Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell has died...A Democrat, McDonnell was the first female administrative and presiding judge on that common pleas court, which sits in Cleveland, and the 11-year recipient of a transplanted double-lung.... She was a fighter who survived beyond the life expectancy of a lung transplant recipient....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com,Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

 By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell, a 25-year common pleas judge and one of 34 judges on the county's common pleas general division bench, has died. She was 62 and passed away on Tues, Sept 28 .

Ohio's general division common pleas judges hear felony cases and civil cases where damages sought are in excess of $15,000, among a host of other legal matters. 

Funeral arrangements are pending. 

The cause of death has not been made public though the  judge had successful double lung transplant surgery in 2009 at the Cleveland Clinic in connection with a diagnosis of primary pulmonary hypertension, a rare lung disorder that constricts vessels in the lungs. 

The judge had a history of respiratory problems and was a fighter who survived beyond the life expectancy of a lung transplant recipient.

The life expectancy of a lung transplant recipient  is roughly one to 10 years. Half usually die in  five years,  and some 28 percent survive some 10 years, data show. 

Common Pleas Presiding and Administrative Judge Brendan Sheehan announced McDonnell's passing and said the judge, who was married with grown children, died  “with her husband, John Kosko, by her side.”

Sheehan said that "Judge McDonnell was a trailblazer, serving as our court’s first female administrative and presiding judge from 2006-2009"

A Democrat in the heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, Judge McDonnell was over the drug court.

She was a Lakewood resident, and was the older sister of Cleveland criminal defense attorney James McDonnell. 

Considered one of the more scholarly judges, McDonnell  graduated from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.  Magna cum laude and later the Cleveland Marshall School of Law. She was an assistant county prosecutor before winning a seat on the common pleas bench.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.

By Kathy Wray Coleman. Coleman is a former public school biology teacher and a Black political and investigative reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio