CLEVELAND, Ohio – Dozens of people, including four sitting judges, prominent Cleveland attorneys and a congresswoman now considering a bid to become speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote gushing letters of support for former Cuyahoga County Judge Lance Mason after he brutalized his wife in front of their children so badly that her face required reconstructive surgery.

The disciplinary arm the Ohio Supreme Court, however, made clear in court filings last year that Mason did little to assure them he no longer posed a threat to his ex-wife, Aisha Fraser Mason, as he fought to keep his law license.

Mason couldn’t explain what made him snap the day he repeatedly beat his wife. When asked at his disciplinary hearing to reassure the board that nothing like the brutal attack would happen again, Mason only mustered “how can I speculate or anyone speculate what they would do in a circumstance they never thought they would be in,” the record says.

“It is important to note that [Mason’s] attack of his wife on August 2, 2014, was not a mere loss of temper resulting in a single strike or even two. It was a crazed attack involving multiple strikes, multiple bites, and pursuit,” the director of the the court’s Board of Professional Conduct, Richard Dove, wrote in a July 2017 filing. “When those who knew [Mason] would not have believed him capable of the acts he committed on August 2, 2014, and the evidence presented does not sufficiently explain the acts of that date, the reasonable conclusion is that, in the right circumstances, the events of that date could very well happen again."

And they did.

Mason was arrested Saturday after he was identified as a suspect in the fatal stabbing of the ex-wife. Shaker Heights police have charged Mason with felonious assault after he crashed into the SUV of a police officer responding to a harrowing 911 call from Mason’s sister. Mason remained hospitalized Tuesday and police expect to file more charges against him.

Authorities have not said what precipitated Saturday’s deadly attack.

Dozens of letters written on Mason’s behalf between his August 2014 arrest for the first attack on Fraser Mason and when his disciplinary case went before the Ohio Supreme Court in October 2017 showed none of Mason’s friends and colleagues could believe Mason was capable of carrying out such violence once, let alone twice.

U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, four current judges who served alongside Mason on the bench, John J. Russo, Hollie Gallagher, Brendan Sheehan and Joan Synenberg, former Judge Ronald Suster, judge-elect Bill McGinty were among those who condemned the attack, but threw the weight of their reputations behind Mason’s character.

Fudge said in her letter, which was addressed to visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove in August 2015 as Cosgrove prepared to sentence Mason after he pleaded guilty to felonious assault, that she was “deeply saddened” by Mason’s actions, which ran contrary to his reputation as an advocate for his community.

“Lance accepts full responsibility for his actions and has assured me that something like this will never happen again,” Fudge wrote. “Lance Mason is a good man who made a very bad mistake. I can only hope that you see in Lance what I and others see.”

Fudge walked back her glowing support of Mason in a statement sent Monday night that she is heartbroken for Fraser Mason and her children. She said her 2015 letter was based on the version of Mason she had known for 30 years: the accomplished lawyer, prosecutor, state legislator and judge.

“The person who committed these crimes is not the Lance Mason familiar to me,” Fudge said in the statement. “It was a horrific crime. I and everyone who knew Aisha are mourning her loss.”

Many of the letters are dated in early 2017, after lawyer Richard Alkire put out a request for character letters to submit to the Ohio Supreme Court in Mason’s effort to avoid losing his law license for life.

Sheehan and Gallagher both wrote that, during their time on the bench with Mason, he was pleasant, fair and judicious.

Russo, the court’s administrative and presiding judge, spoke the most directly about Mason’s attack on Fraser Mason. He said only she could forgive him for that.

“What happened with Lance Mason was unfortunate and indefensible. But I hope the Board of Professional Conduct considers the entirety of Lance Mason’s career and future potential in making their decision,” Russo wrote. “He lost everything that day, but there is still time for the Lance Mason I once knew to put his skills to use in helping others.”

Synenberg also asked the disciplinary counsel to take into account the good that Mason did in deciding whether to permanently bar him from practicing law.

“He is worthy of your consideration,” Synenberg wrote. “Without question, he can reestablish himself and reflect well on our beloved profession.”

