COLUMBUS — Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser has taken his fight against part-time judges to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Gmoser sent a 200-plus page document to the high court last week, asking the justices to consider creating new rules regarding part-time judges. Gmoser has been doing battle with Area I Court Judge Rob Lyons over 10 OVI cases the judge refused to recuse himself from deciding. Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage disqualified Lyons from hearing the cases last month, saying the public could perceive a conflict of interest.

Gmoser wants the court to limit the areas of law part-time judges are allowed practice in their private firms.

“Because this is an inherent problem in the system, I do not believe it is capable of being policed by those engaged,” he writes.

He continued, “I am asking the court to consider a rule prohibiting part-time judges from practicing law or, at a minimum, any type of law in any court that involves the same type of cases presented to the judge in that position.”

He said a rule-change would avoid a legislative enactment that would likely be unsuccessful due to “adverse political pressure and delay.”

Lyons’ West Chester Twp. law practice does criminal defense work and he specializes in OVI cases. In his letter to the high court, Gmoser also criticized Area II Judge Kevin McDonough. He claims McDonough showed Lyons’ law partner Jeffrey Meadows preferential treatment when he ruled an OVI defendant, whose blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit, was not guilty. He included the transcript of the man’s trial in the packet delivered to the Supreme Court and an affidavit sworn by his assistant prosecutor because, “these circumstances cast an aspersion likely to be found by the general public that a fellow judge’s associate received preferential treatment.”

The affidavit by Daniel Phillips states McDonough told the attorneys he did not trust the results of the defendant’s blood test taken after he was admitted to the hospital with injuries he suffered after he crashed his motorcycle into a car on Interstate 75.

McDonough said he didn’t want to comment on Gmoser’s letter.

Area III Court Judge Dan Haughey maintains a private law office in Oxford. His website also lists OVI and traffic cases as part of his practice among other specialties. He and Lyons could not be reached for comment. None of the area judges practice in each other’s courts.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.