 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Disciplinary Counsel v. O'Neill9/7/2004
their third time up, because it was after the misdemeanor was rejected, which was the second side-bar, they came back at a later time that morning, and said, "Judge, she won't take the misdemeanor, and she's still wanting a continuance, but I'm ready to go. I'm ready to do whatever you want to do." I recall saying to Mr. Janes and Mr. Welch, "Look, if she keeps that type of conduct up, I've been watching her all morning, the court can revoke her bond and put her in jail while we're trying this case."..."It's going to be a situation where -- that has happened with other judges and other courtrooms. I mean, there is a lot of case law on that when you're dealing with a difficult defendant, you do whatever you can to make sure you keep control of the courtroom. And if -- I pretty much -- it was just more of a warning. It certainly was not a threat." (Transcript Vol. VII -- 175-176 and Vol. V -- 147-149)
52. Janes (admitted in 1969, in private criminal practice) was called to testify by Respondent. He related discussions with Cox in which it was his suggestion to Cox that persuading the victim to appear in court and request that the charges be dropped would be the most effective way for Cox to get rid of these charges. (Transcript Vol. VII - 263-266) He had expected Cox to accept a plea and testified that Cox's choice to reject a plea on June 26 was contrary to his advice. He testified that he heard Judge O'Neill state that Cox's bond would be revoked if she went to trial. Although Cox had been agitated in private conversations with him Janes had not observed any agitated behavior in the courtroom and was aware of no reason why Cox bond should be revoked that day. He corroborated that Judge O'Neill was angry and upset, adding that everyone was upset that morning. (Transcript Vol. VII - 266-267) Janes was concerned that the threat by Judge O'Neill to revoke Cox bond when trial began was not appropriate and had influenced his client to accept the guilty plea. (Transcript Vol. VII - 270, 278-282)
53. NASH: Testimony taken from Timothy Pritchard (prosecutor) (Transcript Vol. II -- 158- 172), James Tullis Rogers (defense attorney)(Transcript Vol. II -- 125-158) and Judge O'Neill (Transcript Vol. V - 151-158) (Exhibits 129-146).
54. Ronald Nash was indicted in 1996 on a F--5 possession of a trace amount of heroin. The case was assigned to Judge O'Neill but Nash never appeared for a pretrial scheduled in 1996. He was represented by James Tullis Rogers (admitted in 1968, served as Ohio's first Public Defender 1975-82, since then in private criminal practice in Columbus). A bond forfeiture and capias were issued. In November 2000, Nash was arrested on the capias. Rogers moved to withdraw as counsel (Exhibit 137) but remained counsel when he learned that Nash's non-appearance in 1997 resulted from extradition to and imprisonment in New York. After serving his sentence in New York, Nash had returned to Ohio. Rogers met with the prosecutor and his client agreed to accept a misdemeanor plea with a maximum 6 months sentence less time served. (Exhibit 130).
55. On January 9, 2001 Timothy Pritchard, the assigned prosecutor, Rogers and Nash appeared before Judge O'Neill to present the plea. Rogers testified that at the sidebar conference Judge O'Neill stated she would not accept the plea. "He'll eat the indictment or go to trial today. I'm bored today anyway." Rogers testified that he explained the reason for Nash's absence in 1996 but Judge O'Neill said if he doesn't plea to indictment she would sentence him to the maximum after trial, which was 18 months. Rogers testified that the judge spoke loudly enough that Nash heard the comments. Nash was very alarmed and suspicious of Rogers but agree
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 Ohio Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|