006 began last October when he plugged a state-issued computer memory stick into a school computer while making a presentation on how a bill becomes a law.

The computer automatically began displaying images of topless women, whom Barrett denied knowing when questioned by Norwalk police. Barrett turned off the computer after noticing the images and finished his presentation using paper handouts.

Barrett initially blamed his 12-year-old son for the photos and allowed police to interview the boy. Police pursued the investigation and determined that not only did Barrett know the women, he had asked them to send him the sexually explicit photos that they took using their cell phone cameras.

Sandusky County Prosecutor Tom Stierwalt, who reviewed the case at the request of Norwalk Law Director Stuart O’Hara to avoid a conflict of interest since Barrett represented the Norwalk area, decided not to charge Barrett after the investigation was completed.

Democrats now are trying to find a replacement for Barrett in the House, but four of the seven applicants for the job don’t live in the district, which includes Huron County and parts of Lorain and Seneca counties, so they didn’t qualify, House Democratic Caucus spokesman Phil Saken said.

That prompted the committee to extend the deadline to May 15 for interested candidates to submit their resumes.

So far, three Democrats from the district have submitted their names — retired Huron County Juvenile and Probate Judge Thomas Heydinger of Norwalk, Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Frank Janik of Amherst and Mary Fleure, a senior caretaker from Attica in Seneca County.
Barrett did not return a call seeking comment.

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

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