The Obama campaign and Strickland administration both deny involvement in the "Joe the Plumber" background check, but Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien still is examining Helen Jones-Kelley's phone records to see who she spoke with around the time when her office accessed confidential state records.

Jones-Kelley resigned Wednesday as director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. However, she still could face criminal charges for authorizing the improper search of computer databases.

The probe into a private citizen's confidential records ignited a furor across the country when it was revealed by The Dispatch.

O'Brien said he is reviewing phone records to determine who Jones-Kelley spoke to both before and after the Oct. 16 check.

"I'm looking at calls made and received by a number of people," O'Brien said yesterday.

Jones-Kelley, a Democrat, said that no one from Barack Obama's campaign or Gov. Ted Strickland's administration instructed her to make the check of child-support, welfare and unemployment records.

"She was contacted by no one with any political requests whatsoever," said H. Ritchey Hollenbaugh, Jones-Kelley's attorney.

She and Hollenbaugh met yesterday with O'Brien and have been cooperating in the probe.

"He asked Helen to provide information with respect to certain phone numbers, which she has done," Hollenbaugh said.

O'Brien, a Republican, said he has made no decision about whether criminal charges will be filed.

State phone records obtained by The Dispatch showed that Jones-Kelley made few calls from her desk phone, and none appeared suspicious.

Officials at the Department of Job and Family Services said she did not have a state-issued cell phone or BlackBerry. She did, however, have a personal BlackBerry to which her state e-mail was synched, and she apparently used that phone for most of her calls.

Jones-Kelley resigned near the end of a monthlong unpaid suspension and about an hour after the Republican-controlled legislature approved a measure cracking down on state workers who improperly conduct checks involving Ohioans' personal information.

A spokesman for Strickland, who had rejected calls to fire Jones-Kelley, said yesterday that the governor will sign the bill into law.

Two senior staffers suspended for their roles in the scandal also are out of jobs. The administration fired Doug Thompson, deputy director of child support. Fred Williams, assistant deputy director, resigned effective Jan. 31.

The three were disciplined last month after a report by Inspector General Thomas P. Charles found that Jones-Kelley approved a background check on Toledo-area resident Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher for no legitimate government purpose.

The inquiry came the day after Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain repeatedly mentioned Wurzelbacher by his nickname, "Joe the Plumber," during a televised debate with Obama.

ccandisky@dispatch.com