[BlutoSays]

Ohio Supreme Court Suspends Democrat Judge Over ‘Unprecedented’ Behavior
By Mimi Nguyen Ly | The Epoch Times | October 21, 2022

The Ohio Supreme Court has indefinitely suspended a local judge, citing “unprecedented misconduct” that includes falsifying court documents, issuing illegitimate arrest warrants, and donning inappropriate attire in court.

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Pinkey Carr, a Democrat, was found to exhibit such misconduct that comprise more than 100 incidents over a period of about two years.

The misconduct “encompassed repeated acts of dishonesty; the blatant and systematic disregard of due process, the law, court orders, and local rules; the disrespectful treatment of court staff and litigants; and the abuse of capias warrants and the court’s contempt power,” stated the court’s per curium opinion (pdf). “That misconduct warrants an indefinite suspension from the practice of law.”

Justices agreed with the court’s three-panel Board of Professional Conduct’s assessment that Carr “ruled her courtroom in a reckless and cavalier manner, unrestrained by the law or the court’s rules, without any measure of probity or even common courtesy,” and that she “conducted business in a manner befitting a game show host rather than a judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court.”

Indefinite Suspension

Justices on the Ohio Supreme Court voted 5–2 on Oct. 18 to indefinitely suspend Carr’s law license—a sanction that is the most severe penalty from the court, besides disbarment. The punishment is also more severe than the two-year suspension that the court’s Board of Professional Conduct had sought (pdf).

Official court documents (pdf) state that Carr, who had been a judge since 2012, is now “indefinitely suspended from the practice of law and immediately suspended from judicial office without pay for the duration of her disciplinary suspension.”

Carr was found to have ignored an administrative order by the presiding judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court to postpone hearings around March and April 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to not rescheduling hearings, she was determined to have issued arrest warrants for at least 20 non-jail defendants who did not appear in court. Furthermore, she waived fines and court costs for people who were “brave enough” to appear in court in this period. Carr also lied to local news media and to her presiding judge that she did not issue arrest warrants.

The former judge agreed to some 583 statements of fact and misconduct related to her ethics violations, including acknowledging that she often held hearings without a prosecutor present to avoid complying with procedural safeguards in state law, which include requiring a judge to inform the accused of the nature of the charge, the identity of the complainant, the right to counsel, and the effect of various pleas.

Carr acknowledged that she has falsified court journal entries to conceal her actions, which included unilaterally entering no-contest pleas and then finding defendants not guilty of their charged offenses, or arbitrarily waiving fines and costs for defendants whom she had found guilty but without looking into their ability to pay the fines. In at least 24 of 34 cases, Carr’s journal entries falsely said she had looked into defendants’ ability to pay and determined they couldn’t pay. Instead, most of the time, Carr had frequently waived fines and costs based on the defendant’s birth date.

According to the court’s opinion, Carr put at least five people in jail after she used warrants and incarceration to force people to pay fines and costs by tying their bond to the amount of the fine and costs. She acknowledged that this “essentially created a modern-day debtors’ prison.”

The court opinion determined that Carr abused her power and held a person in contempt, which resulted in the person serving 15 days in jail.

It also noted that Carr “violated rules governing the appropriate dress, order, and decorum for courtroom,” noting that her bench “was littered with dolls, cups, novelty items, and junk” and that Carr presided over her courtroom “wearing tank tops, T-shirts—some with images or slogans, spandex shorts, and sneakers.”

Mental Health Disorder Cited

Carr had argued that her diagnosed mental health disorders contributed to her misconduct, but the board concluded that she didn’t establish that they caused her past misconduct. The board acknowledged that Carr has voluntarily undergone comprehensive evaluations of her mental and physical health, adhered to her doctor’s treatment plan, and entered into a contract with the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program.

Carr must now wait at least two years before she can apply to reinstate her law license in Ohio. To be able to regain her law license, she must convince the court that she has dealt with the issues that led to her indefinite suspension. Her reinstatement will require a report from a qualified healthcare professional stating that she can return to “the competent, ethical, and professional practice of law,” and require proof of compliance with her OLAP contract.

