MAHONING COUNTY CAMPAIGN Panel to determine if ethics were violated

Sweeney has been ordered to provide videotapes of her TV commercials.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A hearing Saturday morning will determine if a local lawyer violated ethics in her campaign to become a judge.
The Mahoning County Bar Association's campaign ethics committee has determined there is reasonable cause to believe Maureen Sweeney violated a code of judicial conduct.
The hearing is to give her a chance to defend herself, said Atty. Lynn Maro, committee chairwoman.
Sweeney is challenging Judge Timothy P. Maloney, who is seeking re-election to a second six-year term on the probate court bench and who filed two complaints against her earlier this week.
He declined to comment.
"He feels that some points were misrepresented. Of course, I totally disagree with him," Sweeney said.
Included in complaint
According to a letter to Sweeney from Maro, Judge Maloney's complaint included 13 counts of what he believes were violations of judicial ethics in her campaign conduct. No specifics are listed.
The committee found reasonable cause to believe a violation may have occurred on more than half of those counts.
Maro said that under bar association rules, the actual complaint lodged by Judge Maloney remains confidential until Saturday's public hearing at the bar association office on East Front Street.
Sweeney is directed to bring videotapes of all campaign television commercials she has aired.
Criticism for judge
In an unrelated matter, two local mental health doctors criticized Judge Maloney .
Drs. Ralph G. Walton and John M. Sorboro say the judge has "developed an adversarial relationship" with mental-health professionals.
Walton, chief clinical psychiatric officer for Forum Health, and Sorboro, who holds the same position at St. Elizabeth Health Center, say in other counties, probate court hearings for patients being involuntarily committed to psychiatric facilities are held in hospitals. Judge Maloney requires hearings at Parkview Counseling Center.
Judge Maloney said the doctors filed a motion in July asking that hearings be moved back to Forum's Northside Medical Center and to St. Elizabeth.
In August, Judge Maloney ordered them to provide him with a written, comprehensive plan for holding hearings somewhere other than at Parkview. The plan is to address each prospective site's security, hearing-room facilities, parking and other issues.
They were to have complied within 30 days, but so far have not done so, he said.
The judge thinks the doctors' comments were in retaliation for his denying them payment of professional fees from public money when they testify at commitment hearings.
He said that as chief clinical officers, the doctors have a statutory obligation to testify and should not be paid extra for doing so.
bjackson@vindy.com