More than 500 pages of documents lay out allegations against J.D. Tomlinson, Jim Burge

ELYRIA — Hundreds of pages of documents containing hundreds of text messages between Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson and his former girlfriend and employee Jennifer Battistelli are now part of the official court record. The messages, as well as interviews of Battistelli by criminal investigators, paint a picture of a tumultuous approximately 18-month relationship, during which Battistelli was both working for and dating her boss. In the documents, Battistelli accused Tomlinson and his chief of staff James Burge of trying to get her to recant statements she made to her own attorneys and to criminal investigators. She also claimed the first-term Democrat was dating as many as 10 to 20 different women at a time and was using drugs. Battistelli said. The documents filed Wednesday in Elyria Municipal Court by special prosecutor Ron O'Brien were the result of a joint investigation by the Lorain County Sheriff's Office, FBI and State Auditor's Office into the allegations against Tomlinson and Burge. Tomlinson, 43, and Burge, 77, are charged with felony intimidation and tampering with evidence, and Tomlinson with attempted bribery for allegedly trying to get Battistelli, 51, to backtrack in her allegations of discrimination and abuse at his hands at the office. They allegedly tried to get her to sign documents to that effect after she accepted a $100,000 employment settlement from Tomlinson's taxpayer-funded budget. Burge and Tomlinson have denied any wrongdoing, and Tomlinson has denied hitting Battistelli. Also included were transcripts of two lengthy interviews Battistelli gave July 25 and Sept. 7 to investigators and the special prosecutor at the office of her attorney, Kenneth Lieux. Visiting Judge Patrick Carroll on Wednesday set a preliminary hearing for Nov. 8. Defense attorney Michael Camera, who is representing Tomlinson and Burge, said Wednesday he is likely to file more documents before then. In response to messages left by a reporter seeking comment, Camera provided the following statement on his clients' behalf. "The prosecutor absolutely denies these ridiculous allegations, and fully expects that the allegations as well as the current pending ridiculous charges will be shown to be false at a hearing," he said. The statement applies to Burge as well, Camera said. July 25 interview According to the document, Battistelli told Lieux, O'Brien, and sheriff's Capt. Robert Vansant she first met Tomlinson in 2000 and later worked on his first unsuccessful election campaign for prosecutor in 2016. In 2019, Tomlinson represented Battistelli on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in Avon Lake Municipal Court after she fought with her ex-husband. Her children called Tomlinson, she said. Tomlinson defended her without being paid and she was convicted only of a lesser disorderly conduct charge and fined. They remained friends and when Tomlinson ran again for prosecutor in 2020, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when Battistelli had to close her clothing store. Tomlinson offered her a job and she accepted. She was hired at a salary of $52,500 a year in January 2021, and was making $61,500 when she resigned in August 2023. The romantic relationship started in April or May 2021, Battistelli said. "Well, we just spent so much time, yeah" together, Battistelli told investigators. "All day at work, go to the gym and then eat and we were together all of the time." They told Dan Petticord, chief assistant prosecutor of Tomlinson's Civil Division, that they were dating. Battistelli said Petticord at first told them it was OK, "then came back a couple months later and said, no, you guys are not allowed to date." Petticord confirmed that Tomlinson and Battistelli told him in 2021 that they were dating, but he couldn't be more precise on the date. "They told me they had an on-again, off-again relationship," Petticord said. "I told them that was not a good idea, that they should keep their private and professional lives separate. I never told them it was a good idea." Petticord is running to replace Judge James Miraldi on Common Pleas Court. His opponent is Giovanna Scaletta-Bremke. Despite Petticord's advice, Battistelli and Tomlinson "were like really in it, we were basically inseparable," Battistelli said, and that everyone in the office knew they were dating anyway. Even then, Tomlinson allegedly tried to hide their relationship — especially when Battistelli asked for a raise, she said. That would have outed them to the office, he allegedly told her. Battistelli said she did everything for Tomlinson, from managing his bank accounts to picking his wardrobe, co-signing for his car and his credit cards. Only she knew the password to his bank accounts, she claimed. Soon she discovered he was seeing other women behind her back. While selling campaign T-shirts, her iPad was linked to his Facebook account and she claimed she found messages from between 10 and 20 other women he was allegedly dating. Battistelli declined to name all the women for investigators. She said for a year, Tomlinson bounced between her and another woman, lying to each of them about the other. Tomlinson and Battistelli also got into loud fights in his office on the third floor of the Lorain County