CLEVELAND, OH – The federal criminal trial that Neil Clark was involved in with State Rep. Larry Householder, Larry Longstreth, Matthew Borges and Juan Cespedes is now one witness short. A rehearing in the trial was set for March 9, 2021 after the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio announced on February 19, 2021 that Longstreth pleaded guilty. By March 15, 2021 Clark was found dead 45 days before his 68th birthday on April 30.
Generation Now and Longstreth accepted guilt for a single crime, He’s forfeiting proceeds. The non-profit is being recommended for 5 years of probation.
A bullet to the head from a Sig Sauer P230SL found between his legs killed Clark’s “witness” testimony against Householder, Longstreth, Borges, Cespedes and officials at First Energy who funneled $60 million to the politician’s “Generation NOW” 501.c3 non-profit. Householder and Clark passed around a lot of money. Governor Richard Michael DeWine did well with the $69,000 he got from First Energy’s political action committee.
In the affidavit in support of the indictment Special Agent Blane G. Wetzel noted that he did not share all the information he knew about Householder, his co-conspirators or the recipients of the money he selectively distributed to officials on behalf of First Energy. Wexler wrote that he added just enough information to establish probable cause over his 82-page “Affidavit in Support of a Criminal Investigation” that was filed under seal on July 16, 2020. Sources with some knowledge of the federal investigation claim there are an additional 38 forthcoming sealed indictments.
Published reports calling Clark’s death a homicide or a suicide are jumping the gun. Michelle Batten of the Collier County Sheriff’s department in Florida told EJBNEWS the cause and manner of Clark’s death is now being determined by the county’s Medical Examiner.
Investigating deputy sheriff David Hurm told EJBNEWS, “We are in the midst of a death investigation.”
In the incident report obtained by EJBNEWS from Batten, deputy sheriff Leah P. Ford wrote that Clark’s body was found in the Golden Gate district of Collier County, Florida at Logan Boulevard North at the Lee County Line. The person reporting the crime had discovered a male’s body laying down by the late with a lot of blood and a wound to his head. He appeared to be beyond help.
Clark’s body lay about 400 feet off the roadway in a clearing behind a retention pond close to the brush line. Deputy Ford saw a single gunshot wound delivered to Clark’s right temple. The on the scene law enforcement officer observed blood on his face.
A search of Clark’s 2019 Lincoln sedan’s Florida license plates in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) criminal records history database confirmed his identity. A call was made to Clark’s wife, Colleen, who told the sheriff’s deputy she had not heard from him in a couple of hours. The report notes that Colleen said the couple was having financial problems.
Hurm confirmed receiving a call from Franklin County assistant prosecuting attorney David Michael Inscho and did not reveal any details. Collier officials are growing very aware of Clark’s importance to Householder’s trial and the ongoing federal investigation.
Clark’s March 15, 2021 death comes 28 years after the March 13, 1992 “Friday the 13th” murder of engineer Raymond Timbrook who worked as a vice president for CT Consultants. Timbrook was shot twice in the head in the Hunting Hills development in Kirtland developed by Jerry and Mike Osborne; and Jim Brown.
The late Steve LaTourette was serving as Lake County’s elected prosecuting attorney. He described to me that Timbrook’s murder was “an exacting and intriguing case.” I covered the story for the Crime Reporter newspaper I was publishing.
Timbrook’s murder was originally called a suicide because Kirtland police officer Gerald Retkofsky saw only one bullet wound. That’s the information included in his report even though he didn’t find a weapon at the crime scene.
Kirtland Hills police chief Jerry Smith thought Timbrook’s killer shot him twice in quick succession; and that the second shot came from his head turning while he was body was recoiling. A Cleveland police homicide detective I knew and asked for background information told me Timbrook was definitely the victim of a “hit.” Timbrook had been shot in the front and back of the head.
Timbrook had become engaged to Lynn Egensperger, an engineer, around Christmas within days after he and his wife ended their marriage through dissolution on December 19, 1991. Egensperger is the sister of Tim Egensperger who worked for the East Cleveland fire department during my time as the city’s mayor between January 2006 and December 2009. Both are Lake County residents. CT Consultants was owned by Frank Federico.
Latourette told me that Lynn Egensperger and George Smerigan lawyered up after the killing. He shared that among the rumors he was hearing about Timbrook and CT Consultants was that he was involved in a love triangle. Timbrook’s sister, Susan Freeze, told me she had no knowledge of Egensperger’s existence until the funeral and she placed something in his casket.
Whether Clark’s death holds up as a suicide or turns into a homicide investigation may be up to the FBI. It’s doubtful the Republicans who knew Clark as a gregarious and robust man are going to accept that financial problems caused him to commit suicide.
Like Timbrook’s murder and that of the late Russian Jewish billionaire pedophile named Jeffrey Epstein, the late Neil Clark’s death is going to fuel speculation forever that he knew too much that would hurt a lot of “big” people; and that his death wasn’t a suicide but an assassination.
In the film “Assassins” starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore, Stallone plays the character of Robert Rath. The fim was shot between Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. It features a scene where Stallone leads his mark to a watery area off the road and allows him to kill himself while he holds his weapon behind his back.
