The Ohio House's longest-serving Democrat has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor related to the mishandling of campaign funds and resigned.
62-year-old Ron Gerberrywas convicted Friday of a single charge of unlawful compensation of a public official. Under a plea deal, a judge gave Gerberry a suspended sentence of 180 days in jail plus three years of unsupervised probation and 500 hours of community service. He was required to resign and not seek public office for seven years. To avoid expected contributions to his caucus, Gerberry overpaid vendors to make his campaign account look smaller and later accepted refunds.
