Hunter backers threaten All-Star Game

Embattled Judge Tracie Hunter sought to have the new judge on her criminal case step down as she pleaded not guilty to her latest charge.

Hunter, 48, was in court Wednesday facing a new indictment. She's accused of no additional wrongdoing. The new misuse of a credit card charge is an attempt by special prosecutors to fix the criminal charge against her that jurors weren't allowed to consider in her trial last year.

After Hunter pleaded not guilty, her attorney objected to Hunter being processed again through the Hamilton County Justice Center on the new charge because she did that last year after her indictment. Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Dinkelacker said he was ordering Hunter to be processed again through the jail -- a new mugshot, fingerprints, etc. -- because that's what the Sheriff's office told him was necessary.

Because Hunter was convicted of one charge at her trial last fall, she is a felon and is treated differently by the Sheriff's Office. Dinkelacker allowed Hunter to remain free on an "own recognizance" bond -- no money involved, she gives her word to return to court -- but it meant, the judge said, she had to again be processed through the jail.

Hunter wasn't handcuffed as she left the courtroom to be processed, but gave The Enquirer a huge smile.

She was processed through the jail in less than an hour and went to the Hamilton County Commission meeting. There, her supporters asked the county heads to halt her prosecution by cutting funding for the special prosecutors on the case. That was the only way, they said, to stop what they said is as an unreasonable, unjust prosecution of a woman who has been punished enough.

The Bishop Bobby Hilton, a fervent Hunter supporter and minister of Word of Deliverance Ministries, a Forest Park church, ominously promised the commissioners Hunter supporters would take action if they didn't.

"The nation is going to hear about this. The All-Star Game is going to hear about this," Hilton told commissioners Wednesday, mentioning the July Major League Baseball event hosted this year by Cincinnati.

"Everybody is going to hear what a horrible place Hamilton County has become."

Hilton's threats perhaps were directed at the wrong governmental entities. Commissioners, whose job is to supervise county government for basic services like road repair, sewer and water, don't control prosecutions. Commissioners pay the bills for other agencies – prosecutor, sheriff, coroner – but that's the extent of their involvement.

The Special Prosecutors in Hunter's case, R. Scott Croswell III and Merlyn Shiverdecker, were appointed by Common Pleas Court Judge Beth Myers on the suggestion of Prosecutor Joe Deters. The special prosecutors charged about $500,000 through Hunter's first trial.

Commissioner Todd Portune, a Democrat like Hunter, asked county administrators to look into the matter, but Commissioner Greg Hartmann said he doubts there's anything commissioners could do, even if they agreed to intervene.

"I believe we have no legal ability to end a criminal prosecution by cutting off funding," Hartmann said. Injecting the board of commissioners into a legal prosecution, Hartmann added, is "a very serious matter."

Hunter wants Dinkelacker off of her case.

She believes he can't be fair because last year he was a judge on the Cincinnati-based Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals when he was involved in legal opinions involving cases against Hunter. Some of those opinions were submitted at Hunter's first trial as evidence.

"Under those circumstances you can't, in my opinion, preside over the same hearing" where Dinkelacker's opinion was evidence, Clyde Bennett II said. He's Hunter's attorney.

He soon will file legal documents, he said, seeking to remove Dinkelacker from presiding over Hunter's case. Dinkelacker left the appeals court when he won election to the Common Pleas Court. He replaced the now-retired Judge Norbert Nadel who presided over Hunter's original trial last fall.

Hunter will be ready for the scheduled June 1 trial, Bennett said, but the attempt to replace Dinkelacker could change that date. Regardless, he said, Hunter will not plead guilty.

"The only way this matter will be resolved by agreement is by a dismissal" of the charges against Hunter, Bennett said Wednesday.

Like the original misuse of credit card charge, the new charge carries a maximum prison sentence of one year.

This is the latest in a long line of incidents involving Hunter since the controversial 2010 election that saw her – two years and a federal law suit victory later – become Hamilton County's first black female Juvenile Court judge.

In addition to fights with The Enquirer over access to the public courtroom over which she presided and public documents, Hunter fought with prosecutors and defense attorneys. She was sued by the newspaper as well as the Public Defender's Office. She also was chided by the appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court.

Hunter was convicted of using her position as a judge to get documents her brother, a Juvenile Court worker fired for punching a teen inmate in the face, used trying to save his job. Nadel ordered her to spend six months in jail but she's remained free pending her appeal.

In the other charges, Hunter is accused of forging and backdating court documents in criminal cases before her, improperly giving her Juvenile Court-worker brother assignments that allowed him to collect overtime and using a county credit card for personal use.

After her first indictment, Hunter was suspended with pay by the Ohio Supreme Court. After her conviction, she was suspended without pay. Technically, she remains a judge but hasn't been on the bench since her January 2014 indictment.