Testimony is heard in suit against Bernard

Doctors testified for both the plaintiff and defendant.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Jurors hearing the civil suit by a former Girard police chief against a sitting municipal court judge were to begin deliberations this morning.
Anthony Ross is suing Judge Michael Bernard for $25,000 stemming from an occurrence in the Girard city government building Sept. 11, 2001. According to Ross, Bernard repeatedly bumped him into a wall during a disagreement, causing damage to his back.
Bernard, through his attorney Martin White, contends the episode was little more than a disagreement between two men who did not get along. Nothing happened, they say, to amount to injury.
Jurors heard from several of Judge Bernard's court employees Wednesday as White put forth a defense. White and Atty. Ed Fitzgerald, who represents Ross, gave closing arguments in the afternoon.
Judge Thomas Curran, presiding by assignment in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, said the three-man, five-woman jury should be given the case for deliberations this morning.
Municipal court bailiff Jack Duer testified he heard the two men arguing on the first floor of the city building that day and came to assist. He said both men were in close proximity to each other when he arrived, and he escorted the judge away as officers escorted Ross away.
During cross examination, Duer said both men were no longer in the same area they had been standing in when, in earlier testimony, the alleged bumping was said to have taken place.
What was witnessed
Darla Bizub, a probation officer in Judge Bernard's court, said she heard voices in the lobby, went to see what was happening and witnessed Ross put a finger in the face of Judge Bernard. She said she saw the two men go "chest to chest or bump bellies."
Bizub said she never saw Ross slammed into a wall.
The jury also heard a taped deposition from Dr. Joe Hahn, who treated Ross for the back injury. Dr. Hahn said the bills and time taken from work by Ross were in line with the type of back injury he suffered. He said the injury could have been caused by one bump against the wall or a series of bumps against the wall.
White called Dr. James Brodell to the stand. Dr. Brodell, who did not personally treat Ross, said the type of injury Ross said he suffered would not have permitted him to take a trip to Florida immediately after receiving it because the pain would be too great. Ross has acknowledged taking a family trip to Florida shortly after the argument.
jgoodwin@vindy.com