Appeals court has a chance to blaze a legal trail in Ohio

A rape case that has languished for more than five years in the court of Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Maureen Sweeney is now before the 7th District Court of Appeals in a legal maneuver designed to force Sweeney to do her job. But, more importantly, the appeals court has a chance to strike a blow for the rights of crime victims in Ohio.

The case has attracted statewide attention not only because LaTreese Miller of Youngstown, who told police in 2009 that she had been sexually assaulted by a co-worker, has been waiting for Maurice Clark to be brought to trial, but because there have been more than 20 postponements.

According to the The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, which published a detailed story Feb. 21, the case has been shuffled between more than six prosecutors, and the police detective who conducted the initial investigation has retired.

“It seems to me, now, that this is worse than the actual rape sometimes,” The Plain Dealer quoted Miller as saying.

But she is not alone in her battle to get the trial moving.

The Justice League of Ohio, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal support for crime victims, has taken up Miller’s cause. In 2013, the league filed two motions to get Judge Sweeney to call the case to trial, to no avail.

Thus, the organization was prompted to seek the intervention of the 7th District Court of Appeals.

League staff attorney, Elizabeth Well, filed a writ of mandamus seeking a ruling from the appellate judges that Miller has a right to a speedy trial — even though she is the victim.

Constitutional amendment

Indeed there is a constitutional amendment that supports victims’ rights. It was approved by Ohio voters in 1994 and is designed to ensure that victims are recognized as important participants in criminal cases.

The Plain Dealer quoted Cathy Harper Lee, executive director of The Justice League, as saying, “The right to be treated with fairness, dignity and respect, access, a meaningful role in the criminal justice process and to object to substantial delay in prosecution means nothing if courts fail to provide due consideration to the rights and there is no mechanism for enforcement.”

That’s why the motion before the appeals court is so important. It could put some teeth into the constitutional amendment by ruling that Judge Sweeney has failed to adhere to the spirit of what Ohio’s voters had sought.

We urge the appellate judges not to look at this case within the narrow confines of the mandamus action, but to consider the wider legal aspect of victims’ rights.

Indeed, there’s growing interest nationally on that very question because of the tendency of judges to treat victims as nothing more than sources of evidence.

A defendant has a right to a speedy trial, so why not a victim — especially when there’s an allegation of sexual assault?

The 7th District judges would be blazing a legal trail by delving deeply into the case — and they also would lay bare what residents of Mahoning County were told a decade ago about the local criminal justice system: It’s broken.

In 2005, a special master appointed by a federal judge to investigate overcrowding in the county jail concluded after an intensive investigation that the system was “dysfunctional.”

Atty. Vincent Nathan’s evaluation was on the mark — as evidenced by the number of cases that have been delayed for an inordinate amount of time.

In fact, The Justice League of Ohio is well aware of the court system’s failings. In 2007, it reprinted a Vindicator editorial that blasted the Common Pleas Court for letting Donteill Grant sit in jail for three years awaiting his murder trial to begin.

Here’s what we said in the opening paragraph:

“If it weren’t so serious, so troubling and so egregious, it would be comical — as in the ‘Who’s On First?’ comedy routine. But when an accused has been sitting in jail for three years awaiting trial, and the only explanations given by those in charge fall in the ‘stuff happens’ category, it’s no laughing matter.”

It is obvious, however, that pointing out the shortcomings of the criminal justice system hasn’t brought about the changes Atty. Nathan and this newspaper had sought.

High-profile murder case

As recently as last year, we took then Common Pleas Judge James Evans to task for allowing a high-profile murder case to remain on his docket for years while the family of the victim cried out for justice.

It took a visiting judge, Lee Sinclair, to not only set a trial date for the killers of real-estate agent Vivian Martin, but to advance the cases of Robert Brooks and Grant Cooper to convictions and sentencing in just one week.

Judge Evans, whom we had consistently supported, retired from the bench last year. His mismanagement of the murder case is now a part of his record — just as the Maurice Clark rape trial will lead to the conclusion that Judge Sweeney isn’t doing her job.

It does not matter that a pretrial has been set for April 1 and a bench trial for April 6. The fact remains that Clark, who is in the county jail, has become proficient at securing delays.

We want the 7th District Court of Appeals to delve into this case so as to uncover the reason for the lower court’s dysfunction.