Retired Portage judge to hear Letson case

Staff report

WARREN

Barbara Watson, a retired Portage County Municipal Court judge, will hear the misdemeanor zoning case against state Rep. Thomas Letson of Warren, D-64th.

Letson is charged with violating the single-family residential zoning on Foster Street Northeast for a house he owns there that has been used as a “sober house” for recovering alcoholics.

Warren Municipal Clerk of Courts Margaret Scott said the case will be heard in the court the week of Dec. 9, though the date still needs to be finalized, and the Ohio Supreme Court still needs to provide an official notification approving Watson’s handling of the matter, Scott said.

The charge has been in limbo about two months because the two judges in Warren Municipal Court asked for the case to be transferred to another court to avoid a potential conflict of interest, because Letson practices regularly in the court.

The case was going to be transferred to Newton Falls Municipal Court and be handled by Judge Phillip Vigorito, but the bailiff there, Terry Wentworth, said Sept. 11 that he sent the case back to Warren Municipal Court by mail because the Ohio Supreme Court had not approved the transfer.