After being convicted of tampering with records in violation of Ohio R.C. 2913.42(A)(1), which prohibits a person from falsifying any writing or record “knowing that the person has no privilege to do so,” Monai Sherea Brown appealed her conviction. She claimed that the false statements she made in documents that she filed in a civil quiet-title action against an innocent homeowner in the hopes of taking his home (a ploy that Ms. Brown had used on at least two other unsuspecting homeowners, by the way) could not support her conviction because they were absolutely protected by the “litigation privilege.” In State v. Brown, 2022-Ohio-4347, ¶ 2, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected that claim: “We hold that the litigation privilege, which protects a person from civil liability for defamatory statements that were made during judicial proceedings and that were reasonably related to the proceedings in which they were made, does not shield a person from criminal liability related to those statements.”
