By Larry Durstin

Earlier this month, the Disciplinary Council of the Ohio Supreme Court recommended that Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Angela Stokes be disciplined for “abusive treatment of nearly everyone who comes into her courtroom.” In their 49-page report, the Council asserts that Stokes “may be suffering from a mental illness” that impairs her performance and goes on to suggest that she should receive a psychiatric examination.

Stokes has vowed to fight such disciplinary action by the Ohio Supreme Court – a ruling which could result in her being forced off the bench. Mounting such a defense, however, could prove massively expensive. Although all Ohio judges are protected by an insurance policy that covers their legal expenses in cases involving disciplinary complaints, the insurer pays the expenses only if the judge is cleared of the wrongdoing.

A case in point is former Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Deborah P. O’Neill, who was ordered to pay $587, 000 in legal fees after her failed attempt to fight disciplinary complaints similar to those faced by Stokes and submit to a mental health evaluation. O’Neill’s law license was revoked and her career as a judge was ended. Should Stokes go down the same road – rather than admitting wrongdoing, submitting to the psychiatric evaluation and negotiating a settlement – she will likely lose the case, her career and a ton of money.

Stokes’ bizarre courtroom antics have been the worst-kept secret in legal circles for the 18 years she has been on the bench. Renown for putting people in holding cells for coughing in court, wearing certain colognes or closing courtroom doors too loudly, she also is known for — among a number of other judicial excesses — ordering additional background checks on defendants she has already sentenced and whose cases have been resolved. In 2012, she ordered 183 such post-sentencing reports. All of the other judges in the Cleveland Municipal Court ordered a total of four such reports.

One of the reasons Judge Stokes has been able to proceed unchecked despite numerous complaints against her is the political weight carried by her father Lou Stokes, a former congressman and local political powerbroker. Lou had a close relationship with long-time Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who never took action against Judge Stokes despite a slew of complaints about her aberrant courtroom behavior. Well, Moyer died three years ago and has been replaced by Maureen O’Connor, who owes no such allegiance to Lou Stokes and, truth be told, probably couldn’t differentiate between him and Adam.

Chief Justice O’Connor and the Disciplinary Council waded through a load of written complaints against Stokes and watched hours of videotapes from her courtroom before issuing their decision. So, if you have any sense of justice, propriety or simple human decency, your heart must go out to those who were subjected to the viewing of those tapes– a task akin to eye-balling the discarded outtakes from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Now, that may sound unduly harsh and I, of all people, would never make light of mental illness. But what makes it easier to make such a glib comparison is the sad fact that Judge Stokes egregious courtroom behavior has, for almost two decades, had a seriously negative impact on perhaps thousands of people’s lives. And everybody knows it. She’s a disgrace to the robe and, hopefully, will do the right thing by resigning, getting some help with her issues and going on with a productive life.

But, if we’re playing the blame game, please don’t forget all those members of the media (except the PD’s Mark Naymik), all those municipal judges and all those politicians who meekly allowed her circus act to slide by for so long, and who also warrant a degree of culpability. This is especially true of the exploitive local television stations who “cover” every cockamamie court proceeding this side of Sandusky, yet couldn’t find their way into Stokes’ Court of the Surreal for 18 years.

Without question Angela Stokes is the problem. But she’s had a legion of enablers along the way. Shame on them all.

Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com

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