Justice Center in Elyria. She thought Rich Resendez, Tomlinson's head investigator and later chief of operations, knew about their relationship and the fights but in a phone interview on Wednesday Resendez said he never knew Tomlinson and Battistelli were dating. Even if he had known, "I didn't care. It was none of my business," he said. A Democrat running to replace Stammitti as sheriff — his Republican opponent is Jack Hall — Resendez said he will let the investigation into Tomlinson and Burge run its course if he's elected sheriff on Nov. 5. "I have no intention of interfering, getting involved, or halting it," he said. "I've spent 42 years in law enforcement, I'm not going to tarnish that with (an) under-the-table deal." During their relationship, Battistelli said Tomlinson was a control freak, would get "furious" when he couldn't contact her, and that led to a "cycle" of makeups and break-ups, she alleged. He called her hundreds of times a day. During some of their fights, Tomlinson would try to stop Battistelli from leaving his office, "and just mainly grab me or put his hands over my mouth, because I would yell back," she told investigators. Battistelli said she never hit him, but he put his hands on her multiple times. She also began recording her fights with him, videos of which have been shared with The Chronicle and published. "... my intention in the first place was that we fought all of the time, like all of the time, and I was like first of all, it was escalating and getting worse and worse and worse, and I was like, I could not call the police, we were friends with the police," she told investigators in a Sept. 7 interview. "Who was I going to call, who was I going to tell, well, who is going to believe me basically." And while Tomlinson allegedly was seeing multiple women, Battistelli said she wasn't allowed to even interact online with other men. She alleged that Tomlinson went through her phone. "Anybody that I have a conversation with that is a male, J.D. will assume that I am either having sex with them or they are pursuing me somehow," she told investigators. "It could be anybody." When an Elyria police officer eacted to some of her photos on Facebook, that set off a long argument between Battistelli and Tomlinson, she said. When she reacted to some of Tomlinson's friends' Facebook posts, that resulted in a physical fight at her house, she alleged. In a statement to The Chronicle in May, Tomlinson accused Vansant of pursuing Battistelli and trying to start an intimate relationship with her. Battistelli has not accused Vansant of anything improper, Stammitti said Wednesday. Vansant "is going to stay on the case," Stammitti said. "I don't think he did anything inappropriate." "To me it's all a smokescreen" by Tomlinson, Stammitti said. "I think that's something J.D. made up" Battistelli told investigators Tomlinson would go "into a rage" if she got male attention or gave attention to other men. A physical assault allegedly occurred on Aug. 16, 2023, in Tomlinson's office. Battistelli went to him after being written up for allegedly making a false discrimination complaint on behalf of another office worker. That's when Tomlinson "grabbed me and threw me on the couch and then he was basically like, he was shaking me," she told investigators. Again, Tomlinson has denied ever hitting Battistelli or any other women. Battistelli texted Burge on Aug. 17, telling him Tomlinson assaulted her, and sent him a photo of bruises on her arms. While arranging an employment settlement in late 2023, Battistelli first demanded $150,000, then settled for $100,000. During negotiations in early October, her attorney Jack Moran sent a draft Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint to the Prosecutor's Office on Oct. 10, 2023 containing the physical assault allegation. Tomlinson later tried to get Battistelli to admit she wasn't the one who wrote it, she said, or that Moran had written it for her. Messages seeking comment were left Wednesday for Moran. In February this year, Tomlinson allegedly tried to get Battistelli to meet with Burge to sign something else: An affidavit blaming one of Tomlinson's investigators, Garrett Longacre, for the disagreement that led to her write-up. Battistelli said she refused. Despite that, Longacre ended up with a promotion and a raise, according to Battistelli. He wanted her job "and he got it," she said. Tomlinson told The Chronicle that Battistelli still was on his side and that she had signed off on public statements he made about the scandal. She denied this to investgators. Battistelli said she stopped talking to Tomlinson for two to three weeks after she resigned, though they later got back in contact and Tomlinson and Burge kept trying "to save their asses," she alleged. Tomlinson would showed up at her house uninvited, she said. Each time they broke up or fought, she took him back telling investigators it was because she had dealt with abandonment as a child and being with someone was better than being alone. Aug. 5 email Prosecutor's Office legal secretary Maureen Martincin sent Battistelli a document Aug. 5 titled "Statement of Jennifer Battistelli" that Battistelli said she refused to sign. A copy of the statement in the court filings claims Battistelli "confronted" Tomlinson privately in his office when he refused to intervene in her