PIQUA — An alleged attempt by a “group of people” to arrest Gov. Mike DeWine at his Cedarville home last weekend has Piqua Police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol investigating.
A Piqua man came to the Piqua Police Station on Oct. 16 and told officers a person who ran for Ohio Governor last election as a write-in candidate called him about the plans.
“He advised he told (the person) he did not want to be involved and that he wanted to report the phone call to the police,” an incident report read.
According to the report, the Piqua man said the group was organizing to go to the Governor’s residence and arrest DeWine for tyranny.
News Center 7 contacted the former candidate mentioned in the police report and was told that person will be addressing the investigation outside of the statehouse Monday afternoon. The former candidate also declined to say whether they’ve been contacted by any law enforcement agencies about the investigation.
DeWine said he wasn’t shocked when he heard about the investigation.
“At this point in my life, not much shocks me. You know it’s a sad thing,” DeWine said during a press briefing Friday. “We have people in every state who believe that they can take the law in their own hands, people who believe that the government’s illegitimate and that they have every right to go and basically overthrow the government in one form or the other.”
“I think it’s incumbent on all of us to denounce that and say that’s wrong. Whether that’s coming from the left or it’s coming from the right, it doesn’t matter where it’s coming from,” the Governor said.
Rep. John Becker (R-Clermont County) addressed the police report during a video message posted to his YouTube page on Wednesday.
“This hero, what he did was as a good citizen should do. He went to his local police department,” Becker said in the video. “The plot did not materialize and the Governor was not in danger at all.”
The plot was said to have been planned for last weekend, Becker said in the video.
Becker, who himself has called for the impeachment of DeWine, said the man who filed the police report contacted him and provided more details of what the plan entailed.
“The plan was, and this is what gets scary, is they were planning to arrest the Governor at his home, put him on trial for tyranny and with the potential penalty for that being either execution or exile,” Becker said the Piqua man told him.
Piqua police deferred any comment outside of what is included in the police report to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, who also confirmed they are looking into the case.
“We were made aware of the information reported to the Piqua Police Department and are currently investigating the incident,” said Staff Lt. Craig Cvetan with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. “For security reasons, the Patrol does not discuss the details of threats or safety issues involving the governor.”
The investigation comes eight days after several people were charged with trying to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
That scheme was foiled by the FBI, who conducted the investigation.
News Center 7 contacted the FBI to see if the agency had any involvement in this latest case involving Ohio’s Governor.
“As a matter of policy, we cannot confirm or deny an investigation,” said FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren.