YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Mahoning County Sheriff James Traficant, who lost a bid to halt sheriff's sales on property foreclosures, held such a sale Tuesday but unveiled the Constitution as his newest weapon against foreclosures.
Attorneys representing lenders did most of the bidding on 22 pieces of property on the auction block as Traficant, who normally does not attend sales, and his aides stood on the perimeter of a crowd in the courthouse rotunda.
'Watch this,' one aide whispered and Karl Spence of Youngstown plunked down two silver 50-cent pieces as his bid for property on which Keith Helms, a representative of a Twinsburg law firm, bid $5,000.
Esther Harris then pulled out $1.05 in old silver coins to bid on her own home.
Traficant, surrounded by cameramen, said he understood Spence and Mrs. Harris' position was that they had made the only legal bid for property since only gold and silver is 'real, lawful American money.'
Article I Section 10 of the Constitution directs in part that 'no state shall... make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.'
Paul Gambrel, assistant county prosecutor, advised the two silver-paying bidders to file objections in court before foreclosure deeds on the properties were finalized.
Both bidders said they would follow through in court.
Monday, Traficant's lawsuit to stop sheriff's sales was dismissed by Common Pleas Court Judge Peter Economus, who ruled the sheriff could not sue without a direct, personal interest in foreclosures.
In February, Traficant spent three days in the city jail for contempt of court after refusing to sign the deeds on 10 pieces of property sold at sheriff's sales.
Traficant, who faces unrelated federal charges of bribery and tax evasion later this month, said his battle against foreclosures was intended to protect the poor and unemployed people of the Mahoning Valley.
