Geauga County Taxpayers Won’t Be Paying Judge Timothy Grendell’s Legal Fees, Board Says

Judge Timothy Grendell Credit: Courtesy Geauga County Court of Common Pleas

The 95,000 residents of Geauga County will not be helping to cover Judge Timothy Grendell’s legal tab, a county board decided at a hearing this week.

Geauga County Commissioners Carolyn Brakey and James Dvorak voted to deny Grendell’s request for $300,000 to cover court and legal costs stemming from a 2023 lawsuit that could lead to a one-year suspension from the bench.

Grendell’s potential suspension is tied to how he handled the case of Grant Glasier and Sally Hartman, the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct found. Grendell had sent Glasier and Hartman’s two teenage sons to Portage-Geauga Juvenile Detention for three days for refusing to visit their father, around whom they said they felt unsafe.

Grendell, the Ohio Supreme Court argued in a 2023 conduct hearing, had jailed the kids without good reason.

And this week, despite Grendell’s insistence back in November that Ohio law stipulated the county help him out, it seemed the commissioners agreed. (Ralph Spidalieri, the third commissioner, sat the vote out, claiming lack of evidence.)

“I think it sets a dangerous precedent for taxpayers to be subsidizing elected officials wrongdoing,” Commissioner Carolyn Brakey said at the January 7 board meeting, Cleveland.com reported.

The Supreme Court of Ohio will begin its hearing with Grendell on February 13.