Can Judge Patrick DeWine hear cases involving his father? – News – The Columbus Dispatch



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Did Ohio Supreme Court Justice Patrick DeWine mishandle cases involving his father's office, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine?

Lawyers pleaded this issue Wednesday in an unusual procedure in Columbus.

Bradley M. Frick, a special disciplinary board appointed in January by an anonymous jury of three state appeal judges, said Patrick DeWine had violated the plain language of several rules of judicial conduct in ruling on cases involving the Attorney General's office. He said people can not be sure that justice does not favor his father – a Republican who seeks to become Ohio's next governor.

"The issue is public trust in our highest court and, by extension, in our state's judicial system," Frick said. "We do not believe that a son should hear his father's cases."

However, Patrick DeWine 's lawyer, George D. Jonson, said that the case had been settled under Ohio law since 1987.

"A Supreme Court judge is not above the law, but he is not below the law," said Jonson, saying the judges did not have to recuse themselves procedure. Judges should only recuse themselves if close family members have to appear in court.

Frick said that if he wins, he will ask Patrick DeWine to be reprimanded and he asked him not to hear cases involving the Attorney General's office as long as his father runs the agency. If Mike DeWine wins the governor's race, Patrick DeWine would have a similar conflict with this office, said Frick.

In a deposition in July, Patrick DeWine said he thought he needed only to recuse himself from the Attorney General's cases in which his father had personally appeared in court, or from those about which his father had spoken. publicly, said Frick. He added that during the deposition, he informed Patrick DeWine that his father had just lambasted ECOT, the online school that collapsed this year in a wave of scandals and had benefited from the support of many Republicans of the Ohio – Secretary of State Jon Husted.

Shortly after the deposition, Patrick DeWine recused himself of the ECOT lawsuit challenging the fact that the school had to repay about 80 million dollars to the state for inflating its workforce. The case had been in court for a year and the judges had heard arguments five months earlier.

But Jonson, Patrick DeWine's lawyer, said it was more complicated than that as a new ECOT litigation had just been filed when his client challenged him. It seems to refer to the most recent lawsuit filed by Mike DeWine to try to collect millions paid to ECOT founder Bill Lager and his companies.

"The ECOT case is a bit trickier than what you might perceive," said Jonson.

Jonson and Frick pleaded before the jury of Montgomery County Judge Michael Krumholtz, Fairfield Municipal Court Judge Joyce Campbell and Mercer County Judge Jeffrey Ingraham. Patrick DeWine was not present.

Krumholtz said the panel will issue a written decision later.

Whichever side loses, it is expected that it will appeal to a jury of 13 lawyers from Ohio. They must hear the case because, as colleagues of Patick DeWine, the Supreme Court justices are in conflict in the case.

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