43
Wright faces Lucci for appellate judgeship
11TH District
REPUBLICAN
EUGENE A. LUCCI
Age: 55
Home: Painesville.
Work: Lake County Common Pleas Court judge since 2001.
Education: Law degree, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland; bachelor of arts degree, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; Cardinal Mooney High School graduate.
Family: Children, Gina M. Lucci and Gianine (Nina) A. Lucci.
Priority: I believe that it has been helpful, in fulfilling my duties as a trial judge, to have been previously a practicing trial lawyer and police officer for 25 years, and that it will be invaluable, in fulfilling my duties as an appellate judge, to have been also a trial judge for a decade.
DEMOCRAT
THOMAS R. WRIGHT
Age: 46
Home: Brookfield Township
Work: Attorney with Rossi and Rossi
Education: Law degree, University of Toledo; bachelor of science in business administration, Ohio State University.
Family: not listed
Priority: To implement electronic filing and remain fair and impartial and apply the law as enacted by the Legislature and the Constitution.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Voters for 11th District Court of Appeals judge have a choice between a sitting Lake County Common Pleas Court judge originally from Youngstown and a Trumbull County private-practice attorney and acting judge originally from Lake County.
The court, based in Warren, reviews the decisions rendered in criminal and civil cases in common pleas and lower courts in Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga, Portage and Trumbull counties.
Eugene A. Lucci, 55, of Painesville, a Republican, has served as Lake County Common Pleas Court judge since 2001 and also worked as a detective and police officer in Lake County. He graduated from Cardinal Mooney High School in 1971.
Lucci defeated incumbent judge Colleen M. O’Toole in the Republican primary.
Thomas R. Wright, 46, of Brookfield, a Democrat, is a 14-year Trumbull County resident and attorney with the firm Rossi & Rossi. He served as a clerk under 11th District Court of Appeals Court Judge Donald R. Ford and is acting judge in Trumbull County Eastern District Court in Brookfield.
The sitting judge of Eastern District Court is Ronald Rice, who is married to 11th District Court of Appeals Court Judge Cynthia Wescott Rice.
In the biographical materials Judge Lucci submitted to The Vindicator, he said he has handled more than 12,000 cases, presided over 200 jury trials and sentenced more than 1,500 felons.
Lucci was a trial attorney from 1980 to 2000 and is a longtime instructor at Lakeland Community College in laws of arrest, search and seizure, criminal justice ethics and paralegal studies, Judge Lucci said.
“Judges must be free from intimidation, political persuasion, special interests, personal preference, public opinion or financial considerations,” he wrote.
Wright, who defeated Painesville attorney Neil Wilson in the Democratic primary, says he’s running for 11th District judge “to better serve the parties, the practicing bar, other courts and the general public by issuing full opinions regarding the legal issues before the court.”
In biographical materials submitted, Wright said his experience includes reviewing hundreds of appeals and making recommendations to the judges while serving as a clerk for the 11th District Court of Appeals from 1992 to 1995.
Wright has “broad and extensive civil and criminal jury trial experience” and was named the 2005-06 Lawyer of the Year by the Mahoning County Bar Association, he wrote.