Judge McGinty Accused Of Violating Privacy Rights Of Suspected Serial Killer Anthony Sowell In Releasing Mental Health Records To Plain Dealer
Suspected Serial Killer Of 11 Black Cleveland Women Anthony Sowell
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty
From the Metro Desk of the Determiner Weekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty is under fire for allegedly releasing the mental health records of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell to the Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, in alleged violation of HIPAA regulations, state law, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility and the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct.
In custody on murder, rape and other charges initiated late last year following the discovery of the remains of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave. in Cleveland's Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, Sowell petitioned Cuyahoga Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold for an investigation following a news report published in the Plain Dealer on Nov. 6 via an article written by veteran Plain Dealer Reporter Gabriel Baird.
McGinty had the Sowell case prior to Saffold but withdrew under the allegation that his fight for fairness and judicial reform might compromise the case, a position that some say is hypocritical given that he is now accused of disregarding the privacy rights of Sowell, a Black defendant who by all standards is innocent until proven guilty pursuant to the document known as the Constitution of the United States of America.
"To learn for the first time today that another member of the bench has released confidential information is disturbing," an attorney for Sowell told Saffold in a hearing before the judge on the issue.
On Tuesday Saffold sent deputy sheriffs to arrest Baird after he allegedly failed to appear for a hearing to disclose the source of the released mental health records, though the reporter was allegedly on assignment at the time. Thereafter, McGinty came clean as the source and admitted to Saffold that he had released Sowell's private mental health records to Baird, raising the question as to whether he is an ongoing source to the newspaper in potential violation of the statutory and constitutional rights of defendants prosecuted in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, a disproportionate number of whom are Black.
According to the Plain Dealer, Saffold has since backed off of Baird and has allegedly said that the matter is closed, though it would likely be the Ohio Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel that would investigate McGinty for any ethical or other violations. And, by virtue of the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility, Saffold is required to report a suspected violation of it by judges and lawyers rather than to simply say the matter is closed if she, in fact, took such position as reported yesterday by Plain Dealer Reporter Mark Puente.
Had Baird appeared before Saffold as initially required, he more than likely could have legitimately withheld the name of McGinty as his alleged source under the Ohio Reporter's Shield Law, a state law enacted in 1953 that protects reporters and other journalists working for the press or a traditional broadcasting venue from disclosing their sources, even in a capital murder trial. And since it was unlikely that Baird would have given McGinty up, some say that the clever McGinty may have rushed to judgment in turning himself in with a subsequent possibility of being disbarred or suspended as a judge and licensed attorney.
The Ohio Reporter's Shield Law was tested in the celebrated case of Ventura vs. Cincinnati Enquirer where Ventura was a lawyer for the Chaquita Banana Co. who sued the newspaper civilly saying it breached an agreement and revealed him as a source in a controversial case involving the newspaper's coverage of the banana producer's practices. When the editor for the newspaper refused to testify in the case citing the Ohio Reporter's Shield Law, the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio affirmed his disposition.
McGinty's controversial behavior comes on the heels of a story that ran two weeks ago on the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric where the outspoken judge was featured criticizing the investigation of Cleveland police and city prosecutors around the Imperial Avenue Murders.
"There's something wrong with this issue," said McGinty to CBS news. "This would not have happened anywhere else."
To make matters worse the judge, who is up for re-election this year, is also under fire for his alleged part in the illegal jailing of African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who before being released without charges in 2008, was held naked and allegedly threatened over her articles in the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland's Black press.
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty
From the Metro Desk of the Determiner Weekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty is under fire for allegedly releasing the mental health records of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell to the Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, in alleged violation of HIPAA regulations, state law, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility and the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct.
In custody on murder, rape and other charges initiated late last year following the discovery of the remains of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave. in Cleveland's Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, Sowell petitioned Cuyahoga Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold for an investigation following a news report published in the Plain Dealer on Nov. 6 via an article written by veteran Plain Dealer Reporter Gabriel Baird.
McGinty had the Sowell case prior to Saffold but withdrew under the allegation that his fight for fairness and judicial reform might compromise the case, a position that some say is hypocritical given that he is now accused of disregarding the privacy rights of Sowell, a Black defendant who by all standards is innocent until proven guilty pursuant to the document known as the Constitution of the United States of America.
"To learn for the first time today that another member of the bench has released confidential information is disturbing," an attorney for Sowell told Saffold in a hearing before the judge on the issue.
On Tuesday Saffold sent deputy sheriffs to arrest Baird after he allegedly failed to appear for a hearing to disclose the source of the released mental health records, though the reporter was allegedly on assignment at the time. Thereafter, McGinty came clean as the source and admitted to Saffold that he had released Sowell's private mental health records to Baird, raising the question as to whether he is an ongoing source to the newspaper in potential violation of the statutory and constitutional rights of defendants prosecuted in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, a disproportionate number of whom are Black.
According to the Plain Dealer, Saffold has since backed off of Baird and has allegedly said that the matter is closed, though it would likely be the Ohio Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel that would investigate McGinty for any ethical or other violations. And, by virtue of the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility, Saffold is required to report a suspected violation of it by judges and lawyers rather than to simply say the matter is closed if she, in fact, took such position as reported yesterday by Plain Dealer Reporter Mark Puente.
Had Baird appeared before Saffold as initially required, he more than likely could have legitimately withheld the name of McGinty as his alleged source under the Ohio Reporter's Shield Law, a state law enacted in 1953 that protects reporters and other journalists working for the press or a traditional broadcasting venue from disclosing their sources, even in a capital murder trial. And since it was unlikely that Baird would have given McGinty up, some say that the clever McGinty may have rushed to judgment in turning himself in with a subsequent possibility of being disbarred or suspended as a judge and licensed attorney.
The Ohio Reporter's Shield Law was tested in the celebrated case of Ventura vs. Cincinnati Enquirer where Ventura was a lawyer for the Chaquita Banana Co. who sued the newspaper civilly saying it breached an agreement and revealed him as a source in a controversial case involving the newspaper's coverage of the banana producer's practices. When the editor for the newspaper refused to testify in the case citing the Ohio Reporter's Shield Law, the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Ohio affirmed his disposition.
McGinty's controversial behavior comes on the heels of a story that ran two weeks ago on the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric where the outspoken judge was featured criticizing the investigation of Cleveland police and city prosecutors around the Imperial Avenue Murders.
"There's something wrong with this issue," said McGinty to CBS news. "This would not have happened anywhere else."
To make matters worse the judge, who is up for re-election this year, is also under fire for his alleged part in the illegal jailing of African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who before being released without charges in 2008, was held naked and allegedly threatened over her articles in the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper, Cleveland's Black press.
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