A federal judge denied Trumbull County Commissioner Niki Frenchko’s request for a temporary restraining order against other county officials.

She and her lawyers had asked the court to restrain the officials from continuing to destroy records and seize her property unlawfully, to interfere with her right to record meetings.

At a hearing in U.S. Northern Ohio District Court on Tuesday, Judge J. Philip Calabrese noted none of the defendants, including Sheriff Paul Monroe, former Commissioner Frank Fuda and Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa or their attorneys were present at the hearing.

The court only heard arguments from Frenchko’s attorney, Matt Miller-Novak of Cincinnati.

Miller-Novak earlier certified with the court that he provided the defendants’ attorneys, Assistant Prosecutor William Danso and Brodi Conover, with notice of the hearing.

Calabrese directed Frenchko’s attorney to further contact those attorneys, and another hearing will be held in person with all parties and their counsel.

“The court emphasized that it was not ruling that we were not going to succeed,” Miller-Novak noted after receiving the court’s notice. “Instead, the court decided that because damages were available if we win, injunction would not be necessary for us.”

“He (the judge) instead advised that we should immediately work on summoning them to the court and investigation of their phone records,” he wrote. “Simply stated, the judge wants us to pursue a different path to remedies.”

Frenchko said it was disrespectful that not one person showed up for the court hearing.

“Even if there is conflict of interest they should have had a county attorney show up and say they are waiting for an attorney,” she said.

The request for the restraining order was filed alongside a federal lawsuit Monday by Frenchko against the sheriff, Cantalamessa and Fuda and two deputies over her arrest July 7, 2022, during a commissioners meeting.

The suit seeks monetary damages against the defendants and alleges civil rights violations for a “ruthless false arrest intended to punish a political adversary for criticizing the county sheriff in violation of the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.”

The two deputies also named as defendants — Sgts. Robert Ross and Harold Wix — handcuffed the Republican commissioner during a contentious point in the meeting where discussion centered on an inmate, whom Frenchko claimed was diagnosed at the hospital with meningitis and was not treated properly at the jail.

At the behest of Fuda, the commissioners’ clerk was reading a letter from Monroe asking Frenchko to apologize for these allegations that were made at an earlier meeting.

When Frenchko spoke over the clerk, Cantalamessa said she was being disruptive. A sheriff’s deputy also said Frenchko was disruptive, then two deputies led her from the room in handcuffs.

Frenchko claimed the arrest was a “set up.”

The request for the injunction occurred after an incident where Frenchko’s iPhone was knocked down as she was trying to record the sheriff during a March 9 budget hearing this year, held at the Trumbull County Planning Commission office.