write-up. "After the argument between us escalated, I was taken by the arms and pushed to a seated position on the couch next to where I was standing," the statement reads, purporting to be Battistelli's own words. "After a few moments, I was able to regain my composure and left the office." The statement provided to Battistelli backtracks on the allegation that Tomlinson hit her. "To be clear, Prosecutor Tomlinson did not strike me that day in his office and he has never struck me. He has apologized to me for the incident in his office and I have accepted his apology," the statement reads. "Moreover, I have never told anyone that he did strike me, and I have never authorized anyone to say that he struck me, including Attorney Ken Lieux or Attorney Tony Cillo, both of whom have made this false claim to the media." "To be even clearer, my claim against the prosecutor's office has nothing to do with J.D. Tomlinson. I was permitted to do my job and I was treated with respect in the prosecutor's office. Our relationship is cordial," it reads. Battistelli said Burge called her and tried to convince her the statement benefited her and made her look better. Burge "writes everything for J.D.," Battistelli told investigators. Text messages The filing also contains copies of text messages between Tomlinson and Battistelli, such as one where Tomlinson provided her a "suggested statement" to quash rumors he assaulted her. "We want to address recent allegations suggesting that either of us has engaged in physical violence against the other. These claims are completely false. Our interactions, while at times contentious, have never escalated to physical violence. And we have never struck one another. We regret that these personal arguments have been used as political attacks," the statement reads. Their names appear at the end of the statement. "Just a suggested statement," Tomlinson wrote to Battistelli. In subsequent texts, Tomlinson pleaded with Battistelli to go to dinner with him, and she refused saying she didn't want to have anything to do with him or be caught in a lover's triangle. The texts grow increasingly more pleading, culminating in him offering her $100 then $500 "just to meet for dinner!" "I have to meet with you!" he writes. She refuses. "Don't insult me!!!!!" Battistelli replies, telling him to give the money to his new girlfriend. "I'm begging you, Jenny," Tomlinson wrote, before flat ordering her to meet him at a hotel. "You're going to meet me at that hotel," he tells her. Battistelli refused each time. Montana After all the drama and everything, Tomlinson convinced Battistelli to go to Montana with him at the end of August. She recounted the trip in a Sept. 5 email she sent to Lieux that was filed with court documents. Battistelli said she wasn't sure how Tomlinson convinced her to go, but she may have believed he was willing to give them another chance. She flew to Montana alone, telling only one person she was going. Tomlinson was waiting for her at the airport there. "He was sweet but seemed slightly manic, more excited about the plans he had for the next day than about my arrival," she wrote. "Something was off about him." They tried to be intimate "but it felt off, just like the last three times," she wrote. Over the next 48 hours they drove, took walks, napped and ate together. Battistelli "wanted to take pictures, but it reminded me that we couldn't take any photos together" and seeing other couples reminded her the two were not a couple. She wrote that she later realized Tomlinson "wasn't really there to have fun" but to convince her to recant. They argued, Tomlinson got upset and he allegedly told Battistelli everyone was calling her a liar. Battistelli decided to fly home. She got an Uber to the airport while Tomlinson slept, she wrote. When he woke and realized she was gone, he called her 114 times and sent her "hundreds" of texts, she wrote. It didn't appear as if those texts were included in the court filings. Tomlinson allegedly offered to buy a plane ticket just so he could get past security and talk to her. "I refused," she wrote. "I left Montana, thanking God I got out of there alive. The worst 48 hours of my life." Sept. 7 interview A second interview with Battistelli was conducted Sept. 7 with Lieux, Vansant, and investigator Kevin Monnolly from the State Auditor's Office. In that interview, Battistelli alleged that Tomlinson told her she couldn't claim any sexual misconduct occurred because they had been intimate after she had alleged sexual harassment. "And I am like, well, it happened and then we did, I cannot take it back," she said. "I just wanted to tell them (the EEOC) what happened at work and to get the rest of my money for the rest of that year and next year that I was on with J.D., so." She said she and Tomlinson "got into a huge fight" about Tomlinson's statement or "op-ed" on the case in May that he provided to The Chronicle-Telegram. Tomlinson allegedly told Battistelli "he has a disclaimer, and he was going to put something in the paper." "... and I said, well, leave me out of it," she told investigators. When she refused to sign off on it, "tons" of phone calls and text messages followed. All were from Tomlinson trying to get her to change her mind, she said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Check out our guide to the November election