After receiving an annoying or threatening telephone call, most government officials would get an unlisted home telephone number. Marc Dann’s staffer, Brian Laliberte, got an expensive taxpayer funded security system.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol investigated Mr. Laliberte’s call and concluded it was unfounded. Nonetheless, Mr. Dann set an imprudent precedent. The attorney general has 1,300 employees. For the taxpayers sake, let’s hope no other attorney general staffer gets another “unfounded” but scary telephone call at the office.

The Associated Press
Friday, July 13, 2007

State pays for home security system
Attorney general’s aide receives $3,700 in gear after phone threat made

COLUMBUS - A top assistant to Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has received a $3,700 home security system at state expense after receiving a telephone threat.

The system is to be installed by state agents, then monitored by the attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation rather than by a private contractor. The total cost to the state of equipment, labor and monitoring is not yet known.

Deputy First Assistant Attorney General Brian Laliberte, 33, said he received a strange call at work on June 29. The deep voice of a male caller said: “Karma is a b, what goes around comes around.” As he was hanging up, Laliberte said he thought he heard the caller say, “You’re dead.”

Laliberte oversees Dann’s criminal division.

“I’m just very grateful the attorney general has extended this protection to my family and I know he’d do the same for someone under similar circumstances,” he said.

The State Highway Patrol investigated the incident but closed it as unfounded. The patrol arranged to begin capturing incoming phone numbers to Laliberte’s telephones, however.

Death threats to the attorney general, Ohio’s top law enforcer, are fairly common, said Mark Weaver, a deputy attorney general for Betty Montgomery from 1995 to 1999, but it is rare for a staff member to be threatened.

A militia group “tried” Montgomery in the mid-1990s in absentia, found her guilty and mailed her a death warrant, he said.

“She did not have the state go out and buy her a security system,” he said.

Dann, a Democrat, beat Montgomery, a Republican, last year. Weaver was a consultant to Montgomery’s campaign.

Share This