A former Portage County court attorney admitted Thursday to sending letters smeared with human feces to Republican politicians in Ohio and across the country.
Richard Steinle, 78, of Mogadore pleaded guilty in federal court in Cleveland to seven misdemeanor counts of sending injurious material through the U.S. mail.
Steinle, a former Portage County Common Pleas Court mediator, faces between probation and six months in prison. Each charge also carries a maximum fine of a $100,000.
U.S. District Magistrate Judge Jennifer Dowdell Armstrong scheduled sentencing for March 25.
Steinle said during the hearing that his mental health was not excellent and that he has been treated for severe depression since 2013. His attorney, Kerry OBrien, declined comment after the hearing.
Among the politicians targeted with some three dozen letters included U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and 25 Republicans in the Ohio Senate.
Steinle sent the letters from August 2021 through July 2022, when undercover postal inspectors watched Steinle mail a feces-laden card with a $1 bill to Jordans office.
Investigators found Steinle also sent similar letters to Ohio senators with words scrawled on them like pig and racist, according to court records. Some letters evoked former President Donald Trump.
Three letters were stopped from being sent to elected officials in Columbus at the Lakemore post office near Akron.
Steinle also sent letters to politicians in Washington, D.C., and Kentucky, as well as to federal courts in California.
OBrien had argued in court filings that postal inspectors mistreated Steinle and his wife during a raid on his home and subsequent arrest on Aug. 5, 2022. Inspectors forced the two to stand outside wearing barely any clothes and refused to allow them to use the restroom for about two hours, OBrien wrote.
OBrien also wrote in court records that postal inspectors refused to let Steinle call his attorney before he was brought to court. He later withdrew his motions.
Steinle in 2017 was fired from his Portage County job after more than 17 years in the position. He sued the county, saying he was fired for writing a letter to the editor in April 2016 that was published on cleveland.com and in The Plain Dealer. In the letter, he criticized Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.