Carr’s attorney ​Rich Koblentz told News 5 Cleveland after the Ohio Supreme Court decision that they are “disappointed.” He said that Carr “was not being appropriately treated” for her menopause and sleep apnea, which triggered a generalized anxiety disorder. “She was not being appropriately treated for those conditions,” Koblentz told the outlet.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is set to pick her replacement until voters can elect a replacement in a future election.


https://www.theepochtimes.com/ohio-supr ... 10850.html

[late]

The Epoch Times is Falun Gong, they are extreme Right kooks..

You have to wonder, what with Trump lawyers getting disciplined and disbarred, if they are trying to distract us from that ongoing clown show...

The party doesn't matter, if you are abusing the trust placed in you, you should be taken off the bench. Here's looking at you, Clarence Thomas....

[Deutschmania]

Wow, this is broadly in my neck of the woods, being that I am residing in North East Ohio. Here is what I have found out, from a more objective mainstream source.

Judge Pinkey Susan Carr at a hearing
By: Drew Scofield , Morgan TrauPosted at 1:37 PM, Oct 18, 2022 and last updated 6:40 PM, Oct 18, 2022
COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion removing Judge Pinkey S. Carr from her Cleveland Municipal Court bench where she has served for more than a decade due to her more than 100 incidents of misconduct going back several years.

"The way she scolded me, yelled at me, I was often mocked, laughed at," Minnyawn Burkhalter, a Cleveland woman, said.

Burkhalter is one of the dozens of Clevelanders to accuse Judge Pinkey Carr of misconduct during her hearings. Burkhalter says the judge ignored her evidence in a bankruptcy case

"I felt almost less than human, honestly and I felt hopeless about it," she added. But she has a spark of hope – and that's because the Ohio Supreme Court's Tuesday mornings decision held immediate consequences. The justices indefinitely suspended Carr’s law license.

In a 5-2 ruling, the justices said Carr’s “unprecedented” behavior of more than 100 counts of misconduct, including sending someone to jail for rolling their eyes, demonstrated her “abuse” of power. The justices also disregarded the former judge’s reasoning behind her actions. Her defense for her misbehavior? Menopause and sleep apnea caused a generalized anxiety disorder.

"Well, we're disappointed in that," Carr's attorney ​Rich Koblentz told News 5 after the OSC decision. "She was not being appropriately treated for those conditions."

Koblentz has never tried to excuse the judge's behavior, rather explaining why things went wrong. But he also said he was set up to fail. He took on the case after it was abandoned by another team just two weeks before one of the hearings.

"I would have liked to have had sufficient time to have done the development we wanted relative to the evidence and everything else," he said.

According to the court's opinion, Carr has been indefinitely suspended from practicing law in Ohio and suspended from judicial office without pay while she is suspended. In order to vacate the suspension and be reinstated, the court said Carr will be required to submit a report from a qualified healthcare professional stating that she is "able to return to the competent, ethical and professional practice of law."

An indefinite suspension isn’t as severe as it sounds. Carr is able to reapply for her law license in two years if she proves to the supreme court she has dealt with her issues. Koblentz said he assumes she will be reapplying. "I'm glad that she is no longer going to be abusing her discretion in court," Burkhalter added.

As for Burkhalter, she took her case to an appellate court and won, dismissing Carr’s penalties toward her.

In December 2021, the Board of Professional Conduct filed a report detailing a slew of misconduct allegations that it said occurred between 2017 and 2020.

