Angela Stokes

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Angela Stokes during a pre-trial hearing before the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct in 2015.

(Dave Andersen, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Former Municipal Court Judge Angela Stokes, whose courtroom behavior was the subject of a costly legal battle that led to her retirement from the bench and the suspension of her law license, can again practice law.

The Ohio Supreme Court suspended her license in Dec. 2014 while Stokes fought disciplinary charges against her. Her reinstatement by the state's top court should not come as a surprise. It was part of a deal she and her lawyers struck months ago.

In December 2015, Stokes agreed to retire from the bench and never seek election again to resolve a 2013 complaint filed against her by the Ohio Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel. In exchange, the disciplinary counsel agreed to drop its entire 2013 complaint against her and not oppose Stokes' request to have her law license reinstated. (The court granted on March 16 Stokes' motion requesting an end of her suspension. She then reapplied.)

The disciplinary counsel's original complaint, which alleged that Stokes had abused court staff, lawyers and defendants, triggered a trial in 2015 before a special panel of the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct. The trial, which was held periodically rather than continuously, lasted more than eight weeks and likely would have continued well into 2016. Attempts to reach a settlement earlier had failed twice, most recently last August.

During the trial, Stokes defense team, lead by Larry Zukerman, successfully challenged some of the allegations made in the complaint, including the charge that she used a disproportionate amount of court resources - such as money for drug and alcohol testing -- compared to other judges. In April 2015, the Disciplinary Counsel dropped that charge.

After leaving the bench, Stokes was working at a Chick-fil-A in Strongsville. At the time, Stokes, the daughter of the late Congressman Louis Stokes, declined to speak to a cleveland.com reporter about her job or future legal plans. She has since declined to speak. Cleveland.com will update this post if Stokes or her lawyers comment on the reinstatement.