Subodh Chandra, a civil rights attorney, former City of Cleveland law director and candidate for Cuyahoga County prosecutor in 2012, wrote in his letter that, based on the man he knew, Mason’s “chance at recidivism is nil.”

“While I do not excuse the seriousness of what Judge Mason did, I am reminded of Shakespeare’s words from Julius Caesar: ‘The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones,’” Chandra wrote. “Judge Mason is too young a man for all the good he has done to be forgotten. I hope he will be given a chance at redemption.”

Chandra, in a statement Monday night, struck a similar tone as Fudge.

“When responding to the request of Judge Mason’s attorney, I talked about the distinguished public servant and well-respected judge I thought I knew—believing that Aisha Fraser and their children deserved to have Mason support them financially,” Chandra said. “Now my heart is shattered for those children.”

Suster, whose docket Mason assumed and who still serves as a visiting judge, called Mason “a good man who made a mistake.”

“He has not simply addressed his problem – he has grown from it,” Suster wrote.

R. Emmett Moran, a defense attorney at Collins, Roche Utley & Garner LLC, wrote that he could not condone Mason’s actions, but argued Mason did not “lie, cheat or steal,” so the attack that shattered his wife’s orbital bone was “not a flaw of honesty or integrity.”

“This offense was an offense of temper control not moral turpitude,” Moran wrote.

Mason served only nine months of his two-year prison sentence in protective custody at a state prison in Lima. A May 18, 2016 court filing by attorneys Fernando Mack and Kevin Spellacy included a hand-written appeal from Mason for his early release that included a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. It also included a letter that Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge David Matia had written to Mason during his stint behind bars.

“I think you’re a person of tremendous potential and am optimistic that you have not abandoned the thought of a hopeful future,” Matia wrote to Mason. "Life is a long road and it often takes us places where we never have imagined.”

The filing says that Mason's ability to participate in prison programing was limited by his protective custody. He enrolled in victim's awareness and a thinking skills class provided by the mental health department. He also enrolled in something called "Thinking for a Change" and "Cage Your Rage." He was also active in church and Bible studies, and attended AA meetings "for the sole purpose of supporting the other inmates."

The filing references his political career. His work as an assistant prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, his work for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and his time as a judge.

"The term introspection is relevant and significant in the same breadth as it applies to the Defendant. (Mason) has gone through the process of self-examination and the healing has begun. After having served approximately eight months in prison, participating in the available programs, and completing many counseling sessions prior to being delivered to the institution, the defendant is ready for release back into the community."

Mason’s attorneys added supplemental court filing days later that included two letters that Mason had written, one addressed to his ex-wife, and one addressed to his daughters.

"The defendant recognized the physical, financial and emotional impact of his conduct on his ex-wife and daughters," the attorneys wrote in the motion. "The letters are not self-serving rather they were written for the Victim Awareness class. They reflect the Defendant's continued acceptance of responsibility and remorse."

The hand-written letters contain remorseful statements from Mason that the Ohio State Bar Association did not find so persuasive when they later recommended that Mason be barred from law for life.

“I am solely and fully responsible for assaulting you in front of our girls on August 2, 2014, and hurting you emotionally during our marriage," he wrote. "I have no excuses or justifications. No one should go through the harm and pain I put you through."

And in his letter to his children, he depicted himself as a changed man ready to be the father they needed.

"I'm working hard to be a better dad to you and a better man. I think about you every day. I love you, and will see you."

Cosgrove signed the order releasing him from prison June 27, 2016.

Mason was a free man.

The Supreme Court ultimately chose not to yank Mason’s license for life. Instead, they suspended his license indefinitely, a ruling that required him to be able to prove to the court that he had been sufficiently rehabilitated before could get his law license back.

That ruling, in December 2017, came two months after Mason was hired by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration to be the city’s minority business development director, a $45,000-per-year job. Jackson on Monday defended the city’s hiring of Mason.

Jackson told WJW Fox 8 that he had “no way to predict the future," the station reported.

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