Judge Celebrezze Faces 2-year Suspension for Misconduct, Case Steering

Filed
4:31 p.m. EDT

08.04.2025

The case now heads to the Ohio Supreme Courtroom. An FBI probe nonetheless looms over Celebrezze and Mark Dottore, after Marshall Challenge – Cleveland reporting.

Citing what it calls an intensive sample of misconduct, a state board has really helpful a two-year suspension for Cuyahoga County Home Relations Courtroom Decide Leslie Ann Celebrezze.

The report by the Ohio Board of Skilled Conduct states Celebrezze made false statements to fellow judges and state investigators whereas steering work to her longtime pal, businessman Mark Dottore.

The advice comes two years after The Marshall Challenge – Cleveland first started investigating Celebrezze’s relationship with Dottore.

“The general public doesn’t count on nor ought to it, that judges could make false statements … and obtain nothing greater than a reprimand or stayed suspension,” the board wrote in its choice.

“An precise suspension is critical to discourage different judges from committing comparable misconduct and make it clear to the general public that any such judicial conduct is not going to be tolerated.”

One yr of the suspension ought to be eradicated if Celebrezze commits no additional misconduct and pays the prices of the proceedings in opposition to her, the advice acknowledged.

The case now goes to the Ohio Supreme Courtroom. The justices might settle for the advice or impose a extra extreme penalty.

A ruling is probably going months away. Celebrezze’s time period expires in January 2027.

Celebrezze and Dottore didn’t reply to a request for remark. Each stay the main target of an FBI grand jury investigation, which additionally adopted reporting from The Marshall Challenge – Cleveland.

The federal probe is cited within the conduct board’s ruling as Celebrezze’s cause for invoking her Fifth Modification rights and declining to reply questions throughout her disciplinary listening to.

In court docket papers, Celebrezze requested for a public reprimand after admitting to fifteen violations of judicial {and professional} conduct.

The Ohio Supreme Courtroom’s Workplace of Disciplinary Counsel, which handles civil complaints in opposition to attorneys and judges, requested a one-year suspension, which might be decreased to 6 months with good conduct. The advice was then despatched to the conduct board.

In response, board members wrote that they discovered the counsel’s really helpful penalty “not ample given the extent and nature of the misconduct.”

Its 30-page report goes on to element a number of violations in 4 divorce circumstances dealt with by the choose, together with improper assignments, undisclosed private relationships and false statements made in the course of the disciplinary course of.

The report facilities on how Celebrezze labored to steer profitable divorce circumstances to Dottore by manipulating the project of a number of circumstances to her docket and bypassing the court docket’s random project course of.

In a number of situations, the report reveals, Celebrezze both directed assignments to herself or signed false entries stating the circumstances had been randomly assigned to her. She additionally did not disclose her private interactions with different attorneys concerned within the circumstances she presided over, the report famous.

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

Celebrezze accredited practically $500,000 in charges to Dottore Cos. LLC between January 2017 and June 2023, The Marshall Challenge – Cleveland reported. The choose appointed both Dottore or his daughter to be the receiver in six of the eight circumstances she was dealing with on the time, in keeping with Cuyahoga County court docket information.

The board mentioned Celebrezze and Dottore’s relationship would have doubtless gone undetected had Strongsville businessman Jason Jardine not employed a personal investigator to observe the choose.

The non-public investigator captured Celebrezze on video spending hours at Dottore’s residence and workplace on workdays. He additionally captured pictures of the 2 kissing exterior a restaurant.

Celebrezze and Dottore have each denied a romantic relationship.

Jardine mentioned he grew to become suspicious of the connection after witnessing the choose and Dottore work together in court docket. He’s surprised, he mentioned, that Celebrezze by no means disclosed the connection in court docket.

“This could have by no means occurred, and it simply didn’t occur to me,” referring to others affected, Jardine instructed The Marshall Challenge – Cleveland after the board’s choice.

In June, a visiting choose ordered Dottore to repay Jardine and his former spouse tons of of hundreds of {dollars} for unauthorized bills and overbilling. Dottore has mentioned he plans to enchantment the ruling.

The board discovered the proof reveals greater than a “shut private” friendship between Celebrezze and Dottore.

For instance, information present she consulted with two attorneys a few divorce from her husband. She additionally instructed different judges she was in love with Dottore. Cellphone information present the duo spent over 300 hours on the cellphone in a single yr.

“Whether or not the 2 had an precise sexual relationship, romantic relationship, or deeply emotional relationship doesn’t matter,” the ruling mentioned.

“It’s the impact of the looks of that relationship to the events and the general public that undermines the boldness within the choice making of the choose.”