Judge fights what he calls false claims
Woman accused of retaliatory filings
A Delaware County judge is fighting what he says are false claims and fraudulent legal filings from a woman he ruled against in 2018.
Common Pleas Court Judge David M. Gormley ruled on Dec. 7, 2018, that a $223,611 foreclosure judgment against Jennifer St. Jacques, which she had contested earlier, was valid, according to court records.
Six days after a sheriff’s sale of the property at 489 Blue Heron Court in the Delaware County portion of Westerville, St. Jacques filed a lien against Gormley for $360,149.
A week later, for the same amount, she filed an “agister’s lien” against Gormley, which is a “lien upon an animal provided by contract or statute as a security for fees of a person who has fed or cared for the animal,” according to Uslegal, an online source of legal definitions.
Gormley said that he was just enforcing the law but that he quickly became a victim of retaliation.
“Soon after I issued a decision in that case, Ms. St Jacques expressed her anger about my ruling, and she filed the liens against me in the county recorder’s office, claiming that I owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to her,” Gormley explained in an email to The Dispatch.
“I owe no money to Ms. St Jacques . ... I was simply doing my job by ruling on the legal issues raised in the (earlier) case in which Ms. St Jacques was a par
ty.”
Multiple attempts by The Dispatch to reach St. Jacques were unsuccessful.
In court documents, St. Jacques alleges that Gormley owed her money from the sale of agricultural equipment and supplies over several years. Gormley said he neither owns nor cares for livestock.
“I am not a farmer or feed supplier,” Gormley told The Dispatch.
Other liens against the judge were filed with the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, but have since been removed.
But the county documents, true or not, were required to be filed by Melissa Jordan, Delaware County Recorder, who said that she’s legally required to do so.
“We cannot establish what is fraudulent or not,” she said. “We have to record a document as recordable.”
Gormley said the ordeal has been frustrating.
“To remove the liens filed against me by Ms. St. Jacques, I have had to hire a law firm to file a lawsuit against her. Because we have not been able to locate
Ms. St. Jacques and have not been able to send to her by certified mail a copy of the lawsuit, we must pay the cost of printing formal notice of the lawsuit in the newspaper.”
Gormley’s lawsuit states that St. Jacques is engaging in an “intentionally malicious, fraudulent and fake pattern of misbehavior for the sole purpose of causing damage to the plaintiff.”
Retired Lucas County Judge James Bates has been chosen by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’connor to hear the case. dnarciso@dispatch.com @Deannarciso
“Because we have not been able to locate Ms. St. Jacques and have not been able to send to her by certified mail a copy of the lawsuit, we must pay the cost of printing formal notice ...”
Judge David M. Gormley