HAMILTON, Ohio — For a second time this year, a complaint has been filed against Butler County Commissioner Cindy Carpenter for erratic behavior, and again the investigation found no illegal actions.
Carpenter, who is running for re-election in the May 5 primary, was accused of “assaultive conduct” during a meeting with members of the Butler County Housing and Homeless Coalition (HHC) in January.
Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser, in a report to the three county commissioners, criticized Carpenter’s behavior but said it didn’t rise to the level of “criminal menacing.”
He wrote that members of the HHC board reported Carpenter allegedly approached the board secretary “in a physically aggressive and threatening way” because she didn’t approve of how the meeting was being conducted. Another board member allegedly had to “physically intervene and block” Carpenter.
He wrote that Carpenter denies any threatening behavior and maintains she kept her distance.
“While a pattern of heated words-only statements by Commissioner Carpenter and questionable provocative behavior do emerge from the conduct of Commissioner Carpenter, words alone without threats of harm are insufficient without more to justify the finding of criminal responsibility,” Gmoser wrote, but noted a conflict of interest was found and her fellow commissioners removed her as their representative on the HHC board.
Gmoser also conducted an investigation into Carpenter’s behavior earlier this year after a dispute with employees at her granddaughter’s apartment complex in Oxford. Carpenter could be seen on video giving an obscene gesture in the lobby of the building and the employees accused her of “blatantly racist, hostile and threatening” behavior.
The prosecutor ultimately found no legal wrongdoing by Carpenter.
