Gus Chan / The Marshall Project
Leslie Ann Celebrezze, administrative judge of the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court.
This article was published in partnership with 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.
Two of the five judges on the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court have now twice asked Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze to relinquish her powerful administrative leadership role, as FBI agents continue to interview people tied to controversies involving Celebrezze’s conduct.
In letters dated June 27 and Sept. 12, Judge Francine Goldberg and Judge Colleen Reali asked Celebrezze to resign as administrative judge. The judges cited the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision to remove Celebrezze from a divorce case, as well as a lawsuit from her former assistant that alleges unlawful retaliation, witness intimidation and records tampering.
The FBI has interviewed the employee as well as a Strongsville businessman whose attorney filed the request to get Celebrezze disqualified from his divorce case.
“Our judiciary must zealously protect its role as a fair, impartial, and ethical tribunal to maintain the public trust and the administrative judge to administer specific duties…” Goldberg and Reali wrote Sept. 12. “Given the allegations, your resignation as administrative judge would restore and promote the integrity of the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court.”
Celebrezze did not respond to a request for comment.
The first letter came after The Marshall Project - Cleveland reported Celebrezze had approved nearly half a million dollars in receivership work to her longtime friend, Mark Dottore.
In August, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy permanently removed Celebrezze from the divorce case, saying Celebrezze failed to follow court policy when she assigned herself to the case after another judge recused herself.
The Marshall Project - Cleveland also reported that Georgeanna Semary, Celebrezze’s judicial assistant since 2009, contends in her lawsuit that she was transferred out of the judge’s office in April and forced to take a $20,000 pay cut after she allowed The Marshall Project - Cleveland to review public records involving Dottore.
After the demotion and pay cut, Semary retained the Chandra Law Firm, which specializes in civil rights cases, to file a lawsuit against Celebrezze. Soon after, the head of the FBI’s Public Corruption Squad in Cleveland interviewed Semary, according to Chandra.
Cassandra Robertson, the director of the Center for Professional Ethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said a judge being disqualified from a single case and being sued by former employees are common occurrences.
But here, she added, the allegations raised by Goldberg and Reali seem to relate to Celebrezze’s administrative functions at the court.
“I therefore have to agree that under the circumstances, stepping aside from the administrative position would help maintain the public's trust in the judiciary,” Robertson told The Marshall Project - Cleveland.
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