Bedford Municipal Judge Harry Jacob on trial

Bedford Municipal Judge Harry Jacob III only the latest area judge to find himself on the wrong side of the bench. He is is on trial for charges including corruption, bribery, and promoting prostitution in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Friday, August 8, 2014.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND,

Ohio -- Common Pleas Judge Lance Mason and Bedford Municipal Judge Harry Jacob III are unusual because both Greater Cleveland jurists are in trouble with the law at the same time, though for different reasons.

Mason stands accused of felonious assault for injuring his wife. Jacob remains on trial because of an alleged enthusiasm for prostitutes.

Unusual, they might be, but far from unique.

They are merely the latest in a long black-robed line that stretches across more than four decades, composed of no fewer than 15 local judges whose punishment ranged from sanctions by the Ohio Supreme Court to life prison sentences.

Former Euclid Municipal Judge Robert L. Steele and family after he was sworn into office in 1969. Kissing him is his wife, Marlene, whom he would later have killed by two thugs.

Based on the severity of misconduct, Euclid Municipal Judge Robert Steele tops the list.

He paid to have his first wife killed in 1969, and died in prison in 1996.

Common Pleas Judge James McGettrick, who previously had been the county sheriff, also died in prison.

He took bribes to derail murder trials for two members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.

He derailed his own career when he revealed the scheme to a federal agent whom he mistook for a lawyer who was supposed to deliver some of the bribe money to him.

According to one former assistant county prosecutor familiar with the case, investigators eventually found paper-banded stacks of cash in a safe at McGettrick's home -- each labeled with the court-case number that generated the money. He went to prison in 1985 and died there the same year

Nine other Greater Cleveland judges have found themselves facing criminal charges with varying outcomes.

More recently Common Pleas judges Bridget McCafferty and Steve Terry forfeited their benches and legal careers for their roles in the county-corruption scandal that is just now subsiding.

Common Pleas Judge Michael Gallagher was disbarred after his arrest for distributing cocaine.

Former Common Pleas judge Michael Gallagher.

Legend holds that he got on the bench for $50 -- the cost of the filing fee when he pulled petitions to run. His last name allowed him to sail to an easy election victory in 1990.

But, it was later observed, the $50 apparently was not enough for a full term, because his pharmaceutical misadventures ended his term before it was over, resulting in his arrest and conviction in 1995.

Common Pleas Judge James Kilcoyne takes top honors for the luckiest of the ill-fated 15.

Drunk as a lord, he hit a disabled car in 1987, suffering serious physical injuries.

Eventually he stood trial -- not for the accident -- but for insurance fraud for collecting $1 million in damages from the crash.

He was ultimately acquitted and kept the money.

Amid mounting pressure from the public, the media and some of his own colleagues, Kilcoyne resigned from the bench and no longer practices law.

Shaker Heights Municipal Judge Paul Donaldson may be the second luckiest.

He and his wife, who also was his chief bailiff, faced multiple theft charges.

The case sprang from allegations that the wife operated a private-investigation business from inside the courthouse, on court time, using publicly owned equipment.

The wife was charged with 91 counts, including felonies, and pleaded guilty to 10 misdemeanors. She also took the fall, saying her husband had no idea what she was up to.

All 28 charges filed against the judge were dismissed, and he soon resigned from the bench.

Parma Municipal Judge George Novicky was indicted in 1986 for bribery, theft in office, falsification and tampering with records.

He pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor and agreed to surrender his law license.

Two years before that, East Cleveland Municipal Judge Fred Mosely was indicted and later convicted for accepting more than $230,000 in kickbacks, and was shipped off to federal prison.

Four other judges never faced any criminal charges but drew various penalties from the Ohio Supreme Court for various forms of misconduct.

Former Juvenile Court Judge Robert A. Ferreri holds the distinction of facing three separate disciplinary cases -- two for things he did during his two terms in office.

Former Juvenile Court Judge Robert Ferreri, with his attorneys in 1999 during one of three disciplinary hearings.

The first case earned him a six-month suspension of his law license for making false and disparaging statements to the media about an appeals court judge who was on a three-judge panel that ruled against Ferreri.

The second -- drawing another six-month suspension -- was for his harsh treatment of a lawyer for the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services.

Both suspensions lapsed just in time for Ferreri to continue his campaign for re-election in 2000, though the voters turned him out.

His final disciplinary case forced him to surrender his law license in 2011 for the way he tried to represent two defendants in the same criminal case.

Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cleary had her law license suspended for six months after losing her bid for re-election in 2000. The suspension was in connection with one case in which judicial authorities said Cleary's personal views "rendered her unable to objectively apply the standards which she was required to follow in sentencing" a defendant.

She was accused of abusing her authority by jailing a first-time offender in a theft case so the defendant could not get an abortion.

A suit growing out of the abortion case was dismissed because Cleary enjoyed judicial immunity.

Former Cleveland Municipal Judge Ed Katalinas was disbarred in 2000 after he failed to answer disciplinary charges brought by an arm of the Supreme Court.

Lawyer Mike Maloney, left, and client, former Cleveland Municipal Judge Edward Katalinas, listen to a prosecutor during Katalinas' 1996 arraignment on charges hat he assaulted his former mistress.

He was accused of keeping at least $300,000 that a long-time friend asked him to hide. The friend took ill and the former judge purportedly kept the money and squandered it, believing his friend would not recover.

The man recovered. The county prosecutor's office threatened to indict Katalinas if he did not start repaying the money. It appears he did not pay fast enough because the friend-client sued in 1999. Media coverage made the suit public and that was enough for the high court to act.

After Katalinas lost re-election in 1995 -- and while attempting to run for a common pleas judgeship -- the married former judge was charged with assaulting his former mistress, but was acquitted in 1996. He won the criminal case but lost the judicial race.

Cleveland Municipal Judge Angela Stokes is currently facing disciplinary charges because of the way she has run her court -- and allegedly abused court employees -- since she was first elected in 1995.

As colorful as all of that history might be, it obscures an important point.

At any given time, there are 47 judges in the four divisions of the common pleas court here, 12 more on the appellate bench that serves only Cuyahoga County, and around two dozen more jurists on municipal benches throughout the county.

Most never see the inside of a courtroom except as legal professionals in good standing.