Federal Judge Supporting Celebrezze Also Handed Dottore Lucrative Cases

Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze Credit: Gus Chan for The Marshall Project – Cleveland

When Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze fights misconduct claims in March tied to her relationship with court-appointed receiver Mark Dottore, one of her character witnesses will be a federal judge who awarded Dottore and his company millions of dollars in fees in federal court.

Celebrezze’s attorney recently issued a subpoena to Senior U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko and Chief Magistrate Lynn McLaughlin-Murray of the Cleveland Municipal Court.

The subpoenas state each person can either appear in the disciplinary hearing March 31 in Columbus or submit a letter by Feb. 10, records show.

Boyko made headlines in 2018 when he tried awarding Dottore and his company a $2.4 million bonus after the company recovered $59 million for investors in a Ponzi scheme. The bonus was on top of the $9 million Dottore’s company already earned.

Boyko said Dottore’s “success is unprecedented,” but an appeals court “largely overturned” the bonus in 2020. The appeals did allow Dottore to charge higher rates, and he earned about $414,000, federal court records show.

Court records show that Celebrezze approved nearly $500,000 in fees for Dottore Companies LLC between 2017 and July 2023.

Boyko did not respond to a request for comment.

The misconduct counts against Celebrezze, originally filed Sept. 26 with the state Supreme Court by the Ohio Disciplinary Counsel, came more than a year after The Marshall Project – Cleveland detailed how Celebrezze accepted several divorce cases and appointed Dottore and his company as receiver.

Celebrezze has already admitted violating numerous judicial codes of conduct for failing to recuse herself from a divorce case involving Dottore.

For more details on our investigation into the relationship of Celebrezze and Dottore, read our story here.

This article was first published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook.