Editorial: Temporarily suspended Cleveland Judge Pinkey Carr had authority to hold court during coronavirus outbreak, activist Kathy Wray Coleman says on WERE AM 1490 radio today on the Art McKoy radio show...Read why here....Her enemies say that because chief Cleveland Judge Michelle Earley ordered the court shut down, Carr allegedly violated an order when she held court anyway, though Earley had no such authority to make such an order and is, for the most part, Carr's judicial colleague, and not her boss....By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog, both also at the top in Black digital news in the Midwest

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey Carr

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog, both also at the top in Black digital news in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Editorial by Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Community activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads imperial Women's Coalition, Women's March Cleveland and International Women's Day March Cleveland, discussed the temporary suspension this week from hearing cases of Black Cleveland Judge Pinkey Carr by the Ohio Supreme Court today on the Art McKoy University Show, WERE 1490 AM radio in Cleveland. The Ohio Supreme Court ordered her to stop hearing cases during the coronavirus outbreak until requests to remove her from several traffic and criminal cases are addressed by the court , requests made by the public defender's office with support from the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. Cleveland administrative Judge Michelle Earley had issued an "order" advising those not in jail to stay home due to coronavirus and that Cleveland judges should reschedule court hearings three weeks later, and Carr held court anyway. 

If the request to get Carr off of cases is in the form of an affidavit filed by the public defender's office per R.C 2701.031 as to seeking the removal of a municipal court judge from a particular case by the chief justice of the largely Republican Ohio Supreme Court for bias or conflict, and it is timely filed and accepted, it stops proceedings until the affidavit of prejudice at bar is decided by the chief justice, currently Republican Justice Maureen O'Connor. Whether any appeal of Judge Carr's orders for court during the coronavirus outbreak filed with the 8th District Court of Appeals will be deemed a final appealable order, which means it can be heard on the merits before the conclusion of the criminal or traffic cases at issue at the trial court level, remains to be seen. Other available remedies include a writ filed with the Ohio Supreme Court against Carr, who says other Cleveland judges did what she did. Car says she held court for those out on bail who showed up

Judge Carr quickly drew the ire of Cleveland's mainstream media, which is routine when complaints are leveled against Black judges by  prominent White men, this time Chief Cuyahoga County Public Defender Mark Stanton, who filed the affidavit of prejudice against her with Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor and criminal defense attorney Ian Friedman, head of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. 

The statute (R.C. 2701.031) , however, does not say the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme court can order such judge off of a group of cases while an affidavit of disqualification is pending. Carr has until Tuesday to respond to the demand that she be removed from such cases and, again, is barred from hearing criminal and traffic cases in the meantime per an order from the Ohio Supreme Court This is questionable. And removing this judge from cases in general must go through the bar complaint process, and any interceding orders should be fair. Court in Cleveland for those in jail is proceeding as usual. Those not in jail are subject to a postponement of their cases, and speedy trial issues are at play in many cases.

A Democrat first elected to the the bench since 2011, and reelected in 2017, Carr is accused of holding court hearings on traffic and other cases in spite of a so-called order by chief Cleveland Judge Michelle Earley for judges not to hold such hearings or to issue arrest warrants for no shows during the coronavirus outbreak. Carr is also accused of issuing arrest warrants when defendants failed to appear. 

A 13-member court that has a separate housing court with its separate budget, and is largely Black, Cleveland judges primarily traffic and misdemeanor cases and lawsuits with damages sought at or below $15 thousand. 

While we disagree with arrest warrants during the virus outbreaks since defendants are recommended to stay home,  since Judge Earley, the Cleveland court's administrative and presiding judge,  has no authority to shut down the court and is really only commensurate to Carr as a colleague, Judge Carr had authority to proceed with cases and we can find no violations of either the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility or the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct, or any other authority for that matter. And any such warrants for failing to appear during the coroavirus outbreak would require a journal entry that Judge Carr said she did not issue, so any previous warrants should be void, we believe. The Ohio Supreme Court, via case law, has said that a judge or a court of record speak via its journal entries.

 The Ohio Supreme Court should issue a directive to Ohio trial courts on the coronavirus and indicate punishment for violating such directive ahead of time, though its authority is limited too, and I doubt if it has such authority to issue any such directive.   Whether Cleveland City Council can pass an ordinance closing court buildings in Cleveland over the coronavirus, I do not know. Judge Carr is on firm ground, it appears, when she held court in the absence of any legislative or other type of binding order to do otherwise, like it or not. 

Judge Carr is a former assistant county prosecutor-turned judge and was the lead prosecutor who got serial killer Anthony Sowell convicted on 82 of 83 counts in 2011. Sowell murdered 11 Black women and raped three others at his since demolished home on Imperial Ave on Cleveland's largely Black east side He sits on death row He and his attorneys are seeking a new appeal in the 8th District Court of Appeals. We do, however, call for Judge Carr to alter her temperament toward defense counsel and defendants and we urge defense counsel and the Cleveland bar to fight against the denial of speedy trial rights for Blacks and some others in municipal and the general division common pleas court of Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland. 

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.