Скачать или смотреть Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court recuses itself in case of former Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze

The Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas will recuse its judges from presiding over the records tampering case of former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze.

According to a journal entry from Judge Michael P. Shaughnessy, the administrative and presiding judge of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, the court is recusing itself "due to the fact that the defendant was recently a sitting judge in the domestic division of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court."

Shaughnessy says the court will ask the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court to assign a visiting judge to the case.

The announcement comes as Celebrezze, 54, was due back in court Wednesday morning for a pretrial conference after she was indicted last month on one count of tampering with records.

The court docket showed the conference was schedule for 9 a.m. Wednesday -- but it didn't happen.

Our crew was at the courtroom when we were notified the hearing had been continued to a later date.

The case was first presided over by Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Lauren Moore, but records show that she recused herself on Wednesday -- as did fellow Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew Santoli.

Celebrezze pleaded not guilty during her initial court appearance last month while her bond was set at $5,000. Her attorney also told 3News that she had resigned.

"Retiring Judge Celebrezze has accepted full responsibility for this situation as evidenced by her waiver foregoing presentation of the matter to a Grand Jury," Ian Friedman said in a statement, referencing the indictment by information rather than a grand jury. "Great caution should be exercised, however, to not judge her based upon this single act. The Judge has done so much good for so many by dedicating her entire professional life to public service. We will paint her full life's work in the courtroom at the appropriate time."

CASE DETAILS
Late last month, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office announced that Celebrezze was charged with one count of tampering with records for filing a fraudulent journal entry, which is listed as a third-degree felony.

The prosecutor’s office says the allegations date back to Jan. 19, 2023 when Celebrezze allegedly “filed a journal entry that contained false information that she had been randomly assigned to a case.”

“Instead, Judge Celebrezze, as Administrative Judge, had manually assigned herself to the case,” according to a previous press release from the prosecutor’s office. “The journal entry she filed did not reflect the manual assignment and falsely stated she was randomly assigned.”

The investigation was conducted with assistance from the Cleveland office of the FBI and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

"Integrity on the bench is not optional,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley. “Anything less erodes the foundation of our courts and our justice system.”

Celebrezze was then immediately suspended from the judicial bench prior to her resignation.

Full coverage: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/cri... --

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