BMV office shut down as judge rules against registrar

COLUMBUS -- A court ruling has ended a local woman's fight to keep her job with the Fairlawn License Bureau and ordered the office to temporarily shut down.

Judge Guy Reece in Franklin County Common Pleas Court denied deputy registrar Susan Suso?s motion for a temporary restraining order Tuesday morning.

Suso was fighting a September 6th termination letter that ordered her out of the office for failing to secure drivers' personal information.

The state's termination followed a Channel 3 News investigation in August that found dozens of documents unsecured in a dumpster outside the Fairlawn BMV.

The office was shut down at 5 p.m. Tuesday and will re-open after a new deputy registrar is put in place to run the office.

"This is an agency that processes around 100,000 transactions a year so it's a very busy agency," said Tom Hunter, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety. "The last thing we want to do is inconvenience customers but customer service and customer security are of the utmost importance to the BMV."

Hunter said there are 9 to 10 other license offices in Summit County that should be able to pick up the slack until new leadership can be put in place in Fairlawn. It's unclear how long the office will be closed.