For the second time in Ohio history, a citizens' group has won its lawsuit to remove school board members.

A six-man, six-woman jury Thursday took less than a half hour to decide that Rock Hill board members Lavetta Sites, Wanda Jenkins and Paul R. Johnson should be removed from the school board.

The jury agreed with the group Citizens Against Poor Spending (CAPS) that the three board members were guilty of &#8221malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance of office as well as gross neglect of duty.“

In his closing statement Thursday, CAPS attorney Eric Schooley told the jury that the three board members conspired to get rid of Lloyd Evans as superintendent, and resorted to secrecy, lying and misuse of their power as board members to achieve it.

&#8221Why all the secrecy? They had three votes anyway. Why not bring it before the public and talk about this? Why not do it above board?“ Schooley asked.

He pointed to the spending some nearly $200,000 in legal fees as one example of their wrongdoing.

&#8221Is that how we want our public officials to handle money?“ he asked. &#8221We work hard, pay into it and they get (legal) bills that are just scribbled out and they pay it anyway. They can't tell you what the firms are doing.“

But Steve Rodeheffer, attorney for Sites, Jenkins and Johnson, said CAPS and its attorneys had not provided clear and convincing evidence that the three board members broke any laws.

&#8221This is not about what's right or wrong, there must be clear and convincing evidence these individuals violated a specific statute of Ohio Revised Code,“ he said.

&#8221… The question is not whether Lloyd Evans should be superintendent. The question is have they discharged their duties in such a way they violated those duties.

Rodeheffer said his clients were not seasoned politicians and did what they thought was in the best interest of the district.

Rodeheffer pleaded with the jury not to disenfranchise the thousands of people who voted for the three board members knowing all along what their intentions were.

The closing arguments and the verdict came after a half-day of testimony by Sites, who denied to the jury she had a vendetta against Evans, and denied she was angry her son had not received a job with the district.

Sites said the attorneys with the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease advised her to keep quiet about her discussions with them on the legality of Evans' five-year contract extension that was granted by a lame duck school board before she took office in 2004.

Sites said that is why she did not tell anyone ahead of time she planned to propose a resolution to non-renew Evans' contract as well as other matters that were controversial.

The removal of the Rock Hill board members is only the second such case in state history.

Last year, four members of the Madison-Plains school district near London were removed from office through a citizens lawsuit. Schooley and his partner, Austin Wildman, represented that citizens group as well. Wildman said they field frequent inquiries from citizens groups who complain about school board practices.

&#8221Ninety-five percent of the complaints we hear about flow from abuse of power and treating office as a fiefdom without having to answer to anyone,“ Wildman said.

The CAPS lawsuit is the latest round in a war waged largely around Evans. Last week the Ohio Fourth District Courts of Appeals dismissed an appeal by the school board and sent the case back to Walton because some issues in the matter were not ruled on locally.

Still pending are three lawsuits in federal court:

Two families contend their diabetic children were discriminated against by district officials; the third lawsuit alleges racial discrimination.

At least two of the lawsuits name Evans and his son, Freddie Evans, who is principal at the elementary school, as defendants.