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Ronald Adrine, the presiding and administrative judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court, testified in Columbus on Wednesday about how he received complaints almost weekly about the conduct of fellow Municipal Court Judge Angela Stokes.

(Jeremy Pelzer/Northeast Ohio Media Group)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Cleveland Municipal Court Presiding Judge Ronald Adrine, testifying Wednesday during a disciplinary hearing for Municipal Judge Angela Stokes, painted a troubling picture of his colleague's conduct on the bench.

During proceedings at the Ohio Supreme Court, Adrine spoke of people facing minor misdemeanors waiting in Stokes' court from morning until night, of bailiff after bailiff leaving her, and of frustrated court staff afraid to complain out of fear they would lose their jobs.

"I've never seen a judge with whom the bench and the staff had so many issues," said Adrine, who has served on the Municipal Court for 34 years.

Adrine is a key witness in the disciplinary proceedings against Stokes. Stokes' attorneys, meanwhile, contend that Adrine led a conspiracy to kick her off the bench.

On Wednesday, Adrine testified that he began hearing complaints about Stokes almost immediately after she was elected to the court in 1995. Stokes, he said, regularly took far longer than other judges to hear cases, sometimes keeping defendants in her courtroom from 8:30 a.m. until after 6 p.m. -- even after prosecutors and public defenders went home for the day.

When he became presiding judge in 2008, Adrine said, court staff, lawyers, and members of the public began coming to him - sometimes in tears -- with complaints about Stokes. Some claimed Stokes mistreated them, he said. Others expressed concern about how many detainees were being held in the detention area of Stokes' courtroom, sometimes without food.

Adrine said he repeatedly saw new bailiffs for Stokes appear more and more depressed over time.

"The only way I can describe it is, it had the same kind of trajectory as an abusive relationship," Adrine said of Stokes' relationship with one of her female bailiffs. "It started out well, sort of peaked, and then at some point it appeared as though the young lady couldn't do anything right."

As presiding judge, he said, he said he received one complaint per week, on average, about Judge Stokes. By contrast, he said, he received about one complaint per year, if that, on each of the other 11 judges on the court.

Adrine said he spoke with Stokes a couple of times about the complaints he heard.

But Adrine said she "had a hard time taking responsibility for things" that she should not have been doing. When problems were raised during judges' meetings, he said, Stokes would always shift the blame to somebody else, regardless of the evidence against her.

When Adrine instituted a written complaint process at the court, he said he didn't notify Stokes about complaints he received from her staff because they were fearful of losing their jobs.

After The Plain Dealer Publishing Co. ran a story in 2009 detailing complaints about Stokes' conduct on the bench, Adrine said he received a call from Stokes' father, former U.S. Rep. Lou Stokes. Adrine said he provided Lou Stokes with documents detailing Angela Stokes' work in hope that the ex-congressman would intervene with his daughter.

But instead, Adrine said, the elder Stokes appeared convinced the problems stemmed from personal issues between his daughter and Adrine.

Feeling he had no way forward, Adrine said, he then "just started collecting stuff" to use against Stokes.

Adrine filed a grievance against Judge Stokes in November 2011, after he won his final judicial term before turning 70, Ohio's judicial age limit. In 2014, he stripped her of her criminal docket.

Since Judge Stokes' law license was temporarily suspended last December, Adrine said there has been a "very significant" rise in morale at the court.

Attorneys for Judge Stokes will have an opportunity to question Adrine on Friday.