Two judges get major award

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Two judges, who played notable roles as visiting judges in Mahoning County, have received the 2015 Thomas J. Moyer Award for Judicial Excellence from the Ohio State Bar Association.

One of the recipients was Judge Richard M. Markus, a former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge, who presided over the July 2007 civil bench trial of the Cafaro Co.’s unsuccessful attempt to rescind Mahoning County’s purchase of Oakhill Renaisance Place.

The other recipient was Judge R.R. Denny Clunk, former Stark County Probate Court judge, who served four months last year as Mahoning County’s interim probate judge between the resignation of Judge Mark Belinky and the installation of Judge Robert Rusu.

After resigning, Belinky pleaded guilty to falsifying his 2008 judicial campaign financial records and was sentenced to 60 days of house arrest and 200 hours of community service and fined $2,500.

Belinky also admitted falsifying court records and stealing money from people over whom he was a guardian, according to a state investigator’s affidavit filed in an ongoing investigation.

The awards, given in memory of the late Ohio Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, were presented Thursday at the annual meeting of the Ohio Judicial Conference.