Legislator has shunned Statehouse for a year

Democratic Rep. Bernadine Kennedy Kent walked out of the Statehouse more than a year ago, vowing not to return until her party resolved its problems with her and her complaint against two of its House staff members.

It’s a promise the two-term representative from Columbus has kept.

Kent hasn’t attended committee meetings, voted on legislation or set foot in her Riffe Center office since two members of the House Democrats’ staff blocked her from entering a room on May 22, 2019.

Kennedy Kent told The Dispatch that for the past 14 months she has worked from home on issues affecting her eastern Columbus district. Lately, she said, that has been helping people navigate Ohio’s unemployment system and connecting them to federal coronavirus relief programs.

But Democrats in House District 25 and elsewhere in Franklin County say they haven’t seen her, and they wonder what she has been doing to earn the more than $70,000 that Ohio has paid her during those months.

“I can’t say she’s been at a meeting or a party function in, I’d say, over a year, definitely,” Franklin County Democratic Chair Mike Sexton said. “That’s obviously been a concern of mine and others because the district has not been represented.”

Sexton said he has seen a lot more of Dontavius Jarrells, the Democratic nominee in the deep-blue district who is likely to win the November election to succeed Kennedy Kent as its new representative.

“He’s been out there working pretty hard through this crisis making sure people get their unemployment benefits,” Sexton said. “He’s doing a lot of constituent work already, but he doesn’t have a title, and he can’t go vote” in the House.

The House is on summer recess, but it has voted on a multitude of issues in the past year, including school vouchers, money for local construction projects, COVID-19 aid and lowering the rate of maternal deaths among women of color.

“My district really is disenfranchised, and they are the ones losing out,” Kennedy Kent said. “They’re shortchanged. Their vote has been negated.”

But returning to the Statehouse isn’t something she feels comfortable doing.

“In what world would you go back into an environment where you had been harassed and intimidated?” Kennedy Kent said.

Kennedy Kent alleged in a State Highway Patrol investigation report and a complaint filed with the House speaker’s office that on May 22, 2019, she tried to enter a committee room where House Democrats were planning to meet. Sarah Cherry, the attorney for House Democrats, and Deputy Chief of Staff Andy Dipalma blocked the doorway. When Kennedy Kent tried to enter, Cherry allegedly pushed her back.

“These actions appear to be seriously bordering on a violation of my constitutional rights and discriminatory,” Kennedy Kent wrote in her complaint.

Cherry told the patrol, which provides security at state offices, that she was in the doorway greeting members because Democrats had voted Kennedy Kent out of their caucus in June 2018. It was a highly unusual move. House Democrats said at the time that it was because Kennedy Kent had signed members’ names to a request for public records without their permission.

Rep. Stephanie Howse, D-cleveland, filed a complaint with the patrol in 2018 that alleged forgery of her electronic signature. No charge was filed against Kennedy Kent, and attempts to reach Howse for comment were unsuccessful.

Republican House Speaker Larry Householder, Democratic Minority Leader Emilia Sykes and their offices also declined to comment for this story.

Kennedy Kent said she stayed in office after the caucus kicked her out because she could still work — even without the help that party members get from their caucus such as policy, financial and legal advice.

“These were services paid for by taxpayers,” Kennedy Kent said. “I was really upset about that.”

Before the blowup with her fellow Democrats, she got a bill passed making all law enforcement officers mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse and neglect. Gov. Mike Dewine signed it into law in March 2019.

After Kennedy Kent was blocked from entering the room where House Democrats were to meet, the patrol investigated Cherry for disorderly conduct and obstructing official business. The patrol’s findings were turned over to the Columbus city attorney’s office.

“I have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to establish probable cause for any criminal offense and that no charge(s) should be filed,” Assistant City Attorney Joseph Gibson wrote in a letter dated Nov. 26, 2019.

That bothered Kennedy Kent because, she said, the attorney never called her before closing the case. She told The Dispatch she thinks that’s a violation of an Ohio constitutional amendment called Marcy’s Law. Passed overwhelmingly by voters in 2017, it gives specific rights to victims in the criminal justice process.

Kennedy Kent wasn’t listed as a victim on the patrol’s investigation report.

Patrol spokesman Craig Cvetan said “society/public” was the listed victim because the two crimes alleged “are both crimes against the public and not an individual. This means society is always the victim and not an individual person.”

Kennedy Kent retained an attorney and hopes to get the investigation reopened.

If she were a victim in an open case, that would give her “enough protection” to return to the Statehouse and finish out her term, she said.

“There are really important issues, and to just be getting them from the news is really disappointing,” Kennedy Kent said.

She wrote several emails to Sykes, including one on May 20 asking to be included in the next meeting of the House Democratic caucus “because of the needs, suffering and fear in my district during this crisis.”

Kennedy Kent said she didn’t get a response.

“The whole situation is just unfortunate,” said Jarrells.

He said he recently helped district residents who didn’t know whom to call about trash not being collected at their apartments. And he praised another Columbus Democrat, state Rep. Erica Crawley, for “stepping up” to provide proclamations and other legislative services for people in House District 25, which borders her District 26.

“It means a lot to me,” Jarrells said. “We’re not just out here on some island. I think other legislators saw there was a need.”

When asked whether Kennedy Kent should have resigned, Jarrells said that he “couldn’t speak to that.” But when asked whether he thinks the district has a state representative, Jarrells said: “No. Unfortunately, no.” astaver@dispatch.com @annastaver