Ohio

New Local DR Judge Must Disqualify Herself in Case Her Judge-Father Started

By Cleveland Law Library

In a ruling issued today in the Strauss divorce, the Ohio Supreme Court held that new local Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze must disqualify herself from a case she inherited from her father, who recently retired from the same DR court. The decision is based on Canon 3(E)(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits judges from adjudicating matters in which a close relative also acted as judge. Cleveland.com reports that local DR Administrative Judge Timothy Flanagan and others are concerned about the impact on hundreds of other cases involving divorces, child custody and domestic violence that Judge Celebrezze took over from her father's docket. Other online articles about the Court's decision have been posted by newsnet5.com and the Dayton Daily News.Click here to read an article about the Affidavit of prejudice Marc Strauss filed with the Ohio Supreme Court earlier this year to get the Judge removed.

Full post as published by Cleveland Law Library Weblog on May 14, 2009 (boomark / email).