11TH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS Judge tries to oust benchmate over votes
Three lawyers are running for the open seat.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICTOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Judith Christley has called fellow appellate court judge William O'Neill a "bad judge" in her unusual midterm run for his seat.
"I'm doing what I have to do to make my displeasure on record and official," said Judge Christley, a Republican who has served on the 11th District Court of Appeals since 1986 and has two years remaining on her term.
If she beats Judge O'Neill at the polls Nov. 5, the governor will appoint someone to fill her seat.
Deep philosophical issues divide the two.
In Christley's view, O'Neill "has an unacceptable attitude towards his role as an appellate judge." He has been on the court since 1997 and last year was unanimously elected presiding judge by the five other judges on the court.
"If I'm a misguided judge, what does that say about my fellow judges?" O'Neill asked.
He said he and Christley have sat together on over 700 cases and voted the same way 85 percent of the time.
"I don't have a negative thing to say about Judith Christley. I like her, I respect her, I think she does a good job," he said. "This is a purely political skirmish, that's all it is."
Her complaint
Christley says her complaint against O'Neill is that he is an "activist judge." She says he decides cases not on the basis of the law and legal precedent, but to get the result he personally feels will serve the interests of justice.
"He has a personal response to cases that may be more important to him than legal precedent," she said.
"It might help to right the legal process on one level, but it does not help people understand how to use the law."
O'Neill says that is not true.
"I've never been accused of being results-oriented," he said.
O'Neill said his trial experience, both as an attorney in private practice and as an assistant Ohio attorney general, makes him a better candidate than Christley, who worked part-time as a lawyer for five years before first running for the court.
"The reality is what we do is evaluate trials," he said. "I would suggest that being lead attorney in jury trials is a perquisite for the court."
Second court race
In the second 11th District Court of Appeals race, three candidates are vying to fill the seat left by retiring Judge Robert A. Nader.
Mark J. Hassett, a lawyer from Chagrin Falls, narrowly won a three-way race for the Republican nomination for the seat in May. He said his priority if elected would be to speed up the time it takes for the court to render its decisions.
In November, he will face off against Cynthia Rice, a Brookfield Democrat, for the appeals court seat being vacated by Robert A. Nader, a Democrat from Warren. Rice, a former Trumbull County assistant prosecutor and assistant U.S. District Attorney, says her experience as a prosecutor has shown her the ramifications of decisions the appeals court makes.
The third candidate is Jeff Black, a Willoughby attorney who is running as an independent. He says his varied experience as a practicing attorney and municipal court magistrate qualify him to handle the wide range of cases that come before the court.