MAHONING COUNTY Ohio justice sees progress against court system corruption

By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County is making significant improvement in cleaning up corruption in its judicial system, said Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton of the Ohio Supreme Court.
"You had a very corrupt system of judges and lawyers, but you've made enormous strides recently," Justice Stratton said Wednesday during an interview with The Vindicator. "When someone falls, it creates a domino effect and helps clean up corruption."
Dozens of county judges and lawyers have been convicted of taking bribes in recent years. Thomas Moyer, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, has said Mahoning had more judges and lawyers indicted and removed from office than any other county in Ohio.
"Attorneys [here] were afraid to talk because of fear of repercussions," Justice Stratton said. "But I'm feeling very confident that you're cleaning it up and making good appointments [to fill the vacancies of corrupt judges]. I've been impressed with what's been done. It's a good outlook for the future."
Tough spot: Justice Stratton said she understands the difficulty lawyers and judges face in having to turn in corrupt colleagues.
She said she sought sanctions against several corrupt lawyers during her nine years as a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge before joining the Supreme Court in March 1996.
The justice said that at the time she lost faith in her county bar association for its inability to address the problems of corrupt lawyers.
In one instance, she said, it took 21/2 years to get a hearing in front of the Supreme Court to disbar an attorney who repeatedly failed to appear in her court because of a drug problem.
Justice Stratton urged judges and attorneys to contact the Supreme Court's disciplinary counsel with complaints about judicial corruption.
Justice Stratton said that in all likelihood fellow Justice Deborah Cook will leave the Supreme Court shortly to fill a vacancy on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Trial judge: Justice Stratton said she favors having a trial judge fill Justice Cook's position if she leaves. Gov. Bob Taft would be responsible for selecting Justice Cook's successor.
If Justice Cook does leave, her successor would have to run for election in November 2002. Also, Justice Stratton will be running for re-election then and there will be an open seat on the court, the one held by Justice Andrew Douglas, who must retire at the end of next year because of age restrictions.
Composition: With at least two new judges added, there could be a major change in the court's philosophical composition. But Justice Stratton said claims that the court is split 4-3 is overstated.
"That alignment is a small segment that gets the publicity; there is no 'gang of four'," she said. "On criminal cases, for example, we're a very conservative bunch and usually vote 7-0."
Justice Stratton said she was encouraged by Taft's school funding reform package proposed in his State of the State address. But she would not predict if it would be enough to satisfy a majority of the court, which ruled that the current state education funding method is unconstitutional.