YOUNGSTOWN Judge will face ethics hearing

Seven of the counts were dismissed. The bar association wants to hear more about the eighth one.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A hearing will be next weekend for a local judge accused by his sister of violating campaign ethics rules.
The complaint was filed with the Mahoning County Bar Association by Margaret Lorenzi of East Midlothian Boulevard against her brother, Judge Timothy P. Maloney of probate court.
Judge Maloney's lawyer, Mary Jane Stephens, has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint.
"It's totally frivolous," Stephens said, noting that neither she nor Judge Maloney was surprised at the complaint. "She has been working against him for years."
Lorenzi filed an eight-count complaint with the bar association Nov. 21, alleging various campaign ethics violations dating to August 1996. The bulk of the allegations was rooted in Judge Maloney's recent campaign for re-election in which he defeated Atty. Maureen Sweeney.
Panel review
The bar association's judicial campaign ethics committee reviewed and dismissed seven of the counts and found reasonable cause to proceed with a hearing on one count. A hearing will be next Saturday morning at the association's office on Front Street.
The count centers on an appearance by Judge Maloney on a talk radio show in October, during which Lorenzi says the judge improperly discussed her commitment to a psychiatric facility in 1996.
"On public radio, the judge stated the placement was voluntary, which he knew to be false," Lorenzi's complaint says.
She also says he violated her right to confidentiality by discussing the issue publicly.
In his motion to dismiss, filed by Stephens, the judge said he did nothing wrong. A caller had accused him of having his sister arrested and committed, which he said was not true.
The motion says Lorenzi signed a voluntary admission into St. Elizabeth Health Center in August 1996, so his comment was correct. The commitment was initiated by Lorenzi's then-husband, and Judge Maloney had no involvement with it, Stephens said.
Lawsuit
Stephens, in her motion to dismiss, said it was Lorenzi, not the judge, who chose to make her mental health history public. She said Lorenzi filed a lawsuit in common pleas court last month against her former husband, the hospital and a doctor, alleging false imprisonment and psychiatric medical malpractice.
Judge Maloney's motion to dismiss suggests that the telephone call in question was politically motivated. The motion includes an affidavit from Lorenzi's son, who says he heard a message from Sweeney on the family's answering machine in October.
A female caller, who identified herself as Sweeney, had called to inform Lorenzi that Judge Maloney would be on the radio the next day and asking her to "get some people to call in."
"Mrs. Lorenzi may have invited the very call about which she now complains," Stephens said in her motion to dismiss.
Sweeney could not be reached to comment.
Divorce proceeding
In an affidavit filed with the motion to dismiss, Judge Maloney said his sister has been bitter toward him since 1996, when he was subpoenaed by her then-husband to testify in their divorce proceeding.
It's not the first time Lorenzi has gone after Judge Maloney.
In early 2001, she filed a complaint against him with the Ohio Supreme Court's disciplinary counsel, which investigated and dismissed it in December 2001.
She also filed a lawsuit against Judge Maloney, the probate court, her former husband, St. Elizabeth's and two doctors in September 2001 in U.S. District Court, Youngstown.
Judge Peter C. Economus dismissed the suit in November 2001, saying it had no merit. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently upheld that decision.
bjackson@vindy.com