The 58-page report detailed the multiple instances of Carr's misconduct and put everything into five categories:

Issuance Capiases and False Statements
Ex Parte Communications, Improper Plea Bargaining, Arbitrary Dispositions
Improper use of Capiases and Bond to Compel Payment of Fines and Court Costs
Public Confidence, Lack of Decorum and Dignity Consistent with Judicial Office
Abuse of Contempt Power and Failure to Recuse
To summarize just a few off the issues of misconduct listed, the board said Carr allegedly did the following:

During the start of the pandemic when the courthouse activity was suspended, she didn't reschedule her cases and issued warrants for defendants who failed to appear. She rewarded defendants who did appear by waiving fines.
Lied to two media outlets, claiming she had not issued warrants for people who did not come to court.
Routinely conducting hearings without the prosecutor present “to avoid compliance with procedural safeguards without interference from the city’s legal counsel. “
Recommended pleas to unrepresented defendants with no prosecutor present, accepted pleas without explanation or discussion, routinely dismissed cases after unilaterally entering no contest pleas on behalf of defendants, and waived fines and costs without inquiry as to defendants’ ability to pay.
ignored the court’s established procedure to set up contracts to pay fines and costs at the time of sentencing. Set her own “Ability to Pay Hearings” without notifying the defendant or clerk’s office, then would issue a capias ordering the arrest of the defendant and set a bond.
Wore inappropriate clothing to her courtroom, including T-shirts, shorts, tank tops and sneakers.
Made frequent references to “Paradise Valley,” a Starz television series about a Mississippi strip club, when speaking with her staff and defendants, “all this while lawyers and their clients waited to have their matters resolved and the public watched.”
Routinely spoke in an "undignified manner," made jokes about accepting bribes and kickbacks from defendants. A disciplinary complaint was filed against Carr in September of 2020, and at the urging of her counsel, she consulted a psychologist in May of 2021, according to the report the board filed with the Ohio Supreme Court.

At a disciplinary hearing, Carr told a panel that the effects of sleep apnea and menopause led to her “intemperate behavior on the bench.”

The board stated in its report that she had been diagnosed with menopause and sleep apnea several years before she was accused of misconduct and she had actually been put on medication that helped her symptoms improve.

"After weighing Carr’s 'breathtaking number of infractions,' the aggravating and mitigating factors, and the sanctions we have imposed on magistrates and judges who have engaged in similar—although fewer—acts of misconduct, the board recommended that we suspend Carr from the practice of law for two years with no stay and immediately suspend her from judicial office without pay for the duration of her disciplinary suspension," the board said in its report.

The board sent its report over to the court recommending Carr be suspended for two years but the Ohio Supreme Court issued an indefinite suspension as written in Tuesday's opinion on the matter.

"Carr’s unprecedented misconduct involved more than 100 stipulated incidents that occurred over a period of approximately two years and encompassed repeated acts of dishonesty; the blatant and systematic disregard of due process, the law, court orders, and local rules; the disrespectful treatment of court staff and litigants; and the abuse of capias warrants and the court’s contempt power. That misconduct warrants an indefinite suspension from the practice of law."
Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association President Adrian D. Thompson issued the following statement Tuesday on behalf of the bar association: The CMBA proudly and consistently supports local judges who serve the citizens of Northeast Ohio with honor and distinction. We have every confidence in their honesty, integrity and fairness, and we urge the community to share in that confidence.
Given the egregious nature and number of incidents admitted to by Judge Carr in the course of her disciplinary proceedings, the CMBA previously expressed concern regarding her practices. Today, we support the Supreme Court’s decision to hold Judge Carr accountable for her actions because the public deserves to be served by judges and lawyers who conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct and the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct. A competent judiciary characterized by integrity is central to the rule of law.
Fortunately, the vast majority of members of the legal profession – judges and lawyers – act professionally and ethically. We, as lawyers who practice every day before these judges, continue to have every confidence in their honesty, integrity and fairness, and we urge the community to share in that confidence.” https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-municipal-court-judge-pinkney-carr-removed-from-bench-suspended-by-ohio-supreme-court

So the lesson to be learned from this is that those in authority are not infallible , divine figures, and if they misgovern , either due to malfiscence or incompetence, there is a due process to remove them from power. For another example of official abuse of power I know of from this region, this time from a teacher, here is this article. https://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/pv-teacher-fired-accused-of-bullying/article_ddefcafb-0986-5a26-b4e0-ebe97f0ae323.html