WAVERLY, Ohio — Derek Myers has settled his federal civil rights lawsuit against Pike County and Sheriff Tracy Evans.
The settlement was for the maximum amount the county’s insurance carrier was authorized to pay under policy limits without extraordinary overrides, which the insurer declined to grant. The agreement ends a three-year legal battle stemming from Myers’ 2022 arrest on a felony wiretapping charge that was later dismissed.
Myers, a journalist with the Scioto Valley Guardian, was charged after the outlet published audio excerpts of testimony from Jake Wagner — a cooperating witness and co-defendant who pleaded guilty in the 2016 Rhoden family massacre — despite a court order prohibiting recording after Jake Wagner declined to be recorded. Myers has always maintained that the audio came from an anonymous source who was permitted to have a recording device in court.
“When they arrested me, deputies in Pike County came to me and said that if I revealed my source they would take it easy on me,” Myers said. “They were not after me. They said they wanted to know who the source was and if it was one of their own. I would have died in prison before revealing a name; and I never will. Ethics matters.”
In December 2023, Myers filed suit in federal court alleging violations of his First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights as well as breach of the federal Privacy Protection Act. Deputies had seized his equipment and work product during the investigation — actions his attorneys argued were unlawful — and took his cell phone as he passed through courthouse security. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson took particular note of the fact that Myers’ cell phone was seized without a valid search warrant.
In pretrial rulings, Judge Watson described Myers’ alibi as “airtight,” pointing out that Myers was out of the country when the prohibited recording was made and that no evidence linked him or the Scioto Valley Guardian to creating it. The judge concluded there was no basis for the Pike County Sheriff’s Office to charge Myers with a felony for receiving and publishing third-party material.
Myers was hailed as a hero with numerous press freedom organization coming to his defense, calling his arrest unlawful and ordering the charges dismissed.
The case also had broader impact. In 2025, following widespread debate sparked by the Myers incident, the Supreme Court of Ohio amended its courtroom rules to permit public and media recording statewide even when a witness or victim objects — aligning with the position Myers had long advocated, meaning the Court agreed with the journalist that the rule was too ambiguous
“Not only did this case max out the insurance adjuster’s limits,” Myers said, “but this arrest brought historic, landmark change to the rules of how court trials and their witnesses can be filmed. Kudos to the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice for expanding transparency as a result of this mess.”
Sources familiar with the settlement negotiations said the insurance adjuster repeatedly emphasized their absolute ceiling the carrier could disburse without rare higher-level approval, which was not forthcoming. Although Myers initially pushed his attorneys to reject the offer and proceed to trial — believing a jury would award more — counsel advised that, after attorney fees, another year of litigation, and at least $150,000 in additional costs, a trial verdict would likely not exceed the immediate policy-limit payment.
Myers’ legal team was led by Harvard graduate and former Jeopardy! champion Emmett Robinson, Esq., of Cleveland. The team argued, among other things, that the legal troubles had barred Myers from working at the White House.
“We won in many ways,” Myers said.
The settlement, reached this month without admission of liability, resolves the dispute. Pike County officials declined to comment.
This marks the second civil-rights lawsuit Myers has filed and settled in recent years. He previously resolved a $2.5 million federal suit against the Village of New Holland and its police department over separate allegations that officers fabricated charges to silence his investigative reporting on small-town corruption.
In an ironic historical footnote, Myers’ family on his mother’s side hails from Pike County and once owned the land on which the historic Wagner trial — and his own legal saga — unfolded.
“The historic Pike County Courthouse in Waverly, which will soon be shuttered, is a beautiful and iconic building,” Myers noted. “It is also deeply ironic that this very courthouse was the scene of my arrest, so to speak, because it was my family who donated the land to the county for $5 in 1866 so the courthouse could be built after the county seat was moved from Piketon to Waverly. Although portions of the original deed are no longer enforceable under current law — including several covenants with which I personally disagree — I look forward to the land reverting to my family once the courthouse use ceases, as the original deed explicitly provides.”