By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
Just when we think that State Senator Jerry Cirino could not do anymore to hurt the citizens in his district, we find him destroying their rights to free speech.
I spent an interesting day and a half in the Willoughby Municipal Court Room A listening and observing the jury trial between Senator Cirino and Mr. Donald J. Byrnes, a well known political blogger out of Columbus. Cirino took exception to Mr. Byrnes (a.k.a. the Rooster) “spiking the football” on him when he decided to pull out of the State Senate race for president of the Senate.
The Rooster sent Cirino a naked picture of the cartoon character Shrek to his personal phone number. Presumably, this action caused more stress than Cirino could handle because he recently found out no one really liked him in the State Senate either. Sigh…There is only so much humiliation a State Senator can take.
Here is a recap of what took place:
- Kirtland Police Chief Jamey Fisher received the initial email complaint from Ohio State Senator Jerry Cirino on May 8, 2026, requesting an investigation and criminal charges after Byrnes sent a sexually explicit image of Shrek via text message.
- Kirtland Detective Jake Scott led the investigation, reviewed the background material and sought an arrest warrant. Scott testified during the trial that the decision to pursue charges was based on the image itself rather than an investigation of Byrnes’ political writings.
- The surprisingly heavily tattooed detective, looking more like a gang member than a detective of a rural community, determined that charging Byrnes with telecommunication harassment was warranted and notified Willoughby Municipal Judge Marisa Cornachio. She was endorsed in her last political campaign by Cirino. We discovered during the trial that Cornachio could have issued a summons to appear in court rather than arresting Byrnes. Obviously, Cornachio and Scott thought that Byrnes was a menace to society and should be arrested to protect the public from any more naked Shrek pictures.
- Byrnes was arrested by the Highway Patrol in the Columbus statehouse while he attended a committee hearing on data centers.
- Byrnes posted bail, but still spent a night in jail.
In our opinion, this was a big warning to ALL CITIZENS OF OHIO. This is “shouting from the rooftops”. Do not mess with Cirino, the Kirtland Police Department and Judge Marisa Cornachio. They will be forever known as Cirino’s Lake County posse, and will forever have Cirino’s back. He says jump and they ask “how high”?
The judge assigned to the case was a retired Lake County Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti. He knows all of the Lake County officials in this case very well, and, in our opinion, should not have been assigned this case.
Byrnes was tried on a first-degree misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment. The texts poked fun at Cirino after his failed bid to secure the Ohio Senate presidency.
Here is the Ohio Revised Code section dealing with telecommunications harassment.
https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2917.21
Kirtland Prosecutor Matt Lallo argued that Byrnes’ sole intent in sending the explicit image was to harass and upset Cirino, and it was much more than just legitimate political critique [Oh the humanity! Citizens are not allowed to upset Cirino.]
Byrnes’ legal team argued that the text messages and the meme constituted protected free speech under the First Amendment, asserting it was standard political commentary aimed at a public figure.
The defense team initially tried to get the judge to dismiss the case based on the freedom of speech issue. Judge Cicconetti did not buy that argument. So if in the future you have a free speech issue in Lake County, just pray you do not get assigned Cicconetti to your case.
An eight-person Lake County jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes before finding Byrnes guilty of telecommunications harassment.
- While the misdemeanor carried a maximum penalty of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, the prosecution noted that Cirino simply “wants to be left alone” and did not pursue jail time.
Judge Cicconetti sentenced Byrnes to:- A $200 fine plus court costs.
- An order to have no further contact with Senator Cirino.
Following the verdict, Byrnes’ legal team indicated in court documents that they plan to appeal the decision, and the judge agreed to delay the fine pending that process.
Judge Cicconetti denied the defense’s motions to dismiss and rejected their requests to include specific explanations of First Amendment rights in the instructions given to the jury. Since the jury was instructed to focus strictly on whether the communication met the statutory definition of intent to abuse or harass, the defense will use the judge’s rejection of these constitutional parameters as their primary grounds when they file their formal appeal.
Editorial Comments by Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall:
I know Senator Cirino is my State Senator and is supposed to be available to help the public – in theory anyway – but I immediately deleted his phone number from my telephone. I do not want a “butt call” to cause stress to our fragile Senator, and I did not want to spend six months in jail for telecommunication harassment based on Detective Scott’s interpretation of the law, Judge Cornachio inability to be impartial when defending her campaign endorser, and Judge Cicconetti ruling on free speech.
In addition, we will now and forever more refer to him as “He who shall not be named”. We do not want his posse, or band of goombahs knocking on our front door. Just for the record I did watch the Godfather movies, and I do not want “He who shall not be named” to “make me an offer I can’t refuse”.
This whole affair of a prominent public figure enlisting the aide of his legal army to have an average citizen arrested is something akin to what is done in communist countries. “He who shall not be named” is a very dangerous individual to freedom and liberty for average citizens. Power is a very intoxicating elixir for those in governmental office that thrive on being the “top dog”. He should never hold public office again, and his political party should reprimand or censure him for eroding free speech in Lake County and the State of Ohio.
Here is a few of our past articles on “He who shall not be named”. One of our favorite moments was when we presented him with a “leg Lamp” (similar to the Christmas story lamp) at a Commissioners’ meeting for being 100% over budget (spent $300,000 on refurbishing a Willowick bungalow) for the “Better Flip” project. He almost “blew a gasket” and ordered it removed from the Commissioner table.
“He who shall not be named” has also had a great deal of difficulty complying with the Open Meetings act.
When the “Don” loses it over a cartoon character, it is the true measure of the man, in my opinion. (Slide the “>”)
Shrek is not my friend….
Categories: Community Activism, Lake County Politics, State of Ohio, Uncategorized