Judge Tracie Hunter indicted again

Convicted Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter has been indicted again.

Hunter, 48, will be arraigned on the new charge – which is an amended version of the misuse of credit card count from her original charges – in a Wednesday arraignment before Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Dinkelacker.

The new indictment also accuses her of misuse of a county credit card but was redone after, in her 2014 trial, then-Judge Norbert Nadel refused to let jurors consider a part of that charge on a legal technicality. The new indictment is intended to eliminate that technicality so it can be considered by the new jury at Hunter's scheduled June 1 trial.

"It's not based on new evidence. It's not based on new conduct," her attorney, Clyde Bennett II, said Thursday.

Hunter was convicted in her 2014 trial of using her authority as a judge to provide documentation her brother, a Juvenile Court worker fired for punching a teen inmate in the face, used in a disciplinary hearing. Hunter was sentenced by Nadel to six months in the Hamilton County Justice Center but the Ohio Supreme Court allowed her to remain free while she appeals her sentence and conviction.

The "new" indictment against Hunter carries the same punishment, 12 months in prison, as did the original charge.

Bennett believed the new indictment unfair, saying it effectively gives Special Prosecutors R. Scott Croswell and Merlyn Shiverdecker another chance to convict her on the charge when they didn't do it in the first trial.

"It's changing the indictment mid-stream," Bennett said. "We're not frightened, or dismayed or distraught as a result of the new charge."

He plans to appeal the new indictment, saying Hunter is not guilty.

She faces a retrial on the eight charges the jury couldn't reach a verdict on in her 2014 trial. In them, she is accused of backdating documents in court cases before her to give defense attorneys an advantage and using county-owned credit cards for her personal use.

That trial will before Dinkelacker who was on the Cincinnati-based 1st District Court of Appeals when it made several rulings detrimental to Hunter in cases involving access to her public courtroom and her delays in ruling on cases the Public Defender said hurt the chances of children to be adopted or placed in long-term foster care.

Because of that, Hunter has asked Dinkelacker to step down from presiding over her second criminal trial. The first trial cost taxpayers $460,000.

The charges against her carry a prison sentence of more than 10 years. After her conviction, Hunter was suspended without pay by the Ohio Supreme Court. Technically, she remains a judge but can't serve because of that suspension.

She is expected to be at her Wednesday arraignment.