GOLDBERG CASE Ex-lawyer requests release from prison

Richard Goldberg's same complaints were raised and rejected five years ago.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Former attorney Richard Goldberg says he is in jail because a local judge has a grudge against him. He's asking a federal court to order his release.
But Judge Timothy P. Maloney of Mahoning County probate court says Goldberg has made the same allegations against him in the past, unsuccessfully.
Goldberg, 57, is serving a 21-month sentence in the county jail for contempt of court. Judge Maloney imposed the sentence after determining that Goldberg concealed funds that should have been distributed to his former clients.
Goldberg, a former medical malpractice lawyer who has been disbarred, also served some 50 months in a federal prison for defrauding former clients out of millions of dollars due them from court settlements. He is awaiting trial on similar charges in common pleas court.
Atty. Martin Yavorcik, who represents Goldberg, filed documents this week in U.S. District Court, alleging that Judge Maloney's decision to lock up Goldberg was motivated by hatred and a personal vendetta. He's asking that an evidentiary hearing be held.
Campaign donations
Goldberg alleges in the filing that Judge Maloney solicited $10,000 in campaign contributions from Goldberg in 1996, when he first ran for office. He says the bulk of the contributions were in the form of checks from three of Goldberg's business partnerships, and that the judge knew the money actually was from Goldberg.
The idea, Goldberg says in the court documents, was to circumvent campaign laws that limit amounts judicial candidates can accept from individuals. He says part of the reason Judge Maloney put him in jail was to keep him quiet about the contributions, which the judge denies.
Goldberg also complains in court documents about problems with getting his fees approved while he was a lawyer working in probate court while Judge Maloney was a magistrate there, before he took office.
Goldberg said Judge Maloney has demonstrated a continuing disdain for him, so should not have been allowed to preside over his contempt-of-court hearings two years ago.
Struck down earlier
But Judge Maloney said all the arguments raised by Goldberg in the federal court complaint were raised in 1999, when Goldberg filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court and asked that Judge Maloney be barred from hearing any of Goldberg's cases.
Judge Maloney produced copies of documents he prepared in response to Goldberg's 1999 complaint. In them, he denied ever soliciting campaign funds from Goldberg or trying to sidestep campaign laws. He also denied having a grudge against Goldberg.
Ohio Supreme Court
In a judgment entry dated Nov. 2, 1999, Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer said Goldberg's complaints were investigated by the high court and that no evidence of personal bias, hatred or wrongdoing by the judge was found.
Goldberg also filed a grievance against Judge Maloney with the Columbus Bar Association in 1999. That panel also investigated and found no merit to the complaint, according to an Oct. 16, 2000, letter from Jonathan W. Marshall of the supreme court's board of commissioners on grievances and discipline.
bjackson@vindy.com