Cleveland Chief Judge Ron Adrine had no authority to remove Judge Angela Stokes from hearing criminal cases a Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation reveals, Stokes calls Adrine's actions warrant-less and void of due process, only the Ohio Supreme Court and Presiding Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst have that authority, and with limitation, Fuerst only regarding single cases following the filing of an affidavit of prejudice under state law that she approves
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Angela Stokes
Stokes Attorney Richard Alkire
From left: Cleveland Municipal Court Presiding and Administrative Judge Ron Adrine, Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Angela Stokes, Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, Ohio State Representative Bill Patmon (D-10), a former city councilman, and Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Presiding and Administrative Judge Nancy Fuerst
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief,
Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog,
Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog
Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio- A Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation reveals that Cleveland Municipal Court Presiding and Administrative Judge Ron Adrine had no authority whatsoever to remove Cleveland Judge Angela Stokes involuntarily from hearing criminal cases, a move he made to media hoopla on Friday afternoon, including the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper that did a Sunday headliner expose' on it by political reporter Mark Namik.
Adrine claims that his decision, effective Monday, was influenced by a motion to transfer cases from Stokes' courtroom filed by the Cuyahoga County Office of the Public Defender, a venue led by Chief Public Defender Robert L. Tobik , and a venue that data show is also plagued with unprecedented corruption against the majority Black indigent clients that it represents in state courts including municipal courts involving a serious offense such as first degree misdemeanors
and DUI's. Most defendants lose, including in the general division of the 34-member Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas where felonies and other legal matters are heard, data show.
Namik reported that Tobik, who is White, contacted Adrine to get Stokes saying his office has filed a motion against Stokes substantiating the request, though the investigation shows that such motion cannot serve to remove her from hearing legally designated case loads, or otherwise.
Stokes said that she will fight the illegal gesture and called Adrine's actions warrant-less and void of "due process."
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| Cleveland Municipal Court Presiding and Administrative Judge Ron Adrine |
THE OHIO SUPREME COURT HAS MADE IT CLEAR IN RULINGS THAT PER THE OHIO LAWYER'S PROFESSIONAL CODE OF RESPONSIBILITY AND CASE LAW ONLY IT CAN DISCIPLINE A JUDGE AND PRECLUDE A JUDGE FROM PRESIDING OVER CASES IN GENERAL, AND THE AUTHORITY TO INVOLUNTARILY REMOVE AN OHIO MUNICIPAL COURT JUDGE UNDER STATE LAW. (Ohio Revised Code 2701.031) FROM HEARING A PARTICULAR CASE RESTS SOLELY WITH THE PRESIDING JUDGE OF GENERAL DIVISION COMMON PLEAS COURTS IN OHIO. AND IN STOKES' CASE THAT PERSON IS CUYAHOGA COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS PRESIDING AND ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE NANCY FUERST, AND ONLY FOLLOWING THE FILING OF AN AFFIDAVIT OF PREJUDICE OR DISQUALIFICATION THAT FUERST SUBSEQUENTLY DETERMINES SHOWS A JUDICIAL BIAS OR CONFLICT. AND WHILE FUERST CAN REASSIGN CASES BASED UPON THE GRANTING OF AN AFFIDAVIT OF PREJUDICE SHE CANNOT, BY LAW, DISCIPLINE JUDGES, AND NEITHER CAN ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL JUDGE, THAT AUTHORITY AGAIN RESTING SOLELY AMONG THE JUSTICES OF THE OHIO SUPREME COURT IN CONJUNCTION WITH A BAR COMPLAINT. (Editor's Note: Effective January 2014 Fuerst is no longer the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Administrative and Presiding judge. That position is currently held by Judge John Russo).
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| Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Administrative and Presiding Judge Nancy Fuerst |
Civil cases represent only a small fraction of a municipal court judge's docket. Her cases, said Namik, have been divided among visiting judge Mable Jasper, a former Cleveland judge herself, Adrine, and the other 11 municipal court judges on the Cleveland bench.
Ohio municipal judges hear traffic and misdemeanor criminal cases and civil
cases with damages sought at or below $15,000.
Through her attorneys Stokes, late last year, filed a 41-page response to a 49 page complaint filed earlier that year by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Ohio Supreme Court. And in an exclusive one-on-one interview with Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper, Stokes attorney said during that interview, and in the response he filed on his client's behalf with the Ohio Supreme Court, that the bar complaint at issue lacks merit. He said that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, at best.
The disciplinary complaint alleges that Judge Angela Stokes, 60 and elected to the Cleveland Municipal Court bench in 1995, utilizes too many court resources, and that she has mistreated court personnel, attorneys, and defendants in her role as a judge in the 13-judge majority Black Cleveland Municipal Court. (Editor's note: Judge Ray Pianca is among the 13 judges but operates a separate housing court).
None of the allegations in the complaint have any serious validity, the attorney said. And neither, he added, do they require discipline by the state's high court against Stokes, particularly since his client has not violated either the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct, or the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility, the assessment instruments for determining the level of discipline against a judge or attorney licensed in Ohio, if any. They do not meet the threshold required to generate the media hype, he said.
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| Ohio State Rep Bill Patmon (D-10) |
Stokes comes from a family of Democrats and is a daughter of retired U.S Rep. Louis Stokes of Shaker Heights, the first Black elected to Congress from Ohio. And she is the niece of the late Carl B. Stokes, who became the first Black mayor of a major American city when voters elected him mayor of the city of Cleveland in 1967. Then the city was majority White, but now the city of some 400,000 people is roughly 58 percent Black, and is led by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who is also Black.
"And I think we have seen judges do a lot worse than what Angela Stokes is accused of doing," said Patmon, who is Black and a former city councilman.
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| Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell |
Cleveland Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell, a former assistant county prosecutor, said in an interview on the subject last year that Stokes, who is both Black and female, could be the victim of racism and sexism since the disciplinary complaint goes back 15 years, a sign Alkire says, that his client is getting unfair treatment.
A three-member review board has been established to begin combing through a mountain of data around the disciplinary complaint against Stokes, some of it nuisance data to beef up the complaint, Alkire said.
The now infamous complaint , following review by the three member bar committee, will ultimately be determined by the Ohio Supreme Court, a seven-member majority White and largely Republican court, one led by Republican Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
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