Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze Charged With Felony, Resigns

On Tuesday, Leslie Ann Celebrezze pleaded not responsible to tampering with public information in felony courtroom.

Cuyahoga County Home Relations Decide Leslie Ann Celebrezze resigned Monday after being charged with tampering with public information for funneling work in her courtroom to Mark Dottore, her longtime pal whom she’d repeatedly appointed to supervise profitable divorce circumstances.

Celebrezze was charged by the use of data — a course of that always indicators a defendant intends to plead responsible — and will likely be arraigned in felony courtroom on Tuesday. The emptiness on the Home Relations Court docket created by her resignation will likely be stuffed by the governor.

The third-degree felony cost, which carries a possible jail time period of as much as three years, comes greater than two years after The Marshall Mission – Cleveland first detailed Celebrezze’s relationship with Dottore. She has since confronted disciplinary motion from the Ohio Board of Skilled Conduct, in addition to a separate ongoing felony investigation by the FBI.

In 2023, The Marshall Mission – Cleveland additionally reported that Celebrezze, the executive decide on the time, directed case assignments to herself however acknowledged in courtroom entries the circumstances had been randomly assigned to her.

“Integrity on the bench will not be elective,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley mentioned in an announcement on Monday. “Something much less erodes the inspiration of our courts and our justice system.”

O’Malley’s assertion mentioned Celebrezze filed a case observe on Jan. 19, 2023, that contained false data that she had been randomly assigned to a case. As a substitute, she had manually assigned herself the case.

Celebrezze’s lawyer, Ian Friendman, requested the general public to not decide Celebrezze on one single act.

“The decide has achieved a lot good for thus many by dedicating her complete skilled life to public service,” Friedman wrote in an announcement. “We’ll paint her full life’s work within the courtroom on the applicable time.”

Dottore didn’t reply to a request for remark.

In some complicated divorce circumstances, judges appoint receivers to behave as impartial events to regulate a pair’s marital belongings, together with actual property, money, tools, deposit accounts and companies. The receivers are paid by the divorcing {couples}.

Celebrezze authorized almost $500,000 in charges to Dottore Cos. LLC between January 2017 and June 2023, The Marshall Mission – Cleveland reported. The decide appointed both Dottore or his daughter to be the receiver in six circumstances she dealt with throughout that point, in keeping with Cuyahoga County courtroom information.

Cassandra Robertson, the director on the Heart for Skilled Ethics at Case Western Reserve College College of Legislation, mentioned acts from dishonest judges taint all judges.

“Any form of corruption or abuse of energy is completely horrible for the judicial department,” Robertson mentioned. “It’s onerous to advertise belief within the judicial system when judges interact in felony acts. It destroys numerous belief.”

Celebrezze, who’s married, has conceded in courtroom information that she beloved Dottore when she bypassed the courtroom’s random task course of to shift circumstances to her docket and subsequently appointed Dottore as a receiver.

Dottore is a widely known, profitable businessman who has endeared himself to a number of judges and courts round Northeast Ohio. He additionally served as marketing campaign treasurer when Celebrezze ran efficiently for her judgeship in 2008. Her marketing campaign headquarters was listed below Dottore’s enterprise handle. Celebrezze took workplace in 2009 after voters elected her to switch her father, who had served almost 20 years on the Home Relations Court docket and two years on the Ohio Supreme Court docket.

On Dec. 9, the Cuyahoga County Council authorized a $400,000 settlement with former worker Georgeanna Semary, who accused the decide of witness intimidation and retaliation after Semary offered The Marshall Mission – Cleveland with billing invoices involving Dottore. That’s on high of $250,000 the county paid in 2024 to cowl Semary’s authorized charges.

Celebrezze can be ready to find out how the Ohio Supreme Court docket will self-discipline her for funneling work to Dottore. A state board in August known as her actions an in depth sample of misconduct and advisable a two-year suspension.

A report by the Ohio Board of Skilled Conduct states Celebrezze made false statements to fellow judges and state investigators whereas steering work to Dottore. She additionally did not disclose her private interactions with different attorneys concerned within the circumstances she presided over.

Had she not resigned, her time period on the bench would have expired in 2027.