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Board recommends law license suspension for candidate for 11th District Court of Appeals
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Board of Professional Conduct of the Ohio Supreme Court in Columbus has recommended a one-year law-license suspension for Atty. Ron M. Tamburrino of Rock Creek, Ashtabula County, a candidate for 11th District Court of Appeals.
The recommendation also is for six months of the suspension to be stayed, meaning that he would serve a six-month license suspension. The final decision will be made by the Ohio Supreme Court after Tamburrino decides whether to object to the board’s recommendations.
If he objects, oral arguments will be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court. Tamburrino could not be reached to comment.
Tamburrino, a Republican, is running against Democrat Thomas R. Wright of Howland, the incumbent. The Warren-based court of appeals reviews common-pleas and municipal-court decisions from Trumbull, Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula and Portage counties.
The board’s decision relates to a complaint filed against Tamburrino regarding two television advertisments Tamburrino ran during his last campaign for appeals court judge, against Timothy P. Cannon, a Democrat from Painesville, in 2014. Cannon won the election.
The board’s decision says a Tamburrino ad saying that Cannon “doesn’t think teenage drinking is serious” “contains several patently false statements of fact that [Tamburrino] either knew were false or was reckless in his disregard of whether the statements were false.”
The ads were referencing a 2008 appeals-court decision in which Cannon wrote a concurring opinion.
Likewise, the board found another Tamburrino ad to contain a false statement regarding whether Cannon had refused to disclose his taxpayer-funded travel expenses.
Cannon had disclosed the expenses to the Ohio Supreme Court, the recommendation says. And no one, other than the Ohio Supreme Court, had ever asked Cannon to disclose them, including Tamburrino, the decision says.
The board said it believed a suspension was necessary because such commercials could, if allowed to continue, “have a chilling effect” on judicial independence “and the ability of a judge to freely express his or her views in court opinions.”
An Ohio Supreme Court spokesman said it is premature to discuss whether Tamburrino would be unable to fulfill his job as appeals court judge if his license were to be suspended. First, the Supreme Court must decide whether to approve the recommendation.